I gotta say, I'm really, REALLY looking forward to this game. I used to play UT a great deal, and I can still dust off my skills and hold my own. It's a well-balanced game that favors skill over the ability to jump around like a bunny rabbit on meth, as opposed to Quake III, which is neither balanced nor skill-oriented.
UT 2003 sounds as though it's going to have the same ethic, but refined. The development team reviewed statistics on weapon use and what modes were played, and they made changes based on that. They've taken out or modified the least popular weapons (the Bio-Sludge gun is gone like last week's egg salad), and tweaked some of the others. For instance, the Flak Cannon's flak is going to be less bouncy. The least popular game modes are getting the same treatment. In particular, their plans for Domination sound really cool. One of my favorite new additions can be summed up in two words: Link Cannon. A beam weapon with which you can shoot your teammate and his link cannon will deal more damage. Multiple people can simultaneously power someone up in that way. It's an effort by the developers to place more emphasis on teamwork, which I think is a great idea.
And of course, it looks FLURKING AMAZING! I mean, my GOD, man! Here are some screen shots:
http://www.planetunreal.com/ut2003/screenshots/And a nifty little preview article, with some more screen shots:
http://www.gamesdomain.com/gdreview/zones/previews/apr01/unreal_tourn_2003.html I can find nothing about this game that I don't like, except the fact that I'll have to get a new video card to really play it to the fullest. : )
