Unreal Tournament 3Today, I’d like to present a special guest piece from one of our readers, a fellow named Dracul, who sent along this review of Unreal Tournament 3 for the Xbox 360.

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And now, on the with the show. Take it away, Dracul.

Unreal Tournament 3 for the Xbox 360 gives the players what most would look for in a typical shoot ‘em up kind of game; Violence, gibs, heavy gun, and the ability to get a pretty good headshot from miles away.

Unreal Tournament 3 does have a pretty decent story line, coming back from the days of Unreal Tournament 99, but you’ll have to put up with a lot of curveball efforts trying to get you more focused on that storyline rather then jumping straight into a match with baddies. The creators do have a good point for the storyline, but yet those of us who remember the old days of just murdering something with your flak cannon, we tend to skip over those bits.

Our simple clan of heroes; Reaper, Jester, Othello, Bishop, Malcom and Lauren get attacked by a few of Akasha’s henchmen. In response, our crew follows leads from planet to planet in search of clues that will track them directly to Akasha’s doorstep. Now enter the not so long, but still quite boring cutscenes, before you can jump into the action. You can choose what map you’d like to play, along with the game type; CTF, VCTF, DM, TDM, Warfare or even Duel (1V1 gameplay). Computer bots will do almost anything to try and stop you. Then again this all depends what kind of difficulty you set it on. Newbie? You might want to try beginner or the lowest, but if you think you’re big and bad, be my guest and have fun with the Godly version of the bots.

Did I mention that With every match and battle you Win, you’ll get special little cards? Oh man isn’t this going to be fun! The cards induce different kinds of gameplay. You can Weaken the enemy team by forcing them to field fewer players, or give yourself the home advantage and pack along some extra men. Though some cards can be saved for later purposes, sadly most must be used in the match following the one you just won the card in. But whatever right? Personally I don’t think it makes that much of a difference, yet the card system is a kind of creative thing for Midway and EPIC to bring into this latest version of Unreal Tournament.

Now, single player has a pretty good storyline, I will give them that. Yet the instant action is where it starts to get a bit fun, offline or online. You can play about in the random modes mentioned earlier, though now you have the option of adding in fun little things — like mutators! — that can inflict numerous effects on you or your gun! Like the ability to give yourself a massive head, which adds with every kill you get but yet sadly, shrinks when you yourself get killed. Instagib, which is basically a one-shot kill weapon that causes bad guys to explode into a fury of blood and little body pieces. Then, there is the ability to slow down time, Matrix style, when you kill someone. Doesn’t seem like much, but when you can use that slow time to double-jump away from a bunch of incoming rockets, it turns out to be pretty handy. Those are just a few examples of the goodies to be found during a match, I’ll save the surprise about the rest for those of you who decide to pop this game into your Xbox 360.

Then there is Online mode, for those of us who want to take a break from the bots and show the world who the true king of Duel is! Yeah, there is always someone who has played longer then you or has had more practice with a certain gun, or has had a better time sniping than you. It happens. But even if the game throws you into a match with godlike players, you can still pick up a little more skill, a little more knowledge, in every match. If you’re persistent and willing to play game after game, or maybe just hunt after the achievements, then please be my guest and continue to play. There are some really nice people out there who I am more then sure are willing to train you or give you tips and tricks to help you out in those unfair battles.

Sure, UT3 is wonderful game for the Xbox 360, as well as the PC. But those of us who don’t have a big bad computer are forced to settle for the slightly different Xbox 360 version, which means fewer maps, fewer people, and less stuff you can download for free. At its core, both camps play the same game, but when you know the other guy’s getting the better deal, it weighs on your mind.