About the same time I picked up Halo 3 I got Unreal Tournament 3 (UT3) on the PS3 too, bit of a FPS overload in hindsight, but hey-ho.

I didn’t have high hopes for UT3, I played a lot of the original on the PC way back in the day, but recent experiences with online multiplayer FPS games haven’t been good (my Halo 3 experience below being a case in point) But much to my surprise I’ve been really getting into this; firstly the PS3 version allows you to download & install custom content, such as maps, mods etc. a feature common on the PC but this is the first time I’ve seen it done so openly on a console. I’m a sucker for this sort of stuff and I’ll happily while away hours trying out new maps and such like, but I’m odd like that.

The game still plays and feels a lot like classic Unreal Tournament, a fast paced, twitch shooter almost arcade like in its core simplicity. In essence not a lot has changed over the years since the original game back in 1999 and basic deathmatch & team deathmatch is still its strongest side for me. It’s very pretty too, sadly most of the time it’s rushing past in a blur, but if you take the time to look around you’ll find some very nice looking and well designed environments. As an added bonus I’m not totally shit at it, yay! and this has come as the biggest surprise to me! I’ve played a far few matches and even won a couple, coming second or mid-table at worst. This isn’t a boast; I’m not that good, but it’s sure a lot more fun to play when you are not dying every 3 seconds or feel like you are merly n00b cannon fodder for all the other players that probably spend about 12 hours a day doing nothing but playing. Don’t expect a detailed plot or story (the offline campaign mode attempts this and it’s frankly embarrassing) but for a quick & mindless blast you can’t go wrong.

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