Hun-Speak

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December 13, 1999 -- UT vs. Q3A?

Note: This article was written having played all the Q3Tests, Q3ADemo, and the full version of Quake III Arena. I also have played the various demo versions (from the original 3dfx-only version to the current 348 release) of Unreal Tournament. If Santa paid any attention to my list, I will get the full version of UT for Christmas.

It has been said that there are two topics that you should never get into an argument about: religion and politics. People generally have very strong opinions on both topics and your discussion will very quickly devolve into a knock-down, drag-out fight that has more mudslinging than actual debate of the issues.

I would submit that, amongst hardcore gamers, you could add a third topic that should never be debated: which first-person shooter is the best? If you spend any time visiting the major (or not so major) gaming sites, you will read articles with people defending their favorite game with near-religious fervor. This is especially true now that id's Quake III Arena (Q3A) and Epic's Unreal Tournament (UT) have been released so close to each other. Both are primarily multiplayer-oriented games with a single-player "ladder" against bots (computer-controlled opponents).

While I was skeptical that such a game would actually be fun, all doubts were removed when I downloaded the Eraser bot for Quake II. I wiled away many hours battling that bot, realizing that my multiplayer skills were improving dramatically along the way. Slowly I began to understand that both Q3A and UT had some serious possibilities.

Unreal Tournament

I was prepared to hate this game. Unreal ran so poorly on everything but the most powerful systems with the most powerful 3dfx video cards that I really didn't hold out much hope that its successor would run reasonably well on my Celeron 400/Riva TNT-powered system. However, I was not willing to dismiss it without giving it a shot. Let's just say I'm glad that I did.

At first I was having some framerate issues, but once I switched to 16-bit color and used the minimal HUD (heads-up display) possible, my framerates jumped to the mid-to-upper 30s, even with five bots running around beside me. Clearly, the folks at Epic have made some major strides in Direct3D since the days of Unreal.

The weapons in UT range from the old standbys to the unique. All of them have secondary firing modes which effectively doubles the amount of weapons available. The maps have many different styles and locations, from an orbiting space station to an Egyptian pyramid. UT ships with a ton of maps and are promising to release more, so there is definitely something for everyone.

The bots in UT all share basically the same tendencies, weapon preferences, attack and defend styles. That's not a bad thing necessarily, but you get the feeling that you are playing against a generic bot and not a "real" opponent. In multiplayer games, they obey the commands you give them loyally and unswervingly, and they are good at what they do.

UT ships with several different game types right out of the box: deathmatch, Last Man Standing, capture-the-flag, domination, and assault. Add to that various mutators (mini-mods that alter one particular aspect of the game) such as InstaGib and Low-Gravity and you see that the gameplay possibilities are nearly endless.

UT runs better on 3dfx video cards since it is still a Glide engine at heart. However, even on my TNT, the framerates are quite acceptable with the above-mentioned tweaks. The highest praise I can give it is that I like it and I intend to own it. 'Nuff said!

Quake III Arena

I've been looking forward to this game for some time. I was a diehard QuakeWorld fanatic and was disappointed with Quake II's slower pace. From the beginning id has promised fast and furious deathmatch, and that's what I was looking for.

In that respect, Q3A definitely does not disappoint. Deathmatch really gets the heart racing and the adrenaline pumping. There's nothing really new in the weapons, it's basically a "best of" selection from Quake and Quake II. Unlike Quake with its rocket launcher, there is no one "über weapon" that you must have or be unable to compete. Unlike Quake II, the weapon switch time is shorter (but certainly not Quake's instant switches) and the game speed is faster. People looking for new or innovative weapons will be disappointed, but id has stuck with the tried-and-true, reducing complexity for the sake of ease and speed.

One of Q3A's nicest features is its map design. Gone is the "various shades of turd" color scheme. Q3A now supports full 32-bit color and the map designers put them to good use. There are gothic cathedral maps, space maps, tech (looking like something from a sci-fi film) maps. There aren't as many maps as UT, but in my opinion, they are more ornate and more interesting than UT's maps. In lieu of ladders or a grappling hook, Q3A uses bounce pads and acceleration pads to rocket players around the arenas. This really increases the frenetic pace of the game.

Perhaps Q3A's greatest strength is the varying characters in the game. There is not one generic "bot" with different skins. Each character has different tendencies and different styles. It really makes you feel like you are playing against real players. There are many different model and skin combinations to choose from. The models are very well done and well animated. The skins are also very nice, although some of the CTF skins look a bit rushed. The bots also will chat with you with custom responses. Some find this annoying and they do get a bit "chatty." In an effort to make them more realistic, id decided to have to bots occasionally stop obeying your orders in teamplay mode. This can be annoying if you are in a firefight and your bots tell you they've decided to stop defending your flag.

The gameplay styles focus more on deathmatch. The variations include: deathmatch, team deathmatch, tournament (1v1), and capture-the-flag. CTF got the short shrift with only four maps included in the game (although Zoid says they will be releasing more). They did accomplish their goal of the ultimate deathmatch experience in my opinion, but it came at the cost of gameplay variety.

Like UT, Q3A does have relatively steep requirements. Most of the maps run fine on my system, but some of the bigger maps with lots of bots can slow things down a bit. Here 3dfx users are at a disadvantage because their OpenGL drivers are not as good as other manufacturers'. NVIDIA's OpenGL support has always been top notch, so I end up with higher framerates in general with Q3A than with UT.

Conclusions

Unreal Tournament

Strengths: Lots of maps and lots of gameplay styles. The bots play the game and its variations very well.
Weaknesses: Direct3D support still leaves something to be desired. Glide users will be much happier. The bots are all "cookie cutter" bots--the same bot with different skins and different names.

Quake III Arena

Strengths: Fast, heart-pounding deathmatch. 32bit color used to its fullest. Different bot characters with different styles.
Weaknesses: No real variety of gameplay styles, only four CTF maps. The weapons, while good, are nothing new.

My $.02? If you have the money (and about a gig of hard drive space to spare) get them both. You won't be disappointed. Both games are mod-friendly so there should be plenty of third-party support for a long time. If you can only get one, there really is no wrong answer here. For the best deathmatch experience money currently can buy, get Q3A. For a wide variety of gaming possibilities get UT. Q3A will run slightly better on NVIDIA products, UT will run slightly better on 3dfx products.

I've tried to outline for you what the big differences are between the two games. I honestly believe that you will not go wrong with either one. I prefer Q3A, but that's more of a personal preference than anything else. Whatever you do, don't let me or anyone else make up your mind for you! Download the demos (get the Q3A demo here and the UT demo here) and try the games for yourself.

My system: Celeron 400, 128M PC66 SDRAM, Creative Labs AGP TNT card (CL 2.08 drivers), Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! Value (Live!Ware 3.0 drivers), Western Digital 4.3G EIDE hard drive, Mitsubishi 32x IDE CD-ROM, Zoom 2919 dual-standard internal 56K Modem, AOC Spectrum 7Glr monitor.