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Quake III vs. Unreal Tournament
It's the grudge match of the century between two of this year's heaviest hitters.
December 24, 1999 - Since our reviews for Quake 3: Arena and Unreal Tournament went up, we've gotten thousands of letters from you guys asking which of the two is the better game. To answer the question, Tal and Trent (hereafter referred to as 'us' or 'we') sat down and played about a zillion multiplayer games of each title. When Vincent and Steve started to ask questions about why the hell neither of us had done any work for the past two weeks, we decided to actually write up an article talking about our findings. Here then, are the results...
Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun
Let's start out with the most obvious comparison: the arsenal. No first person shooter would be complete without a solid cache of guns, and while both Quake III and Unreal Tournament offer enough firepower to make the local National Guard jealous, there's just nothing new or innovative in Quake III. You've got your shotgun, you've got your machine gun, you've got your rocket launcher. Say ... haven't we seen all of these before? And weren't they kind of boring then? Even the most creative weapon in Quake III, the Lightning Gun, is just a throwback to the original Quake. Unreal Tournament, on the other hand, sports a multitude of great, creative weapons ... and has multiple ways to fire each to boot. Who could get bored of a gun that spits out spinning saw blades? And who wouldn't love a gun that shoots gobs of explosive green goo? Okay, so Trent wasn't a big fan of the BioRifle, but I think that has to do with the number of times I slimed him with it. Even the Impact Hammer, the hand-to-hand weapon in Unreal Tournament, is awesome -- much cooler than the lame-ass gauntlet in Quake III. There were even a few new additions to the already fantastic Unreal arsenal, like the Shock Rifle and the Redeemer. Ah, sweet sweet Redeemer. You're the bee's knees, baby! Like everybody was to MC Hammer back in 1990, Quake III is to Unreal Tournament in 1999, 'cause you just can't touch this -- at least as far as the arsenal goes.
You Make Me Feel Like Fraggin'
In our review of Quake III, we said, "Quake has always been about fast action, quick reflexes, and big kills, but Quake III by far feels like the best of the bunch." Soon after the review went up, we saw a lot of usegroup postings wanting us to quantify what the feel of a game entails. Well, a game's feel is something that doesn't have to be quantified, just qualified. There's no exact number or formula you can point out to say why Quake III: Arena feels better than UT, it just does. Quake III is faster and captures the atmosphere of utter chaos and mayhem much better than Unreal Tournament. UT feels sluggish in comparison. Direct rocket hits do nothing to slow your forward momentum, and getting riddled with bullets doesn't even seem to phase your player. But even a rocket strike within a close proximity to your character in QIII will cause your player to reel from the blast, and your body quivers and shakes when you're being carved by someone else's machine gun. We have to hand it to Quake III on being the masters of game mechanics. All of the little touches combine to make Quake III feel better than any other shooter out there.
While the actually play feel is much stronger in Quake 3: Arena, proper respect must be paid to Unreal Tournament's kick-ass kill audibles. There is nothing sweeter than popping someone at a distance and hearing, "Killing Spree!" While this may seem like a minor thing on paper, anyone who's played the game knows that the rush of gathering multikills, hitting different levels of killing spree and getting head shots is unbelievably intense.
Bot to Bot
Bot AI is another point of contention between these two heavy hitters. Overall, I was very impressed with both the bots in QIII and UT. There's nothing much to complain about in either, and the scalable difficulty in both games allow you to test your skills as you get better at each game. Some people say that the only difference in bot AI difficulty in Quake III was that the bots' aim got better as the difficulty got more challenging. Well, yes, this is one aspect of the QIII bot AI, but I've also seen bots run for specific weapons in the level ... just like a human player would. I've seen QIII bots protect the area where the quad damage power-up appears, and even use advanced tactics like the rocket jump in the middle of battle to avoid an incoming rocket. Sure, advanced bots can aim with almost pinpoint precision, but I've been on multiplay servers where I've seen human opponents do the exact same thing. How many of you out there have been gibbed by a rocket halfway across the open-air jump maps in Quake III? I know I've felt the sting from our very own art monkey Scott plenty of times in deathmatch games in the office. The bots in Unreal Tournament are just as smart, depending on what difficulty level you select and what AI options you enable. They hide, they go after specific weapons, they lay down cover fire for you when you're running with the flag. Overall, both games are brilliant, although I would give a slight advantage to Unreal Tournament in team play mode. They actually protect you a lot better than your human teammates do (yes Steve and Vincent, we're talking about you!).
As good as the AI is in both games, when it comes down to it, though, I would have to say that Unreal Tournament offers a much more fulfilling single-play experience. The single-player game in Quake III is nothing more than a warm-up for online multiplayer challenges. It runs about as deep as a puddle in Death Valley. On the other hand, the single-player game in Unreal Tournament was much more fulfilling, and the challenge missions at the end were just bad ass. Just the sheer number of game types alone in Unreal Tournament puts it leaps and bounds above the competition. In its defense, deathmatch still seems to be the preferred method of online multiplay, and Quake III does do it the best, but that's about all it does -- okay, deathmatch and capture the flag. Unreal Tournament has these plus two more ways to play. Just give gamers a chance to get used to some of the incredibly innovative game types in Unreal Tournament -- like assault -- and we certainly see the face of online shooters changing.
Lookin' Good and Knowin' It
Graphically both games are brilliant, and there's not much to complain about in either. After seeing Unreal last year, we all knew UT would be vibrant, colorful, and sport enough lighting effects to pass as a first-rate Fourth of July celebration in most towns. And while Quake III may be dark and gray, it still has some of the best texture's we've ever seen in a game, FPS or not. Plus the variety and quality of the character models in QIII just can't be beat. Like the bot AI, this is a hard one to name a definite winner, but we have to give a slight edge to Arena. In the middle of furious matches we wanted to stop and just admire the intricate wall carvings in Quake III (and, looking at his frag totals, we're pretty sure Marty did just that more than once).
Although the levels looks pretty, there's just not much to the Quake III level design. There's beautiful architecture, but nothing really innovative as far as how the levels are put together. Unreal Tournament smokes Quake III in level design, and we were amazed at the variety of maps and how creative some of them were. Fond memories of the train, the boat, the underwater base, and the beach invasion levels are going to be dancing in our heads tonight alongside those sugarplums. There's no real contest here, the levels in Unreal Tournament are simply amazing from a design standpoint.
The Final Word
So who's the winner and who's the loser of the Quake III vs. Unreal Tournament grudge match? Well, that's a hard one to say. Both Quake III: Arena and Unreal Tournament are great games, and you really can't go wrong with either of them. Any shooter fan is going to go absolutely bonkers for them both. However, because of its more interesting weapon design, better level design, and just the sheer variety of game types, Unreal Tournament edges out Quake III just slightly, and we feel it's the better game overall. Of course, when you're the worst of the two greatest shooters of all time, can you really be all that upset?
Fill Me Full of Bullet Points
Quake III Highs
The feel of the game can't be beat
Choice, unique character models and a lot of them
Amazing high-quality textures, especially with a TNT2 or GeForce 256 card
Quake III Lows
Lacking level design with only a few that really stand out as remarkable
Boring arsenal
Not much variety in game types -- deathmatch and capture the flag is about it, folks
Single player game is little more than a warm-up to the multiplay experience
Unreal Tournament Highs
Unbelievable game options straight out of the box
Great weapons that reward skilled players with faster kills
Adrenaline inducing 'Mortal Kombat' kill announcements like Head Shot and Multikill
Unreal Tournament Lows
While the game's animation is smooth, the textures seem a bit simple when compared with Quake 3
Getting shot doesn't really feel like getting shot. The game could use more realistic feedback
Read all about Quake III: Arena
Read all about Unreal Tournament
-- Tal Blevins and Trent C. Ward
It's the grudge match of the century between two of this year's heaviest hitters.
December 24, 1999 - Since our reviews for Quake 3: Arena and Unreal Tournament went up, we've gotten thousands of letters from you guys asking which of the two is the better game. To answer the question, Tal and Trent (hereafter referred to as 'us' or 'we') sat down and played about a zillion multiplayer games of each title. When Vincent and Steve started to ask questions about why the hell neither of us had done any work for the past two weeks, we decided to actually write up an article talking about our findings. Here then, are the results...
Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun
Let's start out with the most obvious comparison: the arsenal. No first person shooter would be complete without a solid cache of guns, and while both Quake III and Unreal Tournament offer enough firepower to make the local National Guard jealous, there's just nothing new or innovative in Quake III. You've got your shotgun, you've got your machine gun, you've got your rocket launcher. Say ... haven't we seen all of these before? And weren't they kind of boring then? Even the most creative weapon in Quake III, the Lightning Gun, is just a throwback to the original Quake. Unreal Tournament, on the other hand, sports a multitude of great, creative weapons ... and has multiple ways to fire each to boot. Who could get bored of a gun that spits out spinning saw blades? And who wouldn't love a gun that shoots gobs of explosive green goo? Okay, so Trent wasn't a big fan of the BioRifle, but I think that has to do with the number of times I slimed him with it. Even the Impact Hammer, the hand-to-hand weapon in Unreal Tournament, is awesome -- much cooler than the lame-ass gauntlet in Quake III. There were even a few new additions to the already fantastic Unreal arsenal, like the Shock Rifle and the Redeemer. Ah, sweet sweet Redeemer. You're the bee's knees, baby! Like everybody was to MC Hammer back in 1990, Quake III is to Unreal Tournament in 1999, 'cause you just can't touch this -- at least as far as the arsenal goes.
You Make Me Feel Like Fraggin'
In our review of Quake III, we said, "Quake has always been about fast action, quick reflexes, and big kills, but Quake III by far feels like the best of the bunch." Soon after the review went up, we saw a lot of usegroup postings wanting us to quantify what the feel of a game entails. Well, a game's feel is something that doesn't have to be quantified, just qualified. There's no exact number or formula you can point out to say why Quake III: Arena feels better than UT, it just does. Quake III is faster and captures the atmosphere of utter chaos and mayhem much better than Unreal Tournament. UT feels sluggish in comparison. Direct rocket hits do nothing to slow your forward momentum, and getting riddled with bullets doesn't even seem to phase your player. But even a rocket strike within a close proximity to your character in QIII will cause your player to reel from the blast, and your body quivers and shakes when you're being carved by someone else's machine gun. We have to hand it to Quake III on being the masters of game mechanics. All of the little touches combine to make Quake III feel better than any other shooter out there.
While the actually play feel is much stronger in Quake 3: Arena, proper respect must be paid to Unreal Tournament's kick-ass kill audibles. There is nothing sweeter than popping someone at a distance and hearing, "Killing Spree!" While this may seem like a minor thing on paper, anyone who's played the game knows that the rush of gathering multikills, hitting different levels of killing spree and getting head shots is unbelievably intense.
Bot to Bot
Bot AI is another point of contention between these two heavy hitters. Overall, I was very impressed with both the bots in QIII and UT. There's nothing much to complain about in either, and the scalable difficulty in both games allow you to test your skills as you get better at each game. Some people say that the only difference in bot AI difficulty in Quake III was that the bots' aim got better as the difficulty got more challenging. Well, yes, this is one aspect of the QIII bot AI, but I've also seen bots run for specific weapons in the level ... just like a human player would. I've seen QIII bots protect the area where the quad damage power-up appears, and even use advanced tactics like the rocket jump in the middle of battle to avoid an incoming rocket. Sure, advanced bots can aim with almost pinpoint precision, but I've been on multiplay servers where I've seen human opponents do the exact same thing. How many of you out there have been gibbed by a rocket halfway across the open-air jump maps in Quake III? I know I've felt the sting from our very own art monkey Scott plenty of times in deathmatch games in the office. The bots in Unreal Tournament are just as smart, depending on what difficulty level you select and what AI options you enable. They hide, they go after specific weapons, they lay down cover fire for you when you're running with the flag. Overall, both games are brilliant, although I would give a slight advantage to Unreal Tournament in team play mode. They actually protect you a lot better than your human teammates do (yes Steve and Vincent, we're talking about you!).
As good as the AI is in both games, when it comes down to it, though, I would have to say that Unreal Tournament offers a much more fulfilling single-play experience. The single-player game in Quake III is nothing more than a warm-up for online multiplayer challenges. It runs about as deep as a puddle in Death Valley. On the other hand, the single-player game in Unreal Tournament was much more fulfilling, and the challenge missions at the end were just bad ass. Just the sheer number of game types alone in Unreal Tournament puts it leaps and bounds above the competition. In its defense, deathmatch still seems to be the preferred method of online multiplay, and Quake III does do it the best, but that's about all it does -- okay, deathmatch and capture the flag. Unreal Tournament has these plus two more ways to play. Just give gamers a chance to get used to some of the incredibly innovative game types in Unreal Tournament -- like assault -- and we certainly see the face of online shooters changing.
Lookin' Good and Knowin' It
Graphically both games are brilliant, and there's not much to complain about in either. After seeing Unreal last year, we all knew UT would be vibrant, colorful, and sport enough lighting effects to pass as a first-rate Fourth of July celebration in most towns. And while Quake III may be dark and gray, it still has some of the best texture's we've ever seen in a game, FPS or not. Plus the variety and quality of the character models in QIII just can't be beat. Like the bot AI, this is a hard one to name a definite winner, but we have to give a slight edge to Arena. In the middle of furious matches we wanted to stop and just admire the intricate wall carvings in Quake III (and, looking at his frag totals, we're pretty sure Marty did just that more than once).
Although the levels looks pretty, there's just not much to the Quake III level design. There's beautiful architecture, but nothing really innovative as far as how the levels are put together. Unreal Tournament smokes Quake III in level design, and we were amazed at the variety of maps and how creative some of them were. Fond memories of the train, the boat, the underwater base, and the beach invasion levels are going to be dancing in our heads tonight alongside those sugarplums. There's no real contest here, the levels in Unreal Tournament are simply amazing from a design standpoint.
The Final Word
So who's the winner and who's the loser of the Quake III vs. Unreal Tournament grudge match? Well, that's a hard one to say. Both Quake III: Arena and Unreal Tournament are great games, and you really can't go wrong with either of them. Any shooter fan is going to go absolutely bonkers for them both. However, because of its more interesting weapon design, better level design, and just the sheer variety of game types, Unreal Tournament edges out Quake III just slightly, and we feel it's the better game overall. Of course, when you're the worst of the two greatest shooters of all time, can you really be all that upset?
Fill Me Full of Bullet Points
Quake III Highs
The feel of the game can't be beat
Choice, unique character models and a lot of them
Amazing high-quality textures, especially with a TNT2 or GeForce 256 card
Quake III Lows
Lacking level design with only a few that really stand out as remarkable
Boring arsenal
Not much variety in game types -- deathmatch and capture the flag is about it, folks
Single player game is little more than a warm-up to the multiplay experience
Unreal Tournament Highs
Unbelievable game options straight out of the box
Great weapons that reward skilled players with faster kills
Adrenaline inducing 'Mortal Kombat' kill announcements like Head Shot and Multikill
Unreal Tournament Lows
While the game's animation is smooth, the textures seem a bit simple when compared with Quake 3
Getting shot doesn't really feel like getting shot. The game could use more realistic feedback
Read all about Quake III: Arena
Read all about Unreal Tournament
-- Tal Blevins and Trent C. Ward
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