Unreal Tournament 3
Midway
PlayStation 3
4 stars (out of 5)
Just when you thought the PlayStation 3 was treading water while the Xbox 360 unleashed one killer game after another, along comes Unreal Tournament 3.
The next-generation battle was in limbo in the fourth quarter of 2007, with the excitement over Halo 3, Mass Effect and BioShock - all 360 exclusives - completely overshadowing anything on the PS3.
What developer Epic and publisher Midway have now done is lift the bar for the all-black console to show it wants its share of the attention. And they've done it by cleverly updating and polishing an old favourite.
The Unreal franchise has been around for nearly a decade and produced various spin-offs based on its arena-based, frantic beat-and-shoot-em-up style. This is its first appearance on a next-generation console.
Going back to the roots of the series, UT 3 deliberately keeps it basic at the same time as wowing gamers with unbelievably stylish graphics to make them think they are playing a whole-new game.
Nothing wrong with sticking to a formula if it works, and the combination of cracking-paced gameplay and lovely character models and backgrounds is sure to appeal to both old salts and newcomers to the series.
You might need to be an online gamer to get the most out of the game but there is a perfectly serviceable single-player campaign, which involves long-time character Reaper being hired as a mercenary and placed in a series of deathmatch situations.
There is a good range of weaponry, including the usual rifles and cannons and a wickedly powerful beast called the Redeemer, and a variety of modes in which to utilise them to cause some serious carnage.
Well executed, superbly presented and long on replay value, Unreal Tournament 3 quickly joins the pantheon of landmark PS3 titles beside Resistance: Fall of Man and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune.
It's quite violent, obviously, and is not for the junior gamer.
