Should
you buy Unreal Championship? NO.
Well, probably not, depending on your PC situation. That's right, I
mentioned PC in a XBox review. I think it's a fairly safe bet to say that
everyone's got limited resources, and that you're looking for the best bang for
your buck. So, here's my take on the situation.
Unreal Championship is the baby brother of it's PC counterpart, Unreal
Tournament 2003. UC runs slower, is more difficult to control, has
less of a chance of being expanded, and has fewer setup options (connectivity,
graphics, etc). There also is not a "lifespan" issue with the PC
version - people stick with computer games for years longer than with console
games. For those of you with a decent computer that can handle Unreal
Tournament 2003 (1 Ghz, a 3D accelerator, Linux or Windows, and not crash
prone), I would recommend UT2003 over UC any day.
On
the other hand, Unreal Championship does have some advantages. When you
instinctively yell "Oooohhh, that's gotta hurt!" or "Come here,
you little @$@$@%!", others can hear you, and respond. That's
nifty. The game is also portable. You can take your XBox live
account with you on a memory card, you can take your saved games on that same
memory card, and you can bring along the DVD. Sharing with friends is a
very compelling reason to get this game. The two player split-screen mode
is most fun when not played on-line (see below), but it's still quite good, and
two player mode is something that the PC game lacks entirely. It also must
be said that if your PC is something that you only use for work, or if you
simply can't convince anyone to allow you to install the game (if you're a kid,
for instance) - you're better off getting the XBox version. In fact, in
these instances, I highly RECOMMEND the XBox version.
My
first experience with Unreal Championship was with a friend,
in two player split-screen mode, on-line. In my eyes, there were so many
deficiencies with this mode, I
felt I had to say something, right afterwards. To recap, here are my
problems with the two player on-line mode of this game:
- The person that you're shooting at is not labeled.
- When you kill someone, it doesn't tell you so.
- It's difficult to see details in split screen mode.
- It's (obviously) more "laggy", because your poor XBox has to
send twice as much info - this leads to dropped connections, your shots not
showing up on screen, people jumping around, and more.
- The graphics look "washed out" - I don't think this was my TV,
really - I play other games, and UC in different mores, and everything seems
to be fine.
That
said, the single player on-line mode and the single-player mode are both very
good. They are exactly what I'd expect from a console FPS, and since this
is the only TRULY on-line FPS for XBox (right now), the game earns a few points
of redemption. The graphics are fantastic, all the labels are there as
you'd expect, the game play is varied. It's a good game. No, I take
that back - until they get Halo2 out, it's THE game for XBox
Live.
But still, it's not good enough. When computers are almost as cheap as
consoles, they play the same games (sometimes for less money), and they offer
more opportunity, well... You get the picture.