by Matt - June 25, 2003

After a three-year wait, Unreal Tournament is back. First debuting in 1999, Unreal Tournament paved the way for mass multiplayer carnage. Now it's up to UT2003 to keep the road going, and it does quite a fine job, although there are a few cons that come along with the latest in the Unreal series. Nevertheless, developer Digital Extremes and publisher Infogrames certainly has created a game worth buying.

Just hop in and start fragging

There really is no storyline in the Unreal Tournament series - just join a game and start fragging. Experienced players will have the best advantage with the controls, which are keyboard controls if anyone didn't know. New-comers to the game will want to start with the single player mode to gain a feel for the controls and overall gameplay. The learning curve for UT2003 is about 15 minutes for any hardcore gamer.

Outstanding graphics, would you expect any less?

The graphics seen in UT2003 are amazing. Crisp character profiles and brilliant textures are found all throughout the game. Although the graphics are jawdropping, you better have a monster machine with a new video card to experience the best in this game. However, a modest card, such as my ATI Radeon 8500LE 128 MB, will do just fine.

You fight like Nali... (and other annoying taunts)

UT2003's sound is not something you'll be willing to turn up your speakers for. Although some of the music tracks have a good beat, they are repeated too often for my liking. A larger selection of music would make the sound more enjoyable. The game's sound effects are crisp and punchy with large amounts of bass that vibrates the room. However, the slew of overused taunts gets very annoying quickly - I don't need to hear "You fight like Nali", "Ownage", and "You be dead" every ten seconds.

More frags anyone?

Unreal Tournament 2003 is an extremely fun game to play, whether you are a novice or an expert. To get the most out of the game, new players should spend some time in single player mode to get a feel for the controls. Once they've gained the necessary skills (and some confidence), they can hop right into a multiplayer game; the multiplayer games can be found at the main menu. 56Ker's be warned - because UT2003 is such a bandwidth intense game, you may experience lag. To get the best overall multiplayer experience, opt for high-speed broadband such as DSL or cable.

Dominating multiplayer mode

UT2003's multiplayer mode is the number one reason to purchase the game. After all, who plays single mode anyway? With hundreds of active servers to choose from, UT2003 offers an unparalleled level of online competition. Many clans for the game have been formed, as well, which feature the game's best players. As long as you have broadband, you'll have plenty of fraggin' fun with UT2003.

In the end, UT2003 packs a mean punch

With newer levels and weapons, more playing modes, and improved graphics, in addition to a massive multiplayer mode, why wouldn't you buy UT2003? The only downsides are its huge 3 GB install size and demanding system resources, but any hardcore gamer will have a PC new and fast enough to run the game fine. Bottom line, UT2003 lives up to its name, and it is a game all should own, especially if you like FPS games, or you already own the previous edition of UT.