Lots of games are in early access, but the new Unreal Tournament [official site] has thus far seemed to be in a kind of embryonic access. That’s because it’s being created – for really reals – in partnership with its community. Perhaps the game is now sufficiently advanced to be considered a fetus, for the build released yesterday introduces special Halloween content.
Detailed via the UT blog, the update adds a “twisted take on the classing Facing Worlds map” called Spooky Face, and a number of unlocks such as a Pumpkin Fiend mask (pictured above) you can get for harvesting 6666 pumpkins. You can also unlock a Harvest Gourd with 200 skulls, or trickster horns (also pictured above) for 5 spooky stars. This sounds like the weirdest economy.
Otherwise the update brings a bunch of other generic fixes and additions, including a new interface for downloading community-created works and improvements to bot AI. These changes are detailed at length in the full patch notes.
It feels like a changed world, when there’s a new Unreal Tournament game out there for free download but relatively little fanfare around it because of the nature of its development. Are you playing the game, or interested in the game, or waiting for it to be finished? Or, like me, do you think Quake 3 was better?
22/10/2015 at 11:38 haldolium says:
Sounds like the exact same thing Planetside 2 does since 1 or 2 years. Grinding pumpkin seeds, get some helmets…
I am just waiting until its “born” at least, then I might jump in and even go down the dev route since it’s quite nice to work with the UE4.
22/10/2015 at 12:56 FreeTom says:
Planetside 2! I knew there was something more I used to do in the evenings. Thanks.
22/10/2015 at 15:45 XxBrentos9xX says:
I actually tried Planet side 2 for the first time ever about a week ago. Maybe I was expecting too much from it, but after an hour it felt too generic. I think I’ve spoiled myself on playing Halo/ Cod/ Gears/ Medal of Honor/ Battlefield. Think I’m going to try out the Walking Dead series next since it’s free on xbox.
22/10/2015 at 23:56 FreeTom says:
You should do that, it’s good.
The thing with PS2 is you need an outfit. Do organised, combined-arms assaults with people on voice comms and it’s the best multiplayer FPS I’ve played since before TF2 went F2P. As a lone wolf, yeah, it’s just another shooter.
RPS has outfits…
22/10/2015 at 15:37 minijedimaster says:
The game is actually very playable right now. No need to wait for “birth”.
22/10/2015 at 11:49 LionsPhil says:
Is that…a witch riding on a Redeemer?
Now I want to dig up the Strangelove mutator again.
22/10/2015 at 18:10 KillahMate says:
Jesus, I was about to ask the exact same question.
Forget the Strangelove mod, I’m installing this.
22/10/2015 at 13:03 FreeTom says:
Or, like me, do you think Quake 3 was better?
No, of course not. Also, the Speccy was better than the C64 and Macs are just overpriced PCs for ponces.
22/10/2015 at 13:04 HeavyStorm says:
UT, of course. Quake III was good, but UT had cooler weapons, maps, and was friendlier than Quake.
Also, better game modes!
22/10/2015 at 13:24 Kollega says:
Are you playing the game, or interested in the game, or waiting for it to be finished?
Yes, yes, and yes. But I’m surprisingly bad at it when other actual players show up. My aim, even with the Flak Cannon or Stinger Minigun, is phenomenally terrible against human opponents. So I’m more or less playing the game for the art at this point, like I used to play TF2 in the days of yore.
Does anyone else here play UT 2015 for the art? I think that the art direction and rendering on display is actually surprisingly brilliant, and definitely up there with the greats.
22/10/2015 at 14:17 Blackrook says:
I’ve been playing but been blowing people too much to notice the art, I thought there are only about 3 maps with full textures at the moment (saying that I do like the minimalistic sparseness of the placeholder textures)
The game is fast and fun, and goes back to the feel of UT2004 but with no double jump and is surprisingly smooth for an alpha; the downside is the menus and setup
for doing your own server are very slapdash at the moment and not very friendly at all.
22/10/2015 at 14:20 Blackrook says:
just to add there are more than 3 maps but I think only 3? of the 10 official maps are finished with textures as yet. There are also a ton of player made maps in various states of development and quality.
22/10/2015 at 17:03 Sepulchrave76 says:
*away!
22/10/2015 at 17:40 DelrueOfDetroit says:
“I’ve been playing but been blowing people”
So, just out of curiosity what server do you normally play in? It’s not for me. It’s for a friend. Hold on let me get a pen and paper.