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I would say UT2K3 sacrificed good gameplay for a flashy, n00b friendly game.

The 2k3 engine does have some advantages, such as true target boxes (which can get EXTREMELY aggravating in UT at times), though overall the graphics take away from the fun far too much. Take 1-on-1-Crash for example, the player models blend in extremely well with the walls, factor in mb 40fps lowest and you have a darn hard time seeing someone.

Doc : The brightskins mod makes it MUCH easier to see the other players.

I know 2K3 was nothing but a big public beta test for 2K4. Epic is taking ques from Apple.

Bright Player skins is a must. If you've played on my server, you 've played with Bright Player skins. This is a server side option and I have it "On".

I like not being so easy to see and not seeing so easily. Makes the game more fun and unpredictible. I've always been a defencive ambusher, 2K3 makes that job easier.

I also like the new weapon balance. No longer can ONE person dominate a map with ONE weapon. I also like that there are fewer "instant" kills. When your average TTL (time to live) goes up, the fun factor goes up.

my 2 cents

I also like the new weapon balance. No longer can ONE person dominate a map with ONE weapon. I also like that there are fewer "instant" kills. When your average TTL (time to live) goes up, the fun factor goes up.

my 2 cents

Sounds like you need to play on some different servers. 

Hmm, I must have old eyes too   Unless this is a new addition to the server that's been on since yesterday ?

I have to disagree about what's been said about new UT2K3 versus the original UT. True, it feels like a whole new game, but IMO most of the changes were for the better. I was never a real fan of the original UT, because the weapons just seemed very spammy and weak. For this reason I prefered Q3A over it. I don't know, there was just more of a sense of skill and speed with Q3A that couldn't be had with the original UT. Albeit there wasn't as much teamwork in Q3A, but I'd prefer a more challenging and skill-based deathmatch game than a team-based game with weak structure.

But all that has changed with UT2K3. The graphics got a major overhaul, putting the previous champion (Q3A) to shame. But this came at a price--heavy system requirements. Fortunately with some considerable time spent on tweaking the ini files I managed to get most of my gameplay back up to speed. I'm hoping future updates will continue to optimize performance. Admittedly, UT2K3 still has performance issues (like the original UT) that simply can't be matched with the PC version. It seems it's more DirectX friendly than OpenGL friendly. But that's another story.

On to the weapons. Most of the weapons in UT2K3 don't involve spamming anymore. Two immediately come to mind--the rocket launcher and the flak cannon. The rocket launcher only fires three missiles, making aiming more crucial than ever before. You're no longer given the option to spam rocket grenades either. But at the very least each rocket is more powerful. The flak cannon, my favorite, no longer has tons of shrapnel bouncing everywhere. The shrapnel still richochets off walls, but less so than before. You also have a smaller area to deal with. While more aiming is required, the smaller area tends to make the flak more deadly. Another big plus for a weapon that used to be spammed a lot in the original version.

Most of the other weapons are only altered slightly from their original. One thing I never liked about either UT was the shock rifle. That combo attack blast radius is just too damn big. It still tends to get abused a lot via spamming, and after a while it just annoys the hell out of me when an experienced shock rifleman would use it repeatedly against me. Aside from that, I did get a greater sense of skill with UT2K3 when it comes to weapon usage. You really can't get away with spamming as much as you could before, since few weapons will even allow it. I don't know where other people are getting the impression that you can.

The bot AI is also a huge step up. While not many people care much about the bots, I like to play with 'em all the time. With UT2K3 they were coded incredibly. Luckily this is one of the strong points that was carried over from the original UT. Anyway, these bots camp, hide behind objects, pop out of nowhere, and do just about anything human players would. They even work in packs and set up ambushes during CTF and Bombing Run modes. It's just an incredible thing to watch. It's no wonder performance tends to struggle when many bots are placed in a game.

Ehhh... I don't know what else to say. As a former rabid Q3A player, UT2K3 brings the best of both worlds and does it beautifully. I guess everyone has their own style. Luckily there is a classic UT mutator included with UT2K3 that allows you to revisit the old school style of gameplay. Anyway, I just thought I'd add another view to the topic.

Brain : I'll get you a tweak file for 2k3 that'll help.

Thx, flex, and thx Khral. I set my FOV to 100 for a while, just as I used to in UT99. I remember moving back from 100; I wonder if the re-install re-set to 85? I'll go check.

MacSoft recommended I re-install without the patch, as it's mostly for ATI cards, I'm on nVidia. I just didn't have another re-install in me at the time. Things have been good since I got rid of the Evil Announcer ( ), but I did just Ghost on Levi's server last night on DM-Bloom; where I could see the map but couldn't click in.

Oh and be warned... the higher your FOV is, the more polygons the game has to render. In other words expect your FPS rates to drop slightly as you increase the FOV. It's just something to keep in mind for those who are paranoid about conserving FPS or are on the borderline of playability. Just a heads up.