Conservative

1up hands-on with Epic's new Unreal Tournament.

"Our goal is to make a much better UT than anything anyone's ever seen,"

- Steve Polge, lead designer.


There are some pretty mind blowing screenshots, and evidence that level design is based on geometry rather than artwork, but I thought that was standard practice. Also a new game mode, 'codenamed 'Conquest''. Get this, with an element of resource management. A new game mode? For a new game!? No DAMN WAY.

"It's only at a pen and paper stage right now," mentions Steve. Ah, excellent. Slap some new textures on some new levels, update the old games in the usual way, then add in the precious little (semi) innovation at the end. That way, it'll be too late to implement it to the rest of the game!

Here's an idea: stop playing to the needs of these conservative, anal-retentive UT hardcore types and do something interesting. I mean, Deathmatch could do with some reinvention...

Evolution not revolution then, as usual. On a more positive note, the first time I saw this as a thumbnail I was thinking "must be artwork, must be artwork, must be- ...OMGLOL It's not artwork! It's not artwork!"