I remember being maybe 18 or 19 years old the first time I ever-played Unreal Tournament on the PC. My computer at the time was pretty terrible. I was lucky to get it up and running using the "software rendering" option. Which basically means lowest possible resolution with nothing in the way of bells and whistles. BUT! The frame rate was surprisingly good and stable. It wasn't pretty but that didn't stop me from enjoying, what would become my favorite shooter of the era, endlessly.

Time passes and just like you'd expect from any popular franchise, ports, sequels and spin offs were made. I was a member of Sega Net and actually bought the Dreamcast Keyboard and Mouse peripherals in order to play Unreal Tournament online with that machine. I picked up a copy of Unreal Championship for the original Xbox. Then finally, I got Unreal Tournament 2k4 once I had a decent gaming PC. The point is, I always loved the games and would play them on any PC or Console that offered a version.

Then nothing. I just stopped. Maybe it was a sign of the times. My attention drifted to other interests like my long-standing love of fighting games, MMO's, among other things. As consoles and computers got more powerful, newer and more innovative games took the forefront. Even Epic Games themselves unleashed new modern classics like Gears of War that seemed to trump anything Unreal related in my mind.

Then one day I was looking through my Gamefly queue. It was a little bare so I checked to see what was out there I might be interested in trying. Unreal Tournament 3 for Xbox 360 caught my eye. I didn't expect anything. In truth, I forgot about it until one day it arrived in the mail. I wasn't even all that excited.

It didn't take too long though, for that old familiar feeling to return. KILLING SPREE!!! ULTRA KILL!! MONSTER KILL!!! GODLIKE!!! HEADSHOT! It amazes me that such a simple formula has stood the test of time and is still just as fun as it ever was. The graphics are better, the controls more refined (especially for a console shooter) but it's the same tried and true formula I got hooked on 10 years ago.

I ended up buying it from Gamefly for just over 19 dollars after tax. I cant say enough awesome stuff about Gamefly, but that's a different blog entry. Most people will tell you that nostalgia is cruel. UT3 is proof that sometimes, things really are as much fun as we remember.