Minimum Requirements: 200 MHz PowerPC 603e, 64MB RAM, Mac OS 7.6, 120MB disk space, CD-ROM Drive
Network Feature: Yes
3D Support: Yes
Retail Price: $19.99
Availability: Now
MSRB Rating: M for Mature
When Julia Roberts was named "Best Actress" at the Academy Awards, it proved two things: 2000 was a terrible year for movies, and the word "best" was now officially meaningless. Why do I hate Julia Roberts? She is an actor of mediocre talent who appears in dumb movies and gets by because sheÕs pretty (but not too pretty), and has a nice body (but uses a body double for nude scenes). Every time I trash Ms. Roberts, I'm told that Erin Brockovitch is a tour-de-force about a lone crusader who takes on "the system" to help the helpless.
This is also the plot for Billy Jack, you'll note.
Unreal Tournament is kind of the Billy Jack of games; violent and--for the most part--unstructured, with a loyal following of fans. I've read that Billy Jack was made for $350,000 and to date has grossed over $100 million. That sounds about right. Anyway, when games become as huge as Unreal Tournament has become, a push is made by the publishers to get the casual gamer (e.g., your dad) to try it. Back in the Infocom days, they'd put out "Gold Editions," chopping the price and maybe giving the hint book away for free. The combination of low price and value-added material would hopefully result in another big boost in sales.
So, now we have cheap UT in new packaging, which is being titled as the "Game of the Year" edition, but to which we'll be referring by its real name; "Julia Roberts." UT: Julia Roberts edition has the great original game, more maps, and a couple of expansion packs; Chaos UT and Rocket Arena, both trying to win your heart with their plucky spirit and quirky smile.
No one who already owns Unreal Tournament needs to buy UT:JR. With only a few minor exceptions, everything on the disc is available for free over the internet. Of course, the downloads are huge, so you'd be saving yourself that heartache if you have a slow modem, but the mods aren't that great, either. Both use gimmicks that get very old, very quickly. Like, say, a movie about a hooker with a heart of gold.
UT:JR does, of course, contain Unreal Tournament itself, which you can play without any interference from the mods. Unreal Tournament, like every game created in America ever, takes place in a dystopian future where viscous gladiatorial combat is the number one entertainment industry. How many years has it been since Smash TV was in the arcades? Note to American game designers; low lighting and misogyny aren't enough anymore. Time for a new idea, guys. But still, UT is a great game, and you can read Hiner's full review of it way back here.
The included mods are tiresome. Rocket Arena is set up in a format where players battle it out one-on-one (solo or team vs. team play). If you win, you take on the next set of challengers. If you lose, you get kicked to the bottom of the queue and have to wait your turn to try and work your way back up. So it's like Unreal Tournament, with a lot of waiting to play built right in. Great. I guess it's a good structure for judging someone's skill at playing Unreal Tournament, but then, so is counting the number of Nine Inch Nails posters he has on his bedroom wall.
Chaos UT is just a mess, no joke intended. It sounds like a good idea; UT with more weapons, but they're poorly implemented. The new weapons share the same keyboard commands (1-0) for selection, taking valuable seconds away while you punch the same key numerous times to get to the weapon you want. Some duplicate the effect of weapons that already exist; the Claw is a combination of the hammer and the sludge gun. Some invalidate the whole reason for the weapon in the first place; the sniper rifle, a weapon of precision and stealth, can now be loaded with rocket-propelled bullets that leave a vapor trail. The crossbow is especially screwed up, as it takes forever to reload and can be fitted with three different kinds of bolt (regular, poison, and "lime," I believe). All of these weapons sound very cool, I know, and figuring out their subtleties would be interesting...in an role-playing game. But UT is a shooter, and in shooter, subtlety don't mean nothin'.
I did like the proxy grenades, I must admit that. Proxy grenades are smiley-faced, semi-intelligent bombs that hop after their target, taunting them in a Smurf-like voice. I seriously dug the proxy grenades. Good job on that.
If you don't already own UT and have a twenty to spare, pick it up; it's a great game. And the best part about UT: Julia Roberts is that you can separate it into its components and play Unreal Tournament without the chipper, obnoxious overbite part. How delightful it would be if I had that option when I went to the movies with my wife to see Reservoir Dogs (a film by Nora Ephron).
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Review: Unreal Tournament - Game of the Year edition
Unreal Tournament is kind of the Billy Jack of games; violent and--for the most part--unstructured, with a loyal following of fans. I've read that Billy Jack was made for $350,000 and to date has grossed over $100 million. That sounds about right. Anyway, when games become as huge as Unreal Tournament has become, a push is made by the publishers to get the casual gamer (e.g., your dad) to try it. Back in the Infocom days, they'd put out "Gold Editions," chopping the price and maybe giving the hint book away for free. The combination of low price and value-added material would hopefully result in another big boost in sales.
UT:JR does, of course, contain Unreal Tournament itself, which you can play without any interference from the mods. Unreal Tournament, like every game created in America ever, takes place in a dystopian future where viscous gladiatorial combat is the number one entertainment industry. How many years has it been since Smash TV was in the arcades? Note to American game designers; low lighting and misogyny aren't enough anymore. Time for a new idea, guys. But still, UT is a great game, and you can read Hiner's full review of it 
Chaos UT is just a mess, no joke intended. It sounds like a good idea; UT with more weapons, but they're poorly implemented. The new weapons share the same keyboard commands (1-0) for selection, taking valuable seconds away while you punch the same key numerous times to get to the weapon you want. Some duplicate the effect of weapons that already exist; the Claw is a combination of the hammer and the sludge gun. Some invalidate the whole reason for the weapon in the first place; the sniper rifle, a weapon of precision and stealth, can now be loaded with rocket-propelled bullets that leave a vapor trail. The crossbow is especially screwed up, as it takes forever to reload and can be fitted with three different kinds of bolt (regular, poison, and "lime," I believe). All of these weapons sound very cool, I know, and figuring out their subtleties would be interesting...in an role-playing game. But UT is a shooter, and in shooter, subtlety don't mean nothin'.
