It's bloody, overly violent, and just plain old fun. This is exactly why we love the Unreal Tournament franchise. Besides providing a basis for something reminiscent of a graphical standard for today's video games (the Unreal Engine), the games boast a great open-ended multiplayer experience online and off. The latest installment does justice to this legacy.

The plot of Unreal 3 continues the long and intertwining storyline of the series. This time around, instead of an actual tournament, the players are thrown into a war fueled by revenge, rare minerals and land (sound familiar?), where they have to work their way through a variety of missions against numerous factions in diverse environments.

Even without the campaign, this game would shine. The game features the standard multiplayer modes like death match or CTF and even updated versions of Unreal favorites like vehicle CTF or warfare. Essentially, the multiplayer is just a prettied up version of every Unreal game before it with a few new innovations, such as a snowboard-esque hovercraft and updated weapons and maps. Even though it's not exactly groundbreaking, many players have grown accustomed to the familiar and vastly enjoyable multiplayer experience and will continue to be impressed with the latest installment.

All in all, Unreal Tournament is a must-buy for any fans of the series or anyone with a love of multiplayer and online enabled games. Players should also note that the PC and PS3 versions support player-generated mods and maps allowing even more replay value out the game. The Xbox 360 version does away with this by including exclusive maps and characters and the promise of more map packs in the future. The familiarity of this game will keep players occupied for quite some time.



Francis Trujillo is a junior at Academy for Technology and the Classics. You can reach him at fx-trujillo@hotmail.com.