Low gravity in Unreal Tournament 3 demo

I am a very big fan of Low Gravity mutator in all Unreal Engine powered games. One of the things I like the most is jumping over the opponent, do 180° turn and fire 3 rockets at him.

Naturally, I was hoping low gravity will be in the demo. Unfortunately, it is not. Well, kind of.

You can play UT3 demo with low gravity. Here is how to do it.

1. Make a copy of the My Documents\My Games\Unreal Tournament 3 Demo\UTGame\Config\UTGame.ini file.
2. Change default value to something like -100
3. Save file
   
4. Try it out

You will see the message dialog show below and click on "No" or "No to all" to play with low gravity.

Here is the section of the file with change I am using.

[Engine.WorldInfo]
DefaultGravityZ=-100.0
RBPhysicsGravityScaling=2.0
SquintModeKernelSize=128.0
DecalManagerClassPath=UTGame.UTDecalManager
DefaultPostProcessSettings=(Bloom_Scale=0.2,DOF_BlurKernelSize=12.0,DOF_MaxNearBlurAmount=0.0,DOF_MaxNearBlurAmount=0.0,DOF_FocusInnerRadius=2000.0,DOF_FocusDistance=0.0,)
EmitterPoolClassPath=UTGame.UTEmitterPool

And for the end here are some screenshots of low gravity on Shangri La deathmatch. They are not the best but pressing Fn+PrtScr on laptop while flying is not the easiest to do.

Heavy Gravity

Of course you can increase the gravity that will affect the gameplay too. If you change the value to -1000 jumping down to get to rocket launcher (on Shangri La) will take away 25% of your health. To take it more extreme go down to the value of -2000 (and lose 50% health doing the same jump for arocket launcher). This can me nasty surprise for your friends. All it takes is just one or two shots from enforcer and they are done!

Brief gaming update (UT3, Half Life 2 with Portal gun)

Unreal Tournament Beta Demo

I have promised to write about Unreal Tournament 3 Beta demo with greater detail. The problem is work is quite hectic right now with preparation for New Zealand ESRI User Group Conference.

I did manage to play for a few hours (all put together) and I have to say it is very good demo. First of all menu screens are much better than in UT 2004. Background is in neutral gray and scenes from the game are in monochrome red tones. Graphics is nothing short of stunning. There are plenty of sites offering graphics review and how to tune it so I won't talk about it here. If you want to check different settings without running the game have a look at article on GameSpot. It shows nicely different settings and provides brief description just in case you missed it.

Demo offers only 3 maps: DM-HeatRay, DM-ShangriLa and VCTF-Suspense and 3 game type options: Deathmatch, Duel and Vehicle Capture The Flag

Deathmatch
Deathmatch is the core of UT. Compared to UT 2004 it is faster. It doesn't take long to find a bot and next thing you know you are most likely to be on 10% health or dead. For me Deathmatch will be one of my favorites for long time to come.

Duel
Duel is simply 1 vs 1 game played on regular deathmatch maps. Unlike Last Man Standing in UT 2004 you have to find and collect weapons, ammo and everything else. This gives you more opportunities to get geared up for good fight.

Vehicle Capture The Flag
Instead finding mutators this is now part of the standard package. Suspense map is nice and small enough to give you fast paced action using a range of vehicles. In addition to vehicles from UT 2004 (more or less) one can use a hoverboard. It is fast and will be very handy on larger levels. To balance the speed while using it you can't use weapons at all.

For videos of gameplay check the usual sites: Beyond Unreal, Game Trailers, YouTube and others.

In particular I like a view of Redeemer while using alternate fire. It is a lot less crowded compared to UT 2004 and you can focus on the target a lot better. Another nice effect is when you dive into the water (VCTF-Suspense) - everything is blurred just like diving without a mask.


Tweaking
Already there are postings all over the net about getting the most out of demo. The one I like is on Planet Unreal. Of course if you are brave you can experiment by changing whole bunch of settings of number of INI files. This time around they are located in My Documents\My Games\Unreal Tournament 3 Demo.

If you have a look at these files you can find out what maps are planned for Warfare: WAR-Downtown, WAR-SinkHole, WAR-Dusk, WAR-Islander, WAR-Avalanche, WAR-MarketDistrict, WAR-OnyxCoast, WAR-Powersurge, WAR-Serenity, WAR-FloodGate and WAR-Torlan


Half Life 2 and Portal
It was a while since I've played HL2. It was fun playing it. Now you can play it all over again but with the twist - use portal gun. Of course, it was not designed or intended by Valve to be played like that but it is possible. Exact steps are available on PrimoTech's web site. If you don't know what to expect check it out, there are screen shots but no videos for now.

Unreal Tournament 3 Beta demo is out

Beta demo is out! At the moment I'm trying to find a local (New Zealand) site with demo for download but without success. As soon as I find one I'll post the link here.

Here is what is included in the demo.

Midway and Epic Games announce that the beta demo for Unreal Tournament 3, the highly anticipated first-person-shooter, will be available for download today via http://www.fileplanet.com at 3 PM ET. The beta demo consists of three different action-packed Deathmatch and Vehicle Capture the Flag maps: HeatRay, ShangriLa and Suspense. All maps in the demo can be played locally against bots, or online against human opponents. Unreal Tournament 3 is currently slated to ship in November for PC. Get ready to get your frag on!

HeatRay (Deathmatch):
This battle takes place in a night-time urban setting. Players battle over who gets to use a Dark Walker super weapon after it is spawned by a passing drop-ship. If you manage to get it, be sure to rack up the kills quickly since everyone will be gunning for you. The Dark Walker is like a giant piñata -- when it dies it drops a U-Damage and a Berzerk power-up. If you want to stay hidden from the Dark Walker keep an eye out for the Invisibility power-up.

ShangriLa (Deathmatch):
A stark contrast to HeatRay's moody setting, ShangriLa is a sunny, tranquil map set high in the Izanagi Mountains. This map is designed in the traditional style of big Team Deathmatch maps, so it should please the most hardcore UT Deathmatch players. Fight over the U-damage in the central courtyard, or try to control the Shield-belt alley. You can find jumpboots in a vulnerable spot at the end of a dock, but the risk is worth the reward as they will go a long way toward helping you control the map.

Suspense (Vehicle Capture the Flag):
Set on a massive suspension bridge deep in Axon territory, this map is a playground of gameplay possibilities. It's a favorite in Epic office playtests because you can find almost all the Axon vehicles, as well as the Redeemer super-weapon. Whether you are sniping from the bridge towers, camping with the tank, towing hover-boarding flag-runners from your Raptor, controlling the redeemer from underneath the bridge, bombarding from afar with Hellfire SPMA artillery, or doing fast attacks with Manta's and Scorpions, everyone will find something they love doing in Suspense.

More about the demo later, when I download and play it a bit.

Update on download locations: GamePlanet has demo for download. As expected Xtra still doesn't have it.