State of the PC game, One Month In

[MeepZero]

Now, first off, this is not a bashing post, I don't wanna see this get locked/deleted as much as anyone. I am trying to figure out a way to help the community here, expand the game, and give Epic a leg up and push some sales here.

In a recent post from gamespy it was stated that in the first month UT has sold something close to 33,995 copies to the PC users out there. Crysis sold something around 86,633 copies, but from what I hear their multiplayer is the worst thing ever and we all know that game takes a render farm to run. Other games such as COD have sold pretty decently, but the running tally here is showing that console games are selling far more then PC games. So what can we do as a community to help bolster the PC sales? The PC game is really where the heart of the community is, moreso then any console could ever produce.

We here have all whined and moaned about all these things that are "broken" and "wrong" about UT, but its really a great game. We all complain about not seeing enough players online but thats not something that can be simply patched. What I think is we need to get out and tell others about UT, get the word out that the game is actually pretty decent, I mean, if we didnt think it was any good then why would we all keep coming back here and playing the game and everything. Get out there, show it to your friends. Buy it as a chirstma/hana/kwanza/athiestholidyofgiftgiving present for someone.

Epic is doing what they can in the constraints of what they have to work with. Ideally from here they could start boxing copies of UT3 in video cards or something, but that will prolly happen when the next gen cards come out or something like that.

What can we do as a community to bring this game back into a brighter light and bring us some people to go frag with?

[solarwind]

Crysis has to be the worst game ever made. What starts well end pathetically. High hopes dashed cruelly. Second half of games gets a negative rating it is so so bad.

How about reduced prices of video cards with a combo vid card and game pack.

[MeepZero]

I mention the video card idea because they did that with Quake Wars and apparently it helped their sales quite a bit.

[Isolated]

I don't know what we can do about it, but i for one have seen no advertising for UT3.
At all.
I know about the game because i am a fan of the Unreal series and kept up to date on it's progress from the internet and reports in PC mags.
I have heard there have been adverts, but i live in the UK and have not personally seen any.
I would imagine if you want to sell big numbers it would help to let people know about the product.

[Arnout]

I don't think it has a lot to do with UT3 itself. It's the mentality of gamers these days. Everyone seems to want slow-*** military style gameplay, with pseudo-realistic weapon feedback and other gameplay mechanisms that just take the imagination out of gaming.

UT3 is by no means perfect, but at least it's still a game, rather than a war simulator.

[Cleary]

IMO i think its due to alot of big names being released recently

War games are a no brainer for the dad tryna buy hes kid a good lil shooting game as a christmas present.
Rather than take a risk with A futuristic shooting game.

IMO give it abit of time... word of mouth will get around that UT3 really is a good game... soon people will start buying it.

[Bloody Roots]

Well, I gotta say...I installed Patch1 last night and finally had a good UT3 session.

I was enjoying a DM map so much at one point that I repeatedly typed "This is easily the best UT ever." It is. I mean, get the f__k outta here, Unreal Engine 3 technology just takes the game into the stratosphere. [but what moron at Epic came up with that **** 'graphics bloom' deal?]

Unfortunately for the hardcore PC-only out there, however, there now exist consoles that can run the game. And they cost only $400-$500. The cost of a good PC video card. The key FPS gaming demographic is teenage boys dependent on their parents for money. Thus...empty PC servers.

[Arnout]

Then how do you explain that 8 million people are playing World of Warcraft? I know what you're going to say; You don't need a phat computer to run that game. But you also don't need a monster to run Warsow, and that game isn't as popular as it should be either. The fact that more people are playing Crysis than UT3 speaks volumes to me.

[Bloody Roots]

No question that UT3 faces stiff competition...and that's a factor. Many people only play one game at a time...

[loezix]

lol,

Crysis = EA
UT3 = Midway

Here in Brazil, UT3 will ship only on january, Crysis has been for sale for years around here... I imagine on other countries....

just play the game, make maps and so on...
IT IS EASILY THE BEST UT EVER!

and it just keeping better and better...

I'm having as much fun on 1v1 as i had with Q3 and Q4 (yeah, playing the pirated version, so what?!)

so i repeat, play the game....just play it!

[Susak1977]

i hear ya on the pc sales like you said a good graphics card runs $300 to $500.
graphic card companies need to drop their prices and pc gaming would def. pick back up. that was one of my reasons switching back to console, dont get me wrong i loved pc gaming and the precise aiming and movement of the mouse/keyboard. but man you spend $500 and you get a insane ps3 system/blu-ray player. IMO i think the ps3/ sony is going to take gaming to another level they already have, ut3 so you can use an M/K setup. I know fps is slower and the game speed but i played ut on the pc in the past and there is diff in speed but i have not let that bother me. from what i have read in the past is that sony looks to have most games compatible with either running it on a controller or m/k setup that would f ing rule

[Momo]

I dont know how many potential customers read this forums. For me, i played the demo and i really liked it and since i enjoyed UT99 and UT2K3 i thought lets buy it.. but after the game was released i checked through the forums and there were a lot of negative opinions, crashing issues, whining whatever.. i wasnt so sure anymore. I read here for about two weeks before i decided to buy it, usually i regret it after i buy games especially when its beaten in a few hours.
But for UT3, eventhough its still crashing sometimes, i dont. The main reason i bought it was because there were also a lot of postive comments and that i have high hopes in future patches

So just buy the game if you liked the demo and form your own opinion. You are gonna play this game a lot of more hours than any single-player game which costs the same money. So yes it's worth it!

[Cold_Killer]

Best Buy didn't even have it advertised in their add the week it came out. lol My friends that work that had never even heard of it.

[Taboen]

Be friendly at publics. Give everybody a fair and nice gaming experience.

Recommend the game to friends and get them to play the game at your place once or twice. First offline DM then online DM on to vCTF just go get started. So that later on they can focus on the fine bits of CTF/TDM. vCTF is a good starter for this game. If they want to come back to your place again they obviously thought it was fun playing, you could recommend them to buy it then.
If getting friends over at your place isn't really the thing you do anymore. In some youngster cultures that's something only kids do, get them to try the demo with you once or twice. Mouth to mouth commercials is the most powerfull.

Stop being so negative about every little bit.

That's all I can think of, and that's what I'm doing atm.

[Bloody Roots]

Oh, and by the way:

I am playing the game on a P4 660 (SINGLE core) and a Radeon X850XT Platinum. PC about 2-3 years old. Game running well in 1024x768 and looking great. Playable frame rate.

(2 GB RAM)