UT2007 Demo (Beta) [Windows] Review - by Charliebrownau - 14 Oct 2007
UT2007 Demo (Beta) [Windows] Review - by Charliebrownau - 14 Oct 2007
Overall:
I am un-impressed with this release . In my view it should not of had the word demo in it .
Installing :
Installer - The installer wants to install dot net 2 upon starting up . This is poorly designed installer if it needs dotnet.
It is good that you can choose NO but it does take time to extract something to your hard drive that you dont want.
Customising the game before loading it:
Since most games that support consoles seem to have poorly designed menus with loads of options missing
and a lot of starting up intro video files . I checked out the directory of the game .
I moved a lot of the video files from the game directory and changed a few of the configuration files to turn OFF
effects like Bloom , blur and choose the resulution I wanted ( 1152 x 768 )
I also came across a directory called startup which seemed to slow the starting up phase with a bmp .
Which lead to renaming it so UT2007 wouldnt need to load that aswel.
Running the game:
After it copy's the extracted data to your TEMP Windows settings area and then installs it to where you want it .
I found to run on Windows 2003 32bit (Also for Windows XP 64) it needed a patch , lucky by this time enough people complained about it and Epic released a replacement exe file to fix the program loading .
Once loading the exe It didnt ask me to choose the graphic API I wish to use like UT99 did
Took ages to load (Could of been since i nuked the intro vids or it was trying to contac the net while
was shaped at 8kb/sec) (Yup disconnected the network lead and the game loaded fast)
A game that needs an Acccount to load
Why does this game need an account to load into the main menu ?
No were does it first mention that the account is an Gamespy account ,
most users will just assume its an UT2007/EPIC account
Why have an offline button when you cant play it offline ?
The game should only ask for an account when you want to play ONLINE not
LAN or Single player (Solo MP vs cpu bots)
Is it a Demo or a BETA ? It cant be both
In my view this should be been called PUBLIC BETA without any mention of demo.
Any ETA on a different Demo release with the Linux , Mac and Windows Client avail ,
along with a proper STANDALONE dedicated server file
that does not need dot net to install nor does need an online account to play Single player
(MP Human vs bots) or Lanplay.
Currently the game looks like it should NOT BE released until enough feed back from the
proper demo (non beta ) is released .
Keep testing Epic , PLEASE do NOT release this yet
Please delay the retail Computer (Win/Mac/Linux) till early dec 2007 or Jan/Fen 2008.
It would be better to have a bug free release then a rushed out game with heaps of patchs
down the track . (eg BF series/ut2004/etc)
Maybe the non public beta testers need to get sacked and better ones to replace them .
