[Bond]

http://xbox.ign.com/articles/360/360704p1.html

Two things you must know from the get-go: Unreal Championship is amazing and it is coming this fall. An instant E3 "Game of the Show" candidate, Unreal is the long awaited, much anticipated Digital Extremes online FPS. Utilizing the amazing Unreal 2 engine, Unreal Championship is a stunning, fast-paced online slugfest pitting players against one another in thirty different arenas.

The demo we played looked good enough to go on store shelves the next day. And Digital Extremes has another four to five months to fiddle with the game. Running at a smooth-as-silk 60fps, Unreal is everything you could want in an arena-style FPS. Rich textures, dynamic lighting, and thumping sound. And lets not forget Unreal is set to be one of Xbox' first online games. Start that newspaper route now, this is fifty bucks you'll wanna spend.

Unreal has five modes of play:

Deathmatch
Team Deathmatch
Capture the Flag
Double Domination
Bombing Run

The Deathmatch and Capture the Flag modes are in the traditional form, as D.E. doesn't want to alienate old-school FPS players. However, Double Domination and Bombing Run are interesting twists to the multiplayer standards. Double Domination is an update from the PC Unreal's Domination mode. Players much control two points for ten seconds to win. Not an easy task considering the hectic battles waged in Unreal. Bombing Run seems the most interesting mode of all. Each team attempts to grab the bomb and get it into the other team's goal. However shooting the bomb through the goal with the launcher only scores you a single point. Taking yourself through the goal with the bomb earns extra points. But the best score comes when you manage to knock an enemy carrying the bomb through his own goal.

I had the fortune of cycling through the twelve weapons of Unreal Championship and seeing what they can do. Here's a rundown of a few of the choicer armaments:

Biorifle - Otherwise known as the goop gun. We'll leave that to your imagination.

Link gun - The second coolest gun in Unreal. It can fire balls of energy or emit a straight line of laser fire that can be maintained for a period of time. Teammates with link guns can then fire at the line and add to its power. This can be done multiple times to make for one heck of a powerful attack.

Rocket launcher - The rocket launcher can hold up to three rpgs at once, but has a very fast reloading rate.

Lightning gun - As the name suggests, this is an electrical attack, with arcs of lightning shooting out and doing some painful damage.

Shield gun - A short-ranged weapon that can offer quick blasts or can be aimed at the ground to provide an extra boost to a jump.

Ion cannon - The mother of all weapons. You must be outside to use this weapon. If you glance up at the sky, you'll catch sight of a satellite orbiting above. Train the gun at a spot on the ground and hold it there for several seconds. The satellite will take a page straight from Akira and blast and incredible laser of destruction down from on high. Hummina.
Unreal handles pretty much like any other FPS. You can cycle through weapons with the click of a button and fire with the squeeze of the right trigger. Currently the aiming control is a little too sensitive, but even if it remains that way, players will be able to adjust the sensitivity. I kept trying to find something I didn't like about Unreal, but I found nothing wrong the entire hour I was sucked up into the world of Unreal.

As with every Xbox Live game, Unreal utilizes the Xbox Communicator. The small headset lets you hear and speak to your fellow Unreal champs. Voice masking makes it so no one needs to hear your normal wussy voice. Sound like a little girl, a cartoon, the voice of doom, Stephen Hawkings, a robot, and many more. The Communicator is a perfect fit for an online arena game and lets you talk smack, call for help, and curse an awful lot. The folks at Digital Extremes would like to make the map-editor available through Xbox Live, though it's not clear how that will be executed or even if it will be possible. If it is, Unreal could have near limitless replay value.

Outlook
Unreal is currently enjoy a low state of hype. That will change. Starting right now, this game is it. The game for Xbox Live. The one everyone who subscribes to Xbox Live must own. Unreal may not turn out to be the game of the year, but it will certainly be in the upper echelon of Xbox games. I can't wait to frag your ass.

This will be the Xbox Live game to own.