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The Beige Box Fades to Black By STEVE LOHR A silver strut connects the iMac's flat panel screen to a white dome base, top left. The Vaio notebook from Sony, top right, has palette of purple and gray. Hewlett-Packard's 700 series desktop is silver and dark grey. Compaq's EVO D500 desktop PC, left, in black and silver. The Net-Vista X41 from I.B.M., right: Big blue switch to basic black. HE beige-box personal computer, the drab diehard of modern industrial design, became a visual standard without a lot of deep thought in 1981, when I.B.M. introduced its PC. It was functional, neutral, almost non-design, says Lee Green, the company's current director of design. Yet beige box it was, and bland proliferated for two decades, long after "it was obvious they were beyond boring," Mr. Green said. Even earlier, the Apple II in 1977 was mostly beige, and the first cuddly Macintosh in 1984 was beige, though it was no conventional box. Irrefutably, however, it was I.B.M. that brought the personal computer into the mainstream, and the industry -- except for Apple -- followed its lead in industrial design, or the lack of it. The companies that rose in I.B.M.'s wake -- Compaq, Dell, Gateway and others -- were aptly termed clones. But now the beige-box desktop PC seems headed toward extinction at last. The changeover has evolved gradually, along with the ways people think about their computers, but the pace is quickening as more and more PC makers abandon beige. Dell has moved from beige to black for all of its desktop machines. Hewlett-Packard had shifted to shades of gray by 1997 and has since settled on silver and dark gray. I.B.M. introduced its first black desktop PC in 1996 and completed its move to black in 2000. Last month Compaq announced that it was converting its consumer desktop PC's from beige, with some color panels, to black-and-silver designs. Next week, Gateway plans to introduce a series of desktop models with a non-beige color scheme. A safe bet: it will be dark gray or black. Beige desktops may be headed for the design dustbin, following the lead of notebook computers years ago, but dark gray and black are the new conformity. It scarcely qualifies as a deep insight that things often look better in black, thinking back at least to Coco Chanel's original little black dress of 1926, if not before. PC designers say that as black attire has became more commonplace beyond New York and Los Angeles, it has made black acceptable for mainstream PC's. Until recently, the designers say, market research had shown that many people regarded black as polarizing and extreme. Black is certainly an improvement over beige. Perhaps the shift is just the caboose in a trend of computers' following fashion. "The death of the beige box is really the tip of the iceberg," said Paul Saffo, a director at the Institute for the Future in Menlo Park, Calif., and a student of computer design. "Computers of all kinds -- desktops, notebooks, hand-helds, MP3 players and cellphones -- are embedding themselves deeper and deeper into our lives, and one of the things they have to do is dress better." Manufacturers have come to realize that given the relentless pressure on PC prices, color and design might be a way to get noticed in a tough market. Besides, ignoring appearances could spell trouble when a rival has decided that design matters. Sony entered the PC business with a consumer electronics mindset, adopting a purple-and-gray palette for its Vaio models. But the real innovator in computer design and the use of color has been Apple since Steven P. Jobs returned to the company in 1997. First came the one-piece iMac, introduced in 1998 in a translucent blue and white and released later in a selection of fruit colors. The rest of the industry derided the iMacs as "Life-Savers," but then several companies ineptly tried to echo Apple's design, mostly by slapping colored panels onto conventional desktop machines.

The Beige Box Fades to Black By STEVE LOHR A silver strut connects the iMac's flat panel screen to a white dome base, top left. The Vaio notebook from Sony, top right, has palette of purple and gray. Hewlett-Packard's 700 series desktop is silver and dark grey. Compaq's EVO D500 desktop PC, left, in black and silver. The Net-Vista X41 from I.B.M., right: Big blue switch to basic black. HE beige-box personal computer, the drab diehard of modern industrial design, became a visual standard without a lot of deep thought in 1981, when I.B.M. introduced its PC. It was functional, neutral, almost non-design, says Lee Green, the company's current director of design. Yet beige box it was, and bland proliferated for two decades, long after "it was obvious they were beyond boring," Mr. Green said. Even earlier, the Apple II in 1977 was mostly beige, and the first cuddly Macintosh in 1984 was beige, though it was no conventional box. Irrefutably, however, it was I.B.M. that brought the personal computer into the mainstream, and the industry -- except for Apple -- followed its lead in industrial design, or the lack of it. The companies that rose in I.B.M.'s wake -- Compaq, Dell, Gateway and others -- were aptly termed clones. But now the beige-box desktop PC seems headed toward extinction at last. The changeover has evolved gradually, along with the ways people think about their computers, but the pace is quickening as more and more PC makers abandon beige. Dell has moved from beige to black for all of its desktop machines. Hewlett-Packard had shifted to shades of gray by 1997 and has since settled on silver and dark gray. I.B.M. introduced its first black desktop PC in 1996 and completed its move to black in 2000. Last month Compaq announced that it was converting its consumer desktop PC's from beige, with some color panels, to black-and-silver designs. Next week, Gateway plans to introduce a series of desktop models with a non-beige color scheme. A safe bet: it will be dark gray or black. Beige desktops may be headed for the design dustbin, following the lead of notebook computers years ago, but dark gray and black are the new conformity. It scarcely qualifies as a deep insight that things often look better in black, thinking back at least to Coco Chanel's original little black dress of 1926, if not before. PC designers say that as black attire has became more commonplace beyond New York and Los Angeles, it has made black acceptable for mainstream PC's. Until recently, the designers say, market research had shown that many people regarded black as polarizing and extreme. Black is certainly an improvement over beige. Perhaps the shift is just the caboose in a trend of computers' following fashion. "The death of the beige box is really the tip of the iceberg," said Paul Saffo, a director at the Institute for the Future in Menlo Park, Calif., and a student of computer design. "Computers of all kinds -- desktops, notebooks, hand-helds, MP3 players and cellphones -- are embedding themselves deeper and deeper into our lives, and one of the things they have to do is dress better." Manufacturers have come to realize that given the relentless pressure on PC prices, color and design might be a way to get noticed in a tough market. Besides, ignoring appearances could spell trouble when a rival has decided that design matters. Sony entered the PC business with a consumer electronics mindset, adopting a purple-and-gray palette for its Vaio models. But the real innovator in computer design and the use of color has been Apple since Steven P. Jobs returned to the company in 1997. First came the one-piece iMac, introduced in 1998 in a translucent blue and white and released later in a selection of fruit colors. The rest of the industry derided the iMacs as "Life-Savers," but then several companies ineptly tried to echo Apple's design, mostly by slapping colored panels onto conventional desktop machines.

All these stories have been posted before!

The article does state slashback which does trigger my mind to believe that, yes genius it has been posted before, and we don't need you to tell us this.

The article also mentions the word update which, if you read this link you will see that it is implied that this is not new information!

Are you guys actually paying for this stuff?

Don't even go down the whole paying/subscriptions on /. that's a whole other story that has been commented on by all of us already...

Nowhere in the Constitution of the United States of America or the various ammendments does it state that Privacy is a guaranteed right. However, the Second Ammendment to the United States Constitution as specified in the Bill Of Rights states that the right to bear arms will not be infringed upon.

If you were truely concerned about "rights," you would be just as insulted by "gun control" legislation that denies honest citizens their rights under Ammendment II. Instead, you guys are up in arms simply because you're afraid that the Government is going to stop your MP3 downloads and cut off your access to piracy sites.

Hypocrisy - You all profess to be above all others and support people's rights... unless you don't like those rights. To hell with the fact that they're guaranteed...

After all, some rights are more equal than others.

Please don't use "whom" as the subject of a verb. "Whom" is an objective pronoun, not a nominative pronoun. Use "who" as the subject. It is a nominative pronoun. Plese see this faq entry on dictionary.com.

The definition of alternative medicine. = "A variety of therapeutic or preventive health care practices, such as homeopathy, naturopathy, chiropractic, and herbal medicine, that do not follow generally accepted medical methods and may not have a scientific explanation for their effectiveness."

Let's not forget the other definition: "the practice of medicine without the use of drugs; may involve self-awareness [syn: complementary medicine]"

Notice the part about "variety of therapeutic or preventive health care practices" kind of lump-sums all spiritual and well-being folks in with that. Everyone who believes in miracles and prayer-healing falls under that umbrella. Nearly everyone who believes that we have a soul also believes that the soul can be sick just like the body can. In addition to all of that, don't forget that non-physical sicknesses such as depression and stress can be linked to physical ailments.

For example migranes, Parkinsion's Disease and even Immune System problems can occur.

emigrate Pronunciation Key (m-grt)
intr.v. emigrated, emigrating, emigrates

To leave one country or region to settle in another.

Immigrate means to move _into_ a country.
Emigrate is the opposite.

Every immigrant emigrated from somewhere.

http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=emigrate

I wouldn't make comments on spelling, IIWY.

I went to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and I've never heard of Ann Arbor University.

Since you went to a public university, we'll excuse you for not having caught

Mel Thusian ~ malthusian

Last weekend I got an invite to come to London for a game or 50 of Unreal Tournament 2003. Mark Rein sent me a mail sunday, saying I could come by monday for the test. Not only did I break a toe last week, but it woulda been impossible for me to go with such short notice anyway, so I did the second best thing. I decided to ask an english guy if he wanted the job. Luckily eVOLVE was at hand in our chatroom (#unreality on EnterTheGame), and he was more than happy to have a go at the game. (Lucky bastid) I sent him off with orders to wear something sassy, plus wink a lot to Jay Wilbur and Mark Rein, oh, and to get a lot of info. This is what he delivered to me earlier today: (Mark Rein promised us he would send along a shot or two from the game, and we will be posting them as soon as they arrive) Unreal Tournament 2003 - Hands-on Preview I never really enjoyed the previous Unreal games... Well actually I did, but I felt that Unreal Tournament 2003 is so shockingly great that you needed a smaller shock to soften the blow. Yes, that's true, on behalf of Unreality I was invited to a private room in a cybercafe somewhere near London to view and play UT2003. And you better believe it was worth it. For those of you who don't already know, UT2003 is the next planned release in the Unreal game series, intended as a kind of sequel to Unreal Tournament, and providing the multiplayer aspect to the series. Where UT had 5 player models to choose from out of the box, UT2003 will have almost ten times as many. Where UT had a pretty liberal poly limit, UT2003 has on average 100 times as high a limit. How is this possible using what is basically an enhanced version of the engine? Well, we'll get onto that later... Lets start with what really matters, the gameplay. Gameplay As far as playing the game, it hasn't changed much from Unreal Tournament, the style of play will not surprise most UT players, but it has been tweaked, enhanced and generally evened out. The movement speed does seem lower than people are used to in UT, although once in the middle of a firefight, the speed of everything was spot on. Other more obvious changes include a double jump feature, whereby if you jump while you are in mid jump, you will gain an extra foot or so of clearance, and some new/tweaked game modes. Yes, Instagib will be back as well as DM, Team DM and CTF, and a variation of the Domination gametype from UT called 'Double Domination', where there are just two control points, and your team only scores points while you control both of them. A variation of CTF was created quite by accident where the flag colours were placed in the wrong bases, i.e. the red team's flag starts where the blue team spawns and vice versa... This means that you can immediately grab the opponent's flag, but to capture, you need to break into the very heart of the enemy base, while your team reclaims your own flag. It makes capture a lot more challenging, although the flow of gameplay is much faster, with returns, captures and players grabbing the flags happening every few seconds. It is currently undecided if this lucky accident will simply be an alternative map style to the regular CTF maps or if it is too close to the only completely new gametype (so far), Bombing Run. The premise of Bombing Run is quite simple, to be honest... Pick up a bomb and get it into your enemy's base. The version I played still needed some tweaking as the ball wasn't visible enough, but the general workings of the gametype were working superbly. You pick up the bomb, or 'ball' as it is normally referred to in the centre of the map, although when in possession of the ball, you cannot fire or defend yourself in any way, leaving the only evasive control you are left with, i.e. Parent Share twitter facebook linkedin

Last weekend I got an invite to come to London for a game or 50 of Unreal Tournament 2003. Mark Rein sent me a mail sunday, saying I could come by monday for the test. Not only did I break a toe last week, but it woulda been impossible for me to go with such short notice anyway, so I did the second best thing. I decided to ask an english guy if he wanted the job. Luckily eVOLVE was at hand in our chatroom (#unreality on EnterTheGame), and he was more than happy to have a go at the game. (Lucky bastid) I sent him off with orders to wear something sassy, plus wink a lot to Jay Wilbur and Mark Rein, oh, and to get a lot of info. This is what he delivered to me earlier today: (Mark Rein promised us he would send along a shot or two from the game, and we will be posting them as soon as they arrive) Unreal Tournament 2003 - Hands-on Preview I never really enjoyed the previous Unreal games... Well actually I did, but I felt that Unreal Tournament 2003 is so shockingly great that you needed a smaller shock to soften the blow. Yes, that's true, on behalf of Unreality I was invited to a private room in a cybercafe somewhere near London to view and play UT2003. And you better believe it was worth it. For those of you who don't already know, UT2003 is the next planned release in the Unreal game series, intended as a kind of sequel to Unreal Tournament, and providing the multiplayer aspect to the series. Where UT had 5 player models to choose from out of the box, UT2003 will have almost ten times as many. Where UT had a pretty liberal poly limit, UT2003 has on average 100 times as high a limit. How is this possible using what is basically an enhanced version of the engine? Well, we'll get onto that later... Lets start with what really matters, the gameplay. Gameplay As far as playing the game, it hasn't changed much from Unreal Tournament, the style of play will not surprise most UT players, but it has been tweaked, enhanced and generally evened out. The movement speed does seem lower than people are used to in UT, although once in the middle of a firefight, the speed of everything was spot on. Other more obvious changes include a double jump feature, whereby if you jump while you are in mid jump, you will gain an extra foot or so of clearance, and some new/tweaked game modes. Yes, Instagib will be back as well as DM, Team DM and CTF, and a variation of the Domination gametype from UT called 'Double Domination', where there are just two control points, and your team only scores points while you control both of them. A variation of CTF was created quite by accident where the flag colours were placed in the wrong bases, i.e. the red team's flag starts where the blue team spawns and vice versa... This means that you can immediately grab the opponent's flag, but to capture, you need to break into the very heart of the enemy base, while your team reclaims your own flag. It makes capture a lot more challenging, although the flow of gameplay is much faster, with returns, captures and players grabbing the flags happening every few seconds. It is currently undecided if this lucky accident will simply be an alternative map style to the regular CTF maps or if it is too close to the only completely new gametype (so far), Bombing Run. The premise of Bombing Run is quite simple, to be honest... Pick up a bomb and get it into your enemy's base. The version I played still needed some tweaking as the ball wasn't visible enough, but the general workings of the gametype were working superbly. You pick up the bomb, or 'ball' as it is normally referred to in the centre of the map, although when in possession of the ball, you cannot fire or defend yourself in any way, leaving the only evasive control you are left with, i.e. Parent Share twitter facebook linkedin

Last weekend I got an invite to come to London for a game or 50 of Unreal Tournament 2003. Mark Rein sent me a mail sunday, saying I could come by monday for the test. Not only did I break a toe last week, but it woulda been impossible for me to go with such short notice anyway, so I did the second best thing. I decided to ask an english guy if he wanted the job. Luckily eVOLVE was at hand in our chatroom (#unreality on EnterTheGame), and he was more than happy to have a go at the game. (Lucky bastid) I sent him off with orders to wear something sassy, plus wink a lot to Jay Wilbur and Mark Rein, oh, and to get a lot of info. This is what he delivered to me earlier today: (Mark Rein promised us he would send along a shot or two from the game, and we will be posting them as soon as they arrive) Unreal Tournament 2003 - Hands-on Preview I never really enjoyed the previous Unreal games... Well actually I did, but I felt that Unreal Tournament 2003 is so shockingly great that you needed a smaller shock to soften the blow. Yes, that's true, on behalf of Unreality I was invited to a private room in a cybercafe somewhere near London to view and play UT2003. And you better believe it was worth it. For those of you who don't already know, UT2003 is the next planned release in the Unreal game series, intended as a kind of sequel to Unreal Tournament, and providing the multiplayer aspect to the series. Where UT had 5 player models to choose from out of the box, UT2003 will have almost ten times as many. Where UT had a pretty liberal poly limit, UT2003 has on average 100 times as high a limit. How is this possible using what is basically an enhanced version of the engine? Well, we'll get onto that later... Lets start with what really matters, the gameplay. Gameplay As far as playing the game, it hasn't changed much from Unreal Tournament, the style of play will not surprise most UT players, but it has been tweaked, enhanced and generally evened out. The movement speed does seem lower than people are used to in UT, although once in the middle of a firefight, the speed of everything was spot on. Other more obvious changes include a double jump feature, whereby if you jump while you are in mid jump, you will gain an extra foot or so of clearance, and some new/tweaked game modes. Yes, Instagib will be back as well as DM, Team DM and CTF, and a variation of the Domination gametype from UT called 'Double Domination', where there are just two control points, and your team only scores points while you control both of them. A variation of CTF was created quite by accident where the flag colours were placed in the wrong bases, i.e. the red team's flag starts where the blue team spawns and vice versa... This means that you can immediately grab the opponent's flag, but to capture, you need to break into the very heart of the enemy base, while your team reclaims your own flag. It makes capture a lot more challenging, although the flow of gameplay is much faster, with returns, captures and players grabbing the flags happening every few seconds. It is currently undecided if this lucky accident will simply be an alternative map style to the regular CTF maps or if it is too close to the only completely new gametype (so far), Bombing Run. The premise of Bombing Run is quite simple, to be honest... Pick up a bomb and get it into your enemy's base. The version I played still needed some tweaking as the ball wasn't visible enough, but the general workings of the gametype were working superbly. You pick up the bomb, or 'ball' as it is normally referred to in the centre of the map, although when in possession of the ball, you cannot fire or defend yourself in any way, leaving the only evasive control you are left with, i.e. Parent Share twitter facebook linkedin

Last weekend I got an invite to come to London for a game or 50 of Unreal Tournament 2003. Mark Rein sent me a mail sunday, saying I could come by monday for the test. Not only did I break a toe last week, but it woulda been impossible for me to go with such short notice anyway, so I did the second best thing. I decided to ask an english guy if he wanted the job. Luckily eVOLVE was at hand in our chatroom (#unreality on EnterTheGame), and he was more than happy to have a go at the game. (Lucky bastid) I sent him off with orders to wear something sassy, plus wink a lot to Jay Wilbur and Mark Rein, oh, and to get a lot of info. This is what he delivered to me earlier today: (Mark Rein promised us he would send along a shot or two from the game, and we will be posting them as soon as they arrive) Unreal Tournament 2003 - Hands-on Preview I never really enjoyed the previous Unreal games... Well actually I did, but I felt that Unreal Tournament 2003 is so shockingly great that you needed a smaller shock to soften the blow. Yes, that's true, on behalf of Unreality I was invited to a private room in a cybercafe somewhere near London to view and play UT2003. And you better believe it was worth it. For those of you who don't already know, UT2003 is the next planned release in the Unreal game series, intended as a kind of sequel to Unreal Tournament, and providing the multiplayer aspect to the series. Where UT had 5 player models to choose from out of the box, UT2003 will have almost ten times as many. Where UT had a pretty liberal poly limit, UT2003 has on average 100 times as high a limit. How is this possible using what is basically an enhanced version of the engine? Well, we'll get onto that later... Lets start with what really matters, the gameplay. Gameplay As far as playing the game, it hasn't changed much from Unreal Tournament, the style of play will not surprise most UT players, but it has been tweaked, enhanced and generally evened out. The movement speed does seem lower than people are used to in UT, although once in the middle of a firefight, the speed of everything was spot on. Other more obvious changes include a double jump feature, whereby if you jump while you are in mid jump, you will gain an extra foot or so of clearance, and some new/tweaked game modes. Yes, Instagib will be back as well as DM, Team DM and CTF, and a variation of the Domination gametype from UT called 'Double Domination', where there are just two control points, and your team only scores points while you control both of them. A variation of CTF was created quite by accident where the flag colours were placed in the wrong bases, i.e. the red team's flag starts where the blue team spawns and vice versa... This means that you can immediately grab the opponent's flag, but to capture, you need to break into the very heart of the enemy base, while your team reclaims your own flag. It makes capture a lot more challenging, although the flow of gameplay is much faster, with returns, captures and players grabbing the flags happening every few seconds. It is currently undecided if this lucky accident will simply be an alternative map style to the regular CTF maps or if it is too close to the only completely new gametype (so far), Bombing Run. The premise of Bombing Run is quite simple, to be honest... Pick up a bomb and get it into your enemy's base. The version I played still needed some tweaking as the ball wasn't visible enough, but the general workings of the gametype were working superbly. You pick up the bomb, or 'ball' as it is normally referred to in the centre of the map, although when in possession of the ball, you cannot fire or defend yourself in any way, leaving the only evasive control you are left with, i.e. Parent Share twitter facebook linkedin

Last weekend I got an invite to come to London for a game or 50 of Unreal Tournament 2003. Mark Rein sent me a mail sunday, saying I could come by monday for the test. Not only did I break a toe last week, but it woulda been impossible for me to go with such short notice anyway, so I did the second best thing. I decided to ask an english guy if he wanted the job. Luckily eVOLVE was at hand in our chatroom (#unreality on EnterTheGame), and he was more than happy to have a go at the game. (Lucky bastid) I sent him off with orders to wear something sassy, plus wink a lot to Jay Wilbur and Mark Rein, oh, and to get a lot of info. This is what he delivered to me earlier today: (Mark Rein promised us he would send along a shot or two from the game, and we will be posting them as soon as they arrive) Unreal Tournament 2003 - Hands-on Preview I never really enjoyed the previous Unreal games... Well actually I did, but I felt that Unreal Tournament 2003 is so shockingly great that you needed a smaller shock to soften the blow. Yes, that's true, on behalf of Unreality I was invited to a private room in a cybercafe somewhere near London to view and play UT2003. And you better believe it was worth it. For those of you who don't already know, UT2003 is the next planned release in the Unreal game series, intended as a kind of sequel to Unreal Tournament, and providing the multiplayer aspect to the series. Where UT had 5 player models to choose from out of the box, UT2003 will have almost ten times as many. Where UT had a pretty liberal poly limit, UT2003 has on average 100 times as high a limit. How is this possible using what is basically an enhanced version of the engine? Well, we'll get onto that later... Lets start with what really matters, the gameplay. Gameplay As far as playing the game, it hasn't changed much from Unreal Tournament, the style of play will not surprise most UT players, but it has been tweaked, enhanced and generally evened out. The movement speed does seem lower than people are used to in UT, although once in the middle of a firefight, the speed of everything was spot on. Other more obvious changes include a double jump feature, whereby if you jump while you are in mid jump, you will gain an extra foot or so of clearance, and some new/tweaked game modes. Yes, Instagib will be back as well as DM, Team DM and CTF, and a variation of the Domination gametype from UT called 'Double Domination', where there are just two control points, and your team only scores points while you control both of them. A variation of CTF was created quite by accident where the flag colours were placed in the wrong bases, i.e. the red team's flag starts where the blue team spawns and vice versa... This means that you can immediately grab the opponent's flag, but to capture, you need to break into the very heart of the enemy base, while your team reclaims your own flag. It makes capture a lot more challenging, although the flow of gameplay is much faster, with returns, captures and players grabbing the flags happening every few seconds. It is currently undecided if this lucky accident will simply be an alternative map style to the regular CTF maps or if it is too close to the only completely new gametype (so far), Bombing Run. The premise of Bombing Run is quite simple, to be honest... Pick up a bomb and get it into your enemy's base. The version I played still needed some tweaking as the ball wasn't visible enough, but the general workings of the gametype were working superbly. You pick up the bomb, or 'ball' as it is normally referred to in the centre of the map, although when in possession of the ball, you cannot fire or defend yourself in any way, leaving the only evasive control you are left with, i.e. Parent Share twitter facebook linkedin

Last weekend I got an invite to come to London for a game or 50 of Unreal Tournament 2003. Mark Rein sent me a mail sunday, saying I could come by monday for the test. Not only did I break a toe last week, but it woulda been impossible for me to go with such short notice anyway, so I did the second best thing. I decided to ask an english guy if he wanted the job. Luckily eVOLVE was at hand in our chatroom (#unreality on EnterTheGame), and he was more than happy to have a go at the game. (Lucky bastid) I sent him off with orders to wear something sassy, plus wink a lot to Jay Wilbur and Mark Rein, oh, and to get a lot of info. This is what he delivered to me earlier today: (Mark Rein promised us he would send along a shot or two from the game, and we will be posting them as soon as they arrive) Unreal Tournament 2003 - Hands-on Preview I never really enjoyed the previous Unreal games... Well actually I did, but I felt that Unreal Tournament 2003 is so shockingly great that you needed a smaller shock to soften the blow. Yes, that's true, on behalf of Unreality I was invited to a private room in a cybercafe somewhere near London to view and play UT2003. And you better believe it was worth it. For those of you who don't already know, UT2003 is the next planned release in the Unreal game series, intended as a kind of sequel to Unreal Tournament, and providing the multiplayer aspect to the series. Where UT had 5 player models to choose from out of the box, UT2003 will have almost ten times as many. Where UT had a pretty liberal poly limit, UT2003 has on average 100 times as high a limit. How is this possible using what is basically an enhanced version of the engine? Well, we'll get onto that later... Lets start with what really matters, the gameplay. Gameplay As far as playing the game, it hasn't changed much from Unreal Tournament, the style of play will not surprise most UT players, but it has been tweaked, enhanced and generally evened out. The movement speed does seem lower than people are used to in UT, although once in the middle of a firefight, the speed of everything was spot on. Other more obvious changes include a double jump feature, whereby if you jump while you are in mid jump, you will gain an extra foot or so of clearance, and some new/tweaked game modes. Yes, Instagib will be back as well as DM, Team DM and CTF, and a variation of the Domination gametype from UT called 'Double Domination', where there are just two control points, and your team only scores points while you control both of them. A variation of CTF was created quite by accident where the flag colours were placed in the wrong bases, i.e. the red team's flag starts where the blue team spawns and vice versa... This means that you can immediately grab the opponent's flag, but to capture, you need to break into the very heart of the enemy base, while your team reclaims your own flag. It makes capture a lot more challenging, although the flow of gameplay is much faster, with returns, captures and players grabbing the flags happening every few seconds. It is currently undecided if this lucky accident will simply be an alternative map style to the regular CTF maps or if it is too close to the only completely new gametype (so far), Bombing Run. The premise of Bombing Run is quite simple, to be honest... Pick up a bomb and get it into your enemy's base. The version I played still needed some tweaking as the ball wasn't visible enough, but the general workings of the gametype were working superbly. You pick up the bomb, or 'ball' as it is normally referred to in the centre of the map, although when in possession of the ball, you cannot fire or defend yourself in any way, leaving the only evasive control you are left with, i.e. Parent Share twitter facebook linkedin

Last weekend I got an invite to come to London for a game or 50 of Unreal Tournament 2003. Mark Rein sent me a mail sunday, saying I could come by monday for the test. Not only did I break a toe last week, but it woulda been impossible for me to go with such short notice anyway, so I did the second best thing. I decided to ask an english guy if he wanted the job. Luckily eVOLVE was at hand in our chatroom (#unreality on EnterTheGame), and he was more than happy to have a go at the game. (Lucky bastid) I sent him off with orders to wear something sassy, plus wink a lot to Jay Wilbur and Mark Rein, oh, and to get a lot of info. This is what he delivered to me earlier today: (Mark Rein promised us he would send along a shot or two from the game, and we will be posting them as soon as they arrive) Unreal Tournament 2003 - Hands-on Preview I never really enjoyed the previous Unreal games... Well actually I did, but I felt that Unreal Tournament 2003 is so shockingly great that you needed a smaller shock to soften the blow. Yes, that's true, on behalf of Unreality I was invited to a private room in a cybercafe somewhere near London to view and play UT2003. And you better believe it was worth it. For those of you who don't already know, UT2003 is the next planned release in the Unreal game series, intended as a kind of sequel to Unreal Tournament, and providing the multiplayer aspect to the series. Where UT had 5 player models to choose from out of the box, UT2003 will have almost ten times as many. Where UT had a pretty liberal poly limit, UT2003 has on average 100 times as high a limit. How is this possible using what is basically an enhanced version of the engine? Well, we'll get onto that later... Lets start with what really matters, the gameplay. Gameplay As far as playing the game, it hasn't changed much from Unreal Tournament, the style of play will not surprise most UT players, but it has been tweaked, enhanced and generally evened out. The movement speed does seem lower than people are used to in UT, although once in the middle of a firefight, the speed of everything was spot on. Other more obvious changes include a double jump feature, whereby if you jump while you are in mid jump, you will gain an extra foot or so of clearance, and some new/tweaked game modes. Yes, Instagib will be back as well as DM, Team DM and CTF, and a variation of the Domination gametype from UT called 'Double Domination', where there are just two control points, and your team only scores points while you control both of them. A variation of CTF was created quite by accident where the flag colours were placed in the wrong bases, i.e. the red team's flag starts where the blue team spawns and vice versa... This means that you can immediately grab the opponent's flag, but to capture, you need to break into the very heart of the enemy base, while your team reclaims your own flag. It makes capture a lot more challenging, although the flow of gameplay is much faster, with returns, captures and players grabbing the flags happening every few seconds. It is currently undecided if this lucky accident will simply be an alternative map style to the regular CTF maps or if it is too close to the only completely new gametype (so far), Bombing Run. The premise of Bombing Run is quite simple, to be honest... Pick up a bomb and get it into your enemy's base. The version I played still needed some tweaking as the ball wasn't visible enough, but the general workings of the gametype were working superbly. You pick up the bomb, or 'ball' as it is normally referred to in the centre of the map, although when in possession of the ball, you cannot fire or defend yourself in any way, leaving the only evasive control you are left with, i.e. Parent Share twitter facebook linkedin

Last weekend I got an invite to come to London for a game or 50 of Unreal Tournament 2003. Mark Rein sent me a mail sunday, saying I could come by monday for the test. Not only did I break a toe last week, but it woulda been impossible for me to go with such short notice anyway, so I did the second best thing. I decided to ask an english guy if he wanted the job. Luckily eVOLVE was at hand in our chatroom (#unreality on EnterTheGame), and he was more than happy to have a go at the game. (Lucky bastid) I sent him off with orders to wear something sassy, plus wink a lot to Jay Wilbur and Mark Rein, oh, and to get a lot of info. This is what he delivered to me earlier today: (Mark Rein promised us he would send along a shot or two from the game, and we will be posting them as soon as they arrive) Unreal Tournament 2003 - Hands-on Preview I never really enjoyed the previous Unreal games... Well actually I did, but I felt that Unreal Tournament 2003 is so shockingly great that you needed a smaller shock to soften the blow. Yes, that's true, on behalf of Unreality I was invited to a private room in a cybercafe somewhere near London to view and play UT2003. And you better believe it was worth it. For those of you who don't already know, UT2003 is the next planned release in the Unreal game series, intended as a kind of sequel to Unreal Tournament, and providing the multiplayer aspect to the series. Where UT had 5 player models to choose from out of the box, UT2003 will have almost ten times as many. Where UT had a pretty liberal poly limit, UT2003 has on average 100 times as high a limit. How is this possible using what is basically an enhanced version of the engine? Well, we'll get onto that later... Lets start with what really matters, the gameplay. Gameplay As far as playing the game, it hasn't changed much from Unreal Tournament, the style of play will not surprise most UT players, but it has been tweaked, enhanced and generally evened out. The movement speed does seem lower than people are used to in UT, although once in the middle of a firefight, the speed of everything was spot on. Other more obvious changes include a double jump feature, whereby if you jump while you are in mid jump, you will gain an extra foot or so of clearance, and some new/tweaked game modes. Yes, Instagib will be back as well as DM, Team DM and CTF, and a variation of the Domination gametype from UT called 'Double Domination', where there are just two control points, and your team only scores points while you control both of them. A variation of CTF was created quite by accident where the flag colours were placed in the wrong bases, i.e. the red team's flag starts where the blue team spawns and vice versa... This means that you can immediately grab the opponent's flag, but to capture, you need to break into the very heart of the enemy base, while your team reclaims your own flag. It makes capture a lot more challenging, although the flow of gameplay is much faster, with returns, captures and players grabbing the flags happening every few seconds. It is currently undecided if this lucky accident will simply be an alternative map style to the regular CTF maps or if it is too close to the only completely new gametype (so far), Bombing Run. The premise of Bombing Run is quite simple, to be honest... Pick up a bomb and get it into your enemy's base. The version I played still needed some tweaking as the ball wasn't visible enough, but the general workings of the gametype were working superbly. You pick up the bomb, or 'ball' as it is normally referred to in the centre of the map, although when in possession of the ball, you cannot fire or defend yourself in any way, leaving the only evasive control you are left with, i.e. Parent Share twitter facebook linkedin

Last weekend I got an invite to come to London for a game or 50 of Unreal Tournament 2003. Mark Rein sent me a mail sunday, saying I could come by monday for the test. Not only did I break a toe last week, but it woulda been impossible for me to go with such short notice anyway, so I did the second best thing. I decided to ask an english guy if he wanted the job. Luckily eVOLVE was at hand in our chatroom (#unreality on EnterTheGame), and he was more than happy to have a go at the game. (Lucky bastid) I sent him off with orders to wear something sassy, plus wink a lot to Jay Wilbur and Mark Rein, oh, and to get a lot of info. This is what he delivered to me earlier today: (Mark Rein promised us he would send along a shot or two from the game, and we will be posting them as soon as they arrive) Unreal Tournament 2003 - Hands-on Preview I never really enjoyed the previous Unreal games... Well actually I did, but I felt that Unreal Tournament 2003 is so shockingly great that you needed a smaller shock to soften the blow. Yes, that's true, on behalf of Unreality I was invited to a private room in a cybercafe somewhere near London to view and play UT2003. And you better believe it was worth it. For those of you who don't already know, UT2003 is the next planned release in the Unreal game series, intended as a kind of sequel to Unreal Tournament, and providing the multiplayer aspect to the series. Where UT had 5 player models to choose from out of the box, UT2003 will have almost ten times as many. Where UT had a pretty liberal poly limit, UT2003 has on average 100 times as high a limit. How is this possible using what is basically an enhanced version of the engine? Well, we'll get onto that later... Lets start with what really matters, the gameplay. Gameplay As far as playing the game, it hasn't changed much from Unreal Tournament, the style of play will not surprise most UT players, but it has been tweaked, enhanced and generally evened out. The movement speed does seem lower than people are used to in UT, although once in the middle of a firefight, the speed of everything was spot on. Other more obvious changes include a double jump feature, whereby if you jump while you are in mid jump, you will gain an extra foot or so of clearance, and some new/tweaked game modes. Yes, Instagib will be back as well as DM, Team DM and CTF, and a variation of the Domination gametype from UT called 'Double Domination', where there are just two control points, and your team only scores points while you control both of them. A variation of CTF was created quite by accident where the flag colours were placed in the wrong bases, i.e. the red team's flag starts where the blue team spawns and vice versa... This means that you can immediately grab the opponent's flag, but to capture, you need to break into the very heart of the enemy base, while your team reclaims your own flag. It makes capture a lot more challenging, although the flow of gameplay is much faster, with returns, captures and players grabbing the flags happening every few seconds. It is currently undecided if this lucky accident will simply be an alternative map style to the regular CTF maps or if it is too close to the only completely new gametype (so far), Bombing Run. The premise of Bombing Run is quite simple, to be honest... Pick up a bomb and get it into your enemy's base. The version I played still needed some tweaking as the ball wasn't visible enough, but the general workings of the gametype were working superbly. You pick up the bomb, or 'ball' as it is normally referred to in the centre of the map, although when in possession of the ball, you cannot fire or defend yourself in any way, leaving the only evasive control you are left with, i.e. Parent Share twitter facebook linkedin