Let's see it running first, eh?

Nah i agree game makers are geting too caught up in what they can do with technology anymore, it takes a long ass time for a game to be made anymore and I kinda see new releases with a bit of "yeah ok shiny but is it any fun?" granted the graphics sucked but older games are just more fun it seems and I mean about the NES to maybe mid PS one eras, but then i might be a bit generous...

anyway back on topic ut07 looks great but it also looks like an ass load more work for anyone who wants to make custom models... a far cry from Quake 2 where either talentless or (more likely) lazy people would "realease" a model that was just a friggin box...

yeah i heard that there won't be any Gen Mokai (sp?) or Skaarj probably baseless rumours but it freakin "UNreal tounament" not "potentially posible should science evolve faster tournament".

HAL9000, If I remember correctly ...

Looks pretty, but I still prefer classic UT on the whole.

I think UT2k7 will hinge on:

a) the 'feel' of the movment
b) resolving weapon balance issues from UT2004
c) having good 1st party maps.

UT2004 was good, but it had some problems. The movement felt too "floaty", and while the weapons were far more balanced than prior Unreal games, there were still a handfull of issues which made them 'unfun' to use. Lastly, only 1/3 of the maps were any good to play, and  even those were not as fun as they could have been. If UT2007 corrects all of these things, then it will be awesome.

I agree, the ripper was a fun weapon in UT99. It's too bad they ditched it, instead of re-balancing it to make it less spammy and more usefull.

The minigun is being replaced with the Stinger in UT2k7. Like in UC2, I assume one firemode will be hitscan like the minigun, and the other will probably be some type of projectile. Hopefully, they don't use the lame seeker shards from UC2, but otherwise, I don't see how they will differenciate it from the Link primary fire.

Anyway, the point is, since you're right, the minigun is an overdone concept, the Stinger is sort of like the cool sci-fi/Unreal version of the minigun. I'm hoping it will have atleast some sort of unique features to diffenciate it from a regular ol' machinegun though, besides purple "tarydium" bullets. Maybe the shards can ricochet or explode or something...or the "hitscan" mode can actually just be really fast projectiles (like double flak speed) so you still have to lead a little bit.

I, for one, liked the minigun in UT.. the original one that is. Accurate weapon at a long range.. use secondary fire up close where perfect aim doesn't matter and the gun shoots faster. In 2k3 and 2k4.. I felt the gun was nerfed heavily, but.. oh well.

Then again, I'm one of those people who love belt-fed weapons.. and well, the minigun is perhaps the god of them all. Gimme a sniper weapon in a game and I'll miss with every shot... give me a weapon that can send a literal wall of bullets in a certain direction  and I'll wipe out a whole squadron. ...oddly enough this really doesn't apply in Gen, since I suck major ass with Earth..

Epic has managed to continuously impress me with each new release of the Unreal Tournament series, but I am wary of UT2007.  I think for team-based gameplay, UT2007 will be fantastic, but returning to UT-style DM is a step in the wrong direction.

UT's weapons were interesting in that they were all overpowered, but it strangely worked.  The design of the weapons was (then,) a fresh take on generic weapon concepts and a nice improvement over Unreal's arsenal.

Each game in the series slowly improved and tweaked the arsenal though.  UT2003 brought balance; UT2004 brought new weapons; Unreal Championship 2 brought back old favorites with new ideas and added a melee system.

UT2007 will retain Onslaught so it's probably safe to say the new weapons UT2004 had will stick, but I will be extremely disappointed if Epic goes back to the unbalanced yet balanced gameplay of UT and totally ignores what UC2 brought to the table.  (UC2's deathmatch is the best of the series thus far, hands-down.)

UT's dodge system was a neat concept, but it was hardly different than Unreal's dodging system.  UT just added the ability to move in a certain direction while dodging.  (This lead to tricks such as dodging while moving diagonally to gain a boost of speed.)  I can think of the occasional instance where dodging saved my ass in UT, but it was still relatively useless.

UT2003 expanded upon the dodge system muchly.  Players could now kick off walls and when combined with the double-jump system, one could cover some serious ground and more effectively dodge projectiles.  I can think of several instances where I avoided splash damage from rockets, point blank blobs of goo, and managed to get behind an enemy persuing me thanks to UT2003's dodging system.

UT2004 really didn't change the dodging system that much.  It just toned down a trick known as a "boost dodge," (it's a hard-to-pull-off glitch that allows one to dodge further distances.)  The only other thing UT2004 did was that it featured more levels which took advantage of a glitch/trick known as the "slope dodge,"  (you can dodge up certain inclines.)  Although, UT and UT2003 had their own variants if I am not mistaken.

UC2 damn near perfected the dodging system.  For one, it removed the need to awkwardly double-tap a direction key to dodge.  The dodging system was tied into directional movement and jumps making it much easier for novices and veterans alike to pull off fancy manuevers.  UC2 also had no restraint on wall-dodging.  (You could "climb" walls this way.)  With properly designed levels, UC2's dodging system made combat extremely three dimensional, and it made the standard convention of "kill the other guy before he kills you" a hell of a lot more interesting.

And here's why I'm wary the most...

Epic representatives have repeatedly said that while double-jumps and wall-dodges will be preserved, their roles will be diminished to encourage more on-foot battles.

And here's what I think of that...

Why, oh why, hast thou forsake me?

UT2004's movement system and even UC2's movement system do jack shit unless you have maps designed to take advantage of them.  UT2004's movement system is damn near useless in Onslaught.  (UC2's movement system would be even more so.)  If Epic is shooting for vehicle-based team modes, then more power to them, but I do not understand why deathmatch should get nerfed as a result.  Onslaught played a hell of a lot differently than the rest of the modes in UT2004 and no one seemed to care.  Why, oh why, do I want a stripped-down version of DM that plays just like every other damn DM mode.  If I wanted that, I'd play Halo!

One reason I hated dodging was the higher you pump the bot skill up, the more they "instantly avoid anything and everything thrown at them by dodging magically a split second before the gun fires".  This behavior existed with the Skaarj and Gas Bags in Unreal, and it got carried into UT.  You're reduced to either using undodgeable hitscan weapons, backshooting a distracted enemy, shooting six rockets in a spread at near point blank range in the hope that ONE might wing the bot, or else firing point blank with the Flak Cannon (good luck if the bot has the Pulse Blaster).

That being said, the double-tap is the primary reason I hated dodging because I am CONSTANTLY fast-tapping keys.  I'm a bird.  I'm twitchy like that.  I don't like getting thrown into voids because of a "feature".