Unreal Tournament 3: Black Edition

Well, I think we've all played a team deathmatch in our years of gaming, but for those not in the know it's two teams of equal sizes (where possible - some campaign levels are purposefully weighted) pitted against each other in a race to be the first team to amass a collective kill count of 40/50/whatever the score limit happens to be.

The only real annoyance that you may come across in this game mode, is the quality of your team's AI. Granted this is a very difficult area of computing and most games suffer from a poor AI when it comes to your NPC pals, but that doesn't stop it from being annoying!

Pretty much all of the available maps are well suited to this game type - there are of course the odd annoyances but we can't expect everything to be perfectly easy!

Another very standard game type, we can't expect an FPS without this game type now can we! This is an all out free-for-all wherein if you see someone, you kill them. In doing so, you will get closer to the target kills and (hopefully) win the round. Expect temporary groupings if players are doing exceedingly well - they'll spot your character style and prioritise you... not fair gameplay and ruins your KDR, but kinda helps keep things even sometimes.

The only real map related annoyances with this game type is when you're on a large map with out a full group. Sparse players means running around for ages not seeing anyone, which can make you lose your edge and fall victim to silly mistakes.

UT3 capture the flag is exciting, frustrating, hilarious and depressing on so many levels for so many reasons. It's a hell of a ride! Take into account though that this is my take on this game mode having only played it with the majority of players being NPCs (a gaming nerd without friends, how rare!). I love being able to translocate around the maps, which is awesome for catching up to an enemy player with your flag, but if you accidentally use it while you're running back to base with the enemy's flag, you'll be one sad panda - when translocating, your flag stays where it is allowing any pursuers to run up to it and return it to their base, so be careful with teh teleportz!

In case you're unaware of the mechanics of the game, you run from your base to the enemy's, grab their flag, then run back to your base to stand on your flag to perform the 'capture'. Note that this is only possible if your flag is still at your base and hasn't been taken by the enemy team. Games get very interesting and stressful when both flags are 'in transit'.

Vehicle capture the flag in UT3 is, funnily enough, very similar to normal capture the flag, but with vehicles - who'd have thought!? They take place on larger maps and instead of having a translocator for teleporting, the player is given a hoverboard (usable whilst carrying the flag). The main thing to watch out for on this game mode is of course the vehicles, as the carrier cannot enter or use a vehicle directly, other than their hoverboard - you can however, attach yourself to a teammate's vehicle and be towed along for a faster journey.

Whether your being towed or not, you're still a fairly easy target if the enemy team is on the ball - airborne ships with continuous beam weaponry and ground-based tanks with a large area of effect can make bringing the flag back to your base very difficult. It's always wise to plan a route back that has plenty of opportunities for cover.

Well, there's not much to explain here. It's a 1v1 deathmatch. When playing with more players online, you enter a rota with 'winner stays on' rules.

Warfare is a huge, messy and tactical game mode that can be a lot of fun, as well as being extremely stressful and annoying. Team mates that know what they're doing are very important, as being a 1 man show is rarely possible in warfare.

Each map (large) is comprised of numerous nodes. Each team has their main base node which is typically protected by one or more side nodes, which must be taken over by the enemy before the base node is vulnerable to attack. Some nodes will offer vehicles and/or turrets as payment for capturing them - because of this, the direction from which you attack your enemy can make the difference between success and failure. Always be on the lookout for what nodes gives what, as you may want to attack a central neutral node, just to (at least) stop them from using the rewards it offers.

Betrayal is a very interesting game type, that is a hybrid of deathmatch and team deathmatch. As strange as it sounds, the game involves teams of 'freelancers' - all equipped with an insta-gib rifle (instant kill mutation of the shock rifle). When a player kills someone on the opposing team, a point is added to the team's pot, as well as some points going to your own personal score. At any point, a player can use the alt-fire on their rifle (right mouse button) to shoot at their team mates, which will be the 'betrayal' - this makes the player a 'rogue', not belonging to either team. If a player from the team they were previously on can kill them within 30 seconds, they will get retribution gaining bonus points for the team and themselves, so if you become a rogue you'd better be good at dodging! However, if the rogue survives this 30 second period, they get all of the team's pot added to their score, plus bonus points depending on how well the team mate they killed was doing compared to them. They will then eventually be re-assigned to another team - the scoreboard (F1) shows betrayers, with knife/dagger symbols next to their name, so you know who to watch out for!

Another unique and incredibly frustrating game mode, greed pits self control against earning points. If you're too greedy and get caught out, your team could be in for trouble, but stay alive and you might just be a hero.

Greed is a bit of a mash up of TDM and CTF, with an added twist. Two teams battle it out as normal, typically on CTF maps, but when you kill someone they drop 1 skull (plus however many kills they've had without dying). As you go around killing people and collecting their skulls you rack up your own collection - make sure you stay alive though, because if they kill you and get to you before a team mate, they'll grab all of the skulls you've just earned. When you're happy with the amount of skulls you've collected, it gets more interesting - you need to make it into the enemy's base to drop off your skulls and score those points for your team.

It's down to the player and their own style to decide what method is best for them, but you'll need to be careful when collecting large amounts of skulls if you don't have a fellow player ready to pick them up should you die, as letting them fall into the enemy's hands is incredibly frustrating.