It's a been a while for me, work has been dominating most of my free thought so little has been able to go towards anything else here, but after much waiting and some fear, I picked up UTIII a few days ago, and I am in awe.

Epic has made easily the best PSN game available right now, and that's saying something because there have been some very solid online experiences on the system with Resistance, Warhawk and Motorstorm pulling the PSN kicking and screaming. The best thing about the game is the interface for getting online with friends, or just joining up with anyone, it's clear that this game is made by a company with a lot of experience with dealing PC-like servers. Sony needs to sit down and take notes from Epic on this.

The gameplay is solid, the guns are balanced, and the play FEELS like how Unreal should feel. While it is slower paced than it's PC brother, it makes up for it with just how damn good this game plays... Halo eat your heart out... okay, I shall stop using catch phrases from 1985, but even so, this game brings what many have come to love about online shooters on the PC to the console.

The graphics are nothing bad either, while not as outstanding as perhaps Uncharted, or even Gears of War, it doesn't look bad, the environments are atmospheric and well pieced together. The maps are complex enough to give you a place to run, but simple enough to find the fight. Yet again, Epic knows how to make an online game.

I just have to take a moment and again comment how well the network was put together for this game, Epic needs a ******** medal for this.

However, there are a few things that detract from this game, the "campaign mode" (or offline practice as it should be called) is shallow, they make a feeble attempt at establishing characters and a plot, but give you no reason beyond getting armor to really do much with it, which is a shame, I kinda hoped that they would follow the path set by Gears and at least try to put in some sort of a story mode that. But hey, I suddenly sound like I was expecting a story mode. Perhaps I should stop comparing this game to Gears since they really are in different ballparks despite using the same engine.

Another complaint I have is no solid use of the headset, I kinda feel pretentious sitting here with my bluetooth in my ear expecting to use it kinda like I did when I got it for my phone... No one talks on the PSN kinda like how no one calls me. Kinda a sad realization.

While this game is a massive leap in community standards for the PSN, it is in no way like XBL yet for the same reason I just listed. But even so, nothing should stop you from getting this game if you have a PS3.

Overall, I'm impressed that Epic and Midway got this finished before the end of the year, I was a bit worried when it seemed like they were going to be forcing it out incomplete in order to keep Sony happy. The game is a dream come true for us jonesing for a good online game for the PS3.

Final Score: 8 out of 10.