Unreal Tournament III, for all the glitz, the shiny graphics and the powerful new engine, is very much a game for Unreal Tournament devotees. An obvious statement, perhaps, but when set against franchises that are pushing into new challenges (Call of Duty 4 offering the prime example), it's a little disappointing to see Unreal Tournament 3 being so pleased with what we know it can already do.

And its talent is to serve up some of the finest multiplayer first-person action on the PC. Unreal Tournament, across the years, has been in some ways a lightweight, fast and frantic shooter, where plot is thrown out of the window in favour of outrageous action. How bizarre, then, to find some strangely irrelevant narrative running through the core of Unreal Tournament 3's single player mode.

It's a beefed up single player mode, certainly (and with a few AI problems among the computer-controlled bots), but the story simply adds tiresome cut-scenes that get in the way of you picking up your guns and heading off shooting.

And, ah! The guns! Some nice tuning has gone on here, which will, on the whole, please hardened players of the series. The flak cannon, for instance, is no longer the all-out powerful creation it once was (although boy, it still has its punch), while the return of the traditional impact hammer is as joyful as you'd hope. The changes to the game's arsenal do take a little getting used to, but you'd be hard pushed to argue with the choices that the developers have made.

The game has also streamlined its modes down slightly, although obviously capture the flag and deathmatch are present, correct and waiting. However, the old 'onslaught' mode has merged into the new 'warfare' (adding orbs to the mix, which need to be taken to enemy control points for you to score), while the bombing run and assault modes are gone altogether. On the plus side, the vehicles in the game have been improved - and the new hoverboard is certainly a favourite of ours - and as a result some of the action is breathtakingly spectacular.

Unreal Tournament III is many things. It's a visually stunning PC game, which played quite happily on our test system that had struggled with Gears of War two weeks earlier. It's also wildly entertaining, a carnival of action that has few genuine rivals when it hits top form. And it's also very much Unreal Tournament, and not afraid to stay close to the formula that's worked so well for so long.

Yet Unreal Tournament III is also a surprisingly tentative sequel that is very wary of biting the hand of the consumers that feed it. It's got the feel of ‘one for the fans', and thus there's little radical about the game itself. It does very much feel like the games that preceded it, even if it looks better. And that is, truthfully, a little disappointing. Because while there's clearly been some astonishing work done on the game engine, it'd be nice to see some more groundbreaking thinking going into the game itself.

As it stands, Unreal Tournament 3 is a sublimely entertaining game, and at times astonishing just to watch. But it is a slightly unambitious sequel, too.

As much fun to play as Unreal Tournament games always are. Given the lengthy development time for Unreal Tournament 3, though, it's a surprise to see a game that sticks quite so closely to the same formula.