Online play has finally come to the console-playing masses, though I'll admit that I'm just as surprised as you that Microsoft is leading the way. While Sony has taken the safe route established by years of PC online gaming, Microsoft has upped the ante with their comprehensive Xbox Live service. Xbox Live is a fifty-dollar-per-year subscription that allows Xbox owners to play online games with a standard set of features, such as opti-match, statistic tracking and real-time voice communication through the supplied headset. With a broadband connection (narrowband is not supported), online play is quick, easy and relatively lag-free. The service works remarkably well, but its value is only as good as the games that support it.

One of the first online games to support Xbox Live is Unreal Championship, the console version of the wildly popular PC shooter Unreal Tournament 2003. (Or, more correctly, Unreal Tournament 2003 is the PC version of Unreal Championship.) The game is a tournament style first-person shooter that pits the character of your choice in a life-or-death struggle against other XBL players in a variety of game modes. Of course, you can play the single-player game against computer-controlled bots, but the true appeal is playing against real people from around the country. There are the standard multiplayer modes (deathmatch, survival), but Unreal Championship adds a few new ones like Double Domination and Bombing Run that make the game stand out from the rest of the shooter crowd.

Unreal Championship is split into single player (offline) and multiplayer (online or system link) modes. The single player game allows you to draft a team of 5 players and take them through progressively harder battles in the four game types (team deathmatch, capture the flag, double domination and bombing run). There are six character classes in the game and each possesses a unique set of advantages and handicaps. For instance, the Juggernaughts can take massive amounts of punishment but are extremely slow, while the Anubans start out with less health but gain Adrenaline very quickly. In addition, each individual character starts out with their preferred weapon and possesses one of three modifiers for it (damage, firing rate or ammunition). Starting out with a Lightning Gun and being able to fire it faster than everyone else is a big advantage. This could lead to some imbalances in gameplay, but you can turn off the character-specific advantages in your online games.

Once you've drafted your team you can set about fragging to your hearts content. The first game type you'll play through is Team Deathmatch, a straightforward variant of the traditional fragfest. Next up is Capture the Flag, another standard team-based game that has appeared in countless games of this kind. Things get interesting with Double Domination, a variant of the Domination game type from the original Unreal Tournament. Teams fight to control two control points in each arena and can only score points by successfully defending both for ten seconds. The most interesting game type by far is Bombing Run, a variation of American football in which teams attempt to carry or throw a ball into the opponents goal. Carrying the ball in nets you seven points (touchdown!) while shooting it only gets you three. It's a fantastic idea: football with guns!

All of the team-based game types require strategy and team work, which is often difficult to pull off when playing with bots. Each game type is played in its own set of arenas which are specifically designed to maximize the action of the game being played. (Though it would have been nice to play any game type in any arena, just for the hell of it.) Unreal Championship provides a healthy array of options, from control customization to game type modifiers. The sensitivity of the analog sticks can be tweaked to your liking and options like auto-aim can be turned off (thank god!). Additionally, games can be modified with Mutators such as Instagib (one-hit kills) and Competition Mode (character affinities are turned off) to let you play the game the way you want it to be played.

The new game types aren't the only additions to the tried-and-true Unreal formula. The new adrenaline meter increases when players score a kill or collect adrenaline power-ups. When the adrenaline meter reaches 100, players can use one of four special moves by pressing a combination of directions on the analog stick or directional pad. These moves are much easier to execute with a keyboard and often prove troublesome to pull off during a game. Regeneration gives you health until you reach the maximum for that character, agility makes you faster and harder to hit, berserk makes you more powerful and invisibility makes you partially invisible (obviously). These abilities add an extra layer of complexity to the game and provide an extra incentive to play well. Of course, running up against an invisible Nightmare on a killing spree could spell disaster, so you must learn how to defend against these moves as well.

Unreal Championship is a great-looking game and compares quite favorably with its PC counterpart. And it should, considering it shares much of the same character and environment data as Unreal Tournament 2003. Character models are well-designed and well animated, and feature the same excellent ragdoll physics from UT2K3. The environments are large, complex and bursting with detail; it really is a lot of fun to get your frag on in some of these arenas. There's a pretty decent variety too, from open-air jungles and fortresses to tight and winding hi-tech corridors. Unfortunately, the texture detail can't match that of UT2K3, and most of the characters and environments are decked out in smeary, low-resolution artwork. It's not that noticeable during a game however, and I'd rather sacrifice visual detail for performance anyway.

Unreal Championship is also one of the smoothest games to date, with nary a jagged edge to be found anywhere. This turns out to be more of a curse than a blessing, as the full-scene anti-aliasing has a huge impact on the performance of the game engine (discussed below). Even with Dolby Digital 5.1 support, Unreal Championship sounds average at best. The music mainly consists of generic heavy rock tracks that only serve to cover up the more important sound effects (luckily you can turn the music off). All of the various voices sound pretty good, though hearing the same taunts repeatedly can get a little annoying. The most important sounds are the various weapon effects, and fortunately these sound great. Of course, all this noise can impact your ability to hear people over the headset, so it's handy that you can adjust the volume of music and sound effects to your liking.

The single player game mainly serves as a training ground for online multiplayer, enabling you to grow familiar with the various characters and game types. Once you've got your feet wet, it's time to graduate to the fast-fragging, trash-talking world of Xbox Live. Unreal Championship supports all of the standard Live features through a clean and uncluttered interface. You can easily manage your Friends List and see who is currently online or find the best server to join. Game Invites and Friend Requests are handled quite well with little icons that flash on the side of your screen during a match. Games are relatively free of lag when using a broadband connection, though this will vary widely based on each users specific configuration. Performance is much better when you host a game, both in terms of lag and framerate (discussed below).

The best feature of Xbox Live is the communicator headset that allows you to talk with the people you're playing against. This has a profound impact on the enjoyment of the game, as you can compliment your opponents and work out strategies with your teammates like never before. The implementation in Unreal Championship works rather well, though there are a few nagging problems. For starters, you can't mute certain players, a feature that would come in handy when playing against people who insist on using the lame voice masking. The game also limits you to four players per channel, which means you can't talk to everyone at the same time. This isn't so bad normally, but in large team games it's a big drawback to be unable to communicate with all the members of your team. And lastly, there seems to be an audible delay between speaking and having your voice heard by other players, so conversations don't actually happen in real time.

Playing Unreal Championship is a bit of a crapshoot, even after you adjust to the console-style controls. A high, steady framerate is crucial to a fast-paced game like this, and so it comes as quite a disappointment that UC performs so poorly in this area. When standing still the game runs at just about 30fps but quickly drops when the action picks up. In a crowded room it can drop down to less than 10fps, making aiming and tracking all but impossible. Combine this with the occasional lag you get from your Internet connection, and you'll begin to think twice about booting up the game again. Much of the performance hit is due to full-scene anti-aliasing, which is what gives the game its super-smooth, jag-free display. Of course, most players will emphatically choose speed over visual splendor, and I can't imagine why Digital Extremes didn't include an option to disable the anti-aliasing.

Of course, you can disable the anti-aliasing simply by hosting a system link or Xbox Live game, which gives you a 20 to 30 frame-per-second boost in performance. This can make all the difference between winning and losing, and since I started playing on Live I always host my own matches. The visual difference is negligible and the game looks just as great with the anti-aliasing turned off. The game still slows down considerably, but it still remains very playable for the most part. Digital Extremes is planning on releasing a patch in the near future, and one of the proposed features is an anti-aliasing toggle. Let's hope that happens, as it would make the game much more enjoyable for everyone who plays it. But as it stands, Unreal Championship bogs down and becomes nearly unplayable a good percentage of the time, making it difficult to have fun consistently. A shame, really.

Even with all that it has going for it, it's hard for me to recommend Unreal Championship. If you've got a healthy PC rig, I suggest you stick with Unreal Tournament 2003, since you'll be able to get much better custom performance out of it (there are more maps as well). If you don't have Xbox Live then don't even bother renting this game, as the single player games are too thin to hold your interest for very long. But if you've got Xbox Live and the appeal of giant robots just isn't there, then give Unreal Championship a shot. It's not the killer app that will make Xbox Live a must-have service, but until Bungie graces us with Halo 2 later in the year we'll have to make due with Unreal Championship.

Note: I play on Xbox Live with under the name Sneakman, and I often host Instagib games with auto-aim disabled. If you're not an asshole kid and you'd like to play, then keep an eye out for me the next time you're on Live.