Since I'm still waiting to get a broadband connection, I have to resort to playing with mysel...err...with BOTS!

I read that Unreal Tournament 2004 has bots but don't really know if it is one of the best right now.
Any suggestions on what I should look for?

Thanks.

If you're looking for an "arena" experience against bots, then yes UT 2004 is the way to go. Incredibly fun game, going for a good price now as well. It's my understanding that the game is very playable on dial-up as well. YMMV. Regardless, it's an incredible game.

If you're looking for asingle-player FPS, there's always games like Half-Life 2, Call of Duty, Far Cry, and even Doom 3.

UT2004 is excellent with bots - I've spent a ridiculous amount of time playing Onslaught with/against 15 bots.

Another very goot bot-match game is Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, which is a single-player version of the popular game. The AI is sometimes frustrating - a few pathfinding errors, and your teammates often fail to act as a team - but overall, it's a superb experience. Again, I've spent a frightening number of hours playing this way.

- David Stein

do the xbox ultimate tournament games come with bots also? Just thinking outloud, but halo 2 should have come with an option for bots, its a great way to practice things like sniping.

Honestly, I don't know if it's great practice. Bots never learn about sniping spots and don't really use tactics to avoid them. Humans do so constantly. The only thing you're likely to accomplish by such practice is building up bot-sniping skills; if you try porting those to the Live crowd, you may find yourself hugely outclassed and frustrated.

(I know this because I experienced something very similar with Counter-Strike. I only play Condition Zero, and I find CS:Source online play to be a very different experience - and not only because the Condition Zero bots don't usually call me "shitcock" or "pussyn00b.")

- David Stein

On Xbox, the only ones that come to mind right now are Unreal Championship and Red Faction 2.

Unreal Championship 2 is coming up on the horizon (within two months I think) and is suppose to incorporate some hand-to-hand/melee fighting. There's a playable demo in the Xbox mag disc and those who have tried it say it is really good.

My friends and I all play UT every Tuesday and Friday night. One of them is a professor in the mid west and we play off of his machine as a server (which is at the school). Our pings are generally under 100 and we have 12 people that regularly play. We've been doing this since Quake back in the late 90's and switched to UT in 2000.

If you guys wanna join in one night let me know and I'll share the info. There's about 400 MBs worth of Special Maps and stuff you'll need to dl first, but I can give you those links as well.

My students have been getting UT 2004 from Amazon for $20.

Right. I saw this too.
By the way, what is the difference between the CD version and the DVD version which costs more? I'm assuming you get everything on one disc opposed to multiple, therefore, paying for convenience maybe?

The CD version has five install CDs and one Game Play CD.

I believe that the DVD version has one install DVD and one Game Play CD.

If you do the full install, then you don't need the Game Play CD.

Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball has some of the best bots / AI I've ever encountered.

I think UT 2004 is the title I'm looking for.
I like playing DM, CTF, Bombing Run, and Onslaught (which I've never tried) just sounds bad-ass!

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

One cool thing about UT2004 when playing with bots is that you can use your mic and issue orders. It takes practice to get used to, but once you get it down you can really work effectively as a team.

If only my wife and kids obeyed orders so well! "Alpha, get me a beer!" "Beta, rub my feet!"

I agree its not the same as playing on live, but its closer than just shooting the covenant in the campaign. Bots are at least in a constant moving motion, trying to kill each other also, so in that sense, its the best thing next to actual live.