Unreal Tournament 2004 Goes Gold

psyco484 writes "Unreal Tournament 2004 has gone gold, the game will be in stores on March 15th. After an impressive demo, I'm certainly looking forward to this one." There are several improvements over UT2003, but my favorite is the ability to carry dual assault rifles.

Comments

assault rifles

[xenocytekron]

Is it even possible to carry two assault rifles simultaneously in real life? sounds a bit heavy...

Re:assault rifles

[savagedome]

Is it even possible to carry two assault rifles simultaneously in real life?

Not the article but not even the Title now? I would have to say RFTT dude. Its Unreal Tournament ;)

Re:assault rifles

[NanoGator]

"Not the article but not even the Title now? I would have to say RFTT dude. Its Unreal Tournament ;)"

Uh.. pardon my naievness, but wasn't the reason it was originally called Unreal was that they excelled graphically in both hardware and software mode? I remember being quite surprised when I first got it. Even without a 3D card, they did some neat stuff that just wasn't being done at the time. It did look 'unreal'. I don't think the original reference was to the practicality of the game. Since this is a continuance of the franchise, I can imagine it's still meant in the same spirit.

But who knows, maybe I'm wrong. There's a couple of sides to this issue. On one hand, it has to be semi-grounded in reality. For example, it would be odd if you ran off a cliff, but didn't fall until you looked down in Yosemite Sam fashion. At the same time, though, how much fun would the game be if it was too realistic? I'd have a heart attack if I tried to run a short distance, heh.

There is a fine line there one must walk when designing a game like that. Afterall, if real life was so exciting, where would the game market be?

Re:assault rifles

[Moofie]

You will put a lot more rounds on target with one properly aimed weapon than with two shooting from the hip.

If you want suppressing fire, get a SAW.

A deeply disappointing game IMHO

[Andrew Price]

I absolutely loved Unreal and UT. UT2k3, Unreal 2 and UT2k4 were horrible for me. Nice graphics, utterly stupid gamplay. If you liked 2003, this game may appeal, otherwise a waste of d/l time. Call of Duty and ET are waay better, actually requiring some brain. Just my 2c

Re:This is great! But not for the basic game

[kryptkpr]

The reason is simple: Some people (like me) don't want realism.

The game is called UNREAL Tournament for a reason, and I'm glad the people who made it made it the way they did... I get enough realism at school, working my ass off in hopes of a future.. don't need any more realism then that thankyouverymuch.

I love the floaty crosshairs, impossible weapons, guided redeemer missles, and getting-pumped-full-of-led-and-not-caring-cuz-you- got-200-health-and-100-armor-in-an-800-health-tank ! It's a totally different world, and that's what makes the game so enjoyable.

Re:Going Gold

[NanoGator]

"sweet now it is gold, i wonder how long it will take for a full copy to be leaked, i give it 2 days."

Can't say that matters a whole lot to me. I tried to download GTA3 after I scratched the disc, ended up getting different games that were just renamed to GTA3. Fortunately for me, I found a used copy for reasonably cheap.

Frankly, I don't see what all the anti-piracy hype is about. If it's easier to just run down the street and buy the game than to wait all day to download and cross your fingers that it's a.) legit b.) works, then I don't see why the "you-cannot-backup-your-game" measures are all that necessary.

What makes it good

[Neo-Rio-101]

The thing that stands out about good games these days are their replay value it seems.
I keep finding that those "play through the game once and forget" games hardly get any replay value, whereas games like GTA (especially the racing, taxi, and police missions) and Unreal have endless replay value because of the underlying game involved is actually fun, with many variations on the theme...
(which reminds me of the Atari 2600 games, which had more variations on the theme of a particular game than you could shake a stick at - I think there was about 26 variations on Space Invaders alone!)

In that way, Unreal Tournament and the original Quake III have a kind of replay value that the original Pac-man (with all those patterns) and the Street Fighter series (with all those characters) had.

The frustration that other "3D tourism" games have (where you get stuck in one part and have to solve a puzzle to get to the next bit). Just doesn't hold up to replay value. Once you finish it, you throw the CD into the cupboard.

We need to see more games like this, and not the next Madden 3005 - if Madden is still with us by then.

Re:What makes it good

[patternjuggler]

"play through the game once and forget" games hardly get any replay value

The ultimate in replay value would be the game that you completely forget after playing, except for how great it was to play, so you play it again and forget and then back to step one again...

For true replayability though, since the player probably won't forget, is to give the game a great deal of depth- so much that after beating the game the player is able to go back and play in a totally different style, explore more remote areas, and really try to find the boundaries of the game and easter eggs and so forth. It also has to be lots of fun so that all that exploring won't be a chore, as cruising across town in your vehicle of choice is in GTA3.

Re:Vehicles

[lewp]

Indeed. I have always been an Unreal hater, but I haven't touched CS since the UT2K4 demo came out. The sole reason for that is because of Onslaught. CTF and DM were done to death a long time ago.

Assault would probably be cool too, but I don't like the gimmick map they included with the demo.

Mantas rule.

Re:Linux???

[vogel]

If you write solid portable code from the beginning, there's no additional cost to releasing on multiple platforms,

Wishful thinking :)

Re:This is great! But not for the basic game

[Cecil]

Chalk me up under the "hate videogame real-life-ism" tally.

That comes with a major caveat though: I think strongly that games have to at least be realistic within their own universe. It's one thing for the heavily armed and armored, trained for fighting, shieldpack-wearing ogres in Unreal Tournament to be able to take a chaingun barrage in the chest. It's what the game is all about.

It is not, on the other hand, acceptable for a bored civilian in Deus Ex 2 to be able to withstand a point-blank pistol blast to the head without even getting angry at me. Nowhere in the game's story did it suggest that humans had evolved metal skulls, or that the anti-gun lobby had gotten all firearms replaced with bb-guns.

Macintosh performance issues

[v1]

I've seen a few posters comment about rendering speed increasing if sound is disabled, but that's not really an option for a serious player... if you can't hear where the shooting is coming from (or hear the footsteps of the person tailgaiting you) you're not gonna last very long. So turning off the sound isn't a serious option.

Also, just in general I'd say the frame rates on the mac are a lot slower than on the PC. Are they even bothering to use hardware accelleration? It feels like I'm back playing the original Unreal Tournament on my Wallstreet with its sucky graphics speed, and yet this is a fairly new tibook. My fps drops to around 4 or so during heavy action.

Re:Why is it always idsoft and Unreal?

[Cosmik]

You forget the influence of the Mac and Linux crowd on this site.

Re:Stupid special forces tricks

[core plexus]

The very fisrt thing the instructor said to us in edged weapons class is never throw your weapon away. We learned how to anyway, as well as throwing scissors, letter openers, and other assorted items. It's pretty cool to throw something and see it sticking in the target, although in a real fight, you still have time to 'return the favor' before you bleed out, assuming the wound was even eventually fatal. In the movies, the Hero/Badguy can throw a knife and bury it to the hilt, but try it on a slab of unfrozen beef sometime, even try to stab it to the hilt. It's not easy, especially around the ribs, breast, or shoulder. Notice how hard it is to pull the knife back out? If it is one of those silly Rambo knives, the serrations will catch on ligaments and other parts. It's really more of a distraction. They actually sharpened the edges of the shovel, and were trained to use them in ways other than by throwing. Then again, we never got the chance to throw something when the target was shooting, or threatening to shoot, back. I'm pretty sure that would affect performance.

Back on the subject, you can fire 2 'assault rifles' or handguns at a time, but there's no need, and plenty of reasons not to. One rifle can lay down plenty of suppressive fire, and more accurately than trying to use up all your ammo in a display of firepower. The target will just keeps it head down til you're trying to clear a jam or reload, and put a single round where it really hurts. Or send out his buddy to flank you. Since you used up all your ammo, and your weapon it too hot to touch, he won't even have to throw his shovel at you.

-cp-

President Bush to Liberate Alaska

Re:Vehicles

[SatanicPuppy]

Blizzard may not make Linux games, but the ones they do make run beautifully under Wine.