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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.

25 of 480 comments (clear)

  1. It looks really nice... by fidget42 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    But I had a problem when I tried playing it at a resolution other than 1280x1024. I couldn't read some of the text (especially when trying to join an internet game). Another problem that UT2k3 had was the size of the maps. Even with a broadband connection, transferring a 10 MB map takes a looooooong time.

    --
    The dogcow says "Moof!"
  2. Re:assault rifles by Ozone+Depletion · · Score: 5, Funny

    *looks at da govinator*

  3. Re:assault rifles by savagedome · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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 ;)

  4. Re:assault rifles by frankthechicken · · Score: 5, Funny

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

    It certainly is possible, much like the British SAS' much vaunted ability to fire a rocket at the ground, propelling themselves behind enemy lines.

    In fact only the other day, I was walking around town, felt a bit short of cash, and decided to headbut a wall, and bounce a top several passerbys, earned a small fortune that day.

  5. hope they fixed the audio cpu usage by green+pizza · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've been playing the UT2K4 demo on both Windows and Mac (yay PowerBook) and the community chatter is right -- disabling audio results in framerates jumping anywhere from 50% - 200% faster. I hope it's a bug and not just the base requirement for UT2K4 audio!

  6. Naming Conventions... by ItMustBeEsoteric · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I must admit, while I love the various flavors of UT, I dislike the naming convention. The same problem sports games have: once a year, they will seem out of date. They're basically making themselves stay on a once a year schedule: let's be real, how many gaming companies can do that (HL2, Doom 3...deadlines go to hell). And, unless there's actual changes, I would rather not buy a new version every year just to keep up with the online play (though I know you can always play the old versions). That said, I want this game. The vehicles are great, as is the gameplay and graphics in the demo.

  7. Including Linux? by JustinXB · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Will this be including the Linux version of the game, like 2003 did? Maybe they'll be nice to us this time and put a notice on the box stating Linux version included.

    1. Re:Including Linux? by vogel · · Score: 5, Informative

      There is a penguin on the box this time around and a Linux32/64 bit installer on the CD/DVD. It's actually quite prominent as it's one of three files in the root directory - autorun.inf, setup.exe and linux-installer.sh :)

      Big thanks to Ryan (http://tehgordon.com, he "loves" it when I post this link ;)) for making it happen in time for inclusion on the retail CD/DVD!

      -- Daniel, Epic Games Inc.

  8. Turn off "performance" DirectX options by pslam · · Score: 5, Informative
    But I had a problem when I tried playing it at a resolution other than 1280x1024. I couldn't read some of the text (especially when trying to join an internet game).

    I had this problem but discovered it was because the display settings for my Ti4200 were at "performance" rather than "quality" (right click desktop, settings, advanced, directX, blah, blah). It's probably because fonts are treated just like textures and are reduced in resolution along with everything else. It seems to me there's no difference in speed between performance and quality settings, so it's no loss - and it looks way better anyway.

    Hope that helps... it certainly had me puzzled for a while. I think they need to at least add this to the FAQ.

  9. Re:Vehicles by GrodinTierce · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I quite agree. While UT2004 certainly isn't the first FPS with vehicles, nor does it have the huge collection of some games (e.g. BF1942 and/or DesertCombat), its vehicles are well-designed, well-balanced, and so much fun, it's kind of ridiculous.

    --


    Tierce
    Who sponsors your feelings?
  10. Re:Which versions? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Linux binary will be included in the pc/windows package.

  11. Decent price too by Fiz+Ocelot · · Score: 5, Funny

    I got the collector's edition for 40 bucks, comes on DVD with a nice logitech headset and bonus dvd. It also has some kind of emblem that adds either 50HP to your car or 2ghz to your pc (whichever you apply it to)

  12. Re:Hardware requirements? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    You can read the requitements on http://www.unrealtournament.com/ut2004.
    Also, while you are there, read the forum thread on n00b Raptor camping and the posters that the fans have made up. You'll laugh up a lung, guaranteed!

    Regarding systems, I had been on an Athlon XP 1600+, with PC133 SDRAM and an NVidia Ti4200 64MB card. When I started playing the demo a couple of weeks ago in Linux and Doze, I decided to upgrade. The demo is soo awesome. I never played UT before, as it always ssemed to be a bunch of bunny hopping clowns. But, I digress; I did buy the SE DVD edition.

    My new system isn't anything extreme, as I always go for the sweet spot on the price/performance curve. I got an Asus A7V8X-X motherboard with 1.25GB of PC2700 333MHz RAM. AMD XP 2800+, same GF4 4200, added cooling and overclocked it to 4400 speeds. And I got a nice Lian Li case to put it in, and keep it cool. ~$250 for everything but the case. The gorgeous LianLi 6077 from Directron.com was $165 with PS.

    I play in 1280x1024 or 1600x1280 at 32bit color and get ~75FPS. The benchmarks give me between about 45FPS and 350FPS, depending on what's going on.

    It plays well on an 1800+ (~1600MHz). I'm sure it plays very well on 3200 systems, but it's not necessary. though maps like Onslaught and the physics models are very CPU intensive, and the performance is not bound to graphics processor. Build a system with a good balance of memory, internal bandwidth, CPU and graphics,and you should be fine.

    Plays beautifully on Mandrake 9.2 with NVidia modules.

    I can't wait to get my boxed set. My studies are really suffering.

  13. Re:This is great! But not for the basic game by kryptkpr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    --
    DJ kRYPT's Free MP3s!
  14. Re:Vehicles by nukem1999 · · Score: 5, Funny

    And most other games' vehicles don't have horns that play La Cucaracha(Manta) and Dixie(Scorpion) :)

  15. Re:Vehicles by pcx · · Score: 5, Funny

    Vehicles in UT2004 = hopping shotgun into a jeep driven by an insane pre-teen with no-motor control who makes a strategic decision to drive halfway across the map to an unlinked power node (the kind you can't attack) and makes the tactical calculation that if you smash the tank head on the jeep will be the winner.

    What's amazing is that onslaugh is fun despite this :)

  16. Re:Vehicles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The beauty of the unreal engine is all 3 are developed in tangent because UT uses OGL in Linux and OGL.

    Yes I know the pros of using DX as the windows based render (there are hooks in it to take advantage of DX9...but the game doesn't show it now) but with opengl having shader support, I think they should return to OGL.

    Just one mans uninformed, uneducated opinion.

  17. Re:everybody interested in having more games on Li by vogel · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually the best way to make sure your copy is associated with Linux is to play the retail version online as our masterserver keeps track of the last OS used to connect to it (per CD key).

    -- Daniel, Epic Games Inc.

  18. Mouse-gesture aim by eddy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    [...] but my favorite is the ability to carry dual assault rifles.

    I'm guessing this is like in every other game, you still aim them together?

    I was thinking that it would be interesting to experiment with individual aim for dual-weapons. You could have 'hold RMB and move mouse to aim second gun' (would subsume looking around) and 'hold RMB and press LMB' to fire.

    But it guess it would be odd to controll one weapon as "an arm" and the other like usual (that is "where you look you fire"), so then you'd have to do the same but in reverse for the "left" gun, which I'm sure few gamers would like. Maybe for an option...

    Just a thought.

    --
    Belief is the currency of delusion.
  19. Re:Vehicles by zerocool^ · · Score: 5, Informative

    I totally agree; however, I do have a bone to pick with Onslaught, or mabey it's just the Torlan map.

    Once you're losing, and you're down to your base and only one or two power nodes, it's damn near impossible to fight your way back. The vehicles are simply too powerful, and your base doesn't spawn the two most useful vehicles (the scorpion and the tank). And the ability to spawn at any power node you have captured means that even after you kill everyone rushing your base, they're right back there (they don't have to run across the playing field).

    Needs tweaking, but inspite of the downfalls, I've been playing the crap out of it.

    ~Will

    --
    sig?
  20. Re:Linux??? by vogel · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

    Wishful thinking :)

  21. Re:Vehicles by YOU+LIKEWISE+FAIL+IT · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What is cooler still is that this philosophy goes all the way up the corporate tree. A while ago I wrote a letter to their support department asking about Mac ports, and I didn't get a friendly, personal letter confirming the Mac and Linux ports from some guy in the trenches, I got one from Mark Rein, Epics V.P.

    A company whose big-wigs take the time to answer mail, and who understand the importance of supporting minor platforms is definitely a company I enjoy giving my money too.

    --
    One god, one market, one truth, one consumer.
  22. Re:Vehicles by Geccoman · · Score: 5, Informative

    Version 1 - Win/Linux
    Version 2 - Mac

    You're cool, don't cancel.

    --
    I'm on a chair.
  23. Re:Vehicles by InShadows · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you press semicolon ( ; ) while driving a vehicle it will play the horn! There is a different horn sound for each vehicle.

    Also, if you bind a key to 'playvehiclehorn 1' it will play a second, slightly more funny horn for each vehicle. Do that by entering:

    set input "key" playvehiclehorn 1

    At the console, where "key" is whatever key you want to bind it to.

  24. You are correct about maps by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Unreal Engine, be it orignal, UT2003, modified, whatever, was made to host maps on a speperate server. The UT server itself will send maps and other files, if it must, but at the same max rate as whatever the max client data rate is. This is done so the server doesn't screw people playing because someone is downloading.

    What you are supposed to do is setup a web server that holds all the maps, textures, sounds and such that you need. You then set a redirector in the UT config to the web server. When a client needs a file, they get sent there, which then proceeds to send at the maximum rate possible as ber HTTP.

    An additonal advantage is that the HTTP redirect supports compression. You can zip up the files (50% size on average) with the UCC program. They then download compressed and decompress on the client side, saving bandwidth and time.

    So if you run a UT server, of any version, host the maps on a web server and setup a redirect. It can be on the same physical hardware if you like, or a completely different host, whatever works. However don't have the UT server itself serve up the data, it isn't efficient.