UNREAL TOURNAMENT 2004

'''Unreal Tournament 2004''', also known as '''UT2004''' or '''UT2K4''', is a futuristic first-person shooter computer game designed primarily for online multiplayer gaming. The game also includes a single player mode that mimics multiplayer gaming through the use of computer-controlled, artificially "intelligent" players called "bots". ''Unreal Tournament 2004'' is part of the ''Unreal'' series of games and is the sequel to 2002's ''Unreal Tournament 2003'' and a successor to the original smash hit game Unreal Tournament, which many devotees regard as being superior to UT2003 and UT2004. ''Unreal Tournament 2004'' was co-developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes and published by Atari. The major addition to ''Unreal Tournament 2004'' is the introduction of vehicles to the classic first-person shooter formula following in the footsteps of ''Tribes 2'', '', and ''Battlefield 1942''. The game also features an improved user interface.
One of the central and defining characteristics of the Unreal Tournament games, and one of the major components of its success, is the ease with which gamers can create and share their own custom user-made content such as user-designed maps (of which there are tens of thousands), weapons, and innovative game types, often collectively called "mods". A great many of the user-made custom maps are superior to the standard maps that were included with the game. Consequently, many, if not most online multiplayer UT servers play the custom maps. Custom maps can be designed with the Unreal Editor, which is included with the game.
Besides introducing new weapons, vehicles and game modes and restoring the sniper rifle, ''Unreal Tournament 2004'' also contains everything released previously in ''Unreal Tournament 2003''. Consequently, ''Unreal Tournament 2004'' completely replaced ''Unreal Tournament 2003'' on store shelves. ''Unreal Tournament 2004'' boxes sold in the United States include a $10 mail-in rebate requiring that a short form be completed and sent to the publisher along with a copy of the manual cover for ''Unreal Tournament 2003''. Versions sold in the United Kingdom had a similar offer, but required sending in the play CD for ''Unreal Tournament 2003'' instead.
Its successor, Unreal Tournament III, is expected to be released in November 2007.

Contents

Development

Development process

Nearing release

Release history

Vehicles

Mods

Resources

References

External links

Development

Epic Games Inc. had very ambitious plans for the sequel to their 1999 hit ''Unreal Tournament''. Although work on the game engine and Deathmatch had been complete, there was still much to be done regarding complex game modes such as Assault and Onslaught which included vehicles. As a result, the stripped-down ''Unreal Tournament 2003'' was released in 2002 while the developers concentrated upon implementing Assault and Onslaught for a 2003 release (later pushed back to 2004). In addition, the developers also addressed shortcomings that gamers had with ''Unreal Tournament 2003''.

Development process

''Unreal Tournament 2004'' was created by several game development studios acting in collaboration, including Epic Games who led the project. Lead programmer Steve Polge describes the role each company played:
'Epic Games': All the enhancements to the ''Unreal Tournament 2003'' game types, the new UI, Voice over IP and bot voice command support, engine enhancements and optimizations were made by the primary developer. They also made an improved single player game, and improved community and demo recording support, in addition to thirty-one new playable characters. A Sniper Rifle similar to the one included in the original ''Unreal Tournament'' was added. They created one Onslaught map, and developed AI support for Onslaught. 16 new DM maps, 5 new CTF Maps, 2 new DDOM maps, and 1 new BR map were added. The Assault game type design and implementation, including 3 new vehicles, 3 types of turrets, and 6 new maps were also reintroduced from the original ''Unreal Tournament'', totaling 31 all-new maps from Epic.
The elimination and restoration of the Sniper Rifle and the Assault were noted on the official future history of the Tournament. The future history, written after the release of Unreal Tournament 2003 as promotional material for UT2004, reflected some real-life fan disappointment (including refusing to play the game) at the loss of these two things:
: "The aging Sniper Rifle (a relic of centuries past) is removed from the Tournament as is "Assault" ... Many fans of the Tournament complain at these changes, with some combatants refusing to participate in the new format. ...
: "An updated Sniper Rifle is added to the weapon roster, along with several other weapons designed for the larger outdoor combat environments of the new Onslaught and returning Assault events."^[1]
'Psyonix': The Onslaught game type design and implementation, with 6 new vehicles, 4 new weapons (grenade launcher, spider mine layer, Anti Vehicle Rocket Launcher (AVRiL), and the Phoenix target painter), and the energy turret. They also created seven Onslaught maps, and collaborated with Streamline Studios on the popular map ONS-Torlan. Finally, they made the new model for the Translocator.
'Digital Extremes': Created 2 new DM maps, 6 new CTF maps, 2 new BR maps, and 3 new DDOM maps; two new playable characters; the new HUD design; new weapon models for the Assault Rifle, Shock Rifle, and Link Gun.
'Streamline Studios': The single player introduction movie and ONS-Torlan in collaboration with Psyonix. Later made an Assault map called AS-Confexia, downloadable from the Internet.

Nearing release

On February 11 2004, the demo for ''Unreal Tournament 2004'' was released and included five maps for five different game types. Demo versions for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux on x86-32 (February 13 2004) and Linux on x86-64 (February 15 2004) were made available for download. By March 5 2004 ''Unreal Tournament 2004'' had "gone gold" and was ready for retail distribution. It was the first closed source game to support the new x86-64-bit extension, utilizing Linux, as Windows for x86-64 had not been released at the time.
As the year of 2004 would draw to an end, ''Unreal Tournament 2004'' received awards for Multiplayer Game of the Year (IGN, Gamespy, Computer Gaming World) and Best Value for 2004 award (Computer Games Magazine).

Release history

''Unreal Tournament 2004'' was released on March 16 2004 for the PC (Linux x86-32/x86-64 and Windows), the Mac OS X version (DVD only) followed on March 31 2004. The version for Windows x86-64 was released as a downloadable patch on October 1 2005. At release consumers could purchase the game on either CD or DVD. The DVD version was a limited-time special edition that came with a Logitech microphone-headset and a second DVD filled with video-tutorials on how to use UnrealEd (the program used to make UT-maps and mods). A single DVD version with neither microphone nor tutorials was also released in Europe. The CD version of the game was six discs. On April 13 2004, ''Unreal Tournament 2004'' was re-released on a special edition DVD to meet the high demand of players wanting the game on DVD rather than CD.
Epic and Atari, in collaboration, released two official Onslaught maps over the summer, ONS-Ascendancy and ONS-Aridoom.
On September 21 2004, Atari released in stores the ''Editor's Choice Edition'' of ''Unreal Tournament 2004'': it adds 3 vehicles, 4 Onslaught maps, and 6 character skins to the original content of the game, and also contains several mods developed by the community and selected by Epic Games. This extension (excluding mods) was released as a Bonus Pack by Atari on September 23 2004, and is available for free download.
In December 2005, the Mega Bonus Pack was released by Epic, which included several new maps, along with the latest patch and the aforementioned ECE. The release was solely through the Internet.
In 2006 Atari lost the publishing rights to the Unreal Tournament franchise, and they were picked up by Midway Games. Midway's first release was Unreal Championship 2 for the Xbox, and around that time announced that there would be an Unreal Anthology for the PC at some point. Midway quietly re-released Unreal Tournament 2004 for a discounted price of $9.99 through select retailers in late September/ early October 2006. In November 2006 Unreal Anthology was released which bundled Unreal, Unreal II, Unreal Tournament Game of the year edition, and Unreal Tournament 2004.

Vehicles

There are many vehicles available for use in Unreal Tournament 2004. These vehicles are primarily used in the Onslaught game type, although there are a few Assault maps which utilise vehicles. The vehicles consist of aircraft (the Manta, Cicada, and Raptor), and land vehicles (all others). There are also 2 space vehicles (essentially space-faring Raptors with a cosmetic overhaul), which only officially feature in one stock Assault map.
Three of the vehicle types (the SPMA, Cicada, and Paladin) are only officially available on maps from the ''Editor's Choice edition'' or ''Editor's Choice bonus pack'', but user-edited versions of the standard maps often include some or all of these extra vehicles.
Some vehicles are in the source code of the game but not normally seen. It is also possible to create user-modified vehicles (which are not included in this article).

Mods

★ Total conversion mods, often with totally different gameplay to the original ''Unreal Tournament 2004'':

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★ ''Alien Swarm'': Top-down coop total conversion where a team of up to 8 marines battle their way through alien infested levels. Alien Swarm's fan community created a full expansion called The Telic Campaign, a mod of a mod.

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★ ''Red Orchestra'': Overall grand finale winner of the Make Something Unreal mod competition, a multi-phased contest with one million dollars in prizes sponsored by Epic Games and NVIDIA to foster the creation of mods. Currently, Red Orchestra is a retail game supported by Steam.

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★ ''Frag-Ops'' a semi-realistic, hybrid tactical first person shooter.

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★ ''UnWheel'' & ''Carball'' are car games, with many different gametypes such as racing and car football

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★ ''SoulKeeper'' Special Edition: medieval-themed conversion, with catapult siege-engines and ride-able dragons.

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★ ''Metaball''

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★ ''Air Buccaneers''

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★ ''Counter Organic Revolution''

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★ ''Uskaarj''

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★ ''Deathball'': a mod that combines Soccer, Rugby and Handball elements.

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★ ''Out Of Hell'': a survival horror single player with demonic zombies of different types and abilities.

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★ ''Hollow Moon'': unreleased single player total conversion with an artistic audiovisual style

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★ ''Tactical Ops: Crossfire'': based on TO:AoT mod for Unreal Tournament. Multiplayer FPS mod that allow the player to play on Special Forces or Terrorist side.

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★ ''Ballistic Weapons'': A mutator replacing standard UT2k4 weapons with modern weapons with completely original meshes, sounds, aiming system and damaging system

★ More conservative mods include ''Jailbreak'', ''Wehtam Invasion III'', and ''Clone Bandits''.

★ The Editor's Choice Edition pack includes the aforementioned ''Red Orchestra'', ''Alien Swarm'', ''Air Buccaneers'', ''Jailbreak'', and ''Clone Bandits'', as well as ''ChaosUT2'', ''Domain'', ''Rocketeer'', ''Deathball'', and the ''UnWheel'' caste of gametypes.

★ There is an RPG mod which adds a skill based leveling-up system into the game and is commonly used in online games to give the players rewards after getting to a certain amount of points needed. DruidRPG

★ Unreal Tournament Revolution mod is an attempt to give ''UT 2004'' the feel and game play of the original UT with improved Original graphics. You can check out its Alpha version here: UTR Mod Download But the final release should be ready in 2007. For the latest news go to forum

★ Team Arena Master: A variant on traditional Team deathmatch is Team Arena Master or TAM. This is similar to Last man standing but there are rounds in which the player and their team members have one life only. Players spawn with all the guns, but have less than half of the maximum ammo for each of them.
Many of these modes have Instagib versions, which contain specialized weapons that kill in a single shot. Those that don't can use the Instagib Mutator instead.

Resources

★ List of Games using SDL (UT2004 Linux/Mac versions use Simple DirectMedia Layer)

★ Stratos Group's Unofficial Guide To Unreal Tournament 2004

References

1. UT Timeline

External links

★ ''Unreal Tournament 2004'' Official site

★ ''Unreal Tournament 2004'' at MobyGames

★ Beyond Unreal – ''UT2004'' mod database and information center

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