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.

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 ;)

Going Gold

[Wexton]

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

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:assault rifles

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a game dude.

Entertainment.

Don't think too much about it and you might find it fun ;)

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: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.

Re:Linux???

[NanoGator]

" Companies who "get it" regarding Linux should be rewarded and pubblically thanked and respected."

It's not that they don't get it. It's that a AAA successful game sells 40,000 copies in the Linux market. The problem isn't lack of respect for Linux, it's that there isn't enough of a base to be reasonably successful in that market.

You want more games for Linux? Start encouraging others to use it. Want a good suggestion for that? Burn a few Knoppix CDs and give it to peeps who run Windows. If they're reluctant, say "Put it in next time Windows shits itself." Sooner or later, they'll get it. In the mean time, learn to live with the fact that the gaming industry isn't going to be interested in Linux until they can associate the word 'Millions' with it.

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.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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

[Dragoon412]

The realism in CS is laughable. Early-on, the devs were receptive to suggestions, and really tried to make their game true-to-life. Then, right around beta 4, beta 5, right around the time it started to become popular, the devs took this attitude of 'we know it's not realistic, we don't care.'

These days, CS can't even remotely claim to be realistic. Everything from the guns' mechanics to the game's idea of buying weapons, (lack of) locational damage, to the way damage is handled in the game is extremely unrealistic. And it's not like the game's realism is entirely limited by the engine; they just aren't even trying anymore.

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:This is great! But not for the basic game

[Osty]

oh sure, I hear where you're coming from...but RO is a game that's "not like the others". It's different, which is why I like it.

It's different, just like everything else, eh? Counter-strike, Day of Defeat, Rainbow Six, etc are all very popular "realistic" games. Targetting is often difficult, one shot generally will kill you, you get to sit out of the game for five minutes after you've been killed ten seconds into it, etc. Hell, even the old Action Quake mod was a "realistic" mod. One shot in the right place killed you, but if you were shot elsewhere you had to bandage yourself before you bled to death. Jumping from a height would break your legs, etc.

"Realistic" games are nothing new. Some people like them, some people don't. I fall into the latter category, because when I'm playing a game I want to play the game. I don't want to sit around watching other people play the game because I was realistically killed by a sniper as soon as I spawned. RTCW is about as close as I'll come to "realistic", where respawns were queued up every 30 seconds (configurable) and came in the form of "reinforcements". Two or three good shots could kill you, but you also had a decent chance to survive being torched by a flame thrower.

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:Going Gold

[Zakabog]

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.

So you just bought a game twice because you scratched a disk? I bought GTA 3 because I liked the game, I never bought a GTA game before that (downloaded them all, weren't worth the price, GTA 3 was deffinitely worth it) and I wanted to support rockstar since they made such an amazing game. BUT if I scratched the game, I wouldn't go out and buy a used copy, that doesn't give any money to rockstar (the place that sells you the used game makes all the money, not the place that makes you the game in the first place) so how would rockstar lose money if I downloaded the game? I WOULD copy the game (and I did) and extract the ISOs (which I did) and if I ever lost or damaged the CDs I could always reburn a copy. I also distributed the game between friends but I think that's only fair since they would never have bought the game in the first place (none of my friends really buy PC games unless they're multiplayer.)

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.

It's way easier to go to a store and pick up a game while you're at school, work or sleeping, than to download the game while you're at school, work or sleeping. Unless you don't have any stores at school, work or your bedroom. That's the best way to download, set it to download before you go to sleep, when you're sleeping it downloads, if it's still not done it doesn't matter since you probably have to go to school or work, and when you come back it's done (unless you're on dialup downloading ISOs.) Or even if you get it off a nice FTP, 2 hours and you've got a gig or so (on most cable/dsl connections downloading from a really fast site or bittorrent source.) Now that I actually have a job I usually only download games I know I'd never want to buy just to try them out and see if I want to buy them (prince of persia, UT2K4 which I'm probably not even going to download, it's too much like an expansion pack to me than a full game since I own UT2K3.)

AMEN

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

That's doubly important for games which are multiplayer-oriented. Even if you have a wintel machine you may very well have friends into gaming who don't. And such games are nicer to play when you can frag your friends...

Re:Vehicles

[Graff]

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.

Yep, my cash is going right to Unreal Tournament 2004 when it comes out and I'm doing the same to World of Warcraft when that is released. Both Atari/Epic and Blizzard are on the ball here. It's too bad that Bungie went all micro and soft because they also used to be one of the "good guys" before they got swallowed by Bill Gate's greed.

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 [alaska-freegold.com]

UT 2004 is good, but consider...

[quantax]

I really think due to UT 2003's relative lack of innovation, and overally not being that great of a game, that Epic (or whoever the publisher is), should give people who bought UT 2003 a rebate on UT 2004. Now, I never went out and bought UT 2003 since I figured it was nothing new, except an updated engine. This was pretty much the case, since really, UT 2003 is a demo for the Unreal Engine. Epic's 'real' game was Unreal II, which even though I wasnt too big a fan of, was atleast better than UT 2003, if only because the weapons were better. I give Epic a lot of credit for the work they've done on UT 2004, but by the same token these features either should have been in UT 2003 (given the lack of anything really new besides a new engine) or people who bought the $40 engine demo that was UT 2003 should get a rebate.

Re:Including Linux?

[psycho_driver]

As of release, yes, you did need an nvidia card for 2k3. They addressed this in a subsequent patch. I'm betting any of the 8500 or higher radeons will run 2k4 out of the box.

Re:assault rifles

[CodeMunch]

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

You are worried about reality in a game where you can launch balls of plasma & then detonate it with a stream of energy? AND translocate faster than Santa clause? AND hand held R/C nukes? jeebus! forget reality & enjoy the fun.

Re:Vehicles

[Sparr0]

This is the reason for the custom node link setup. Servers can link the nodes together however they want, the default setup is just a suggestion. Filter your server list for names containing "Custom" or "Customlinks" or "Custom Links" for a world of new fun. I find it much more fun when the bases link to the goliath nodes (the 'enemy' goliath node), then from there to other nodes. This ensures both teams have their tank almost to the end. Or when both bases are linked to TWO nodes, making it so much easier to break out of being base camped. Or when at least one node is linked *ONLY* to a base, making it uncapturable for the other team, giving a base camped team two places to spawn.

Re:assault rifles

[Tim C]

No, you probably can't - and you certainly wouldn't be able to do that and carry half a dozen or more other weapons strapped to yourself, *and* run the entire length of the map at full speed, jump, or leap into the driving seat of a vehicle...

It's a *game*. It's meant to be fun, not ultra-realistic :-)

Re:Unreal

[nicky_d]

Too true - and don't forget that older games like Unreal will most likely FLY on your current PC, which can be quite a revelation... my PC at the time of Unreal managed it fine most of the time, but had occasional slowdown and didn't do very well at higher resolutions. On my current PC - POW! I've also been playing System Shock 2 for the first time in many years, and I'm having the same experience with that. This is a good way to discover which games are truly classics - Unreal, SS2, the Quakes - they stand the test of time... the gameplay holds its own against modern titles, while the lower system requirements make for fewer technical frustrations. And the wealth of additional material is staggering. If you've never played the original Unreal, give it a shot - it could last you a hell of a long time.

Re:Why is it always idsoft and Unreal?

[jkantola]

The only two games that get much coverage on /. seem to be Quake, Doom3, and Unreal(x).

Perhaps because both engines run on The Three Platforms AND are seriously utilized by third party game developers. Following iD/Epic is a handy way of following where games (or at least some genres) are going. I guess it also helps that Carmack & Sweeney are Linux-loving uber-geeks ;-)

Re:Vehicles

[SatanicPuppy]

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

Re:Why is it always idsoft and Unreal?

[tf23]

The only two games that get much coverage on /. seem to be Quake, Doom3, and Unreal(x).


Ya know, you *can* help change that. Submit articles about other games. I looked at your submissions [slashdot.org] and the list is so vast... ;) get my point?