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Unreal Tournament 2004

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Note: If you are seeking for the links to essential files, see the Essential files section.

Unreal Tournament 2004 is the third offering in the Unreal Tournament branch of the Unreal franchise. UT2004 is viewed by many as an extension of the work done in Unreal Tournament 2003, retaining most of the maps, characters and gametypes from that release, tweaking various issues that were brought up, and adding a considerable amount of new content: nearly 50 new maps, vehicular combat, the Assault gametype which had been excluded from UT2003, and the new gametype Onslaught. It was initially released on March 16, 2004 for the PC and March 31, 2004 for Mac OS X.

Ut2004box.jpg
Release dates March 15, 2004 (PC)
March 31, 2004 (Mac)
Engine version Unreal Engine 2
Game builds 3120-3372 (Epic Games)

History

Epic Games was the primary developer for the bulk of UT2004, which consisted mainly of building upon the work done for UT2003. Epic collaborated with several other development studios in the creation of UT2004.

Specifically, Epic developed the new user interface, VoIP, voice command support for bots, 31 new characters, 31 new maps, design and implementation of the Assault gametype for inclusion in UT2004 (including new vehicles and turrets), and the new Sniper Rifle.

Psyonix designed and implemented the Onslaught gametype (including new vehicles, weapons and the Energy Turret), 7 maps for the Onslaught gametype, and the new model for the Translocator

Digital Extremes created 13 new maps and two new characters, as well as the new HUD design and new models for the Assault Rifle, Shock Rifle, and Link Gun.

Streamline Studios designed the single-player introduction cutscene and collaborated with Psyonix on ONS-Torlan.

Originally, UT2004 was supposed to be backwards compatible with UT2003: 2003 players could play on 2004 servers and vice versa. Due to the massive changes present in the 2004 engine (mainly due to the vehicles: some vehicle code was present in 2003 but was cut due to time constraints), compatibility was eventually dropped before release.

Demo

Epic released the demo for UT2004 on February 11th, 2004, originally including five maps from the game's library.


The game went gold on March 4th, 2004, and was released 11 days later on March 15th, 2004.

On September 24th, 2004, Epic released an updated version of the demo, using the (at the time) latest codebase for UT2004, Version 3334. Besides the obvious inclusion of many bugfixes and adjustments from the retail version, it added some new vehicles from the Editor's Choice Edition, as well as added two more maps to play, for a grand total of Seven:

Release Details

  • March 15, 2004 - Unreal Tournament 2004 (PC) - Six-CD set
  • March 15, 2004 - Unreal Tournament 2004 (PC) - Single-DVD
  • March 15, 2004 - Unreal Tournament 2004 (PC) - Limited Special Edition - 2-DVD set with Logitech Internet Chat Headset and a series of UnrealEd video tutorials developed by 3DBuzz.
  • March 31, 2004 - Unreal Tournament 2004 (Mac OS X) - single-DVD
  • April 13, 2004 - Unreal Tournament 2004 (PC) - 2 DVD set
  • September 21, 2004 - Unreal Tournament 2004 Editors Choice Edition - included three new vehicles, four new Onslaught maps, six new characters, and several selected community mods - See below
  • September 23, 2004 - Editors Choice Edition material available for free download for owners of the original release of UT2004
  • December 2, 2005 - Mega Bonus Pack released online - including patch to v3369, the Editors Choice Edition material, and several new maps - See below
  • November 6, 2006 - released as a portion of the Unreal Anthology collection

Reception

The game enjoyed massive initial success and critical acclaim, being selected as Multiplayer Game of the Year by several publications. Still, UT2004 was not seen as a true successor to Unreal Tournament by some fans. In particular, many players disliked the floatier game mechanics and increased dodging abilities compared to UT that made it much more difficult to hit skilled opponents with non-hitscan weapons.

Over time, the number of people playing online began to dwindle. This was due to a variety of factors, including some players who felt that UT2004 was a mixed bag of fixes and lingering issues from UT2003. By 2009, most gamers moved on to other games leaving UT2004 with a mostly dead online scene, outside of Onslaught, TAM/Freon, Invasion and Assault Trials.

Game Content

Engine

Upon release, the demo for UT2004 utilized build 3120 of the Unreal Engine 2. The most recent patch of the demo utilizes build 3334.

Upon release, UT2004 utilized build 3186 of the Unreal Engine 2. The Editors Choice Edition utilized build 3323, and the Mega Pack utilizes build 3369, the latest patch to UT2004.

Several middleware engines are incorporated into UT2004, including:

Music

Will Nevins (Sound Design Group, SDG-), Kevin Riepl (KR-) and Starsky Partridge (Level#) are credited for working on the music in Unreal Tournament 2004.

For the full list of music in UT2004, see Unreal music#Unreal Tournament 2004.

Gametypes

Unreal Tournament 2004 has nearly a dozen gametypes available:

Weapons

Unreal Tournament 2004 sports an extensive array of weapons, combining updated classic weapons from Unreal Tournament, newer weapons from UT2003, and all-new weapons. Several weapons were designed specifically for use in vehicle-based gametypes, and typically appear only in those gametypes. Superweapons can be turned off as an option, and so they may or may not appear in-game depending on the server setup.

Vehicles

Unreal Tournament 2004 has a wide variety of land-based and aerial vehicles which are featured in the Assault, Onslaught, and VCTF gametypes:

  • Manta
    A small, light hovering vehicle. Its ability to crush players and a plasma cannon makes it powerful against both infantry and larger, slower vehicles.
  • Scorpion
    A fast, versatile convertible that fires out deadly plasma bolas that wrap around their target.
  • Hellbender
    A durable Jeep that seats 3. Feared for both its chainable skymines and, with the right crew, deadly sniping capabilities.
  • Paladin
    A tank primarily useful for defense. Has a directional shield that can absorb all but the most powerful attacks.
  • Goliath
    An offensive tank with a minigun turret mounted on top. Devastating to infantry, vehicle, core and node alike.
  • SPMA
    A long range artillery vehicle with a remote camera. Introduced in the Editor's Choice Edition.
  • Leviathan
    A monster on the battlefield, its presence is immediate - and if it's not, tell that to its Ion Cannon that can take out a core in two shots.
  • Raptor
    A flying vehicle with a plasma cannon and missiles that home in on other flying or hovering vehicles.
  • Cicada
    A quick, gutsy bomber, the Cicada can dip underneath the edge of the terrain, only to rise up and launch its lethal payloads.
  • Human Space Fighter
    Used by the attackers in AS-Mothership in the first section of the map, a large space battle.
  • Skaarj Space Fighter
    Similar to the Human Space Fighters, but used by the defending team.
  • Ion Plasma Tank
    This vehicle was only used in the Assault map AS-Glacier as the primary objective. It charges and fires a large ion blast similar to the Leviathan, but does not need to be stationary to do so.
  • Bulldog
    The bulldog was included in a test map in UT2003, but was not playable in UT2004. It was featured in two of the Assault maps as part of the map architecture though.
  • TC-1200
    A joke vehicle that was not used on any of the stock maps. Consists of a toilet on wheels, with no weapons.
  • Phoenix
    This vehicle was not normally playable, but was an unmanned bomber called in with the Target Painter.

Teams

  • Black Legion
    The Black Legion is made up of the hideously deformed subjects of weaponized genetic mutation tests. This year, they have a new leader, Abaddon, the current pinnacle of achievement of this line of experiments.
  • Blood Fist
    The only team in the Tournament acknowledged to be entirely cybernetic, Blood Fist warriors have their programming upgraded each year, and have become more and more lethal.
  • Fire Storm
    The Mokara are respected and feared as warriors. The Mokara's elite fighting unit, Fire Storm, sends a team of their best soldiers to the Tournament each year.
  • Goliath
    With the success of Gorge's Juggernauts in last year's Tournament, Axon Research Corporation is now sponsoring Goliath in hopes of producing an all Juggernaut finals.
  • Hellions
    Once feared and reviled throughout human space as pirates and renegades, the Hellions seek to gain respectability as a mercenary outfit. They've entered the Tournament to demonstrate their capabilities to potential customers.
  • Iron Guard
    Brock and Lauren joined forces with Malcolm during his reign as Tournament champion. Infighting and recrimination over their stunning defeat in last year's Tournament led to the dissolution of that team. Now, Brock and Lauren have returned leading their old team, the Iron Guard.
  • Iron Skull
    This year, the Skaarj Empire is represented by the Iron Skull clan, who seek to regain honor after long being held responsible for the loss of the Skaarj Mothership during the Human/Skaarj wars.
  • Juggernauts
    Gorge is determined to prove that his one year reign as Tournament Champion is no fluke, and he has re-assembled the Juggernaut team he led to the championship. Axon Research Corporation has made armor and bio-genetic upgrades to the Juggernauts design for this year's Tournament.
  • Sun Blade
    Sun Blade is comprised of former Temple Guardians and veterans of the Desert Legion. They see victory in the Tournament as their only hope for burial and eternal life in the Valley of Kings on Luxor IV.
  • Super Nova
    Super Nova, a team of mercenaries from the Seventh Mercenary Fleet, has entered the Tournament to pay off their debts to the Izanagi Corporation.
  • The Corrupt
    Xan Kriegor was long regarded as invincible, until Malcolm defeated him in the fourth officially recognized Tournament finals. After a long hiatus, he has returned to lead the Liandri team, The Corrupt, back to the championship. Xan is sitting out the early rounds, which he perceives as beneath his attention.
  • Thunder Crash
    Following his well publicized break-up with long-time teammates Brock and Lauren, Malcolm has returned to lead his old team, Thunder Crash. Malcolm is currently rehabilitating an injury sustained in last year's championship match, but he is expected to be healthy in time for the Tournament Finals.


Characters

Cybernetic

Egyptians

Hellions

Gen Mo'Kai

Juggernauts

Mercenary

Nightmare

Robots

Skaarj

  • Clanlord
  • Dominator
  • Drekorig
  • Gaargod
  • Gkublok
  • Guardian
  • Kraagesh
  • Skakruk

Thunder Crash

Maps

Unreal Tournament 2004 features almost all of UT2003's maps and then doubles its numbers with new content. 55 new maps are added to the existing 51, with another 15 maps becoming available through free bonus packs. These bring the total number of official maps to a whopping 121.

Assault

Bombing Run

Capture the Flag

Double Domination

DeathMatch

Onslaught

Single-Player

Check the UT2004 Single Player page for info.

Essential Files

Here you will find all the links to the downloads of the essential files for your Unreal Tournament 2004 installation.

Patches

Other Patches

Dedicated Server

Bonus Packs

For the contents, see #Bonus Content.

Bonus Maps

Community Maps

Demo Version

Bonus Content

Windows XP Bonus Maps

Two maps were released by Epic mappers Clawfist and Nathillien through Gamespot using an installer that limited limited itself to Windows XP. The maps were soon redistributed by others without the installer, allowing anyone to use them. The maps in this package were ONS-Aridoom and ONS-Ascendancy.

Editor's Choice Edition

The editor's choice edition of Unreal Tournament 2004 was a 2-DVD special edition of the game with some bonus content, including four Onslaught maps, three Onslaught vehicles, six new characters, and eleven mods. The second disc included the same video tutorials included with the special edition of the initial release.

Soon after the ECE went on sale, the bonus game content - minus the tutorial videos - was made available for download by existing owners of the game. The three new vehicles, the SPMA, Cicada, and Paladin, able to be used in stock and XP maps through the Bonus Vehicles mutator. Also included were four new maps using the vehicles, ONS-Adara, ONS-IslandHop, ONS-Tricky, and ONS-Urban. Most of the mods included in the ECE were winners or finalists in Epic's Make Something Unreal Contest. The user created mods included in this release were:

Mega Pack

The Mega Pack contains the ECE Bonus Pack, UT2004 patch 3369 and some Assault, Capture the Flag and Deathmatch maps. The maps are special editions of maps originally made by community mappers. The Assault maps were upgraded with intros and announcements by the original female announcer voice.

Assault maps Capture the Flag maps Deathmatch maps

User Created Content

Epic Games has always supplied modding tools such as the Unreal Editor to developers as well as modders. There are many websites out there full of user created content available to download. Some sites specialize in Unreal series games or specific types of files.

Custom Map Sites

  • Insite - Large archive of maps with in-depth reviews. No longer updated.
  • Unreal Playground - Alpha, beta, and complete maps can be uploaded. Some maps are reviewed by staff members.
  • MapRaider - Users can upload maps, rate them, comment on them, or do in-depth reviews. The site also includes maps for many other games.
  • Map Factory - Users can upload maps, rate them, and comment on them. The site also includes maps for many other games.

Custom Player Model Sites

  • Skin City - Possibly the largest collection of player models and skins for all the Unreal Tournament games.

Mixed Custom Content Sites

  • File Front - File Front's Unreal Tournament 2004 section has a very well organized collection of models, maps, mutators, vehicles and other files. Filefront also has a specialized portal for Unreal series games.
  • UT Zone - UT Zone hosts a large number of UT2004 files and specializes in files for the Unreal series of games. It is a German-language site but has a language chooser at the bottom of the page for English speakers.
  • GameBanana - Uploaded files do not require approval by an admin or moderator and can be updated by the uploader as needed. The site has a good collection of maps and skins, as well as other UT2004 files.

Additional Information

System Requirements

  • Pentium III or AMD Athlon 1.0 GHz processor (Pentium® or AMD 1.2GHz or greater recommended)
  • 128MB RAM (256MB RAM or greater recommended)
  • 5.5GB HDD space REQUIRED
  • 8X CD-ROM or DVD
  • Windows® compatible sound card
  • 32 MB video card required (64 MB NVIDIA or ATI hardware T&L card recommended)
  • DirectX® version 9.0b (included on game disc)
  • Internet (TCP/IP) and LAN (TCP/IP) play supported. Internet play requires a 33.6 kbps or faster modem (broadband recommended)

Trivia

  • UT2003 and UT2004 share most of the same content and codebase, though UT2004 contains much more content.
    Unreal Tournament 2004 sought to remedy some of the complaints with the gameplay in Unreal Tournament 2003. One of the most influential changes to the core gameplay was change in the weaponswitch speed. This change prevented players from switching weapons quickly in order to increase their rate of fire. There was also a major change in the netcode, which better accommodates vehicle gametypes and large player counts, but "broke" compatibility with UT2003 and any mods that were designed to use UT2003 netcode.
  • According to Icculus, the Unreal Tournament 2004 installer for Linux is based in the one done for Unreal Tournament 2003.
  • According to this PlanetUnreal article, the Necris were going to be shipped with he game. In the end, only two of them were included as part of the ECE Bonus Pack.

UT2004 and Windows 7 Firewall Issues

You may find while trying to play UT2004 in Windows 7, that you are unable to even get to the server browser because of a message indicating that the Windows Firewall does not have an exception for the game. Even after allowing UT2004 through the firewall, the game will still not work. To fix this, you must add the following to your UT2004.ini: 

[FireWall]
IgnoreSP2=1[1]

Previews and Reviews

References

  1. ↑ http://forums.epicgames.com/showpost.php?p=7039283&postcount=8

See Also

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