Unreal Tournament 2004

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.



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.

Demo
Epic released the demo for UT2004 on February 11, 2004, including five maps from the game's library:
 * AS-Convoy
 * BR-Colossus
 * CTF-BridgeOfFate
 * DM-Rankin
 * ONS-Torlan

The game went gold on March 5, 2004.

Release Details

 * March 16, 2004 - Unreal Tournament 2004 (PC) - Six-CD set
 * March 16, 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:
 * Air Buccaneers
 * Alien Swarm
 * ChaosUT2
 * Clone Bandits
 * Deathball
 * Domain
 * Jailbreak
 * Red Orchestra
 * Rocketeer
 * UnWheel
 * 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
 * November 6, 2006 - released as a portion of the Unreal Anthology collection

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:
 * Pixomatic Software Renderer
 * SpeedTree
 * Karma Physics Engine
 * OpenAL Audio System
 * LIPsinc Facial Animation Software

Music
Will Nevins, Kevin Riepl and Starsky Partridgeare credited for working on the music in Unreal Tournament 2004.
 * Tracks

Gametypes
Unreal Tournament 2004 has nearly a dozen gametypes available:


 * Deathmatch
 * Team Deathmatch
 * Capture the Flag
 * Vehicle Capture the Flag
 * Onslaught
 * Assault
 * Double Domination
 * Bombing Run
 * Last Man Standing
 * Invasion
 * Mutant

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.


 * Translocator
 * Shield Gun
 * Ball Launcher
 * Assault Rifle
 * Bio Rifle
 * Mine Layer
 * Shock Rifle
 * Super Shock Rifle
 * Link Gun
 * Minigun
 * Flak Cannon
 * Grenade Launcher
 * Rocket Launcher
 * AVRiL
 * Sniper Rifle
 * Lightning Gun
 * Redeemer
 * Ion Painter
 * Target Painter

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
 * Scorpion
 * Hellbender
 * Paladin
 * Goliath
 * SPMA
 * Leviathan
 * Raptor
 * Cicada
 * Human Starfighter
 * Skaarj Starfighter
 * Ion Plasma Tank
 * Bulldog
 * TC-1200
 * Dragonfly

Additional Information

 * 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 greatly improved the quality of online play, but "broke" compatibility with UT2003 and any mods that were designed to use UT2003 netcode.

Previews and Reviews

 * Gamespy Review (5/5)
 * GameSpot Review (9.4/10)
 * IGN Review (9.4/10)
 * WorthPlaying Review (9.4/10)
 * GameRevolution Review (A-)
 * GameZone Review (9.5/10)