UT2004 - Looking Good and how it compared to HALO

Read this for the review:
http://www.gamespy.com/previews/february04/ut2004pc/

Look at these screen shots. (you'll need to change the last 2 digits
to see other images).
http://www.gamespy.com/asp/image.asp...t2004pc/01.jpg

(Game Spy used to have a Master page of screen shots)

I've been playing Unreal since the first game in 1997 - the reason *I*
bought my first REAL 3D card, the Voodoo1.

Even to this day, I still play UT from 1999 more than any other game
for multiplayer.... but yes I do play some new games.

When UT2003 came out at the end of 2002, it had great eye candy.
Amazing details which are still better than some of the current games
coming out.

You can spend forever making the game "perfect" - but that never
happens, now about 14 months later, a new version with a lot of
enhancements is coming out. The graphics updated, more weapons etc.

I hope UT2004 is kick ass, because WHILE UT2003 had amazing eye candy,
it SUCKED FOR GAME PLAY! They made it more like Quake, the removed
some features (playing dead for one, Team view for another). But
besides the worse menu interface (which looked good, but functionality
is limted) and the revised MENU control from the Original UT over to
the keyboard style of Counter Strike (WHY WHY MESS this up?!) is that
the WEAPONS SUCKED ASS!!!

With the relase of Unreal2, it shows that GOOD weapons can be made,
and adding them to UT2004 (as we are guessing by their statements)
will fix the game. The MOST fun I have with UT2003 is on a server
with modded weapons that are more fun and usable than the default crap
that came with UT2003. Even to this day, for every hr I play UT2003,
I play 40hrs of UT-classic... The clans and people I play with feel
the SAME way... many of us BOUGHT UT2003 and felt ripped off.

I hope UT2004 is a killer game, it LOOKS good, it SOUNDS good... but
until I play it, I won't know.

Things messed up by the UT2003 team that would be needed:

1 - Weapons: Sniper rifle (like in Unreal2), remove the "balance"
function of having the same KILL Damage with different looks thingy.

2 - Improved MENU controls for setup etc, more like original UT (I've
heard they've done this)

3 - Faking Death button, this is a FUN thing to do... either it works
or you are killed on the ground. Also handy for quick breaks to the
toilet.

4 - TEAM view button (F5) which cycles to 3rd person view of your
fellow team mates, GREAT for helping members who are lost or have a
problem. So you can HELP them in fighting or returning to base.

5 - Screen-Command (For feedback text/speech and bot commands), have
an option for both styles. Its a LOT of work in a DARK room to press
your number buttons 2-4 times to get a command, rather than HOLD down
the command and the MOUSE appears for you to make your selection.

6 - Different levels of transparancies for HUD, Having the ENEMY's
NAME show up so brightly above or below the cross hairs - rather than
above their heads makes the shots difficult.

7 - Throw out the stupid lightning gun, with its useless scope. (see
#1 weapons)

8 - Adding a PUNCH button is fun and handy for those times when there
is no more ammo. I've killed 3 players in HALO in the last 10 seconds
of the game that way

9 - Improve networking performance.


With the Patches (about 75mb worth) provided by Team UT2003, they had
fixed many problems with UT2003. Their UT-CLASSIC mod kinda sucked,
it over-rid some personal modes. They didn't "GET IT" as to what made
UT-classic the CLASSIC it is today. It has to do with game play,
weapons and the features I listed above.

I play HALO more than UT2003, its a DIFFERENT Team game than UT2003
because of its weapons and VECs. (Jeeps / Jets / Tanks) and the game
play is different. But in general, HALO is a crappy game. The single
player maps look nice, somewhat - but the repeated multi-level alien
rooms were BORING and STUPID. (imaging the SAME room 20 times!!) And
its Multiplayer feature set is a joke... Only 3~4 good maps out of
20!! No MOD or add-on user maps available (Yikes), no BOTS, no
rag-doll effects, no gibs - ALL players LOOK exactly the same (which
is lame sine there are 8 other combat characters from the game that
could have been THROWN IN). The networking tools SUCK, idiotic.
Clearly designed by people who know little about multiplayer games.

Here is an example how the VEC are different from HALO and UT2004.
(The JEEP class alone) - which are FUN in HALO, but very limiting.

HALO, when you drive, you are 100% defenseless without a GUNNER. When
I played it, I thought, "It would be great if it had a HORN" to warn
your TEAM your driving by to get their attention of to WARN them so
they don't get hit. In UT2004, there are 2 HORN types (Oh yeah!) and
Alarm when an enemy steals your Jeep (this should be funny) and for
added bonus, the driver has a basic shooting ability. (Hope it still
allows a gunner, I dont know) - but for even more bloody mess, which I
think is over kill - the 2nd fire on the Jeep has saw blades that come
out the sides!! OUCH!!

In HALO, you just drive....

BUT, HALO in general is a fine single player (other than the alien
room problem - my guess, to PAD the levels up) with a great concept,
very good NPC characters, awsome voice acting and sound effects.

HALO is a DX7-DX8 game in reality, its graphics do not compare to
UT2003, much less UT2004. I've played the HALO Retail version, a
friend was bored with it... and I SURE wouldn't pay $40 for this OLD
game... maybe $15. And for the most part, the HALO DEMO is all YOU
NEED... other than its total lack of ADMIN tools (to take care of
TKers) - HALO DEMO has the BEST Multiplayer map (and only 1) out of
the full version! That is SAD... very very sad.

Buy UT2004, its easily the game that HALO will never be for
Multiplayer gaming.

UT2004 - PLEASE BE AN AWSOME GAME!!! (Due March/April)

Because Doom3 and Half Life2 won't be out till after this summer.


--
Remember when real men used Real computers!?
When 512K of video RAM was a lot!

Death to Palladium & WPA!!

"Darthy" wrote in message
...
Read this for the review:
http://www.gamespy.com/previews/february04/ut2004pc/

Look at these screen shots. (you'll need to change the last 2 digits
to see other images).

http://www.gamespy.com/asp/image.asp...t2004pc/01.jpg

(Game Spy used to have a Master page of screen shots)

I've been playing Unreal since the first game in 1997 - the reason *I*
bought my first REAL 3D card, the Voodoo1.

Even to this day, I still play UT from 1999 more than any other game
for multiplayer.... but yes I do play some new games.

When UT2003 came out at the end of 2002, it had great eye candy.
Amazing details which are still better than some of the current games
coming out.

You can spend forever making the game "perfect" - but that never
happens, now about 14 months later, a new version with a lot of
enhancements is coming out. The graphics updated, more weapons etc.

I hope UT2004 is kick ass, because WHILE UT2003 had amazing eye candy,
it SUCKED FOR GAME PLAY! They made it more like Quake, the removed
some features (playing dead for one, Team view for another). But
besides the worse menu interface (which looked good, but functionality
is limted) and the revised MENU control from the Original UT over to
the keyboard style of Counter Strike (WHY WHY MESS this up?!) is that
the WEAPONS SUCKED ASS!!!

With the relase of Unreal2, it shows that GOOD weapons can be made,
and adding them to UT2004 (as we are guessing by their statements)
will fix the game. The MOST fun I have with UT2003 is on a server
with modded weapons that are more fun and usable than the default crap
that came with UT2003. Even to this day, for every hr I play UT2003,
I play 40hrs of UT-classic... The clans and people I play with feel
the SAME way... many of us BOUGHT UT2003 and felt ripped off.

I hope UT2004 is a killer game, it LOOKS good, it SOUNDS good... but
until I play it, I won't know.

I've been playing the new Onslaught mode and its some of the most frantic
and exciting gaming I've had in a long time. I think they got this one
right.

Now downloading the demo, should be quite good.

doughnut



"Darthy" wrote in message
...
Read this for the review:
http://www.gamespy.com/previews/february04/ut2004pc/

Look at these screen shots. (you'll need to change the last 2 digits
to see other images).

http://www.gamespy.com/asp/image.asp...t2004pc/01.jpg

(Game Spy used to have a Master page of screen shots)

I've been playing Unreal since the first game in 1997 - the reason *I*
bought my first REAL 3D card, the Voodoo1.

Even to this day, I still play UT from 1999 more than any other game
for multiplayer.... but yes I do play some new games.

When UT2003 came out at the end of 2002, it had great eye candy.
Amazing details which are still better than some of the current games
coming out.

You can spend forever making the game "perfect" - but that never
happens, now about 14 months later, a new version with a lot of
enhancements is coming out. The graphics updated, more weapons etc.

I hope UT2004 is kick ass, because WHILE UT2003 had amazing eye candy,
it SUCKED FOR GAME PLAY! They made it more like Quake, the removed
some features (playing dead for one, Team view for another). But
besides the worse menu interface (which looked good, but functionality
is limted) and the revised MENU control from the Original UT over to
the keyboard style of Counter Strike (WHY WHY MESS this up?!) is that
the WEAPONS SUCKED ASS!!!

With the relase of Unreal2, it shows that GOOD weapons can be made,
and adding them to UT2004 (as we are guessing by their statements)
will fix the game. The MOST fun I have with UT2003 is on a server
with modded weapons that are more fun and usable than the default crap
that came with UT2003. Even to this day, for every hr I play UT2003,
I play 40hrs of UT-classic... The clans and people I play with feel
the SAME way... many of us BOUGHT UT2003 and felt ripped off.

I hope UT2004 is a killer game, it LOOKS good, it SOUNDS good... but
until I play it, I won't know.

Things messed up by the UT2003 team that would be needed:

1 - Weapons: Sniper rifle (like in Unreal2), remove the "balance"
function of having the same KILL Damage with different looks thingy.

2 - Improved MENU controls for setup etc, more like original UT (I've
heard they've done this)

3 - Faking Death button, this is a FUN thing to do... either it works
or you are killed on the ground. Also handy for quick breaks to the
toilet.

4 - TEAM view button (F5) which cycles to 3rd person view of your
fellow team mates, GREAT for helping members who are lost or have a
problem. So you can HELP them in fighting or returning to base.

5 - Screen-Command (For feedback text/speech and bot commands), have
an option for both styles. Its a LOT of work in a DARK room to press
your number buttons 2-4 times to get a command, rather than HOLD down
the command and the MOUSE appears for you to make your selection.

6 - Different levels of transparancies for HUD, Having the ENEMY's
NAME show up so brightly above or below the cross hairs - rather than
above their heads makes the shots difficult.

7 - Throw out the stupid lightning gun, with its useless scope. (see
#1 weapons)

8 - Adding a PUNCH button is fun and handy for those times when there
is no more ammo. I've killed 3 players in HALO in the last 10 seconds
of the game that way

9 - Improve networking performance.


With the Patches (about 75mb worth) provided by Team UT2003, they had
fixed many problems with UT2003. Their UT-CLASSIC mod kinda sucked,
it over-rid some personal modes. They didn't "GET IT" as to what made
UT-classic the CLASSIC it is today. It has to do with game play,
weapons and the features I listed above.

I play HALO more than UT2003, its a DIFFERENT Team game than UT2003
because of its weapons and VECs. (Jeeps / Jets / Tanks) and the game
play is different. But in general, HALO is a crappy game. The single
player maps look nice, somewhat - but the repeated multi-level alien
rooms were BORING and STUPID. (imaging the SAME room 20 times!!) And
its Multiplayer feature set is a joke... Only 3~4 good maps out of
20!! No MOD or add-on user maps available (Yikes), no BOTS, no
rag-doll effects, no gibs - ALL players LOOK exactly the same (which
is lame sine there are 8 other combat characters from the game that
could have been THROWN IN). The networking tools SUCK, idiotic.
Clearly designed by people who know little about multiplayer games.

Here is an example how the VEC are different from HALO and UT2004.
(The JEEP class alone) - which are FUN in HALO, but very limiting.

HALO, when you drive, you are 100% defenseless without a GUNNER. When
I played it, I thought, "It would be great if it had a HORN" to warn
your TEAM your driving by to get their attention of to WARN them so
they don't get hit. In UT2004, there are 2 HORN types (Oh yeah!) and
Alarm when an enemy steals your Jeep (this should be funny) and for
added bonus, the driver has a basic shooting ability. (Hope it still
allows a gunner, I dont know) - but for even more bloody mess, which I
think is over kill - the 2nd fire on the Jeep has saw blades that come
out the sides!! OUCH!!

In HALO, you just drive....

BUT, HALO in general is a fine single player (other than the alien
room problem - my guess, to PAD the levels up) with a great concept,
very good NPC characters, awsome voice acting and sound effects.

HALO is a DX7-DX8 game in reality, its graphics do not compare to
UT2003, much less UT2004. I've played the HALO Retail version, a
friend was bored with it... and I SURE wouldn't pay $40 for this OLD
game... maybe $15. And for the most part, the HALO DEMO is all YOU
NEED... other than its total lack of ADMIN tools (to take care of
TKers) - HALO DEMO has the BEST Multiplayer map (and only 1) out of
the full version! That is SAD... very very sad.

Buy UT2004, its easily the game that HALO will never be for
Multiplayer gaming.

UT2004 - PLEASE BE AN AWSOME GAME!!! (Due March/April)

Because Doom3 and Half Life2 won't be out till after this summer.


--
Remember when real men used Real computers!?
When 512K of video RAM was a lot!

Death to Palladium & WPA!!

I just finished toying around with the demo. I'd say it has great eye candy
but it doesn't represent a significant improvement in gameplay or style over
Unreal 2003--a game I've always found to be a little repedative. It does
seem to run better on my system than Unreal 2003.

I've always considered the Unreal games to be a nice reference to test
hardware but they don't really hold my interest like Battlefield 1942 or
Desert Combat. I have similar feelings toward Halo.

~G

On Thu, 12 Feb 2004 04:52:57 GMT, "Chalky"
wrote:

I just finished toying around with the demo. I'd say it has great eye candy
but it doesn't represent a significant improvement in gameplay or style over
Unreal 2003--a game I've always found to be a little repedative. It does
seem to run better on my system than Unreal 2003.

I have UT2003... As stated for the reasons why I don't like it.

I just DLoaded the 209mb DEMO of UT2004 (20mins) and man, I was
laughing - it was a blast. The game feels better than UT2004... very
smooth... I've been playing UT since 1999... so I already like he
UT2004 a lot more than UT2003.

I've always considered the Unreal games to be a nice reference to test
hardware but they don't really hold my interest like Battlefield 1942 or
Desert Combat. I have similar feelings toward Halo.

Well... thats a matter of taste.... Battlefield? Geez, that game is
horrible... Try out Call Of Duty - much nicer, even with basicly the
same old game engine

Some people like WWII type games, while others like High tech - which
with lasers and rockets, they can turn up the eye candy. COD looks
and feels very good (consider its engine limitations) - and the UT2004
/ HL2 / DOOM3 engines end up in your WWII games...

BTW: I was getting a steady 60fps in UT2004, max details on a very
large map.


FOR OTHERS:

UT2004 demo : www.unreal.com - click on UT or UT2003, from there you
CAN'T miss the UT2004 DEMO banner. A pop up will give you dowload
choices. I recommend YAHOO GAMES first, very very fast (I was
getting 150K over 50K from Nvidia - AND a friend was getting 300~400k
from Yahoo at the same time).

209mb DEMO - Eats 500mb of HD space. At least 6 maps, 2 charaters
with 2 skins types (about 120 combinations on the retail version).


--
Remember when real men used Real computers!?
When 512K of video RAM was a lot!

Death to Palladium & WPA!!

On Thu, 12 Feb 2004 04:52:57 GMT, "Chalky"
wrote:

||I just finished toying around with the demo. I'd say it has great eye candy
||but it doesn't represent a significant improvement in gameplay or style over
||Unreal 2003--a game I've always found to be a little repedative. It does
||seem to run better on my system than Unreal 2003.
||
||I've always considered the Unreal games to be a nice reference to test
||hardware but they don't really hold my interest like Battlefield 1942 or
||Desert Combat. I have similar feelings toward Halo.
||
||~G
||

I thought the text-to-voice is rather interesting. And even more
intriguing is plugging in a mic and then in Settings/input/control
binding/ near the middle to bottom you can bind a key to open up a
real-time voice over IP to team-mates OR to everyone. That's going to
end up selling quite a few headset mics I think. It's just like Xbox
and LIVE .. you can hear each other in real time. I don't think many
people even know this feature is in the demo. Once word gets out .. I
expect it to really take off.


Pluvious

On Thu, 12 Feb 2004 00:19:05 -0000, "Jamie_Manic" mmmm...pork rind
wrote:


I hope UT2004 is a killer game, it LOOKS good, it SOUNDS good... but
until I play it, I won't know.

I've been playing the new Onslaught mode and its some of the most frantic
and exciting gaming I've had in a long time. I think they got this one
right.


YEP... I spent 2hrs on a server with 16vs16 (32 humans) with NO
LAG.... it was a blast. I was doing VERY GOOD... also, its kinda
NEAT (or sucks) to be almost winning, then all of the sudden - YOU ARE
fighting to STAY ALIVE... then lose the battle!!

UT2004/ VECHICLE gaming requires more TEAM-WORK than plain shoot-kiLL.


--
Remember when real men used Real computers!?
When 512K of video RAM was a lot!

Death to Palladium & WPA!!

BTW: Here is my performance: (My 2 computers)

AVG 60~70fps (indoor and outdoor)
hardwa AMD2500 / 512mb / ATI9800Pro/ WinXP
Settings: 1280x1024 - FULL GAME DETAILS on MAX (8bots)
FSAA on LOW (I like speed) / V-SYNC ON

AVG 40~50fps (indoors) / 30fps (outdoors) - but easy to dip to 18fps.
hardwa AMD2000 / 512mb / GF4 Ti4200 64mb / WinXP
Settings: 1024x768 - MED GAME DETAILS on MED (8bots)
NO FSAA / V-Sync OFF

Visual differences:
Due to limited horse power, my Ti4200 is not using MAX details. I did
raise the character details to normal (like the ATI) which under
normal conditions with this card, it should be on LOW.
Generally, especially INSIDE, the Ti4200 is very much like my ATI,
without FSAA, jaggies. Its not as smooth during combat. But still
very playable on a Ti4200 card. overall, it does look nice on a 2yr
old video card. But not as vibrant (lighting, world effects) as a
good DX9 card.

Of course, those with a GF5600 or slower will not be able to play this
game, unless its set to 640x480, maybe 16bit, graphics settings on
LOW. On the manual, it says a GF2-32mb is the minimal that will
work?! Geez, thats torture!!


Oh, the Demo includes the compele printed manal (PDF) - talk about
making it easy for "pirates?" geez. but its a nice clean manual...
compared to the crap they did with UT2003.

PS2: 209mb file unpacks to 408mb... wow. (installs to 500mb).


--
Remember when real men used Real computers!?
When 512K of video RAM was a lot!

Death to Palladium & WPA!!