The Story of UT and how it gets to UT3

[Stoned Rhyno]

Here is the Storyline:
I added some details, which I invented for myself (based on game-features), to complete the storyline. And sorry, if some details are not correct, i was to lazy to research, it all came freely out of my memory.

The Following Unreal-Games had been released:

Unreal 1 (PC, 1998 by GT Interactive):
A prison ship named Vortex Rikers crashes onto the planet NaPali. The player, Prisoner 849, fights his way through wreckages, temples, outposts, villages and mines to help the native Nalis, who see him as the messiah. The enemys are the Skaarj, a reptilian race which are a mix of Aliens/Predators (from the movies). They also have slaves fighting for them, like the Brutes and the Krall. In the end you defeat the queen and escape from the planet surface in a pod.
BtW: Best game Ever, hope a remake is coming to it´s 10th-12th birthday.

Unreal 1 - Return to NaPali (PC, 1999 by GT Interactive) aka. Mission Pack 1 :
A military ship rescues the player from the pod and sends him back to find the wreckage of the Prometheus, wich is captured by Mercenaries (an alien race). But the military betrayes prisoner 849 and tries to kill him. In the end, he can escape.

Unreal 1 - Operation NaPali (PC, 2003 by Team Vortex):
Actually, it is a really cool SP-mod for Unreal Tournament. But worth to mention as the (never released) Unreal Mission Pack 2.

Unreal 2 - The Awakening(PC/Xbox, 2003 by Atari):
You play John Dalton, a space sherriff wo has been dishonored by the military. He has the command over a very old starship named Atlantis. His crew members are the crazy and genious engineer Isaac, the sexy first officer Aida and an alien exchange officer named NeBan, who is a prince on his homeworld. On a rescue mission, you get your hands on an ancient alien artifact, which, if completed, turns a peaceful ancient alien race into high evolved superaliens.
You, Liandry, Izanagy and the Skaarj are hunting for these artifacts wich are spread on several planets throughout the galaxy.
(Besides the very good story, it is the worst game of the series, becaue there are mostly human enemies instead of different acting aliens and you jump without flow from one planet to an other)

Unreal Tournament (PC/PS2(later), 1999 by GT Interactive):
Intended to be a Multiplayer addon for Unreal 1, it became an own(ing) game, and later a whole series. The Liandry Mining Company started a Tournament and you have to defeat the champion: Xan. Malcom* fights his way through the ladder by beating Deathmatch, TeamDM, Capture the Flag, Domination and Assault events. In the finale, you fight with Xan Kriegors army of robots, the Corrupt, through very cool spacemaps. Some single Skaarj Troopers, who dind´t care about the war, also joined the Tournament.

Unreal Tournament 2003/Unreal Championship 1 (PC/Xbox, 2002 by Atari):
The Tournament is under new management. The whole event was more made up like a usual sports-event, like football. The physical laws in the arenas had been altered to enable trickjumps, the SniperRifle was replaced by the LightingGun, Adrenaline was introduced and with Bombing Run, a whole new gametype became part of the Tournament. Because of this changes, the skills of the champion players did not match and so, Gorge* could finally defeat Malcolm.

Unreal Tournament 2004 (PC, 2004 by Atari):
The last Tounament was really disliked by the audience, which resulted into a change of the Tournament into its former states, exept hard-to-change things like the movement. Additional to the returning Assault event, that reconstructs the most popular historical events, such as the Skaarj Wars, Onslaught was introduced, because people demanded vehicles to be part of the Tournament. The whole season was a personal war between the last three champions: Malcolm, Xan and Gorge. For the first time, the Skaarj entered the Tournament with an own very strong Team. Also the Necris made a small appearance, after a long absence.

Unreal Championship 2 - The Liandry Conflict (Xbox, 2005 by Midway):
It plays many years into the future to UT3, Lauren and Brock are dead and revived by the Necris. The Championship is mostly about throne ascention to the egyptian Naikti Homeworld. You play Anubis and your greatest rival is your former girlfriend isis. Newly introduced is the melee combat and the Skaarj may somehow influence the progress of the events. There is also a prominent guest appearance in the game: Raiden from Mortal Kombat!

*As told in the sequel. Actually you play a custom character.

[MatrixJCE]

Thank you so much for the many responses. A few more questions:

The races, can you choose what race you are. How much player discretion do you have with changing your appearance and modifing weapons.

I read on another article that indicated that there is no spawn time, as soon as you die you are back to life, is this accurate or what. The game is obviosly very fast paced, but is it too fast paced enough where you can't sit around and defend and not expect to see some one for like 15-30 seconds or are you always fighting and have hardly any distance to travel.

Spawn locations: do you have any control in this or is it pretty random.

Can you create your own group of people and bots and control the bots on the game.

What is the hype with the unreal engine 3, i have seen it in action, but it honestly doesn't seem that much different then any other FPSers.

I am a Console gamer on the ps3, do we know if the mods will be accesible on the ps store or do i have to download it to my comp and then transfers my card or memory stick to my ps3.

[utzBluesman]

1. You'll can choose any race, except by the single player, where you're a human and will have 3 human bots (or up to 3 real friends in cooperative multiplayer mode) to be your team.

2. The spawn time is configured in server. So, expect suddenly respawn or respawning when you click the fire button.

3. Spawning locations are random initially but, after some time you can know the most probable places when the enemy will appear when playing 1v1.

4. In UT2004 you have some control about spawn locations in ONS mode. You can choose the node (only the ones your team control of course) where you'll respawn.

5. In UT2004 (Instant Action) you can choose the bots wich will play the match, but the game sorts the teams in team games. In single player mode you can choose and change the bots as you progress.

6. The hype of unreal engine 3 we'll know when the game is out, but if you didn't play any Unreal PC game before, this doesn't matter.

[martinblank]

Just download the UT2004 demo, it's free.

EDIT:
You play on a ps3... umm, surely you must have a computer? just download the ut2004 demo on a computer and try it.

[BlindRob]

Funny how they put things like this on the page

2302 The gene-boosted monster - Gorge - defeats Malcolm in a brutal contest and is named champion of the Tournament. The aging Sniper Rifle (a relic of centuries past) is removed from the Tournament as is "Assault" - a team-based event that forms a part of the competition. Many fans of the Tournament complain at these changes, with some combatants refusing to participate in the new format.

[Mort_Q]

rofl funny how they put things like this on the page

2302 The gene-boosted monster - Gorge - defeats Malcolm in a brutal contest and is named champion of the Tournament. The aging Sniper Rifle (a relic of centuries past) is removed from the Tournament as is "Assault" - a team-based event that forms a part of the competition. Many fans of the Tournament complain at these changes, with some combatants refusing to participate in the new format.

Makes me wonder what they're going to come up with for the loss of various jumps, the merging of ONS and AS into WAR, and the return of the SR!?

Should be fun.

[DagnyTaggart]

The first game released was Unreal, which was primarily a single player "kill-all-the-monsters-on-the map and move on to the next map" type of shooter, rivaling the Quake series. In fact, it was sometimes referred to as the "Quake killer" since it came out a little after Quake II's release. It was groundbreaking for its graphics and use of color (as opposed to Quake's drab grays). Of course, this was back in the dawn of FPS games. It also offered multiplayer capabilities over the Internet.

Unreal Tournament (aka UT-GOTY, UT99, or UT1) was also groundbreaking and a smash hit. However, unlike the original Unreal, UT99 was focussed on online multiplayer play. UT1 also allowed people to build their own user-made game maps and game modifications. It was a great time to be gamer. Players built and released thousands of custom game maps and large numbers of different game types (aka "mods"). The game shipped with four standard game types: Deathmatch, Capture-the-Flag, Domination, and Assault.

Unlike most computer or console games, UT99 expanded far beyond the game that came in the box. Thousands of custom maps were made. Thousands of public and private servers were opened. Competitive leagues were formed and Internet communities with active discussion forums sprang up. I have heard that, at one time, over 150 different CTF clans (teams) competed on one of the ladders.

People still play the Original UT online to this day on public servers and also playing in organized pick-up-games on private servers and even in leagues (such as the Major League Unreal Tournament (MLUT) CTF league).

In the Summer of 2002 hype began to build for Unreal Tournament 2003 which many people had hoped would be a bona fide UT-2. However, the game play for UT 2003 was modified significantly and many UT99 fans turned away in disgust. UT 2004 improved upon the game play and added vehicles and new games, but both games are collectively known as "UT2". Overall, the original UT99 has proven to be more successful and to have more staying power in terms of online player counts.

Will UT3 offer the same kind of excitement that people enjoyed with the original UT99? Will it maintain high online player counts for years to come? Will hundreds of clans form and compete in leagues? Will Capture-the-Flag be as wildly popular as it was in UT99? Only time will tell.

However, if you are only used to playing single-player console games, you're in for a huge treat because the Unreal Tournament games are probably unlike anything you've ever seen before. Note that, ideally, you'd be best off purchasing the game for a PC.

[MatrixJCE]

More questions, but very excited

Wow thank you so much for that information on that last post DagnyTaggart, and thank you all for the previous posts. This last post was exactly what i was wanting to see. This entire forum is very informative, however, it seems as though people are focusing primarily on the weapons and expectations of the game its self. DagnyTaggart showed enthusiasm and experience with the Unreal tournament series. This was what i wanted, Enthusiasm. Obviously we are very excited for this game otherwise we wouldn't be in this forum.

I am so excited for this game and am constantly trying to find information about this game. For instance, I downloaded the UT3 demo and i haven't not watched it a single day since it was downloaded to my ps3. I am super excited about this game. I feel like i have a good enough knowledge base about the past and these games. I would like to learn more about the gameplay.

Do we have any idea when it is going to be released at all at this point? The reason why i ask this is because in E3 they said november. I haven't seen anything on TV for advertising this game. This leads me to believe that it might not becoming out this year at all. This idea was posted in a previous column that they had renamed it UT3 because it might not come out. I feel that this is the obvious truth since we are only 3 months away from november ( I am counting down for this game and my 21st birthday). It just doesn't feel right that it will be released in november considering all of the Ps3 delays anyways. I have no doubt it will be released for the comp in november, but not the ps3.

I have heard a few names of the guns in this game and from the demo that i have, i have seen some of the guns and what they are compared to. Obviously there is a fantasy machine gun, shotgun, Rocket launcher, sniper and things like that. Could anyone give me an idea as to what the names of these guns are, what there primary fire is, and their secondary fire is. Also, maybe a breif disadvantage, advantage list (reload time) acuracy). Are there grendades.

The vehicles: The one with four legs from war of the worlds, how do you get into these vehicles, do you teleport up, or do you have to have the machine at proper elevation so you can walk into the vehicle.

Personal additions to the game such as body armor and things like that, i have played games like that but it always wore off after a certain amount of time. Does this do the smae thing, and what are all the personal additions.

Health does it regenerate if you are able to find a spot and hide for some short time.

How customizable is your character, and can you customize your weapons.

Lastly, i am not sure if it is too early to do this, but has anybody created a clan for the future of UT3, if so i would very much like to be apart of something like that, if not just for a community to better attach myself to relative to this game, Thanks for your time.

[MatrixJCE]

Anothe quesion that i had, with ctf and everything that i have heard. is it possible to have three or four teams on one map. For instance: Capture the Flag with teams or have five different teams all trying to get one flag, it would allow for a much more strategic look at the battel field. And team games where it would split the resorces wouold require that team red would have to protect team blue if team purple and green where attacking team red.

[TheDeviot]

I'd suggest you pick up the Unreal Anthology for the PC. It's $20 and includes every game except ut2003 (because everything in UT2003 is also in UT2004)
Gameplaywise there is a difference in the feel between different games.
UT, and UT2k4 are the most popular of the series thus far. Both games have devoted fans, most of whom have played since the original Unreal.
There is a divide however. UT2k4 has a much faster play model, and added a lot of trick movements to try to make the game more interesting. Some players like myself, preferred it to the original game, and thought it gave players yet another cool thing to master. Other players thought it made things TOO complex, and kept too much space between combatants, and liked playing the original more. UT3 promises to take the best elements from those two games, and bridge the gap between the die hard UT fans, and bring in more fans who are tired of the WWII, or Modern Combat Tactical themes going on in the FPS genre these days. The reason you should buy the anthology is so you can get a feel for those two extremes, and allow you to grasp an idea of the gameplay you'll be getting come November.

[jbizzler]

I should forwarn every one that i have never played the Unreal series, but i have been a huge fan of Midway. If someone could tell me what the first two games where like I would really appreciate it.

Just want ot make thsi clear, Unreal Tournament 3 is not the third UT. First there was UT, then UT2003, then UT2004. Epic groups UT2003 and UT2004 as sort of one generation, so they pretend they're one game.

As for CTF, it's only two-team in UT2004. I don't kwow about the rest.

[|><|CELLENT]

UT"99", the original, was IMHO the BEST fps on the market at the time for years. It won game of the year and it certainly deserved it. It had a HUGE community of players, map makes, mod makers, etc. It was a truly magical time for FPS's. It shamed Quake 3...

Then came UT2003. Man was that teh suck. Sure I played it and it was fun, but it lost some of the magic and feel of the original. UT2004 was better but still not the same quality.

I think EPIC has some work to do to make the next UT own.

<crosses fingers>

--x

[MatrixJCE]

What are trick movements

[TheDeviot]

What are trick movements

Special jumps and dodge moves. In the original UT you could double tap any direction for a quick somersault dash.

UT2k3/2k4 built upon this by adding a double jump (Jump second time at apex of first jump), A dodge jump (After doing the double tap in any direction, Jump),
Wall dodges (While against a wall double jump then tap AWAY from the wall twice). They also took some of the power ups from the original UT and added pills called adrenilne. Once you collected one hundred, you could do a mortal kombat styled tap combination to activate the power up. for example strafing left twice then right twice got you invisibility. Then the pills count down to zero so essentially the power up lasts one hundred seconds.
This presumably was to stop people from camping out/hording the power ups like in the original UT. Some people saw that tactic as cheap, and so in 2k3 they decided adrenaline w combination secrets would be a great way to have the power up without people being cheap about it (In truth most of the powerups didn't warrant THAT big an advantage but still)

UT3 is supposed to be dialing down these moves a bit because they're perceived as making the game TOO challenging. But they don't want to take them away completely either. So it will be interesting to see how it turns out.

[Judge Dredd Lox]

Before you plop down $50 or so dollars, go buy the one that's already out and try it. UT or UT2003 or 4. I've seen them for around $10. Any one of these are awesome games, I've played them all and play nothing else.