Unreal Tournament |
Unreal Tournament or UT is a popular first-person shooter computer game. It was Epic Games s 1999 follow-up title to Unreal, and focused mainly on multiplayer action. It was launched in direct competition to Id Software s Quake III Arena , released 10 days later. Although Quake III Arena had superior graphics and though its engine was more widely adopted, Unreal Tournament had both vastly superior Computer game bot Artificial Intelligence, alternate fire for weapons which introduced a further element of strategy, and more immersive multiplayer capabilities. Its huge multiplayer success was rewarded by various Best Game of the Year titles. As with the original Unreal , the ease with which players could create and release mod (computer gaming)s to the core game was a key factor contributing to Unreal Tournament s longevity. Unreal Tournament improved upon the mod-friendly nature of its predecessor with the inclusion of support for mutators .
Unreal Tournament was also released on PlayStation 2 in 2000 and on Sega Dreamcast in 2001. Both versions were four players via splitscreen. The Dreamcast version had 8-player online support while Playstation 2 did not.
=Gameplay=
Unreal Tournament and Quake III Arena both featured deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture the flag; however, unique to Unreal Tournament was the assault mode. With two teams taking turns, the first set of attackers has to achieve objectives and pass through checkpoints within a certain time limit, while the defenders have to use fortifications and defenses to hold them back until time expires. Once the objectives have been achieved, or the time has expired, the opposing sides switch to see which team has the better time for completing the objectives. It was said that many gamers bought Unreal Tournament solely because of the Overlord assault map, which simulated the famous World War II D-day beachhead assault on the Battle of Normandy (although Overlord is closer to Juno Beach, instead, due to both having heavy gun batteries which the Omaha defenses lacked). Although the original release of UT had a small selection of assault maps, there were many user-created maps, the most popular being the Assault Bonus Pack 4.18 which received the endorsement of UT designer Cliff Bleszinski. Because of time constraints, assault mode was removed from the follow up game, Unreal Tournament 2003 , but was included once again in Unreal Tournament 2004 , which was a superset of Unreal Tournament
Also unique to Unreal Tournament is domination , a gametype that pits teams against one another to control multiple points on a map. Once these points are held for a certain period of time the team gains a point.
Although the game was mainly intended for multiplayer use, it also includes a single player game that allows a player to play any of the gametypes that are also available for multiplayer. The single player mode of the game has no real story beyond the player attempting to beat the current Champion of the Tournament , Xan Kriegor.
Unreal Tournament is known and widely praised for its Artificial intelligence. The player can choose a skill level, from Novice to Godlike , to apply to the bots in both single player and multiplayer games. In the multiplayer portion, each bot can also be customized by changing its name, appearance, accuracy, weapon preference, awareness, etc. It is also possible to play multiplayer games with a mix of human players and computer-controlled bots.
==Translocator==
The translocator is a small disc shot from a launcher. Wherever the disc goes, the player can then translocate to that spot, be it in midair or on top of a high cliff. Two popular translocator techniques used throughout Unreal Tournament are telepunting and telefragging.
Telepunting is a movement technique allowing for quick traversals of large open areas, reducing the likelihood of unwanted engagements. It is when the user punts the disc off the ground with a Shock Combo or a blow from the Impact Hammer. This trick is especially useful in Capture the Flag, as it allows for rapid flag-capture attempts without the long delay of traveling from base to base.
The translocator is also used to perform the telefrag, an instant death move in which the user translocates into the space occupied by another player - a practice often used by expert players to humiliate lesser skilled opponents.
It must be noted however, that when the disc is destroyed (by default the disc has a little blinking light on top of it, but when shot enough times, the light goes off), people trying to teleport to it will get telefragged. This makes leaving the disc behind quite risky as it is likely to be spotted and destroyed by the opponents.
Also, in Capture The Flag mode, players carrying the flag cannot use translocators.
=Community=
As of August 2005, there remains an active but dwindling Unreal Tournament online community, with a few thousand UT dedicated players online in multiplayer combat at any one time. It is easy to find a game any time of the day. For instance, later in the evening, and late at night, games in countries half way around the globe can be found. At four A.M. in the United States, there are active servers in Europe where it is already lunchtime. From the hours of approximately eight A.M. until ten P.M. in the United State it is very easy to find a full server of Deathmatch, Capture the flag or Team Deathmatch. Unfortunately, at this time there are few hours of the day when a full Assault or Domination server can be found.
Also dwindling are the leagues that once existed for competitive play. One such league, the Proving Grounds, was arguably the longest lasting and most respected gaming league for Unreal Tournament that ever existed. Unfortunately, the Proving Grounds closed its doors in 2004 to the dismay of many online clans who actively played in the United States based league.
One active Assault league called UTassault (www.utassault.net) is Euro based and provides a great community in which the best assaulters from around the world compete for the title of best assault clan. However since it is Euro based and all games must be played on Euro servers, non Euro assaulters have a very difficult time climbing the ranks due to excessive latency otherwise known as ping in the Unreal Tournament community.
Also in existence is the ProUnreal (www.prounreal.com) league which was mainly started as a CTF league but has adopted some of the orphaned Proving Grounds competitors. This league is based in North America and includes newer Epic Unreal Series games such as UT 2003, and UT 2004.
Unreal Tournament is an aging game, and many new players come and go. This may be due to several factors. First, a high skill level is needed to compete in many of the existing servers. Many of those who still play Unreal Tournament are or were at one time dedicated to the game much as a pro athlete would dedicate himself to his sport. Many of these player are very skilled, know the maps in and out, know the location and use of all secrets and powerups, and use weapons in ways that newer players can t even fathom. Second, many modern servers are heavily modified and require downloading the new files which can be difficult. Third, because of the prevalent cheats in the game, the game engine has been modified multiple times to newer versions 436, and 451. This latest release came about by the joint efforts of the game s modding scene, united as UTPG.org, wanting to keep Unreal Tournament up to date after Epic Games stopped supporting the title. Clients can but do not have to apply this patch, as they can still connect to 451 servers while running version 436.
By far the largest faction of the Unreal Tournament online gaming community is the European one, largely based (but not ending) at [http://www.ClanBase.com ClanBase] - the largest online gaming community in the world, spanning nearly all major online multiplayer games.
There are also more minor factions, supporting the more particular community. For example, [http://pipgn.ugamer.net PiPGN] (the Primus Inter Pares Gaming Network) is an onling gaming community supporting a very dedicated Sniper Arena community (and of course welcoming others!).
=Mod support=
Selected mods and mutators for Unreal Tournament:
=External links=
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