LOS ANGELES - May
13, 2003 - Atari is bringing UnrealŪ Tournament 2004, the newest
edition of the definitive virtual blood sport, to personal computers
this Fall. Unreal Tournament 2004, like its predecessors, is being
co-created by Epic Games Inc. and Digital Extremes. The game will be
shown at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, May 14 -
16, in Petree Hall, room 4003.
"Unreal Tournament 2004 is the next
evolution of the greatest competitive computer game ever created,"
said Jean-Philippe Agati, senior vice president and general manager of
Atari's Los Angeles studio. "The addition of new modes, mods and
maps as well as the controllable land-, air- and space-based vehicles,
means Unreal fans are getting an entirely new experience featuring
devastating vehicular combat and wide scale warfare."
Key features of the game include:
Assault Mode: The much heralded single-player oriented gametype
returns with all-out battles with land, space and air-based vehicles on
the home worlds of various Unreal Tournament 2004 combatants. In one
scenario, players will experience the adrenaline rush of space-based
battle while attacking or defending a Skaarj mother ship. Another
scenario takes place on Xan Kriegor's mechanical home world where
players attack or defend a robot construction factory. There are
currently six Assault scenarios planned to ship with the game.
Onslaught Mode: New multi-player oriented combat game type on
custom-built large-scale maps featuring awesome new weapons and land-
and air-based vehicles. From the lethal bomber to the nefarious spider
mines - players will work as teams to control map points and win the
conflict. There are currently nine Onslaught maps planned to ship with
the game.
Live voice chat over LAN and internet with 3D audio (on supported sound
cards) so players can sense where voices emanate from. Using a
microphone and headset (not included), players can communicate with
teammates and buddies or just yell at everybody who gets in their way!
Several settings are provided to allow users to customize their voice
chat experience.
Fan-favorite Unreal characters will return to challenge in the
tournaments, including the Skaarj, the Necris and the infamous Xan
Kriegor.
The game will include 20 never-before-seen maps for the existing game
types, featuring tons of new textures, new static meshes and new music.
It's a field day for mod makers! Also included are new maps from Digital
Extremes designed specifically to appeal to "hardcore" UT
players.
In total, Unreal Tournament 2004 will ship with more never-before-seen
maps than the entire number of maps that shipped with Unreal Tournament
2003!
UnrealTV match broadcast system will allow for hundreds of people to
view an Unreal Tournament 2004 match with minimal performance impact on
game server. UnrealTV will be fully integrated into the server browser
to make it easy to located broadcasted matches.
Complete end-user voting system that will allow users to choose game
type, maps, mutators, rules and settings and will also provide the
ability to remove troublesome players from the game. Custom clan-match
voting system will allow clans to negotiate acceptable game settings
prior to a competitive match.
Unreal Tournament 2004 users will be able to join games on Unreal
Tournament 2003 servers.
A completely redesigned user interface (UI) will be easier to navigate
and support context-sensitive menus, an in-game login menu (to improve
team balancing) and an improved server browser with enhanced server
filtering options. The underlying user interface system has been
reengineered to be easier for Mod authors to build menus and implement
their own UI designs.
Tons of cool gameplay tweaks and refinements including unique crosshairs
for each weapon, the ability to carry dual Assault Rifles, improved
computer-controlled "Bot" team coordination and movement,
network bandwidth usage optimizations and more!
In addition to the new modes, maps, characters, vehicles and
improvements, Unreal Tournament 2004 includes all of the content from
Unreal Tournament 2003 plus the two free bonus packs released by Digital
Extremes and Epic Games.
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