Customer Reviews

Unreal Tournament 2004 Special Edition

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I've been waiting on unreal tournament 2004 for a while now.... mainly because of the unreal training videos and of course the awesome unreal engine. Basically you can think of buying this as a small investment in learning an immense package that can bring you countless hours more fun. Now onto a review about this game

Playing this game on my topped out gaming rig (3 gigahertz HT p4 over clocked, radeon 9800 pro etc...) I can max out the settings to max and the resolution to 1024x768 and experience no slow down at all. With a gig of ram the load times are small ( 10-30 secs max ) with 512 megs its around 20-45 ). However when I put in an older 64 Meg card ( ati radeon 8500dv 64meg ) the performance took a major hit! I had to run it at 800x600 and use low settings and it still took around 40-120 seconds to load ( longer on massive multiplayer ).

The Graphics are great, I'm running the new ATI 4.3 drivers and the unreal engine really gives my machine a workout! The in game sound is nice as well.

The included headset/mic combo is kind of cheap but it gets the job done. It's purple and small but fits well. ( Chances are if your using a high tech sound system you would be best off using an external mic for use for in game 3d chats )

The Metal case is similar to the terminator 2 Ultimate edition DVD with the silver case.

This package also includes the unreal editor ( used to create levels ) upaint ( used to paint - think similar to 3dpaint ) and of course Maya 5 ple and a plug-in so you can export your models to unreal.

If you want to create your own games this is the version you must buy. Also you can run this on Linux instead of just windows which are nice as well however Maya ple 5 won't run on Linux.... Also since the game is on 1 DVD instead of 6 cds you have less to keep up with and the install is more streamlined. The Amazon listing says 150 hours of training but it's more like 60. The videos are second to none, they teach you everything from learning Maya to modeling, rigging, and most importantly exporting to unreal. They also include INDEPTH unreal scripting courses so you can learn to program physics and learn about the karma engine (beats reading the instructions from unreals developer website!)

And if you are buying this mainly for the game design supplements I would highly recommend buying some more books on Maya as well as concept drawing - maybe some how to draw manga or comics - for character designs ( how to draw anime and game characters series is a great set ) or for free drawing and character help you can check out howtodrawmanga.com, and 3dbuzz.com also has some drawing videos for free ( their artist Derek Stevens uses a deformed manga style and has a video on showing how to convert a front drawing pose to use in Maya for 3d modeling and ultimately to export out to unreal tournament! )

And finally if you wish to purchase this game your best bet is if someone on Amazon posts it to sell or on eBay and if I didn't already own a copy of it I would most def be ready and willing to pay over 100+ for it because the training material is more than worth it alone. - And of course I have no affiliation with any of these companies -

There is the original CD version for $40
There was a "Special Edition DVD" in tin box with Logitech headset,and editor tutorials for around $100
On april 13th, a "special" DVD Edition (not to be confused with "Special Edition") was released with the tutorials for $39. No tin box. No headset

Atari marketing may have dropped the ball on that one - but it is still an awesome 5 Star game.(...)

As a prior student of Jason Busby (3DBuzz.com), I have to say that this DVD combo will be incredible. He's created 23 new VTMs just for this special edition. To get a feel for his style of training, you can download VTMs that were created for UT2003 on his website... FREE.

For those of you that are fans of UT2003, just wait till you see what's in 2004... although I'm sure you've been following the developement of this game quite closely. The only thing better than playing a wicked game, is to actually develope mods for the game.

I bought a DVD drive for my PC, just for this special edition release.

UT 2004 promises to be one of the best first person shooters. Ever. The game will ship with nearly (?) a hundered maps. It has several different game modes which vary the play style considerably. And of course, now there are vehicles (My personal favorite from the demo is the Goliath Tank - there's just something about squishing the bad guy under the treads of your tank while sending that annoying little hovercraft tubling into the air with a well placed shot from the big gun to take the edge off the day).

If you haven't downloaded the demo yet, head over to unreal.com and get it. If you don't enjoy the demo, you won't enjoy the game. In my opinion it's one of the best "polished" demos ever.

For me, the part that makes it worth while is the fact that (once again) the unreal editor is packaged with the game (this is the same utility the creators used to put the game together). This mean that UT2004 won't "get stale" for years to come. Within weeks (at most) of release there will be countless new maps and mods to keep the game varied and fresh. Considering the special DVD edition ships with over 150 hours of game design tutorials, the new content may become overwhelming (we can hope.)

Try the Demo, you won't regret it

Unreal Tournament is my choice deathmatch/arena based game. UT2004 is more like it's own platform than just a game. These are the best graphics I've seen to date (as of April 2004) detailed, smooth, realistic and so much more. The graphics are a fine complement to the intense nature of the actual blood-sport and insane battle sequences which leave you howling for more. A tool to blow your steam and RAGE!

The hours and hours of video tutorials for building your own arenas make this special edition really worth the extra $. I've been into designing unreal levels for a long time, and watching these tutorials has taught me many things I've either overlooked or been doing inefficiently. Awsome features!

Best Buy was selling both editions of the game for 30$ when it was released. They sold out at stores all over. What people fail to realize is that these Video Tutorials are free downloads at the people who make them. You are getting a free head-set though, which is a plus. Giveing out the Tutorials was a way to get them to people who did not have a fast internet connection to download them. This is in NO WAY worth 90$. It is the same game except with a free headset. Tell you what, buy the game from Best Buy (or anywhere else for 30$) and spend an extra 10 for the Headset. This was a good deal when it came out, which is why it gets the high rating. You save about 10$ and a whole lot of time that would have been spent sitting on your butt downloading them. Good game is another plus. To get my full review of the game check the normal PC review. 4 Stars for the original low price and extras anyways though. Good move by Atari and their marketing strategy.

I have the CD version of the game, and bought it for $30 at bestbuy. Bestbuy supposedly had the Special Edition for the same price, but according to the workers there it never hit the shelves (because of pre-orders, customer pick-up, etc.). Anyway, check out the forumns on the UT2004 website; people are having significant problems installing and playing the game from the DVD. Several people posted that there was a manufacturing defect with their DVD (a C-shaped engraving on the data side of the disk). There's a run on the Special Edition, apparently because of the map-making and modding videos and the Logitech headset. At the same price, of course I would rather have the Special Addition. But now sharp-dealing merchants are selling them for over $100?!? Really, who is going to watch 130 hours of instructional videos, and does a cheap headset and shiny metal box warrant a $70 premium. That and the risk of a faulty disk. Save your dough and get the regular version. It's awesome and a huge value for your money.

...Game comes in a metal case with carboard box inside it,regular double DVD case, probably cheap,but nice looking microphone headset,34page manual,3 Atari stickers, [...], and 1page sheet that's attached to the back of the case before shrinkwrap is removed.
1st DVD includes the Game. Installation time wasn't long at all. Took me somewhere between 5-10 minutes to completely install the game. 2nd DVD includes about 8GB of data. On your regular DVD Player you can watch a short 5min behind the scenes video plus the game trailer. The majority of features is accessible through a computer only. I believe the Divx format is used to store all the videos which allows for a very high amount of it. From what I've seen the training videos are of excellent quality and value. You see a computer's monitor with programming software open and 2 people are talking behind the screen, explaining.
It was a great idea to include the editing software, this might boost the popularity of the game with uncountable amount of downloadable custom designs from the fans all over the world (soon).

I haven't had the chance to play it with a viddeo card, so I played it on p4, 3.0 GH, 1GB RAM with Intel Extreme Graphics2. The highest settings I could choose to avoid big frame drops was 'normal' on everything with 800x640 resolution- not bad for a PC without additional Graphics card. A Card is still highly recomended.

The speed of your hard drive will determine the load time of the game. The manual advises on having at least 256mb of RAM. This is probably enough, but when I played I noticed that about 700mb was used.

I only played the Original UT before. My only complaints about this release is that the character doesn't seem to 'run' as fast and I couldn't find the weapon that I liked in original UT, the one that shoots metal discs...

I don't care much for the headset and I don't know whether I'll ever going to see the training videos on the bonus disc, but it's nice to have the whole game on 1disc, so I guess the only plus for me between SE and regular edition is DVD vs. CD. But I'm sure some fans might find the bonus disc invaluable.

I've been an Unreal player since the first game was released many years ago. UT2004 is the best yet. The new additions of Onslaught mode and several others bring the team game play modes to a new high. Also, most importantly, it includes Linux support right out of the box (even has the Tux penguin on the outside of the box). It is often overlooked that the PC "windows" version works 100% fine with Linux. In fact, the game plays smoother and more consistently under Linux than it does under Windows on the same hardware. So, give this game a try. Especially if you've been wise enough to break away from Windows.

the game is awesome. having it all on a single dvd is even better... i've been wanting the games to be on dvd for a while now. having to install 3+ CD's is a pain.

distribution medium aside, the game itself is awesome. definatly a rock solid game that will pass the test of time.

they werent kidding when they said they've worked hard optimizing the network code either. this is the first game in quite some time that i could actually play on my 52.8kbps connection without stinking the place up.