UT 2004 some more

Thursday May 27, 2004 at 11:58 pm | Filed under Gaming

ut2004Last night at the Apple store I picked up UT2004, and it’s quite a game. I haven’t played a whole lot of it, but what I have I can comment on. the deathmatch mode of play is just like before, but it took what they did wrong in UT2003 (balance wasn’t as good and they screwed up some weapons from the original UT) and fixed it. They also kept the technological advances from UT2003 and added some more. They also brought back the Assault gameplay mode from the original UT. That’s great fun.

What’s different beyond the fixes is vehicles and a couple of new game play modes. There’s this mode now called Onslaught. It’s like Domination was… okay that sounds bad. It’s like Domination SHOULD have been. Plus it’s played on HUGE outdoor maps with vehicles! If you’ve ever played Tribes, it’s a lot like that, but there are no classes. It’s like Domination because you have to control “nodes”, but there are a lot more than 3 (or was it 4?) and you have to build a structure on the node to make it yours and fully take control. Once you do, you can go after the connected nodes to that node, and all of the vehicles and turrets around that node that you captured become available for you to operate. This linear way that you capture nodes is great because you can plan offense and defense knowing that the enemy can only attack your farthest node, they can’t attack a node more toward your base. It’s sort of hard to explain, but it was pretty easy to figure all of this out while playing, so it’s not as confusing as it sounds.

The point is this game is a great combination of the great stuff that made us all love UT in the first place, but it also adds a tremendous amount of game types and options. Not to mention the cool rag doll physical that are all the rage these days.

« Cheap Games! I’m a dishwasher from way back »

No Responses to “UT 2004 some more”

  1. Arlen Says:
    May 28th, 2004 at 8:33 am

    I’ve been playing UT on a pretty big map for the past 4 years . . . my home node is rather small, but I do make occasional forays into enemy territory (e.g. Physics & Engineering Library) using my two-wheeled vehicle.

    Question: could we play the game (not the university) over the internet? I could easily get access to a fast computer with a 23″ cinema display . . .

  2. Joe Says:
    May 28th, 2004 at 8:56 pm

    yeah, it’s definitely playable online. That’s pretty much the way it was intended to be played. Both players would of course need to have copies of the game though.

  3. Jon Says:
    June 2nd, 2004 at 8:42 am

    The “onslaught” mode that Joe describes is only playable in multi-player (i.e. online). I just finished the single player of UT2004. Double Domination is cool… I like it better than regular old Domination. Bombing Run is also a lot of fun (think Rugby with weapons).

    Onslaught is really the UT2004 version of Battlefield 1942′s style of play (which probably owes a debt to Tribes). I love this style of play. I’m excited about trying the new Red Orchestra mod for UT2004. I like realistic themed FPS games more than Sci-Fi ones, so Red Orchestra’s WWII theme is right up my alley (seeing as how my favorite FPS’s are Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, BF1942, and Call of Duty). I’ve downloaded Red Orchestra, but haven’t installed it yet. I’ll let you know how that goes.

  4. Joe Says:
    June 2nd, 2004 at 11:00 am

    I think I’m a bigger fan of fantasy FPSs since I love that the sky’s the limit with weapons and enemies. MOH was amazing, though, you can’t take that away.

    I think my FPS skills have diminished a bit. I’m having a heck of a time completing the single player game in UT2k4. I think I have it on the Experienced Difficulty setting, which wasn’t a problem in the previous games. I guess I need more practice. I definitely prefer the team based games more than any of the deathmatch variations.

  5. Jon Says:
    June 4th, 2004 at 11:32 am

    Yeah, I did “Experienced”. Regarding your skills… I don’t really know what your gaming has been like the past four years, but I’m guessing that you’ve spent a lot of time on consoles and perhaps some RPGs and RTSs (as I know you like those). So if you’ve been away from an FPS on the traditional PC controls of mouse/keyboard, you get a little rusty.

    After spending almost 6-months straight playing MOH:AA for 1 – 3 hours EVERY night (back in early 2002), I was at the top of my game… then I just walked away cold turkey for 6-months (the benefit to you being that some Lip Synch DVDs came out :-) ). Then I tried popping it in again… I was really rusty and got my ass handed to me by the same guys I used to play with all the time.

    So, you’ll find yourself getting better each match, especially since you have familiarity with the weapons and level-design-philosophy from the original UT (I was surprised how many “sequel levels” there were in UT2004 that felt oh so familiar).