Epic Games has given the OK for their 1998 shooter Unreal to be hosted on the Internet Archive, essentially making the classic sci-fi alien blaster free, and preserving it for the future. They've also given the same permission for Unreal Tournament to be hosted there too, making free the multiplayer muckabout that spawned speedier and speedier sequels throughout the early 2000s (not to mention the origin of one of the most memorable multiplayer FPS maps of all time, Facing Worlds).
]]>Welcome back to the second edition of The RPS Time Capsule, a monthly feature in which the RPS Treehouse gathers round a small tiny shoebox to stick their favourite, bestest best games into from a specific year to preserve until the end of time. The first time capsule we dropkicked into space was all about the best games from 2010. This time, we're excavating the best games from 2004. Which games will make the cut, and which ones will be consigned to the all-consuming digital super bin? Find out below.
]]>On a dinky asteroid orbiting the Earth, two symmetrical ziggurats mark the red base and blue base. Each sniper-lined tower guards a flag, and their confined spaces contrast with the exposed and treacherous bridge between them. It is elegant, simple, stark against a grand sci-fi background. This is Facing Worlds, a level in the once dominant first-person shooter Unreal Tournament. This modest map has created countless memories of squaring off with friends over LAN and modem since it first appeared in 1999.
Before Fortnite and the Epic Games store, there was Unreal Tournament. 20 years have passed since Epic Games and Digital Extremes released their critically-acclaimed sequel to Unreal, and just one since an ambitious crowdsourced reboot was quietly shelved. Still, the original remains a touchstone for twitchy FPS multiplayer, and Facing Worlds, or “CTF-Face” for "capture the flag", is a microcosm of everything great about it.
]]>Scroll right down to the bottom of the Epic Games Store, and you’ll find a forgotten and totally free, game. It’s existed since before Epic set about its masterplan to take over the PC games market, but now, buried beneath the exclusives and novelties, lies Unreal Tournament, the latest entry in the iconic shooter series, whose development was halted in 2018.
The game disappeared quietly, and I wanted to peek behind the curtain. To try and find out what happened, I spoke to some of the leading community contributors, as well as a contracted developer who worked on the project. The story that emerged suggests the community and the developers were never quite sure how to coexist, or how to turn the dream of open development into a reality.
]]>For those of us of a certain age, 'Epic' means 'Unreal' - but, of course, for those of you of a certain, rather younger age, 'Epic' means 'Fortnite.' A very stupid part of my brain couldn't quite let go of the idea that all this cartoony battle royale business was just a temporary distraction for Epic, and soon enough they'd go back to making Unreal Tournament games - which, really, is a bit like thinking "why doesn't Melania leave Donald and settle down with a nice, bookish boy who works at the local bodega instead?"
Well, Very Stupid Park Of My Brain, it's time to get over it. Epic have confirmed there's no longer any active development on Unreal Tournament.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
I like to argue about how Quake 3 is better, because I'm an early-'00s scamp, but the truth is that I love Unreal Tournament, too. Particulary its sniper rifle, particularly Facing Worlds.
]]>I still find it strange that Epic Games are making a new Unreal Tournament [official site], that's out there right now, free to download, yet folk aren't screaming from the rooftops about it. The late 90s/early 00s this ain't, my friends. Of course, the lack of fanfare is mostly down to the way this multiplayer FPS is being made - open development based on player feedback, at a steady pace with regular work-in-progress builds sent out as they're ready.
While I've not had the chance to jump into UT as it stands today - I was more Quake-oriented back in the day and old habits die hard - these builds seem to look better with each passing release. The latest, Underland, appears to be no different.
]]>These days, Epic Games are known more for their Unreal Engine than the games which game the tech its name. Up go the cries of "The youth of today...!" and "High school computing students should know the name Steven Polge!" and "Get off my lawn!" and "I'm sorry, I just... how did my life become this?" and "Why? I... why this? Why me?" etc.
While it seems unlikely Epic will make another Unreal game again, they are making a new Unreal Tournament [official site], the multiplayer spin-off series. Delightfully, the FPS is entirely free and Epic release work-in-progress builds regularly. Why, only yesterday they released one with a new map all finished and fancied-up!
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
Counter-Strike became so popular so quickly - even the mod was soon bigger than all retail multiplayer shooters combined - that the entire industry seemed to spend a year or two simply producing similar games. Remember Global Operations? Remember Strike Force? Remember Tactical Ops? I do, I played a dozen of these, and Tactical Ops for Unreal Tournament was probably the best of the bunch.
]]>No idea what this is yet, but Epic - they of Unreal and Gears of War - have just announced something brand new and PC-only called Paragon, and due for release next year. They're saying almost nothing, but they have released a short video of a dude with a gun and some robo-hands. However, there's talk of 'heroes' so I'm guessing it's not going to be a singleplayer shooter - perhaps something more akin to Blizzard's Overwatch? Or even to ex-Epic bigwig Cliff Bleszinski’s Lawbreakers?
]]>Lots of games are in early access, but the new Unreal Tournament [official site] has thus far seemed to be in a kind of embryonic access. That's because it's being created - for really reals - in partnership with its community. Perhaps the game is now sufficiently advanced to be considered a fetus, for the build released yesterday introduces special Halloween content.
]]>Unreal Tournament [official site] represents a new and interesting way of developing games. Beyond the Early Access periods now common on Steam or the mostly-advertising open betas used for every major multiplayer game, UT is fully free and developed by its community. Thanks to Unreal Engine 4's availability, it already has an editing suite that rivals the best, despite not having left pre-Alpha. This means that what would usually be mods put out many months after release are an integral part of the development process, shaping the core game. I spoke to Lead Developer Steve Polge about the influence of the community on development.
]]>Hey come watch Rab Florence's new weekly video series, made just for us. Part one, part two, part three.
In the fourth part of this series about games, time and loss, Rab remembers Unreal Tournament.
]]>Cor, I'm getting proper excited about Unreal Tournament [official site] now. It's been far too long since the last time I threw flak shells and bioblobs around in a new game. As Alec reported on Tuesday, with Unreal Engine now moving to fully free for casual use, it's easy to download and play or create for the game. The first official trailer has also been released, now that Epic have something to show off and it's embedded below, along with some additional thoughts on the current build.
]]>Even the tallest of titans couldn't stand against the tide of free game-making for long. With so many developers turning to Unity to make their own games, and Unity's capabilities improving rapidly, Ye Olde Unreal Engine was starting to look like something of a dinosaur despite being the go-to framework for a great many blockbuster action titles. And now it, too, is free, albeit with one big proviso. While this is primarily big news for devs (more on that below), it does also mean that anyone can now make their own maps for the work-in-progress, community-made Unreal Tournament sequel/remake. Which is currently also free. There's also a new, super-shiny map to try out the next-gen engine with.
]]>As has been previously documented, the prospect of a new Unreal Tournament game fills me with joy. It's a sort of violent, twitch-shooting, wall-dodging, gib-splattering joy but I take what I can get. Development continues apace, though naturally not nearly as fast as I'd like, with weekly livestreamed updates. There's new builds of the game every Friday and still radical changes being made to even the most basic systems of movement, shooting and aiming. These builds are now officially available to all (as opposed to the community hosted jerry-rigging I last reported on) though still "non-representative pre-alpha" to use Epic's phraseology.
]]>Toxikk is a throwback, a self-proclaimed bullshit-free arena shooter that looks back to the days of Unreal Tournament. No regenerating health, no free to play, no classes. Yes! An end to class warfare, an end to something-for-nothing culture, an end to untenable healthcare! The video below is a party political broadcast from Reakktor Studios but it shows the walk as well as the talk. It's a Back To Basics campaign backed up by a game that's thankfully quite a bit more colourful than John Major.
]]>I know how game development works. I know you aim to have something playable as quickly as possible, and then test, iterate and repeat for potentially years. That doesn't stop me being reflexively impressed that Epic are already playing team deathmatch in the new, community-driven Unreal Tournament. They've got all the weapons in, there's a couple of new maps, and heck it already looks pretty fun in this three minute video of the devs playing and chatting about what they're playing.
]]>Update: It's Unreal Tournament 2014, an entirely free sequel. Not free-to-play. No microtransactions whatsoever, apparently. Epic will make money by taking cuts from a user-driven mod marketplace. The game is extremely early, and Epic plans to develop it alongside fans.
Original: Epic is about to announce something involving Unreal Tournament. Normally that would mean I'd be typing at you live from some extravagant Epic-rented volcano yacht in the Baltic sea, but not this time. Instead, the mega-developer is broadcasting the announcement to all humans by way of technomagical streaming technology. You can watch below.
]]>It's been a while since an online first-person shooter has consumed all of my attention. That's probably going to change. There are two reasons for this. One is called Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and the other is called Unreal Tournament 3.
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