August 16, 2004 - Garnering Editor's Choice awards from several publications, including IGN, Unreal Tournament: Editor's Choice Edition is certainly aptly named. Given Epic's dedication to quality over the years, we weren't really shocked at how good Unreal Tournament 2004 turned out, but we were kind of surprised when Epic announced they would be re-releasing Unreal Tournament 2004 with a few new additions in a special Editor's Choice pack. We recently sat down with Epic Lead Designer Cliff Bleszinski, who took us on a tour of the upcoming game and let us take the controls and try out some of the new enhancements for ourselves.
Don't expect any gameplay changes in the new pack. If you've played Unreal Tournament 2004, you'll feel right at home with the Editor's Choice Edition, and you'll be able to jump right in and start playing with no trouble. While the core of the Editor's Choice Edition will be exactly what was found in the original Unreal Tournament 2004, the highlight of the re-release is a number of added extras that enhance the already solid gameplay.
The most notable are three all-new vehicles for Onslaught. Vehicles were a new addition to the Unreal Tournament universe in the 2004 edition, and as you probably already know, the team at Epic did a great job at incorporating them into the game. They just felt right, and kept the action fast and furious without bogging it down or unbalancing the game.
The three new vehicles in the Editor's Choice Edition include:
Cicada
, A two-man flying vehicle where one person can pilot while the other mans a belly turret. Primary fire for the pilot shoots rockets, while alt fire stores up rockets and launches a multi-rocket volley that can lock onto targets. The turret's primary fire shoots lasers, while the secondary fire releases chaffs to throw off those nasty missile locks.
- Paladin, The Paladin is a new heavy tank that has both offensive and defensive capabilities. Primary fire launches a traditional explosive shell, similar to the tank from the original. Secondary fire creates an energy shield around the Paladin that absorbs damage. Tapping the primary fire button while holding down the alt fire will send out a pulse of energy in a circle around the Paladin, slightly damaging everything that is within range, and pushing them back slightly as well.
- Self-Propelled Mobile Artillery (SPMA), Also known as the Hank (for Hellbender meets Tank), the SPMA can be the most powerful vehicle in the game if used correctly. Primary fire launches a highly explosive shell which does damage in a large area. Secondary fire sends a spotter camera up over the battlefield and gives you a bird's eye view of the action. From this view you can more accurately plot where you want your shells to land. It's kind of like having a scout in Battlefield 1942 spot a target for you, but you don't have to rely on anyone but yourself.
Not only will you find these new vehicles on some of the new maps, they will also be used in some of the old maps as well. After playing around with the vehicles a bit, they all fit into the game well, and although both the Paladin and the SPMA add even more heavy punch to the mix, it doesn't seem as if the new vehicles will throw off or unbalance gameplay.
Onslaught is by far the most popular game type in Unreal Tournament 2004, so those of you who still play regularly will be glad to hear that there will soon be some new maps to test your skills on. Epic promises four to eight new maps, with some truly creative twists added to the mix. One of the most interesting and unusual maps that we saw was called Tricky, which featured plenty of ramps to launch off of, flaming hoops to jump through and half-pipes to flip, twist and trick off of.
Cliffy B took us on a mad tour of the map in a Scorpion, and he admitted that the team often gets sidetracked while playing the map and forgets that they need to capture points, instead opting to perform insane stunts. The hydraulics on the Scorpion are set a bit higher, and as Cliff hit the big ramps, he went flying through the air, flipping, spinning and doing some truly remarkable stunts that just couldn't be done on any of the original maps.
In addition to the new maps, Unreal Tournament: Editor's Choice Edition will include several modifications from the Nvidia $1,000,000 Make Something Unreal contest. All of these mods are already available for the game, but they will be packaged with the Editor's Choice Edition and will be easy to access without having to download them off the Internet. Although a final number has not been decided on at this point, Cliff told us that we can expect between eight and 11 mods in the package.
The three we saw and played during our demo include:
- AirBuccaneers, Featuring hot air balloons equipped with cannons, AirBuccaneers moves slower than UT 2004, but it's still a lot of fun. Players must control their balloons while loading, aiming and firing their cannons at enemy balloons.
- Clone Bandits, Clone Bandits is a tongue-in-cheek mod that draws heavily from 50s and 60s kitsch. Featuring vehicles such as the beach-bound Lounge Tank and the suicidal Moscowboy as well as a plethora pink flamingos, Clone Bandits will have you laughing as much as it will have you sweating from the furious action as you build clone pumps, steal clone jars and kill your fair share of clones, clones, clones.
- Alien Swarm, Hardly resembling Unreal Tournament at all, Alien Swarm is a top-down squad-based shooter where you take the role of a commander in the Interstellar Armed Forces. Resembling Robotron, Gauntlet or Syndicate more than Unreal Tournament, this mod allows multiplayer co-op play as your troops move through the environment slaughtering thousands upon thousands of aliens.
As if all this weren't enough, UT 2004: Editor's Choice Edition will also include six new character models that you can pick in multiplayer matches: two Mecha Skaarj, two MetalGuard mercenaries and two Necris.
As we mentioned earlier, Unreal Tournament 2004: Editor's Choice Edition will include the original game as well as all the new additions, so it's primarily being aimed at people who have yet to play UT 2004. The game will sell for around $40, but those of you who already own the original will be happy to know that you can download all of the extra content provided in the Editor's Choice Edition for free as soon as the game is released, which should be fairly soon. Expect to be playing Unreal Tournament 2004: Editor's Choice Edition for yourself this fall. |
