Unreal Tournament 2006

CyberGhost

The May 2005 issue of Computer Gaming World magazine contains the first screenshots and information on the next, Unreal Engine 3 powered Unreal Tournament game.

The article refers to the game as "the next Unreal Tournament", suggesting that the game's full title is as yet undecided. Midway have previously confirmed that no new UT titles will be shipping in 2005, so it's likely that this game will bear the name "Unreal Tournament 2006" or "Unreal Tournament 2007". It's also possible that Epic have ditched the yearly naming convention altogether... only time will tell. Scans from the article currently doing the rounds on IRC show a silver and black Unreal 'U' logo on the magazine's cover, together with a rather detailed Necris character standing outside next to some sort of vehicle.

Details of the game are sketchy at the moment, however we can report that Epic programmer Steve Polge is the game's Lead Designer, with Jim Brown filling the role of Lead Level Designer. The article also tells of Epic's desire to put gameplay above graphics with the next UT, as demonstrated by the fact that the title's programming is currently "ahead" of its art.

Unfortunately we cannot post scans of the article here on BU, so don't ask, however we will updat this story with more information as it becomes available.

Stuff in the next Tournament title :



* The next UT will feature 11 weapons. No specific details on these yet.
* The game will focus on AI, specifically voice-controlled AI.
* As with many UT2004 levels, the layout of maps in the next UT is being finalized before artwork is incorporated.
* The game will feature a global ratings system that will allow clans to compare scores.
* Gametypes include Onslaught, DM, TDM, CTF, and the all-new Conquest mode. No mention of Assault or Domination.



Further info on the Conquest gametype:
o Features eight teams, each with unique armor.
o Conquest maps are "potentially as large as three onslaught maps with assault-like objectives and even a form of limited resource management planned"
o "there may be the option to treat a conquest match like a long term war, so you can play, take a break, and then go back and play more later"
o "you can use your stats to find similarly abled opponents"
o "pre-game lobbies" will be present in some form
o "clan pages and other sites will be able to be viewed from within the game"
o "conquest will take advantage of the Unreal Engine 3's ability to seamlessly stream maps by putting you in a battlefield the size of several maps stitched together"
o "players will battle on one of two teams, each sides terriroty will look physically different, as you take a territory it will convert to the otherteams structures and physical surroundings"
o "conquest should appeal to a wider gaming audience and provide a place where longer-term strategy, teamwork, and face-to-face fragging all meet"




And finaly, screens :









18 vehicles, destroyable glolith tracks, 8 teams with different armors... nice stuff !


more screens :

CyberGhost

// some more pictures. you'll like the few that are here
http://www1.cex.co.uk/cex_feature.asp?ct=15&id=7670

for referance


heres a video:
http://media.cex.co.uk/games/unreal/3/unreal3demo.wmv

Ciaran500

Wow.

KdjaCL

These guys have the best game engine for near 4 years yet when it comes to "ohh whats the best" fanboys only see D3 or Hl2.

Shame really tis the best game engine and it gets better and better, im looking forward to next UT, and it wont cost to upgrade for it either :d

kdjac

angelofdeath

wow looks amazing, some new screenies there i haven't seen before, time to upgrade again though, i saw a tech demo a few months back and they said that the only card they could get decent frame rates on was the 6800, hopefully the multiplayer plays as well as 2004

Sand

Please God, please, stop them from trying to make UT into the all singing all dancing Quake/BF1942/UT/whatevers popular now knockoff. Please let them recognise the strenths of the UT franchise and not be afraid to champion them - namely the TL, CTF, and dodging (all those nice moves arent worth crap if your maps make air ducts seem roomy). Yes, design some nice maps goddammit. No more fricking Citadels. Please let them recognise that Quakers like Quake, Doomers like Doom, BF1942ers like BF1942 and yes UTers like UT.

Please let them recognise that internet gaming has advanced from 1996 and a little support out of the box would go a long way - basic things like being able to bind demorecs to a key ingame, or clickboards, or even being able to set a server as a favourite from inside the game, or commands like wut! being in the game client. All real basic stuff that should be as standard as bots these days. Id even like to be able to link profiles on the same CD key so you could see whose fakenicking as who....

P.S Yes the screenshots look great, but the early screenshots for UT2003 looked miles better than what actually was delivered imo.

KdjaCL

Whats wrong with extra content and catering to all ?

If you want 1 v1 2v2 3v3 4v4 15 v 15, 36 extra maps AFTER release + 60 odd user made , 11 patches all good, built in chat, voice commands, every possible extra thrown and the simple ability to create the gametype YOU want.

My Ut 2004 folder started at 6gbs its now 27, i drive cars, i play golf, i frag terrorists and nazis and still go for some 2v2 pure old school UT , all by clicking the same exe.


Some people cant be pleased or havent a clue what they installed.


kdjac

Sand

Whats wrong with extra content and catering to all ?

Nothing if its based around strong distinctive core gameplay. When its just "me too" jumping on the bandwagon it get chaotic.

Through a combination of bad maps and bad choices in gameplay - trying to make UTs gameplay more appealing to Quakers and Insta players - they effectively killed what was their strongest core product, CTF. The Quakers preferred Quake, the insta players still preferred insta. UT2003 fractured into dozens of tiny communities based around cult mutators - like sniper only, low grav, citadel only for example- because there was nothing UT2003 was exceptional at - that made it stand out and would give it longevity.

For UT2004 it was so bloody obvious they were trying to rip off BF1942. I cant deny Onslaught was a solid gametype well executed, but why would BF1942ers leave BF1942 for something else? Let alone the fact that people still have to rely on modders and third party programs to do what is expected in internet gaming these days. Its like time has stood still for game designers since the mid 1990s in every field except graphics.

Maybe Im just grumpy because I felt UT200X were so dissapointing - they couldnt even design maps that fitted in with the movement they introduced, practically every map out of the box was broken in that regard. I found the DM 1v1 maps like Kenshin (and that was 3rd party) to be the most enjoyable maps in UT200x and I *hate* DM:| I wish them all the best with their next title, and Id be lying if I said I wont keep an eye on it, but I reckon its going the way of Doom/Quake - just tech demos tacked on to bad game design, with maps only there for eyecandy.

quarryman

agreed ^^^

jack of all trades, master of none scenario.

angelofdeath

i hope they sort out the movie making problems ut2004 has, namely dumpframes and the weapon not showing

Stephen

I have to say I loved onslaught and assault modes in UT2004. The extra vehicles they added in a later patch/addon are great too - love that SPMA! Never cared much for DM/CTF (I hate you translocator bastards).

case n basket

Why have they rendered Daniel Craig's head?

Tusky

Sand wrote:

Please God, please, stop them from trying to make UT into the all singing all dancing Quake/BF1942/UT/whatevers popular now knockoff. Please let them recognise the strenths of the UT franchise and not be afraid to champion them - namely the TL, CTF, and dodging (all those nice moves arent worth crap if your maps make air ducts seem roomy). Yes, design some nice maps goddammit. No more fricking Citadels. Please let them recognise that Quakers like Quake, Doomers like Doom, BF1942ers like BF1942 and yes UTers like UT.

Please let them recognise that internet gaming has advanced from 1996 and a little support out of the box would go a long way - basic things like being able to bind demorecs to a key ingame, or clickboards, or even being able to set a server as a favourite from inside the game, or commands like wut! being in the game client. All real basic stuff that should be as standard as bots these days. Id even like to be able to link profiles on the same CD key so you could see whose fakenicking as who....

P.S Yes the screenshots look great, but the early screenshots for UT2003 looked miles better than what actually was delivered imo.

shut up. If you dont like the extra content then stick to CTF or DM, personally I loved the vehicles in the game. You say Battlefield players wont be attracted to it ? I play BF:V and UT2004. They are both completely different games.

hairball

yup, not to mention ut2004 has a very nice mod in red orchestra, which crosses over nicely between the genres I believe

TerrorFirmer

mention ut2004 has a very nice mod in red orchestra

Slightly off topic but can that be played with bots or is it online only?

BloodBath

These guys have the best game engine for near 4 years yet when it comes to "ohh whats the best" fanboys only see D3 or Hl2.

Shame really tis the best game engine and it gets better and better, im looking forward to next UT, and it wont cost to upgrade for it either :d

Well that's your opinion. The engine is alright but by no means the best engine for 4 years.

Unless you have a 6800 or x800 it will cost to upgrade if you want anything near full detail.

shut up. If you dont like the extra content then stick to CTF or DM, personally I loved the vehicles in the game. You say Battlefield players wont be attracted to it ? I play BF:V and UT2004. They are both completely different games.

I agree it's nothing like BF at all. It's a jack of all trades alright but that's to appeal to different markets and gives a nice break when your sick of certain modes.

Slightly off topic but can that be played with bots or is it online only?

Every UT so far has had bots so I imagine so.



BloodBath

ykt0di9url7bc3

I'm a Die Hard Quake 3 player (#DeDanann ) and I've always found the weapons in UT games to be a little *off*.... I never really got the feel of the weapons or the alt firing modes.... I did like the dodge jumping, lift jumping, armour\hp layout and pickup... but as a quake3 player it plays different, sometimes wrongly different - sometimes enjoyable different...
The onslaught modes are not Battlefield (Starsiege Tribes has a lot to answer for)... its like adding much needed viechles to a mod like quake3:TA (iD would have cleaned up if they did)

Through a combination of bad maps and bad choices in gameplay - trying to make UTs gameplay more appealing to Quakers and Insta players - they effectively killed what was their strongest core product, CTF. The Quakers preferred Quake, the insta players still preferred insta. UT2003 fractured into dozens of tiny communities based around cult mutators - like sniper only, low grav, citadel only for example- because there was nothing UT2003 was exceptional at - that made it stand out and would give it longevity.

ffs everything fractures, imho the Quake3 community is splintered beyond hope (cpma, osp, FT, CA, RA3, CTF... to name a few)... as for the huge assortment of maps that comes with q3\UT, you forget its a challenge and whether you like the map or not the goal is to win... I find UT a huge challenge everytime they bring out a new game and I try my best to conquer it... but I'll usually end up playing Quake

god's toy

I have always loved the UT engine right from the start (first unreal-engine game) Every time a new game or engine comes out from them I’ll look at the eye candy in as high a res as my computer will allow for about three weeks before I even start to play the games themselves! Heck the only reason I keep my pc updated with new hardware is to run UT based games faster!

I’d like to see some sort of UTTV (like Half Life TV) as I enjoy watching games online a lot



Can’t wait till this baby comes out.

angelofdeath

personally i like the way ut2k4 provides you with so many options, be it changing the game speed, using mutators, tons of different maps, mods, addons, game types, the scale of customability in the options, an mp3player

theres just so much to keep this game from getting boring

KdjaCL

BloodBath wrote:

Well that's your opinion. The engine is alright but by no means the best engine for 4 years.

Define best? To me it would most used, most versatile, easiet to run on a range of PCs, easiest to work with as a developer.

But thats just my opinion, cant wait for Doom 3 with large outdoor levels or Source with a level longer than 100 yards then doesnt require loading.

kdjac

TerrorFirmer

Slightly off topic but can that be played with bots or is it online only?

I was referring to the Red Orchastra mod - of course there will be assumably be bots with Ut itself, and I would hardly have been going off topic if that was really the question i was asking!

Sand

shut up. If you dont like the extra content then stick to CTF or DM, personally I loved the vehicles in the game. You say Battlefield players wont be attracted to it ? I play BF:V and UT2004. They are both completely different games.

Oh, assertive.

As I said Ive no issue with extra content. But Id like there to be something UT200X is exceptional at, something you cant find in other games- a strong core around which you can introduce *extra* content. Unfortunately Epic have done their best to kill whats unique - like the TL - about their game in an attempt to make it more appealing to people who prefer other franchieses.

Its negative game design - what do you hate about our game, what can we do to make our game more like the games you like etc etc. In doing so they have killed CTF - DM was never a major interest anyway. So you see, I cant just stick to CTF. Cos CTFs been warped to appease people who dont like it and dont want to play it anyway.

(I hate you translocator bastards).

Well Epic loves you guys.

ffs everything fractures, imho the Quake3 community is splintered beyond hope (cpma, osp, FT, CA, RA3, CTF... to name a few)... as for the huge assortment of maps that comes with q3\UT, you forget its a challenge and whether you like the map or not the goal is to win... I find UT a huge challenge everytime they bring out a new game and I try my best to conquer it... but I'll usually end up playing Quake

If you introduce and champion new dodging moves and nerf the TL to encourage their use and then design corridors that are too narrow and too low to be dodged across, and place eyecandy along the corridors that serves no purpose but to prevent you using the new dodging moves then why bother introducing the new doding moves?

The maps werent challenging - they were broken, absolutely no attention was paid to making them fit the gameplay. It was only a few 3rd party maps that started showing how maps should be designed to take advantage of the movement.