Say, Shambler, may I borrow your new PC for a little while? I'll give it back in a year or so. Promise. 

...or is it true that UT2004 has all the maps from 2003 so one should just get UT2004 instead? 

tried dm level
didn't find anything new apart from some little additions like mp3 player, etc ;)

the difference like between MS Word 98 and MS
Word 98 :)

but maybe i have to play more ;) 

word 95 and word 98 i meant ;) 

somehow it feels a lot more random and fiddly than UT2003 ever was, at least in UT2003 you could actually see your opponents most of the time, its like they have shrunk the player models or something in 2004 version...

Onslaught - Fun, but the level is too big, 90% of your time is spent shooting at pixels in the distance, and powercores are all too soon destroyed by a flying thing hovering 357378 meters off the ground that no-one can see... Most vehicles are decent enough though.

Assault - The mode I was looking forward to the most. and its...well, its ok. The map is decent enough but again the gameplay suffers from distances that are too long (shooting at pixels again...).

DM/CTF/BR - Same old, same old.

Maps are generally way to big, shooting at pixels!!! NO!!!

Weapons feel more fiddly and innacurate.

dissapointed really, doh. 

this looks like it sucks.

i think that the developers have lost their way, basically. 

well Unreal 2 was developed by legend, not epic. Tho I think epic had some input. 

everything published after unreal tournament 2001 or whatever sucked balls, and continue to suck balls. sorry to see such a pretty engine go to waste =[ 

I thought AS-Convoy absolutely owned.

And you just need mor eplayers for Onslaught, it's really really fun IMHO. 

its much better that offline (duh) , really fun.

Not tried assault online yet, but Im betting thats much better too,

about as-convoy - Its a nice map, nothing really wrong there, apart from the usual large distances between you and the opponents, which ends up with you shooting at pixels =)

One thing I loved about UT2001 assault is that you had the time for tactics and stuff, but here the gameplay is so fast it all seems to just boil down to a blast fest, just my 2p. 

I thought Ut2k3 was pretty shitty, and this seems to be more of the same. I have to admit, the DM map looks quite nice, and the Assault map is good. I always thought they were too lazy to do assault in 2k3 (I'm serious, I think they left it out due to laziness), even though it is one of the best gameplay modes. The assault in this makes its triumphant return and is really cool. Bombing run is shit, the map for it looks shit too, the CTF map is so-so to be kind, Onslaught needs help.. overall, it sucks.

I'm starting to get sick the over-the-top-yet-not-solid Unreal engine visuals as well... they can pile on the effects and polys, but after Far Cry the vehicles look trashy, the terrain is laughable, and the player models are only so-so. For some reason, they just can't convince me that their environments are real, solid places like other games can. It's more like playing first person inside a giant toy or something.

I applaud them for bringing back the assault rifle from Unreal and UT1, as a way of making up for the HORRIBLE replacing of it with the "lightning gun" (ooh!) in 2K3. That was a stupid, shitty move.

HOWEVER, they have made PRECISELY the same blunder in this game: They WILL NOT, under any circumstances, allow you to have a GOOD sniper weapon! I really, really hate sniper weapons (Far Cry's guilty here too) where you don't have much or any control over the zoom, and the scopr sucks. The lightning gun's zoom obscures 3/4 of your vision with stupid lines, and it needs to charge up.. as a sniper weapon it just sucks. So I'm glad they included the assault rifle as well, but WTF! they made it release a giant cloud of gaseous smoke RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE every single time you shoot! You can't control the zoom! Neither of these stupid "gameplay balance mechanisms" was in UT1! AAAGH I HATE THEM.

Bloody useless sniper weapons...

I think I'm giving up on this stupid Franchise. Back to Q3 for multiplayer, and Unreal 1 was the last time they did good single player.. I would say at least they have a good engine to liscense to others, but it looks like there are better engines coming right up very soon... 

I thought the map visuals was the hilight of the demo. There are places in the ctf map where the ceiling looks great. Particularly in the central chasm. I also liked the buildings in the bombing run map. 99% of maps look like they were expressly built for deathmatching. It's like the entire universe is chifely concerned with the construction of places to die in. The machines in the br map looked like they could have some plausible if unspecified function and I think that's a nice change. 

So, QW still rocks, doesn't it? :) 

Time for your ritalin, Tronyn. 

What does anyone thing the likelihood is of being able to play the UT2K3 Demo maps in UT2K4 demo by copying over all the maps, textures, meshes and any other map specific files??

Or even better, can someone try this, or find me a report of someone who has, before I completely bugger up my UT2K4 Demo install =) 

since 2k4 has all the 2k3 stuff (maps, textures etc), it should be fine to do that. 

Just played a load of games on LAN. DM/CTF is pretty much the same as 2K3 as UT as Q3 as Q2 as Q1.

The CTF map looks really nice, even if it does suck for gameplay.

Nice to see a return of Assault, but I didn't like the map they included (it's either just sniping/being sniped or running towards the other end of a corridor).

I liked Onslaught a lot. But then, I liked PlanetSide a lot (and quite frankly if I was Sony, I'd sue). 

Assault and ctf maps are both a camper's paradise. The secret on ctf is to grab the lg and make for the left door to the chasm and stand just outside it. You have health to the right, more ammo 5 meters behind you, and you can cover all entrances from a safe distance. In one minute you have yourself a rampage. That is until you get kicked by the frustrated server op who can't understand why he's not killing you with the rl from a 15 second distance by rocket. 

Good - looks good, easily controllable, Assault is back, Onslaught has appeared, vehicles are great fun.

Bad - maps are generally vastly overscaled, still too glitzy and cybersporty, bot skill settings are b0rked, some weapons

can feel underpowered.

Most prominent aspects - Well it's more of the same innit. Seems to feel slightly more fun than UT2K3, but still not as solid

and straight-to-the-point as UT. The DM map is quite "trick" reliant which is interesting. Botmatch is still fun except there is a vast

jump in difficulty from Skilled to Adept in DM (i.e., I can win very easily on Skilled, and never come close on Adept). The maps are

often too large, CTF and BR in particular are ridiculous, shooting at pixels as Daz said. Assault is okay. Onslaught is fun,

definitely adds interest to the game, and the vehicles compensate for the map scale. And personally I found the vehicles a lot of

fun, all of them very characterful, I like the ultra-fast skimmer. Pity the bots won't get in the jeep so I can be the gunner =).

To buy or not to buy?? - Maybe. For a quick blast of action it's pretty good, and given it will come with the 2K3 maps, it's

good value. 

Good - looks good, easily controllable, Assault is back, Onslaught has appeared, vehicles are great fun.

Bad - maps are generally vastly overscaled, still too glitzy and cybersporty, bot skill settings are b0rked, some weapons can feel underpowered.

Most prominent aspects - Well it's more of the same innit. Seems to feel slightly more fun than UT2K3, but still not as solid and straight-to-the-point as UT. The DM map is quite "trick" reliant which is interesting. Botmatch is still fun except there is a vast jump in difficulty from Skilled to Adept in DM (i.e., I can win very easily on Skilled, and never come close on Adept). The maps are often too large, CTF and BR in particular are ridiculous, shooting at pixels as Daz said. Assault is okay. Onslaught is fun, definitely adds interest to the game, and the vehicles compensate for the map scale. And personally I found the vehicles a lot of fun, all of them very characterful, I like the ultra-fast skimmer. Pity the bots won't get in the jeep so I can be the gunner =).

To buy or not to buy?? - Maybe. For a quick blast of action it's pretty good, and given it will come with the 2K3 maps, it's good value.

(Reposted as wordwrap fucked the formatting) 

Shambler, just get them to jump in as gunner and then switch seats with them (hit 1, 2 or 3).
And what the hell does 'glitzy and cybersporty' mean? 

 

The maps that come with retail (particularly for Onslaught) are really much better than the demo. Assault has some great maps, and Onslaught's ons_redplanet and ons_crossfire are lovely. 

I wasn't hugely impressed with the Onslaught maps out of the box (finally released in the UK today :), only Dawn and Torlan are really more than 'corridor-room-corridor but made out of rock'.

However, for those that haven't seen, Plutonic ( http://www.planetunreal.com/plutonic/ ) has released an onslaught map set in a more 'traditional' FPS environment. It's really, really good (and making a load of flying scorpions is always a nice thing). 

I don't really care for Torlan. Played it to death in the demo, I guess. Crossfire is nice because of its sheer size--with actual DETAILS in most of the areas. Haven't played Dawn too much. Also: Dria is rather cool. I don't think you can characterize these gigantic, open areas as "corridor maps." They're gigantic, open areas. And they have obstacles in them. Granted, the dark one with the deep brown cliffs (can't remember the name for the life of me) is pretty much just corridors, but it's also my least favorite of them besides Torlan.