An Unreal Amount of Goodness

Imagine, if you can, a world where the original release of Quake had shipped with complete versions of Threewave Capture the Flag and Team Fortress. What if, in 1998, the boxed copy of Half-Life came with finished versions of Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat? What if Battlefield 1942 originally came packaged with Desert Combat and Eve of Destruction?

In a lot of ways, that's what Unreal Tournament 2004 feels like. Sure, there's tons of traditional deathmatch, CTF, and other modes to keep you busy, and it's all done extremely well. In fact, we can't emphasize enough how polished UT 2004 is -- most games have a few weak spots, whether it's a few technical glitches or weak AI, but it's hard to find any such chinks in UT 2004's armor. Add two outstanding modes like Onslaught and Assault to the mix, and now you've got two or three great games in one box -- and that's saying something.

With Unreal Tournament 2004, Epic, Atari, Digital Extremes and co. have done more than return the series to its former glory -- they've unleashed a monster that could dominate multiplayer gaming for the rest of the 2004. Welcome back, UT -- it's great to see you again.