This Week In Unreal History: 14 Years

[hal]

May is always a busy time in the videogames industry. Looking back at this week in 2002 Unreal 2 and UT 2003 were both being shown at E3. In 2004 Tim Sweeney was talking to us about the upcoming Unreal Engine 3. In 2005 Steve Polge was telling us about UT 2007. In 2008 Chair Entertainment was acquired by Epic Games and CliffyB became Cliff Bleszinski.

The big deal, however, is that this week in 1998 the great Unreal was released to the public. I still remember pulling that big fat Unreal retail box down off of the shelf and rushing home to do the lengthy install. What an amazing game.

As I hold the jewel case in my hands right now I can't help but chuckle a bit at the bullet point on the back that says "Includes unsupportd Beta version of the Unreal Level Editor". How times have changed!

[moonflyer]

So in this E3, any chance of another interview with Tim about UE4? Or maybe about UT/Unreal?
14 years... I am really getting old.

[Ghash_hardass]

Been some years, I have been using beyond unreal since the early days, but never participated in forums. But been some good years playing and forum lurking.
I still play ut3, and hope dear old cliffyB will hand out some new unreal/tournament game soon.

[DarkSonny]

If they and Cliff makes a decent UT game with the best of best features ( weapons, movements, skins scales, ratio firing etc...) in all his ut history with a ut99 twist and when released it ( and if they got suceess) I would bet my cents that Cliff Bleszinsky must be called again Cliffy. oh yeah of course...Meanwhile lets see what they is doing raig nao

hI Chong!

[Luv_Studd]

Cool, Unreal is/was an incredible game. Quake, Duke, eat your heart's out.

[moonflyer]

Originally Posted by DarkSonny

If they and Cliff makes a decent UT game with the best of best features ( weapons, movements, skins scales, ratio firing etc...) in all his ut history with a ut99 twist and when released it ( and if they got suceess) I would bet my cents that Cliff Bleszinsky must be called again Cliffy. oh yeah of course...Meanwhile lets see what they is doing raig nao

hI Chong!

Hi DS, how is your work going?

[[NBK]Rattman]

Congrats to Unreal...awesome game and the reason I started playing with a keyboard and mouse and discarded my controller forever!!

[raziel31]

Originally Posted by moonflyer

I am really getting old.

Old and fat !!

[QAPete]

If you feel like wading through some memories, check out http://www.beyondunreal.com/articles/ and the Liandri Archives at http://liandri.beyondunreal.com/Unreal

Have a nice holiday weekend, everyone.

QAPete

[NeoNite]

Nearly 13 years of rme. Still have the game installed, and the gold version as well. Mainly for the gameplay really. The magic of its looks wore off years ago. Most of the textures don't look appealing anymore. But that's personal.

All in all Unreal was a great game to play. Had tons of fun with it, especially via the Oldskool mod in UT.

Still have the gamebox complete with everything. Its age shows though

Greatest thing about a game like Unreal was, and it's something I miss out on in games these days: You could just mess around with it. Start up any map, play from scratch, add tons of monsters and goodies etc. just plain fun.

[DarkSonny]

Originally Posted by moonflyer

Hi DS, how is your work going?

Hi!
its on the way and with the busy realife

[Luv_Studd]

Originally Posted by QAPete

If you feel like wading through some memories, check out http://www.beyondunreal.com/articles/ and the Liandri Archives at http://liandri.beyondunreal.com/Unreal

Have a nice holiday weekend, everyone.

QAPete

Thanks!

[HedgeMaster]

I would like to hear that Unreal is not only a historical game

[scott84]

Lets hope epic decides to develop a new Unreal game. Surely, one lead IP is not good enough when its only released on a microsoft console. A second series, given as much attention to detail, would surely sell well on all platforms.


However, I wonder how likely it is that epic's contracts with microsoft prevent them from developing a story-driven sci-fi fps separate from Gears.

[Leo(T.C.K.)]

Originally Posted by scott84

Lets hope epic decides to develop a new Unreal game. Surely, one lead IP is not good enough when its only released on a microsoft console. A second series, given as much attention to detail, would surely sell well on all platforms.


However, I wonder how likely it is that epic's contracts with microsoft prevent them from developing a story-driven sci-fi fps separate from Gears.

Very likely I would say. If anything Unreal will be made on the new Unreal Engine 4 it will most probably be another UT and not singleplayer Unreal.

[Spiney]

Dunno, place for it in the market seems hazy at best. Flak from fans guaranteed, and the existing story-line is somewhat convoluted and uninspired by today's standards. If I were heading it I probably would go for a spiritual successor rather than anything with the unreal brand, too much baggage to maintain.

[Twrecks]

Hard to believe it's been that long.

I'm too old, fat and bald to go to E3... wait a second... That discribes half the other guys there!!!

[StalwartUK]

Originally Posted by Leo(T.C.K.)

Very likely I would say. If anything Unreal will be made on the new Unreal Engine 4 it will most probably be another UT and not singleplayer Unreal.

Unfortunately that's probably what will happen. Besides we all know Epic only cares about Unreal so that they pimp their latest engine.

[Psychomorph]

Originally Posted by hal

I still remember pulling that big fat Unreal retail box down off of the shelf and rushing home to do the lengthy install. What an amazing game.

Oh yes! I remember it like it was last week. I went to the store with the intention to buy a PC game and I saw that giant poster on the wall. Black background with horizontal stripes made of in-game screenshots and the letters "UNREAL". Below it a pile of cardboard boxes with the same design.

I grabbed one and that picture of Bluff Eversmoking really got me. It looked like some place that could really exist, i was immersed by it alone and couldn't wait to be there.

However, I was a minor and the game was rated mature, so I was quite nervous when I went to pay, as I feared they would ask for my ID, but no, I got through.

Back home I installed and was sent on a journey of adventure and excitement. Man, games used to be pure magic at that time.
I could play it on the lowest settings only, laughable resolution of 320x280. The pixels were giagantic and sometimes, I think the first time in Chizra, I put the setting to maximum, just to see the beauty and it was mind blowing! The game was a picture slide show however, so unfortunately I had to leave that dream and get back to the pixel reality. I dreamed for the day I could play that game on maximum settings.

It was my second PC game (first was MDK) and I wasn't used to the violence. The first time I ripped a Skaarj to pieces with the Flak I had a really bad and guilty feeling, but I got used to it.

To this day, I still play Unreal. My most played game of all times.


The evolution of Unreal for me happened in April 2006. I am a great fan of tactical games like SWAT3, oldschool Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon and above all an Unreal Tournament modification called Infiltration. So a guy hosted an Infiltration 2.9 server where we played through the original Unreal single player and that was an incredible experience. I re-experienced Unreal like I never did before. It was a sheer blast.

Since Infiltration is rather realistic and slow paced, you get to appreciate the details and value yout ingame life. Weapons became much more effective though, 4 bullets of caliber 5.56NATO could kill a Skaarj, but you couldn't dodge and was weak (no ressupply, no healthpacks).

Reason why it was so good is because Unreal really became a survival game, we played in small teams and when we had to cross a river (only knife usable in water) only one was swiming while the rest was covering the area, so untill all were on the other side. Unreal could bo se unpredictable, like a Skaarj would suddenly jump into water from a cliff and we had to fire from all our rifles to save the helpless team mate in the water. We were exploring all places, saw details the fast paced Unreal didn't let me see, appreciated the atmosphere.
Ammunition was limitted, so we would soemtimes sneak past hordes of enemies to continue or to have a better spot.

Playing like this made the world of Unreal bigger and deeper, almost like a sandbox open world game (we played Skaarj Castle for three full nights until completion).


Infiltration (slow paced, realistic) + Unreal (a strange world full of exploration and secrets) is to this day my dream game concept. I would love to see something like this some day. If I will ever get to design a game, this will be it.

[ambershee]

Originally Posted by Psychomorph

games used to be pure magic at that time.

You know, it's kind of funny - it was the same for me all through the 90s. There was something special about getting a new game and booting it up for the first time. Somewhere along the lines, all the magic has kind of been lost somehow.

I blame Kotick and his 'packaged goods' mentality. I'm not sure why.