I stumbled upon this total conversion mod just recently and I have to say, I kinda liked where they were going with it generally. It's basically UT2004 but with different weapons, reworked HUD, reworked GUI, new pickups, new maps, new models, new announcer, a lotta sounds changed, and UTComp hard-coded in.
The problem? It's a total conversion. As such, it only gives you access to barely ANY of the original UT2004 weapons, just a couple of the base UT2004 maps with all your custom ones needing to be reinstalled as well, and any mods you had installed into your original UT2004 installation will also need to be reinstalled. Also, with all these base assets being outright replaced, some mods may not work right, if at all. Also, with UTComp hard-coded in, it's impossible to get rid of some things such as Match Warmup. And finally, it's rough around the edges. Some of the weapons look rather unfinished and couple elements of the HUD, such as the timer, don't seem to work right. And those are just things I noticed.
On the plus, some of the Quake 3 style weapons and sounds go rather well with UT2004. Also, some old UT weapons make a comeback. In general, some weapons are better than others. My fave is the reworked RL. The GUI recieved a nice upgrade too over the bland blue one we're all so used to. Sounds, again, are nice here. Menu music isn't too bad either even though I'm sure all of it, including map music, is just music from past Unreal games put into here. Either way though, it's still a lot better than UT2004's.
Final Verdict: It's got a rather nice paint job but it needs a lot more work under the hood. The GUI replacements are fine and the new loading screens are much better, but I shouldn't have to ditch all my maps, mods, weapons, and models in my UT2004 installation to get them. I would recommend keeping whatever the GUI needs and then relying off the base install for the rest of the way. I mean breaking up the mods new features such as the weapons, Quake 3 announcer, and UTComp into their own packages and mutators. This way, all original assets can be kept and the new features can be added, discarded, and changed according to whatever the user sees fit.
BTW, yes. This is the final release of this mod, so we won't be able to see any changes and/or additions to this at all sadly. If only there was a way to extract the cool GUI and just make the base install use that, I would be happy.
The problem? It's a total conversion. As such, it only gives you access to barely ANY of the original UT2004 weapons, just a couple of the base UT2004 maps with all your custom ones needing to be reinstalled as well, and any mods you had installed into your original UT2004 installation will also need to be reinstalled. Also, with all these base assets being outright replaced, some mods may not work right, if at all. Also, with UTComp hard-coded in, it's impossible to get rid of some things such as Match Warmup. And finally, it's rough around the edges. Some of the weapons look rather unfinished and couple elements of the HUD, such as the timer, don't seem to work right. And those are just things I noticed.
On the plus, some of the Quake 3 style weapons and sounds go rather well with UT2004. Also, some old UT weapons make a comeback. In general, some weapons are better than others. My fave is the reworked RL. The GUI recieved a nice upgrade too over the bland blue one we're all so used to. Sounds, again, are nice here. Menu music isn't too bad either even though I'm sure all of it, including map music, is just music from past Unreal games put into here. Either way though, it's still a lot better than UT2004's.
Final Verdict: It's got a rather nice paint job but it needs a lot more work under the hood. The GUI replacements are fine and the new loading screens are much better, but I shouldn't have to ditch all my maps, mods, weapons, and models in my UT2004 installation to get them. I would recommend keeping whatever the GUI needs and then relying off the base install for the rest of the way. I mean breaking up the mods new features such as the weapons, Quake 3 announcer, and UTComp into their own packages and mutators. This way, all original assets can be kept and the new features can be added, discarded, and changed according to whatever the user sees fit.
BTW, yes. This is the final release of this mod, so we won't be able to see any changes and/or additions to this at all sadly. If only there was a way to extract the cool GUI and just make the base install use that, I would be happy.
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