First and foremost you have to like First Person Shooters (FPS). There, we've got rid of those people. FPS games have become boring. It's the same old thing; fire, duck, reload, fire, new wave, duck... you get the idea. Even Unreal Tournament was boring for a while. I'm not saying UT2k3 wasn't good, it just didn't bring anything new to the table. I remember how cool the first Unreal was... and then Tournament... oh yeah! There really is nothing like low-grav and quad-jump with a sniper rifle. UT2K3 upped the graphics (and in my case didn't run right) but that felt like all it was. Perhaps bad nerves played a part and the gameplay was too frantic... Then along came Battlefield 1942. Now that's what I wanted; vehicles! UT2k4 essentially brings back all the graphical eye-candy from 2003 and adds vehicles... at least that's why I bought it. Now I'm sure you're thinking "big [bleeping] deal! there are vehicles in a bunch of games"... this isn't about the vehicles... it's about the massive maps and strategic/frantic battles. I've been in matches that have lasted 2-3 minutes and ones that have gone on for almost an hour. Strategy is the key as your team frantically scrambles to own power-nodes on their path to the enemy's core. Try the demo, you'll now what I mean. The other gameplay types are pretty standared; deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag [CTF], Bombing Run, Domination. But Epic has brought back the old favorite; Assault. Assault places 2 teams in a reenactment of a famous Unreal-universe battle. One team takes defense, the other offense. Awesome! UT2k4 truly shines when you've become tired of the massive amount of levels that have come packaged with it. "Well, I should uninstall, right? I'm done, there's nothing left...*cry*". There, there dear friend... go online. If I haven't already implied, all the above mentioned game types can be played online with tons of people. You must live in the antartic under a very large (and cold) rock if you can't find a server to play on. But what's this? The server you've tried to join is loading awfully slow and you have bloodlust that needs satisfying... Why, there seems to be a level downloading... perhaps my bloodlust can wait. The community for the Unreal universe is bigger than any I've ever seen (save, perhaps, Counterstrike). You can download maps for all game types, new character models and skins, 'Mutators' which alter the game universe in some fun way, and even new voices for your characters. "But I don't want to play more UT, I'm tired of this kinda game" Wow! you're really whiny, eh? FINE! Why don't you download one of the total modifications out there? These 'mods' use the same game engine but are totally brand new games made by hard working monkeys in their parents ba****t. What? I'm sorry, I've just learned they aren't monkeys, they're PRIMATES. My apologies. lol! Really long story short. This isn't just a game. It's an investment. Sure, the game is best enjoyed on a high-end system and Sure! it takes up over 5GB of space on your drive. But you can actually play UT2k4 every night for a month and never play the same game or map. It's amazing. One last thing, buy more RAM, you're PC wants it.
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