Unreal 2004 Mods

[Diff-chan]

Good to know, slip.

edit: actually, has anyone tried using their XBL communicators by virtue of an adaptor? I don't see why it wouldn't work, now that I pause to ponder it.Personally I think the quality is all over the place with the CBPs. But yeah, definitely some real gems in there.

It works fine.

[Brand X]

Great thread! I already have Jailbreak (which is great, but some of the maps are MEH) and Red Orchestra (which isn't even worth downloading). But Checkmate and Air Buccaneers sound great! I still don't get peoples reasoning for not buying this game yet, you can find the DVD version as low as $20 if you look around. Easily the best FPS to come out in FOREVERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. God bless UT2004, and god bless it being as addicting as crack.

[FirstBlood]

If only my wireless network adaptor would come in the mail so I can get this shit on MY computer and play the shit out of it.

[jyoung]

I still don't get peoples reasoning for not buying this game yet...

Quite simply, a lot of people have computers that just aren't meant to play high-end PC games and they don't want to pay the money required to upgrade their computer. Not only that, but there are plenty of great games that can still be played on older systems (Starcraft, Diablo, Unreal Tournament, etc.)

[Sl1p]

Today was a curiously active Unreal day for me, filled with disapointment and whacky run-ins. We'll get to the disapoinment in a minute, but the whack run-ins we might as well talk about now.

While trying out the Alpha (!) release of Neotokyo I ran into one of the head developers of the mod. It was really interesting, playing with one of the designers, shooting feedback back and forth, trying to work out the kinks that lay in playing something of this nature online. Eventually, I wound up stuck in some geometry. After surveying the situation, he relieved me by rolling a grenade into my face. A job well done.

Along with NeoTokyo, I wound up playing a game with the head map designer of Troopers 2004. Nothing much to say about that, other than I usually expect people who work on a specific game to be better than most at their game. I say no more! Lets get to the mods of today.

Jungle Warfare
Earlier I described Jungle Warfare as "Counter-Strike+Jungle". That was what we call jumping a bit much to conclusions. As was the description a buddy of mine gave it "Ghost Recon: Island Thunder". No, it dosen't strive to be either of those games. Instead, it takes heavily from the formula of Return to Castle Wolfenstein, sans interesting objectives and good art direction.

So if it dosen't take from the more interesting aspects of RTCW, then what does it take? How about everything else set to a modern era? The class based character system, the wave based respawning, even the white circle crosshair. It's all here. Even an AK-47 with recoil eerily similiar to the Thompson recoil in RTCW. While the setting (Mostly jungles of course) does help differenciate itself away from the game that it so wants to piggyback, the lack of quality overall is what trully makes it stand apart from it.

In a week full of great mods being released, Jungle Warefare stands head and shoulders above the rest with a sheer lack of professionalism. The menu's are marred with awful looking backrounds, a lifeless interface that offers you no feeling as to if your menu selection was even confirmed. Some truly bad map designs featuring bright pink houses for no reason. Death animations that seem to always use the built-in slow motion deaths mutator for extra annoyance. Maps that feature names such as "Wang_Jungle". It all just smacks of a very thrown together feel.

I know I sound like I'm unloading my feces all over this game...and well, I am. The idea is here but it has a long way to go before anyone in their right mind says "This game is special and I wish to play it".
Sl1p Says: Set sail for disapointment aboard the S.S This Is Really Dumb!

Neotokyo
I want you to click that link above and check out the site for Megatokyo before we start.

Are we good? Okay. Dosen't the style for this mod just kick 27 different types of ass? Now what if I told you that for once, all the concept art leaked into the game and became a perfect vision of it. Thats great, right? Well, so is Neotokyo.

Only in it's Alpha, Neotokyo is a team based game with objective gameplay. You pick a side, you pick from one of three classes and then you rock. What really sets Neotokyo apart, beyond is amazing style are it's fantastic maps (Some of the best I've ever seen) and the fact that everyone has a cloaking device. It gives the game a very claustraphobic feeling to it as you defend an objective, not knowing who or what could be lurking in the shadows around you. The pace of the gameplay seems spot on and the use of such standard moves such as covering fire are actually quite useful thanks in part to it.

Currently there are only 3 maps and some horribly off balanced weapons, but if you dig the style and you're feeling bored I definetly suggest you check out the Alpha release. It's a great look of things to come.
Sl1p Says: A great preview but not anything necessary.

Star Wars Troopers: Dawn of Destiny
I'm going to open this mini-review with the highest praise I think I can give any game known to man.

With the exception of Knights of the Old Republic, Troopers is without a doubt the single greatest Star Wars game ever created.

I'm sorry but seriously, right now I can't type this up because I want to go back and play it, so let me just throw out some snippets here.

If you were waiting for battlefront or rogue pack leader squad or whatever Star Wars game thats coming out this year, forget about it for now and play this. It's very tactically driven when it comes to the ground based fighting and really has to be played to be believed.

Remember that level in Rouge Squadron for DC where you fought above the deathstar? Yeah? Troopers not only makes that LOOK like crap but it makes it feel like crap too. This is what X-Wings and TIE Fighters should feel like. They 100%, NAILED it.

Okay, time to go play. You should uhh..download it or something!
Sl1p Says: Buy UT if just for Troopers.

[Videodrone]

Can't wait to check out Troopers. Had alot of fun with Jailbreak and Checkmate this weekend. I really need to get into Alien Swarm. I played the tutorial and it was pretty darn fun.

[Brand X]

Before I checked this thread I actually started to download Troopers. I'll be able to check it out when I wake up before work tomorrow, hopefully it's a doozy!

[Takumi]

I'm having a doozy of a time to install all the mods on the Mac version. most require Apple Script shells and all this BS. BOOOO!

[Brand X]

I'm having a doozy of a time to install all the mods on the Mac version. most require Apple Script shells and all this BS. BOOOO!

All I have to do is click "extract" and my amazingly buggy Windows XP does everything for me, I guess it's the lesser of 2 evils.

[Takumi]

The main reason is there is no official UMod installer for the Mac. So most total conversion packs require a separate hacked installer. Frustating.