Click to enlarge

IMG got a chance to talk to Epic's Ryan Gordon at Macworld Expo San Francisco about the company's upcoming first-person shooter, Unreal Tournament 2004. According to Gordon, the game is on track to be released simultaneously with the PC version next month. In fact, MacSoft officials hinted that the game may be released before the PC version, due to the smaller amount of CD's that would be required to duplicate the game (versus the PC version).

Gordon gave IMG an in-depth demo of the latest beta and we were practically in shock by how good and smooth the game ran. The first thing that struck us was the use of vehicles in the game, which adds a totally new element of gameplay to the game. In addition to ground-based vehicles such as the Goliath Tank, Hellbender (3 seater), and the Scorpion (or as Gordon liked to called it, the Halo rip-off vehicle), UT 2004 features impressive flying vehicles such as the Raptor (again, think Halo), Manta (a hovercraft-like vehicle), and Phoenix (bomber).

UT 2004 features an impressive 95 maps (about half of which are new and half are from UT 2004), 32 new characters, and three new weapons including the mine layer, grenade launcher, and the turn a redesigned sniper rifle from the original Unreal Tournament.

UT 2004 will also feature the return of the Assault Mode, which features teams facing off to defend and attack fortified bases. A new team mode, Onslaught, pits teams against each other as they capture and hold strategic points in order to attack and destroy the enemy power core.

Gordon also mentioned during our conversation that UT 2004 Mac will also feature Voice over IP support.

Gordon also hinted that a Mac demo will be released (provided a PC demo is created, which is highly likely). The game will be published, when completed, by MacSoft.

[Updated: No bot voice-recognition will be available in the Mac version]

MWSF 2004

Digital Extremes

MacSoft

Epic Games

Buy Unreal Tournament 2004

Search for other Mac games news stories or browse our Mac Games News Archive.