Unreal 2

[BoddoZerg]

Anyone else think that Unreal 2 looks a heckuva lot less impressive now that you've seen DOOM3 in action?

[Dave Baumann]

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3073

[swaaye]

/thread resurrect thyself! (surely this is a record breaking resurrection?)

Hey, I just beat Unreal 2 again. I hadn't pushed through to the end since 2003 because the game always makes me gag about halfway through with how boring, safe, slow, mundane, and cliche-ridden it is. But it's pretty and I remember pretties so I go back to it now and again. And I have this unyielding desire to like the game for some reason, perhaps because its predecessor poisoned my mind with infinite Unreal appreciating energies.

Anyone else load U2 up occasionally and bask in its mediocrity? Besides Davros? ;) And I'm talking the crap single player not the XMP.

[Silent_Buddha]

I don't even know if I still have the disks for this. I remember playing it but other than it having GRASS, I don't remember it nearly as well as I remember Unreal 1. Unreal 1 had so many, "OMG, no freaking way!" moments that it just buries the sequel in my memories. :)

Regards,
SB

[AlStrong]

I have this on steam when I picked up the Unreal pack over the holidays, but I just haven't gotten around to playing it much. XD I'm on the first level after first meeting aida. I've never actually played it before. Maybe one of these saturdays...

[swaaye]

First run through is fun if you like your classic corridor shooter action and enjoy pretty alien worlds. The movement is slow but you have to remember that you're wearing that armor suit and they didn't go the UT2003/4 route with 30mph running speeds + megaarmor.

There are a few tweaks I suggest.

in /system

User.INI
-The FOV is a touch narrow, particularly on 16:9. Tweak the two FOV options up to 100-105. It's 90 by default.

Unreal2.INI
-If you are using a Creative card with OpenAL support (X-Fi/Audigy), under the [ALAudio.ALAudioSubsystem] section set UseDefaultDriver=False . The included OpenAL driver is problematic and this skips it and uses the one in your system32 folder. Check the EAX 3 option in the game menus. The game has excellent audio on my X-Fi headphone setup.
-Under the graphics section, crank the MaxAnisotropy option to 16.

Use SSAA if your video card supports it. MSAA + TRAA won't get everything.

[Davros]

While Unreal 2 supports Eyefinity the fov is messed up its sort of zoomed in
for example you only see about the last inch of your gun

[digitalwanderer]

WORST F-ING ENDING EVER!!! :shock:

I'm still pissed at U2 just for the ending, making me go through all that JUST FOR THAT?!?!

/me grumbles

[swaaye]

I think it has the worst storytelling in a shooter that tries to tell a story. ;)

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

The problem with U2 is that they basically spun off the name to cash in with a pretty, but mediocre on rails shooter. The walking around the ship sections are especially boring and idiotic.

U2 wasn't good enough to lick the shoes of the original Unreal, which was a seminal, watershed game that broke new ground with almost everything it did, and contained about five times as much content, and ten times as much atmosphere and style.

Selling off the name was never going to make a good game, especially when key parts were cut out to meet budgets and deadlines.

[AlStrong]

First run through is fun if you like your classic corridor shooter action and enjoy pretty alien worlds. The movement is slow but you have to remember that you're wearing that armor suit and they didn't go the UT2003/4 route with 30mph running speeds + megaarmor.

Cool :) Yeah, it's certainly given me the impression that it can be pretty. It's funny given the current art direction at Epic. I'd hope a future Unreal game would try to maintain that. Bulletstorm and Gears 3 seem to be going a little bit further away from that somewhat with the more warm lighting though.



There are a few tweaks I suggest.

in /system

User.INI
-The FOV is a touch narrow, particularly on 16:9. Tweak the two FOV options up to 100-105. It's 90 by default.

Unreal2.INI
-If you are using a Creative card with OpenAL support (X-Fi/Audigy), under the [ALAudio.ALAudioSubsystem] section set UseDefaultDriver=False . The included OpenAL driver is problematic and this skips it and uses the one in your system32 folder. Check the EAX 3 option in the game menus. The game has excellent audio on my X-Fi headphone setup.
-Under the graphics section, crank the MaxAnisotropy option to 16.


Cool. I just use integrated Realtek ALC88x or something. I should be fine leaving that setting alone then, eh?


Use SSAA if your video card supports it. MSAA + TRAA won't get everything.

I'm happy enough with just enabling 4xAA + adaptive multi. Framerate is all buttery smooth regardless of what I do. :)

[swaaye]

Yup with Realtek audio just leave all the defaults.

[swaaye]

The problem with U2 is that they basically spun off the name to cash in with a pretty, but mediocre on rails shooter. The walking around the ship sections are especially boring and idiotic.

U2 wasn't good enough to lick the shoes of the original Unreal, which was a seminal, watershed game that broke new ground with almost everything it did, and contained about five times as much content, and ten times as much atmosphere and style.

Selling off the name was never going to make a good game, especially when key parts were cut out to meet budgets and deadlines.
Yeah that's pretty much how I feel. ;)

I suppose they gave it to Legend because Legend had history with that Return to Na Pali expansion that I haven't spent much time with. Legend also made the Wheel of Time game on the original Unreal engine.

[CouldntResist]

from the interview with developers: (http://www.hypothermia.us/interviews/unreal2_leiby/unreal2.html)

3.) O.K. ... O.K. great, so we have the formalities out of the way...Why is Unreal 2 going to be good... I mean really, with the abundance of 1st person shooters on their way to the market, what sets Unreal 2 apart??

Unreal2 is going to suck. Period. There’s nothing I hate more than the hype machine. Expectations kill products (ask Ginger). I hate going to the theatres any more because the trailers give away the best parts of all the movies you wanted to see. So expect Unreal2 to suck. But buy it anyway, and find out for yourself just how much suckitude we were able to pack into it. Maybe we’ll surprise you.

Yeah. Maybe.

[Silent_Buddha]

Yeah that's pretty much how I feel. ;)

I suppose they gave it to Legend because Legend had history with that Return to Na Pali expansion that I haven't spent much time with. Legend also made the Wheel of Time game on the original Unreal engine.

Basically this. Making Unreal 2 was sort of a reward for being the first company to license and make a game using the Unreal Engine.

Shame they did such a bad job on the storytelling for it. I liked many of their older games. The Spellcasting Series of Text and Graphics adventures (actually had speech through PC speaker without the need for a soundcard). Their Superhero League of Hoboken then added RPG gameplay into their traditional adventure game format.

They made great adventure games, IMO, which makes the atrocious storytelling of U2 so shocking to me. They should have stuck with adventure games, none of their non-adventure game efforts were terribly good, IMO.

Regards,
SB

[Grall]

Personally I preferred U2 over the original, mostly because I never bought into the hype-praise-machine for the original game in the first place. Quite the contrary, other than some aspects of the graphics I think the original U is a pretty thoroughly crap game. Much because of the ridiculous enemy AI with their ability to unprovoked dodge sniper rifle bullets (!) and perfect aim over unlimited distances and things like that.

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Personally I preferred U2 over the original, mostly because I never bought into the hype-praise-machine for the original game in the first place. Quite the contrary, other than some aspects of the graphics I think the original U is a pretty thoroughly crap game. Much because of the ridiculous enemy AI with their ability to unprovoked dodge sniper rifle bullets (!) and perfect aim over unlimited distances and things like that.

You know you're talking about a fraction of a percent of the game where you'd try to headshot a skaarj from a distance? All you had to do was close the distance and use other weapons. All the other enemies didn't have the dodging power of the skaarj who were the elite soldiers of the game.

Personally, the game was great for me because of it's visuals, atmosphere and storytelling. You really did feel like you were lost on an alien planet, trekking across these weird landscapes with some new thing around every corner. Skaarj combat was the least of it, so I'm not sure how you manage to pull that out as the one defining thing that makes it "crap".

You should try playing it now (if you're not too biased against it), it still stands up surprisingly well, which I guess is why everyone else considers it far superior to the terribly poor Unreal 2.

[Davros]

Using Swaaye's tweak fov 148

better but not perfect (yes I know it needs aa)
http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/a2611c7fb3.jpg (http://www.freeimagehosting.net/)

[swaaye]

Cool. I was hoping that the FOV just needed to be cranked.

[swaaye]

Much because of the ridiculous enemy AI with their ability to unprovoked dodge sniper rifle bullets (!) and perfect aim over unlimited distances and things like that.
Heh I forgot about that. :wink:

But I definitely am not going to side with you saying the sequel is superior. Both games had the same hype machine, but Unreal actually delivered something special. Unreal 2 isn't superior to much of anything that I can think of. It's just so unrefined and cheesy, and just so unimaginative in every way outside of the visuals. It's a functional formula of a game, but it reminds me of boring ass stuff like Elite Force 2. The AI sure is nothing special.

Unreal's AI may be kinda goofy, but consider what it was competing against. Quake 2? Duke3D? Jedi Knight? lol. Unreal AI was quite unreal by comparison I thought.

[Davros]

unreal's a.i was done by steven polge of reaper-bot fame

[swaaye]

Yeah and I believe it does things like seek cover, seek allies, and the dodging. The enemy behavior varies too. Skarrj will charge you aggressively while some of the other guys keep their distance and use only ranged weapons. Of course the last part isn't exactly unique.

Actually I think both Unreal games have similar AI, but it had lost is uniqueness by then because most games had matched it. Unreal 2's gameplay is quite a bit different though because of how slow it is.

[Silent_Buddha]

Yeah and I believe it does things like seek cover, seek allies, and the dodging. The enemy behavior varies too. Skarrj will charge you aggressively while some of the other guys keep their distance and use only ranged weapons. Of course the last part isn't exactly unique.

Actually I think both Unreal games have similar AI, but it had lost is uniqueness by then because most games had matched it. Unreal 2's gameplay is quite a bit different though because of how slow it is.

They would also occasionally run away and find friends if they were wounded. :) Or run away and come at you from another passage.

Regards,
SB

[Albuquerque]

So, like AlStrong, I bought the entire Unreal pack during the Steam sale over the holiday. I did actually start playing U2 and made it probably four or five levels in... And then I just stopped playing. I agree with probably everyone else in this thread: it's so uninspired, so very "blah" in pretty much every way. And it's so detached (seemingly) from the original Unreal, except for seeing some of the same baddies.

But what happened to the original planet from Unreal? What happened to the guy who escaped in the alien pod but was then 'stuck' in space because he was out of fuel? Why was he on a prison ship? Answering THOSE questions would have been a great Unreal 2 game -- this version is just complete shite.

So sad :(

[CouldntResist]

So, like AlStrong, I bought the entire Unreal pack during the Steam sale over the holiday. I did actually start playing U2 and made it probably four or five levels in... And then I just stopped playing. I agree with probably everyone else in this thread: it's so uninspired, so very "blah" in pretty much every way. And it's so detached (seemingly) from the original Unreal, except for seeing some of the same baddies.
Ironicaly, the levels that were totally detached from the core Unreal were better than all Skaarj related content.

But what happened to the original planet from Unreal? What happened to the guy who escaped in the alien pod but was then 'stuck' in space because he was out of fuel? Why was he on a prison ship? Answering THOSE questions would have been a great Unreal 2 game -- this version is just complete shite.
This was the scope of the Unreal expansion: Return to Na Pali. And it was complete shite.

[swaaye]

All I remember about Na Pali is a ridiculously bad new gun and some really annoying rodent like enemies.

[Albuquerque]

Ironicaly, the levels that were totally detached from the core Unreal were better than all Skaarj related content.


This was the scope of the Unreal expansion: Return to Na Pali. And it was complete shite.


LoL, go figure. SO what you're saying is they b0rked it basically every way they could... :cry:

[swaaye]

Well feel free to dig up RtNP and give us a full report of your feelings. ;) I'm somewhat tempted to load up my Unreal Gold again and go at it...

[Davros]

All I remember about Na Pali is a ridiculously bad new gun

the assault rifle or the fugly rocket launcher
http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/7491/napali7.jpg (http://img37.imageshack.us/i/napali7.jpg/)

[swaaye]

Hey didn't remember that ugly thing. Remembered its equally ugly friend assault rifle ya.
http://forum.beyond3d.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=455&stc=1&d=1298342231




Hey look there's a grenade launcher that launches what look like bananas.

http://forum.beyond3d.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=456&stc=1&d=1298342821

[Kurt]

I had nearly forgotten about the abomination and pointlessness that was Unreal 2. Thanks for refreshing my memory.... grrr. BTW, I may be mistaken, but weren't the guys who did NaPali also responsible for Unreal 2. Or at least some of them. I seem to remember the lead level designer being German, or something, but I may be completely off. Anyway, both totally sucked... which is evidenced by the fact that I played thru the original Unreal maybe 15 times and the other two exactly once each (barely)

[Silent_Buddha]

I had nearly forgotten about the abomination and pointlessness that was Unreal 2. Thanks for refreshing my memory.... grrr. BTW, I may be mistaken, but weren't the guys who did NaPali also responsible for Unreal 2. Or at least some of them. I seem to remember the lead level designer being German, or something, but I may be completely off. Anyway, both totally sucked... which is evidenced by the fact that I played thru the original Unreal maybe 15 times and the other two exactly once each (barely)

Yup, Legend Entertainment. That made a LOT of great Text + Graphics adventures up to the late '90's.

Around '96 (actually earlier since that's when they released Star Control 3) they decided to try their hand at action gaming. And failed quite badly. They should have stuck with their area of expertise.

They licensed the Unreal engine for their WOT game. And while developing that, Epic approached them to make an expansion pack for Unreal.

Regards,
SB

[Davros]

I liked their wheel of Time game

[swaaye]

They should have turned Mission Critical into a first person adventure. I'm thinking of a game that works like Penumbra. That would work for me. :wink: I don't understand why they went from adventure games to the most basic, derivative shooters.

Although that Wheel of Time game was certainly better than their Unreal work.