Unreal Tournament 2004

This game/console's online features are no longer supported. While this game/console's online features were once accessible, they are (as of January 24, 2023) no longer officially supported and online-exclusive features may be documented as now-unseen content.

To do: A lot of Unreal Warfare (early version of Gears of War) leftovers in the game's files, ranging from models and textures to early COG posters.

Unreal Tournament 2004 is the direct successor to Unreal Tournament 2003, introducing new features such as driveable vehicles, over 100 maps to battle in, and general improvements. It very quickly overshadowed its predecessor in terms of popularity, partially due to these new features.

Just like the game before it, UT2004 also has plenty of unused content in its files.

Unused Onslaught Ladder#

While most of the game's PvP game modes have their own ladder in the single-player pseudo-campaign in some form, the Onslaught ladder isn't used for unknown reasons. It can be accessed by creating a new in-game profile and editing the "System\UT2004.ini" file to include these lines of text:

[XGame.UT2K4LadderInfo]
AdditionalLadders=Class'XGame.CLOnslaught' 

Then, the campaign must be completed (or use the "SkipMatch" cheat) to unlock the "Additional" tab, where this ladder can be played. It features six matches, with three of them having an option to change the map for a fee of some credits.

The playable maps are Frostbite/Primeval, Dawn/Torlan, Arctic Stronghold/Crossfire, Dria, Red Planet, and Severance. When the ladder was restored in the Epic Games-blessed OldUnreal v3374 patch, the six extra bonus addon maps were added: Tricky as an alternative to Frostbite/Primeval, Aridoom to Dawn/Torlan, IslandHop to Dria, Adara to RedPlanet and Urban/Ascendancy to Severance.

Localization Strings#

Much like it was done with Unreal Tournament, a look at the non-English localization strings (dated between February 28, 2004 and March 3, 2004) reveal a lot of information about the game's early plans that didn't came to fruition.

The description of DM-Gestalt in XMaps.**t is taken verbatim from the alpha of Unreal Championship.

The ECE Edition version of OnslaughtBP.**t reveals that there were plans for the inclusion of a fourth vehicle called "Centaur", described as a "mobile turret". The SPMA would also have been a three-seat vehicle, like the HellBender, with a Driver seat, a Skymine seat and an Artillery seat; in the final game, the SPMA only has two seats: Driver/Artillery and Skymine. These lines were excised from OnslaughtBP.int, however, they can be found in OnslaughtBP.est (the Spanish version) OnslaughtBP.frt (French), OnslaughtBP.det (German) and OnslaughtBP.itt (Italian):

[ONSArtilleryCannonPawn]
VehiclePositionString="en el cañón trasero de un SPMA"
VehicleNameString="Cañón trasero de SPMA"

[ONSMobileTurret]
VehiclePositionString="en un Centaur"
VehicleNameString="Centaur"

Regional Differences#

As is common with many other shooters released in Germany, all blood and gore effects were completely removed from the game's German release. This also removes the options to turn on/off these effects from the Options menu.

References#