Let's play UT2004!
 

I know there were a few people on Facebook (Sprout, Skills, Qwarky, myself) who expressed direct interest in playing Unreal Tournament 2004 in the not-too-distant future, so I'm making it known on here that there might be some fragging going on. I'm a couple days away from a new computer and a reformat, but until then I can't install the legit copy of UT04 I have since my optical drive has crapped out. Afterwards though, I'm all in. The only obvious issues I can think of is whether we have enough people interested to bother looking for a server to ourselves, or even if we need to bother with that. We could just find a public server suitable to our tastes, or maybe someone could even host the server themselves. Not sure about mods or anything like that, it's been a while since I've played. It would be fun to get a big enough group together though!

PARTICIPANTS
The Dopefish
Colonel Skills
a_lurker(?)
Qwarky
Garr
^___^
Pangalin
LeHah
Clamjouster
Shade
Lap Dance
SuperSonic
dagget
sprouticus

EDIT:
Those who can't find their copy, game is available DRM free on gog.com for 10 bucks.
http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/unrea...ament_2004_ece

Acer has, to my knowledge, the best upstream connection of the lot of us. I'm sure we could convince him to play with us.

Mine's not awful, and we could use it and it'd work fine, but either way.

I'm in, and I'm pretty sure I managed to convince Lurker to get in on it too in chat. There might be others who are chat regulars too.

I wish to play!

So long as it's at a time when I can. aka not 5 AM my time.

Hopefully steam version won't have issues playing with non-steam versions or something.

Hey, I used to play that! Provided my copy of the game still works, I might attempt to join in. I'll echo Q's sentiments about timing, and hopefully the lag between north America and Yurop won't make it unplayable.

Hope you guys like shooting at obnoxiously high-poly anime skins 'cuz I just bought this shit

Since we have a good amount of interest, let's talk dates. Since my schedule on the weekdays has changed to later times, weekdays are out for me. Weekends are best, and Saturdays are optimal, sometime in the PM EST, but I'm not sure next weekend will be best, in case it's too short notice for some people. Since we're already up to seven people though we're already doing pretty good on the participation front.

P.S. UT2004 is available on Steam for $14.99.

If I can locate the original box to the game, which is at my parents' house in NH, I'll be able to play. Otherwise I think I'm shit outta luck since UT2k4 is not on the Mac version of Steam, and I don't have a legitimate serial number I could use.

I'm down! Gotta buy that shit soon.

I would like to participate to, I am in chat most of the time so I guess I am easy to pin down... weekends are fine, but if it can be made as late as possible in the -4 GMT region it would help me a bit.

For those who can't find their copies, you can buy it off of GOG for $10. (I don't know how Steam works. Could you play a non-steam copy with people who have Steam? I stopped PC gaming in 2002.)

Unreal Tournament 2004 ECE - GOG.com

I'd be interested in playing online again. I don't think I've touched UT since I was still going to LAN parties.

I can't seem to get my CD copy recognized by Steam. There still seem to be loads of online servers though, the game's still as fast and (somewhat) whacky as it was eight years ago. A pleasure to (finally!) run on a decent computer.

As for timing, depending on workloads and girlfriend visits, I can be available quite often between 8 PM and 1 AM CET (that's GMT+1, so I think EST+6 and PST+9, how convenient!) but planning might prove tricky as I don't quite have a stable schedule. Anyway I'll be sure to pop up in chat whenever I'm available for a game.

Addendum: does anybody know if any patches/updates are needed and what's the latest?

Thanks for this, I've been suggesting the Steam version for folks, but this is cheaper and doesn't require the client if you don't have it. Awesome.

Here is a link that should get you started as far as "essentials" are concerned. (Apparently BeyondUnreal's file distribution is no longer.) Beyond that, I've been out of the loop with UT2004 for a while and what's "new" is probably a few years old by now.

I'd be down for this too. Just gotta find my serial and reinstall.

Oh hells yeah...count me in. I haven't played this in a while myself either, but I'd be down for a few games.

I'd need a headset for playing with you guys, right? I know I have one in my closet that came with an old PC Game preorder (Tribes 2?) but in case I can't find it, any suggestions that are on the < $50 area?

You don't really need a headset, since most of UT is pretty much deathmatch and doesn't require active vocal communication.

Real men are fast enough to type out insults mid-match, instead of smack-talking a mic.

Imma try and lay my hands on this and hopefully sign up as well. I remember when we did this way back in the day. Now off to find a new copy relatively cheap, since I'm such a scrooge with money.

I took the liberty of editing the gog link into the opening post dope. Hope you don't mind.

Dagget - If you download an copy from somewhere, I'll let you use my serial key for it. I can't play it now anyways because my mobo is dying, so as long as it's getting some use, I don't mind.

Or if Dagget buys it and someone else needs a key but can't spare the 10 bucks, I'm still happy to share my key.

I couldn't do that to ya. I'm trying to find a retail copy kinda cheap without going to gog.com first. I kinda like physical copies. :P I've found a couple on ebay but they're like singapore and UK copies and I'm not sure that they'll work on my system. I've never used gog so I'll see what that's all about. Thanks for the offer though, I appreciate it :)

Edit: Purchased and bought from GOG. I'm in for some fun times.

Ahhh, ok. Well, if you change your mind let me know. Like I said, I can't play it right now anyway. I can't actually play anything currently, and even emulators are crashing my system. Mobo is dying, so all my games are put on the back burners for the time being.

Hmm... If I purchase it from GOG, will the serial I get work on the Mac version?

That's a yes, apparently all the serials are platform-neutral.

So does anyone have any objections with this or next weekend to get together for this?

I'm up for either. I've got a new headset and I'll play some single player to knock off the rust. Should we use Xfire to communicate or skype or anything like that for those who want voice chat?

Just give me a better idea of timing and I can tell you if I can be there or not. The weekends are generally free, though.

See, that's why I was saying next weekend. I think this weekend is too soon.

TOO SOON

Next weekend is fine; this weekend I am basically swamped with stupid tasks that I allowed to pile up.

Yeah, next weekend will be better for me as well, won't be around that much this weekend.

Next weekend works for me too.

FUCKIN THIS IS GONNA BE AWESOME

I don't have any plans but that could change. Either way, tentatively sign my ass up!

Next weekend impossible for me, the girlfriend's home. Sorry!

I'll probably be out on the 26th for a family birthday, but any other weekend evening usually works for me. Did anyone determine the game type that was going to be played?

If we're lucky, we'll find a map-vote server and we can play whatever, maybe, depending on how good the map-vote mod is. I'd be open for anything, really. Monster's a lot of fun.

Just as long as the play is fair and by fair I mean no one has aimbots or any kind of hacks like that? I dunno if there's anti-hack software for this. I know Doom 3 had it but I still ran into people hacking and botting like crazy. I only say that because when I used to play Unreal and Quake 2 with a few friends of mine, one would constantly cheat and when called out on it, act like nothing was wrong.

Not saying you guys will. I'm just a bit iffy cause of past experiences. :edgartpg:

I'd like to say nobody here takes their e-penis seriously enough to do shit like that, but then I remember the hours people spent at the meet playing Green Day Rock Band just to get the achievements.

Still, most of you are primarily console guys these days, aren't you? Even installing PC games is such a Complicated Hassle, let alone modding them. I can't imagine anyone would bother.

It has been a few years since I've played something like this on PC, I was just curious since the last time was with my friends and for hours it would be like "Bobby why are you glowing white?" "I'm not glowing white, your game is glitching out."

"HOW THE FUCK CAN I SHOOT YOU IN THE FACE WITH A ROCKET LAUNCHER AND YOU'RE NOT DAMAGED?" "I don't know what you're talking about."

I have fucked up friends, I know.

No one will be running fucking aim-bots on this server. What a ridiculous thing to be scared of. No one here has such tiny, insignificant and malfunctioning testicles.

PC games have been less of a hassle to play for years now.

Console: Install: HDD is slow and small, takes 20 minutes. Enter Online Pass. 25 characters using a d-pad and a virtual keyboard. Enter code for retailer exclusive preorder DLC. Apply patches sequentially. Doing so takes 10 minutes each and boots you out of the game and you have to relaunch it.


PC: Two click buying off Steam, one click launch. You're playing in 2 minutes.

I am still awed how many servers were up for the game when I ran it yesterday, like at least 62 servers found right away. 62 SERVERS.

Not 62 p2p matches running, hosted on someone's xbox as they play and enjoy host-shotgun, 62 actual servers dedicated to running ut2k4 matches non-stop. On an 8 year old game, no less.

The number is probably about the same for UT99.

Anyway, I am still terrible at deathmatch, but at least we've confirmed steam versions have no problems playing with non-steam versions, as face confirmed he was running the 6CD original.

Also: played a bit of Onslaught last night. With vehicles (lol road rage), power nodes and stuff. It is absolutely excellent, possibly the best game mode in UT2k4 (although I remember Invasion being quite fun too). I'm afraid we'll absolutely have to play that.

I can only surmise that 75% of the time in Onslaught involves quickly hopping on vehicles and just running each other over.

Which has the ultimate potential for hilarity.

CTF was always my favorite gametype, but now it seems that CTF (at least in the UT2004 community) has all but lost its position to Onslaught, unless you want to play Instagib (nope).

Playing UT2004 lately has reminded me of some mods that I loved, namely Deathball (a soccer-style gametype) and Jailbreak. I loved Rocket Arena back in the UT days but sadly its not so popular as straight-up deathmatch.

It seems that there may not be a need to schedule a server exclusively for us, as there are dozens of open servers most every time I look. If we find one that can suit most of our needs (particularly, a mapvote that allows us to change gametypes would be best) we should have no problem.

I actually played a little UT2k4 Onslaught Saturday evening (Torlan), then went over to UT99 CTF...it looked like UT99 had more servers available but as far as dedicated to UT99 servers I'm not sure.

I was a little disappointed to see the lack of Bombing Run servers in 2k4, and also the lack of the custom Assault Trials maps. I used to waste many hours on TempleOfTrials.

Damn, Deathball...I tried downloading it and playing a couple of months ago. I must have been playing at the wrong time because all of the servers were empty. I'd love to see it make a comeback.

Rocket Arena, hell yes. Switching between multiple maps and being queued in a line where if you won, you stayed...if you didn't, you go to the back of the line. Good times.

When going "Godlike" was a big deal, I went Godlike (won 25 straight 1v1 matches) in a Rocket Arena game. Like throwing four touchdowns in the high school homecoming game, that was my "big game".

Deathball got better in later editions. They added top-, back-, and sidespinning. They also got the bots to work reasonably well.

Facing Worlds. All else is worshiping a false god.

My computer is well past the recommended specs for the game but has the slightest bit of chug when using 20 bots. Are we looking at large games (everyone here PLUS bots) or purely PvP or what?

I don't see a need for bots if there's 13 (14?).

THE MORE TO KILL, THE GREATER THE CAUSE

Would you guys have a problem with my brother joining in on the fragging? I told him about this and he's been wanting to play UT2k4 again.

Man, no offense, but if we wanted to play with total strangers we could already do that.

Same could be said for him too.

(Edit: the reality is that unless we find a server that can provide private hosting, there's a good chance that we'll have to play against strangers, or possibly that strangers will take up spots on the server we intend for GFFers. So, while I'd prefer it to be GFF-only, I'm not going to lose sleep over this unless someone from GFF who wanted to play misses their chance because we couldn't find private hosting. As LeHah said:Also, are we definitely getting together this weekend for this?)

I'm totally down. Lets just agree upon a time.

I assume we'd be meeting on IRC first or something? To coordinate which server we're using or something?

For some reason I can't get chocochat to connect, dunno what the issue is, but if it stays that way, I'll just check back in the thread on whatever day is planned.


edit: nevermind. Java wanted to play nice now.

UT2k4 has a built in irc client that you can use to join and discuss servers.

Might have a solution...my bro has a server in New Jersey and he's willing to set up a UT2k4 server there. Just needs to know ahead of time what kind of configuration and plugins you guys want so he has time to set it up.

I'm gonna send out an e-mail either tonight or tomorrow with details but I'm hoping everyone (or as many people as possible) can be around by, say, 5PM EST Saturday. Honestly there's no reason interested people couldn't be available or playing all day if they wanted to, and I'm going to start an IRC channel tomorrow.

5pm is midnight (I think) for me, so I should be able to make it.

Yeah, not gonna be home by 5 but happy to join late.

I HAVE INTERNET AGAIN. And I installed UT while I was away. So yeah, I'll try to be there. Wherever 'there' is.

Sorry, I don't have this game, can we perhaps play Modern Warfare 3 on the PlayStation 3 media entertainment system?

Since it's easier for me to make a post in this thread than send two separate PMs to 13 people, I've got a channel, #gffut2004, set up on irc.psigenix.net, the same server as #gfchat. Anyone who would like to play with other GFFers would do well to join that channel. I may not be available to play much tonight, if at all, but I'm glad to help find a server or whatev.

I'll be around more tomorrow to play. I got swamped today with stupid shit. ._.

I'm not going to be around for most of the day, so feel free to play without me.

Where the fuck are you people? I've been waiting for an hour.

Juan, clowning people with Shock Combo circa 2004.

We got a tiny game going. Me, Skills, Juan, Sim and Dagget.

Owned Juan.

That server seems to be just that fucking map 24/7.

Dagget bailed for food, Term bailed for COCKBAGELS or something, reconvene in like an hour or something?

Popped onto the chat, didn't see anyone talking. Next time, it might make sense to put the game type + server on the top of the chat channel so those that are late can join up.

(I may be doing this entirely wrong, mind you - I've used IRC for 15 years and the UT version is somewhat counter-intuitive)

no, putting something in the topic would be good.

Alternatively, just ask on the IRC channel and someone will paste it from up above.

That was great fun, guys. The Shield Gun makes the Impact Hammer from UT look like a Nerf bat. WE NEED TO PLAY SOME CTF OR ASSAULT.

We had a total of about 8-10 players this first night, which is not bad at all. Chat has been considering making this a regular thing (but not every weekend).

I had fun even though I'm mostly like second to last in all matches. Great game, guys.

FUCK YES

I am down for getting raped by Dope again.

Next weekend, maybe. We'll see.

Unlike Skills, I'm not so enthusiastic about raping him again. But, if I must, I must.

May 4th, most likely. At least for me.

Hopefully I can attend and promptly get my ass handed to me something fierce again!

I'm in for some more UT2004 greatness.

You people are terrible I just want to get that out there

Additional Spam:
I guess we're gonna do some Doom instead?

No promises from me, but I can *try*. I had a blast last time I played, even if I sucked horribly, heh.

Down like a clown, Charlie Brown.

So, this still happening tomorrow?

MAYBE. I still have UT04 installed.