Friday, March 19, 2004

Epic Puts Smack-Down on Cheaters -- 11:21 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

In a forum post, Epic announced strong measures against cheaters including the ability to ban a CD key via the master server. This is good news since I've heard that aimbots have already been produced. Now all the need to figure out is how to send 20 jillion volts to a cheater's keyboard.

Atari and Epic Offer UT2K4 Servers -- 11:16 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Atari and Epic have set up a system so users can rent servers for Unreal Tournament 2004 starting on Monday. For a private server it is $4 per player with a minimum of eight players. It seems like a reasonable amount for a clan. It'll be interesting to see what the inital feedback from this is like.

UT2K4 Vehicle Horns -- 11:01 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Epic gave all the vehicles in Unreal Tournament 2004 two horns, the standard one and an alternate one. To hear the alternate one, edit your User.ini file. Change the key of your choice so that it reads like this:

Key=playvehiclehorn 1

Replace Key with whatever key you want. I used H. The alternate horn on the Leviathan sounds like a huge ship. The Manta plays "La Cucharacha." The Scorpion plays "Dixie." All we need now is a new Scorpion skin so we can play Dukes of Hazzard! Or maybe not. This works in both the full version and the demo.

Bleh -- 9:22 am CST, Update by The Master

I still don't have UT2K4. I am hoping to have it by Monday or so. Hopefully things will work out, because otherwise I'm going to have to get the 25 CD version, which means I might be playing UT2K4 by Thanksgiving or so.

Thursday, March 18, 2004

Windows Security CD -- 6:11 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I forgot to mention that yesterday the Windows Security Update CD that I ordered a little while ago (story). It's been quite a while since I reinstalled 98 on my kids' box. When I do that again, it will be much easier to update instead of having to download and reboot all evening.

UT2K4 Initial Impressions -- 9:47 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I feel bad because I'm the bonehead who pointed out the Best Buy UT2K4 sale to The Master. Hopefully he'll still be able to get the DVD version. I've heard similar horror stories from folks who pre-ordered at brick-and-mortar EB Games stores.

The Master comments: Just wait—I'm sure this will make for a great rant about corporate ethics in a week or so.

I got my copy late yesterday afternoon which was cool except that meant I couldn't do anything with it until much later at night. Immediately I noticed the coolness factor of installing from a DVD. The disc mounted fine as an iso9660 filesystem. It took me just over seven minutes to install everything. UT2K3 took me 24 minutes with much less content. I'm not sure if the 2.6 kernel's better ATAPI CD-ROM drivers had anything to do with that.

Right now, I've got a splitting headache from some bug I'm fighting, so shooters are right out for the time being. I was impressed with the large number of maps included. Last night, I checked out a couple of the new Onslaught maps. ONS-ArcticStronghold will be a much bigger challenge to master than ONS-Torlan (that came with the demo). The nodes are on different levels vertically, making navigating the map more difficult than just pointing your vehicle in the direction of the next node. I also checked out the Leviathan in ONS-RedPlanet. When "transformed", its main gun can bring down an enemy base in two direct hits. Thankfully, it moves slowly and is a HUGE target to hit. Still, you need to do 5,000 points of damage to bring it down.

New UT2K4 Onslaught Map -- 9:31 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

From the "well, that was quick" department, a new Onslaught map called ONS-Icarus has been released for Unreal Tournament 2004 by Christopher "Plutonic" Blundell. Plutonic did some contract work for Epic, designing some of the levels that come with UT2K4. This map will really help you practice your driving skills with ramps, bends, and jumps all over the place. It's fun just to drive a Hellbender through it.

Past Two Days' News

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