I bought UT2004 the day before yesterday and played with it just a little bit. Yesterday I eschewed more responsible uses of my time to explore it a little further. The usual gaming sources have been full of praise for this latest addition to the Unreal franchise, but then, they’re usually full of praise for almost any turd that slides out of the glossy cardboard sphincters of major game publishers. I have been playing a lot of U2XMP, the wonderful add-on to the justafiably maligned Unreal II single-player game. If you stayed away from Unreal II because you heard it sucked, you owe it to yourself to buy the Special Edition that ships with the XMP add-on, or fish a copy of Unreal II out of the bargain bin and download the free multiplayer mod. It’s well worth it.

I’ve been very impressed with U2XMP’s gameplay, and running around in tanks or a three-man death machine is a lot of fun.

UT2004 is fantastic. The maps are all polished, and I’m really, really glad I bought this Radeon 9800 card. I’m sure my venerable GeForce3 would have turned it into a slideshow. While the game does retain a lot of the twitchiness of the UT line- you know, the double-side-jump-diagonal-dodge moves that baffle geezers like me, and DON’T get me started on how much I hate the Translocator, the gameplay is solid, and the vehicles rock. The Onslaught mode is definitely deserving of the kudos it’s received. I’ve always loved area control games.

Anyway, I want to urge all my readers (yes, both of you) to purchase UT2004, so that I may show them what coccydynia is all about.