Unreal Tournament 2004 (PC)

UT 2004 is much like its predecessor, both in graphics and game play, but is a much bigger game, both in size on the hard drive, and actual modes of play.

There are many more game types including assault and onslaught which magnify gameplay and enjoyability imensely and make the game massively immersive as you are always working with your team.

In Assault you are either the attackers or defenders, the attackers having to destroy a base or weapon, while the defenders have to defend it and the surrounding area. Games can last for ages but are never ever boring as you are constantly in the battle or working towards achieving a goal. There is also a vast array of weapons to have a play with which makes it fantastic if a little confusing at times!

Onslaught is my favourite. Set on a number of levels, both teams are head to head in a race to destroy each others power reactor. In order to do this you have to power-up energy nodes in the area and once a line of nodes is linked from your reactor to your enemies, you can then start shooting at their reactor. Easier said than done and the other tram is trying to do exactly that too so its a massive battle of speed, firepower and team skill. Whats best is the fact that once the final node is linked and your reactor is vulnerable its quite difficult for the other team to get anywhere near it because base defences are usually everywhere!

Again there is a huge array of weapons that will keep even the most bored-easily people happy for hours at a time.

Vehicles are new additions to the UT series. There is a good range too from flying space fighters and ground/air attack Raptors, to tanks and speedy mantas that will have you flying accross deserts 2 feet above the ground. You can also have several people in some of the vehicles using different weapons and aiding defence or driving. The best of these is the mighty liviathan which can fit 5 people on turrets and a massive ion cannon that will severely ruin your enemy's day! Great stuff.

Graphics wise the game is pretty average but still looks great. The advantage of this though is that you don't need a hard core PC to play it. It will happily run on a 1.5-2ghz PC with 256mb ram and a 9600/5600 graphics card, possibly even lower if you lower the settings.
Also it is a HUGE!!!!! game!!!! It takes up over 5GB so you'll need a fair bit of space for it! Also try and get the DVD version else you'll have 6 CD's and it will take 4ever to install!

Online play is fantastic, especially in the team games like assault and onslaught. Just make sure you have a decent mouse/keyboard and broadband though else you'll be dying a bit too often!

All in all a fantastic game that will suit 9/10 peoples needs. you can hang back with a rocket launcher or sniper rifle or get into the thick of it withe some serious firepower, or save the day in some heavily armoured beheamoth that wipes out all life in a valley. Graphics are good but not amazing, but you won;t get time to look at them unless you want to be fragged!!!

A great game that will run on very modest PC's.