This week, the OldUnreal community project has pushed out the first public update of Unreal Tournament 2004 (UT2004) in two decades. In a bygone era—prior to all things Fornite—Epic Games and Digital Extremes co-produced several popular sci-fi titles based on and named after the widespread Unreal Engine. Throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, PC gamers enjoyed a good number of single and “arena shooter” multiplayer Unreal titles. In particular, Unreal Tournament 2004 left a lasting impression. Epic ended official support of the now almost 22-year-old first-person shooter classic back in 2022; prompting online community efforts to keep the chaotic (up to) 32-player experience alive. With Epic’s blessing, the Unreal Engine v2.5-driven title has been reissued—for free—on modern PC (Windows, Linux) and Mac systems, thanks to the long-running OldUnreal initiative’s recent endeavors.
Last December, a preview post described a forthcoming bug fix and QoL-rich “simultaneous” game release and issuing of a community patch. Unfortunately, the present-day download and installation process is a bit convoluted, especially when compared to relatively breezy launcher experiences. Currently, the Old Unreal website provides a link to the full UT2004 game installer. Stijn Volckaert—the project’s main overseer—has shared a couple of tidbits regarding the launch of “Preview 9.” In a public GitHub post, the Belgian Associate Professor addressed modernized UT2004 landscapes: “hi everyone! Thank you for your patience. This is a preview of our 3374 patch. It has gone through internal testing and is relatively stable. It works in online games, except on servers with AntiTCC. We will release a new, 3374-compatible version of AntiTCC soon to address this issue.”
Volckaert continued: “please note that this is the first public patch for Unreal Tournament 2004 in over 20 years. We have implemented numerous fixes and improvements, written a new SDL backend for Linux and macOS, and even a new renderer. We have also migrated the entire codebase to modern build systems. Some new bugs may have slipped in!…If you do find a bug, then please read our instructions before filing a bug report. You may have to update your game ini if you’re patching an existing installation of the game. Happy fragging!”
The Should You Play It? channel’s video description states: “this is our gameplay compilation with settings to Max and all bots in the game. You can play any map alone or with/against friends. You can also skip tutorial by going to Instant Action. This was made possible by OldUnreal, a long-running community support project dedicated to keeping Epic’s early shooters alive.”