- Unreal Tournament 2004 is now grabbable for free and optimised for modern PCs, thanks to dedicated fans - 17 February 2026
Well, this is cool. You can now download Unreal Tournament 2004 for free and with a patch that ensures it'll run smoothly on modern hardware. This is all thanks to a fan community called OldUnreal, who've made it their mission to keep Epic's classic shooters alive, even going as far as getting the Fortnite publishers' permission to do so. Read more
- Unreal Tournament 2004 is now available for free thanks to its fan community, and they've even updated the game for modern PCs: 'This is the first public patch for Unreal Tournament 2004 in over 20 years' - 15 February 2026
Epic Games may have since left the BSP-carved valleys of Unreal in favour of the cartoonish hills of Fortnite , but at least it hasn't locked the series that put the company on the map deep in a digital vault somewhere. In the last few years, it has given permission for the Internet Archive to assume hosting duties for its older shooters, which is why you can download both Unreal Gold and the original Unreal Tournament from archive.org... Read more.
- Fan community announces it will revive Unreal Tournament 2004 with Epic's blessing: 'We're doing this for free because we're fans of the game and we like a challenge' - 6 December 2025
So-called boomer shooters make up a whole FPS subgenre now—but what about their multiplayer counterparts, the arena shooters of old? Most of them are ruled by diehard niches of expert players or straight-up unplayable today. Unreal Tournament 2004 has spent a long time somewhere between those two categories: it boasts a legendary albeit small modding scene but has been unavailable to buy on digital storefronts for years. As of this past week, though, that's set to change... Read more.
- The original Unreal Tournament just got a new patch with hundreds of fixes - 23 September 2020
The original and best Unreal Tournament, released back in 1999, has just received a new patch. Update version 469 is available now from Github , and is designed for the small community of PC players still logging on to frag each other and score m-m-m-monster kills with well-placed Redeemer shots on Facing Worlds. The patch is the work of the OldUnreal forum, building on work from the UTPG (Unreal Tournament Preservation Group), a collective of community programmers and server admins that took over after Epic Games wound up its official support. Read more
- Epic's new Unreal Tournament no longer in development - 5 December 2018
Epic has officially downed tools on its long-in-development Unreal Tournament revival, company boss Tim Sweeney has confirmed. It's not a huge surprise - the Fortnite maker has been rather busy focusing on its battle royal phenomenon, not to mention prepping its new PC gaming storefront to take on Steam . Still, it was thought a skeleton crew might have been aboard the Unreal Tournament ship. Alas, not. "Unreal Tournament remains available in the store but isn't actively developed," Sweeney told Variety . It's a change in message from two months ago, when Epic admitted the game was not making much progress but, seemingly, was still in the works. Read more…
- How Unreal Tournament mods created a wave of successful indie studios - 14 November 2017
Alan Wilson, vice president of Tripwire Interactive, tells me his studio probably wouldn’t exist without the Make Something Unreal Tournament that Nvidia and Epic Games hosted in the early 2000s. "I’d say it’s 99 percent certain," he says. In 2003 he and his roughly 60-person team were the rock stars of the Unreal Tournament modding scene, having successfully and breathtakingly transformed sci-fi arena shooter Unreal Tournament 2003 into Red Orchestra, the brutally realistic shooter set in World War II’s Eastern Front. Is it possible everyone involved could have used the experience to launch individual careers at big game studios? Of course. It happens with mods all the time. But only Epic Games’ support—and the award of a then-outrageously expensive Unreal game engine license—could have transformed the whole team into the studio we now k…
- An ode to the shotgun - 17 May 2017
Here's how big a deal Doom's shotgun was: in a game with another weapon called the Big Fucking Gun , the shotgun is the one we remember best. It's reliable at practically any distance. One clean shot to the chest will eviscerate most enemies. Somehow that pump action reload animation and its cha-chick are satisfying every single time with only five frames of animation. How many other games are confident enough to give you a gun this good 10 seconds into the first level? Before Doom, shotguns were for shooting clay pigeons. After Doom, they were for annihilating demons. And for annihilating practically anything else: as Doom birthed a new genre, you could rely on the trusty shotgun to be there almost anytime, more steadfast and reliable than a squirrely pistol or a ammo-hungry rifle. It's our pellet pal. Our blunderbuss buddy. In the wry words of John Romero, when we…
- The 50 Best FPS Ever Made - 13 May 2015
Gathering together the best shooters is no easy task, but if you’re looking for a new PC FPS to play, look no further. Your favourite game is at number 51. …
- The best total conversion mods - 28 January 2015
Welcome to our roundup of the best total conversion mods ever. Presented in no particular order, these are the mods that radically transform our favorite games into something different, with new and improved art, gameplay systems, locations, and adventures. Crafted through years of work, sometimes by large teams of volunteer modders, many of these mods have gone on to become PC gaming classics in their own right. Here are the best total conversion mods ever made.  Link : Sven Co-op on Steam First released way back in 1999, Sven Co-op is still being both updated and played today. A cooperative mod for the original Half-Life, the mod allows groups of players to battle their way through the Half-Life campaign, where they'll find increased challenges and far more enemies, as well as new maps filled with puzzles and challenges. Over the years hundreds of new levels have been added…
- The Future of Unreal Tournament Has Begun! - 13 May 2014
Work on the future of Unreal Tournament has begun and we’re happy to announce that we’re going to do this together, with you. We know that fans of the game are as passionate about Unreal Tournament as we are. We know that you have great ideas and strong opinions about where the game should go and what it should be. So let’s do something radical and make this game together, in the open, and for all of us. Here’s the plan: We’ve created a small team of UT veterans that are beginning work on the project starting today. From the very first line of code, the very first art created and design decision made, development will happen in the open, as a collaboration between Epic, UT fans and UE4 developers. We’ll be using forums for discussion, and Twitch streams for regular updates. If you are a fan and you want to participate, create a free account and join the forum discussion. All code and co…
- The Future of Unreal Tournament Has Begun! - 13 May 2014
Work on the future of Unreal Tournament has begun and we’re happy to announce that we’re going to do this together, with you. We know that fans of the game are as passionate about Unreal Tournament as we are. We know that you have great ideas and strong opinions about where the game should go and what it should be. So let’s do something radical and make this game together, in the open, and for all of us. Here’s the plan: We’ve created a small team of UT veterans that are beginning work on the project starting today. From the very first line of code, the very first art created and design decision made, development will happen in the open, as a collaboration between Epic, UT fans and UE4 developers. We’ll be using forums for discussion, and Twitch streams for regular updates. If you are a fan and you want to participate, create a free account and join the forum discussion. All code and co…
- Custom UT Bots Pass “Turing Test”, Win BotPrize - 28 September 2012
Phys are reporting that a University Of Texas team won a $7000 in a competition to create game bots that would pass as human. “The winning bots both achieved a humanness rating of 52 percent. Human players received an average humanness rating of only 40 percent. The two winning teams will split the $7,000 first prize,” says the Phys report. “When this ‘Turing test for game bots’ competition was started, the goal was 50 percent humanness,” the bot’s creator, Risto Miikkulainen, is quoted as saying. “It took us five years to get there, but that level was finally reached last week, and it’s not a fluke.” The bot mimicked humans by pursuing grudges, having poor aim at long range, and by using neural networks to “evolve” the bot’s behaviour towards something that would be optimal in the game’s environment. Do…
- Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney enters AIAS Hall of Fame - 8 December 2011
Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney is to be the newest member of the notable AIAS (Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences) Hall of Fame. Sweeney's name will rank alongside the likes of Nintendo icon Shigeru Miyamoto, id Software mastermind John Carmack, Blizzard boss Mike Morhaime and Sims creator Will Wright. The AIAS acknowledged Sweeney's "technical innovations" in Unreal Engine, which powers many of today's biggest games, as well as his work on the Unreal Tournament and Gears of War series of games. He's the nerdy backbone of Epic Games, in other words. The posh term for this is technical director. "Tim's vision has changed the face of gaming with the advent of the Unreal Engine and the commitment of Epic, as a studio, to bring both consumer and industry-facing technology to new heights," said AIAS president Martin Rae. Sweeney receives his AIAS 2012 Hall of Fame Award in February. Coll…
