I am not an employee or contractor of any of the involved companies, which means I don't have any insider knowledge at all. Anything written in here that is not clearly identified as a quote from a interview with Epic or Infogrames staff is just my personal opinion and may be wrong. I wrote the FAQ based on my best knowledge and research, but like any human I make errors. If you feel that I am wrong about anything written in this FAQ, please e-mail me to TetrisL@gmx.ch and your input will be checked.

Copyrights and Trademark Info

All other trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.

Please inform me via e-mail TetrisL@gmx.ch if I should unintendedly have violated any copyrights or other rights of any individual or company in this FAQ. The matter will be checked and - if justified - the related paragraph will be corrected / modified immediately.

Credits

Big credits go to Epic Games for bringing us the great Unreal game series!!!

Credits also to the co-creators of the Unreal series: Legend Entertainment, Digital Extremes and Infogrames

Credits to the websites who made the interviews and previews that I quoted from in this FAQ, names as listed with each quote.

Greetings and credits to all the nice people on the BeyondUnreal U2 forum (formerly Planet Unreal) and Infogrames' U2 forum, especially Dork, GrimStar, Wowbagger, Iceman, ImG32 and a few others who have contributed to the making of this FAQ.

Further greetings to my clanmates of [$FCE2] – Respawn Inc.. Hang in there, pals! Eventually we'll be playing a game together again!

1.3 About this FAQ

What is an FAQ and what is this FAQ about?

FAQ is the abbreviation of "Frequently Asked Questions". An FAQ is a compilation of answers to such frequently asked questions. In fact it should rather be called "FGA", i.e. “Frequently Given Answers”. ;)

This FAQ is about Unreal 2, a computer game currently in the making by Legend Entertainment in collaboration with Epic Games. For more detailed info see below.

May I copy, distribute or mirror this FAQ?

No, except for personal use.

You may copy this FAQ in electronic or hardcopy version for your own personal use only, as long as you don't modify it in any way from the original.

You may not copy, distribute or mirror this FAQ in electronic or hardcopy version on any CD, media, magazine or website for any commercial income purpose, i.e. you charge the users more than the pure connection/distribution costs or have commercial income through advertisement banners. In any case, a written permission by the author is required. Mail to: TetrisL@gmx.ch.

Version History

Version Date Content Changes

0.8 06 Jan 02 First draft, published internal for review.

1.0 06 Jan 02 First official release

Abbreviations

U1 Unreal 1 = Unreal "Classic"

UT Unreal Tournament

UC Unreal Championship

U2 Unreal 2

WoT Wheel of Time

About the Author

About me

My nick-name is "Tetris L". The name comes from a funny Gamespy Grudge in 1999, that featured the duel "CliffyB vs. The L-shaped Tetris Block". Needless to say that I won by a big margin. ;-)

I used to go by the name of "©leaner" (after Luc Besson's movie "Leon, the Professional") but dropped that name because it sounded a bit too wannabe-hardcore. Furthermore there were far too many other "Cleaners" online and I wanted something unique.

You may know me as the author of my Unreal Tournament website, including the Unofficial UT FAQ, or my activities as member of the UT clan [$FCE2] – Respawn Inc., my activities as admin of the Barrysworld UT CTF league or as the smartass spamming the BeyondUnreal U2 forum, Infogrames' U2 forum, or Verant's PlanetSide Forums. :)

My real life name is Harm Köpke. I’m born 1971, grew up and studied mechanical engineering in Northern Germany, lived in Switzerland for 4 years, and am now back in Germany, working for a company that is designing power plants.

Contact me

You are invited to send any comments, corrections, additional information or whatever you have to say via e-mail to TetrisL@gmx.ch. Any input will be appreciated, considered and checked and if I use any of the information that you sent me, be sure I'll give you credits.

If you have a question that you don’t find the answer for on this FAQ, do NOT email me about it. If the answer is not in here, I probably don’t know it. Post the question on one of the Unreal forums listed in the links. On those forums the chance is much higher, that there is somebody around who can help you.

2 Unreal Warfare Basics

What is UW?

Unreal Warfare is an upcoming action computer game by Epic Games Inc.

It is a game of the Unreal games series, based on Unreal, the very successful FPS game by EpicGames from 1998.

Isn't UW just an engine, not a game?

No, it is confirmed by Epic that UW is an actual game in the making by Epic.

It was first confirmed by Epic's Vice President Mark Rein himself in this interview on FGN Online, published Jan 22, 2001:

… Epic VP Mark Rein, who explained, "Unreal Warfare is the title of our next game and one of our worst kept secrets. Aside from the title, we're not ready to say anything else about the project at this point."

Furthermore Cliff "CliffyB" Bleszinski confirmed it in this interview on XGR (part IV):

You know, I'm not gonna lie and say we're not working on something. Yes, we are working on a game. Yes, the name is Unreal Warfare.

He says a few more interesting things about UW, U2 and MMOFPS games in this interview, particularly in part IV. If you haven't yet, listen to it.

Last but not least, Cliffy said in this interview on GamingGroove:

I can't really say much about what I'm working on. Rest assured, it is a game. And odds are, it'll probably have guns.

I'm quoting that because of the "guns" part. I knew you'd all love to hear that UW isn't a pinball game. ;)

Who are the makers of UW?

UW is being created by Epic Games, the makers of U1. No details about the team (Who does what?) are known.

UW will most likely be published by Infogrames S.A, who have published all games of the Unreal series by now (taken over the old publisher GT Interactive respectively).

When will UW be released?

Q4 2003 (roughly)

Epic's VP Mark Rein said in an interview with the PC Gamer Magazine (published in their Feb 2002 issue):

Q: How do Unreal, Unreal 2, UT, UT2 and Epic's own Unreal Warfare project all fit into the bigger Unreal Universe?

A: […] Unreal Warfare really doesn't belong in this list – it is probably about 2 years away.

The interview took place Q4 2001, which would mean a release at around Q4 2003 (roughly).

But as usually in the games industry, release dates easily float a quarter or more, especially with 2 years to go in development.

Will UW be an MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) game? Will there be a monthly fee?

Most probably not.

Epic's CliffyB said a few things about MMO games in this interview on GamingGroove:

GG: Massively Multiplayer seems to be the way games of the future are going, what, if anything, are you currently working on in that genre? (Can you include new screenshots as additional material?)

Cliffy: Hell, no! I can't really say much about what I'm working on. Rest assured, it is a game. And odds are, it'll probably have guns. MM games are great but you really have to be willing to take a few risks if you're going to do one of those games. You need to make sure you have a great server architecture in place and programmers that can stay on top of any issues that may come up. You need someone to run servers for you and you need to have a great beta period or you're going to be in for a world of hurt.

Something else to keep in mind - if you're going to make people pay 10 bucks a month for your game then you'd better make damned sure you're offering something above and beyond what all other (free online) games are offering. That's why it would be tricky to make a MM FPS. I'm not saying it can't be done, I'm just saying that if you're going to take a game that people are used to playing for free and suddenly try to charge for it they're going to reply with a hearty "Fuck you" at the retail counter. You've got to make sure you're offering TONS of reasons for the gamers to play the game on YOUR pay-per-play servers. What that motivation might be is up to the team and designer.

This sounds like Epic, if they are thinking about entering the MMO market at all, take a very careful approach and are fully aware of the risks and requirements.

Noel Stephens (Ex-ION Storm, now Paradigm Ent.) said some interesting things in this thread on the BeyondUnreal U2 forums:

The Unreal Warfare engine WILL NOT support an MMO type environment. However, it is possible to make it such that the servers are linked to one another.

I have worked with the Unreal Warfare technology. I also have several friends working with the technology at both Epic and other companies. While I won't deny the fact that they might be thinking about a MMO server that uses the UW technology as a "client" base, I am 99.9999% sure that UW won't be MMO.

Now... what they do AFTER the fact is a TOTALLY different story. I think the plan is to push out a kick butt Multiplayer game that tests a bunch of technology that will be needed to have a good foundation for a MMO client and will help fund future expansion and capabilities on the engine. In lieu of good sales (we/they hope) they would probably head towards some form of an MMO architecture or at least have someone working on a version that has that capability.

Remember... their strategy is not to build a particular type of game. Their strategy is to build an engine that can make almost any type of game... the game and content is up to the developer community.

He said some more things that sound promising for UW. Read it all in this thread.

3 Tech

What are the system requirements?

Nobody knows yet, probably not even Epic themselves. Consider that according Moore's law the power of PC hardware doubles every 1.5 years. And since UW will probably be released in about 1.5-2 years from now and, that means that the system requirements for UW to be about twice as powerful as the standard for games right now.

What platforms will U2 be released for? (PC, Linux, Mac, Consoles?)

Nobody (except Epic and Infogrames) knows yet.

What engine will UW use? What is the "Warfare" engine?

UW uses the "Warfare" generation of Epic's Unreal engine.

U2 will use the latest, much improved version of the Unreal engine, also known as the "Warfare" engine. Note that the Warfare engine is still the Unreal engine, just the latest generation! Strictly speaking it should be called the "Warfare built of the Unreal engine".

Epic's Mark Rein explained about this in this Interview on FGN Online, published 23 Jan 2001:

Q: Do you continually evolve the engine's technology and what is the Warfare engine?

A: Yes, the Unreal Engine is a constantly evolving product. The technology you're seeing in this build of the engine is the basis of what will power future Epic games including Unreal 2 (being developed by Legend Entertainment), an unannounced Xbox title and then eventually a game codenamed Unreal Warfare way down the road.

This is why you'll occasionally hear us or licensees refer to the 'Warfare' version just as we referred to the 'Tournament' version of the engine to represent the feature set of the engine built between the releases of Unreal and Unreal Tournament. The name of the engine is still the Unreal Engine but internally we'll refer to Warfare build xxx where xxx is the latest actual version number.

(Note: The "unannounced Xbox title" is UC, which was not announced yet at that time.)

Builts 0xx-3xx are the classic Unreal engine; builts 4xx-5xx are the "Tournament" engine, builts 6xx-7xx are the "Warfare" engine. The latest built currently available to licensees is 777. For both the Tournament and the Warfare engine at least the engine core code has been completely re-written, based on the experience with previous versions.

For more detailed information and news regarding the Unreal engine, check Epic's Unreal Engine News.

Will UW have vehicles?

Most likely yes.

As Epic's CliffyB explained in this interview on Tech TV Epic Games have developed a vehicle system together with their partner Rage Entertainment, which allows all types of land-, air- and sea-based vehicles, as needed for large scale outdoor terrain maps.

Early model concepts show a 4-wheel tank and a turret that is obviously far too big to be designed as an anti-infantry weapon.

Will UW use motion capture animation?

In this 10 Oct 2001 press release Epic announced that they've purchased and installed a Vicon 8i mo-cap system.

John Root, Epic Games' Lead Animator: Motion capture is playing a very key role in the game we currently have in development. The reason why Epic decided to build a motion capture studio rather than outsource the work is because as a development studio, the game idea is constantly evolving. The game can become a whole new beast from initial concept to final shipping product. So even if we came up with a list of moves to capture beforehand, it becomes inevitable that by the time production is underway there are almost always a laundry list of new moves that our animators will need. With a Vicon system in-house, we can capture those moves at the drop of a hat," continued Root.

Note: Acc. 3DRealm's George Broussard's comment such a mo-cap system is about $200'000.

What other games use the U engine?

Plenty.

Besides the Unreal game series itself (U1, UT, U2, UC, UT2) there are a number of past and future games that use(d) the Unreal engine under license of EpicGames:

Past Games: Deus Ex, Clive Barker's Undying, Deep Space 9 : The Fallen, Wheel of Time, NerfBlastArena, Rune, ...

Future Games: Duke Nukem Forever, Mobile Forces, W.A.T.E.R.(?), Harry Potter, Thief 3, Maelstrom, Devastation, Deus Ex 2, ATMA, New Legends, Seraphim, ...

... plus some more that I have forgotten or that are not yet announced.

Check out screenshots of future games to get an impression of the capabilities of the latest generation U engine.

4 Gameplay

Absolutely nothing is officially known about the content or gameplay. All that you may have heard by now is just unconfirmed rumors and conclusions (unless you know somebody at Epic who tells you secrets ;)).

However, there are a number of indications that lead to conclusions:

The name "Warfare" doesn't exactly sound like a singleplayer game, right? It sounds more like multiplayer on a rather large scale to me.
The website of former Epic modeller and animator James Green had some images and videos of models that were the same that appeared in various UW tech demos. It wasn't stated that these are UW models, but when people started guessing it, Epic asked Mr.Green to pull the images, which kinda gave away that the guess was right. ;) Epic probably didn't like the images to be shown as they were very early models with a rather low polycount. With respect to Epic (and since I don't wanna get a call from their lawyer ;)) I'm not gonna post them here either, except two blurred versions. But I'm gonna describe and analyse what I saw:

The images showed a soldier (male + female), a "grunt" (heavy soldier), an officer and a general. Many of them were wearing armors/uniforms with a "pinion" symbol. There was a model of a small 4-wheel tank. Furthermore there was a render of a large turret (with the pinion logo). Assuming that these models were indeed UW models, the conclusion would be that UW has a futuristic military background with some kind of hierarchy and that it will involves vehicles and armed bases.

Epic's CliffyB said once on Infogrames' UT forum that Epic are working with a writer for UW. This indicates that the story of the game will have a certain depth, which is rather unusual for a multiplayer game.
Looking at the evolution of the Unreal engine towards larger outdoor environments, weather effects, vehicles, … it would be logical if UW would be making use of these new features.

In summary my personal guess is that we'll see a game focused on multiplayer, with teams size and map sizes as large as they can possibly be without going to an MMO level. Tribes has fumbled the ball of large scale multiplayer and Unreal picked it up! GG_Owned ;)