Unreal

Unreal is a series of First Person Shooter games created by Epic Games for home computer and console platforms. The Unreal Tournament franchise has been particularly successful in the PC FPS market, but the success of all games has been eclipsed by the phenomenal uptake of the games' proprietary engines by Third Party Companies. Titles include:

• Unreal (PC, Mac)
• Unreal Expansion Pack: Return to Na Pali (PC)
• Unreal Tournament (PC, Mac, Dreamcast, Playstation 2)
• Unreal Tournament 2003 (PC, Mac)
• Unreal Championship (X-Box)
• Unreal 2: The Awakening (PC, Mac, X-Box)
• Unreal Tournament 2004 (PC, Mac)
• Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict (X-Box)
• Unreal Tournament III (PC, X-Box 360, Playstation 3)

Unreal and Half-Life

The original Unreal was a direct competitor to Half-Life, released in the same calendar year: 1998. The critical consensus is that Unreal and other FPS games released in the same year (Including SiN) were especially overshadowed by the new features that Half-Life brought to the table, despite Unreal's impressive graphical engine and wealth of content. Unreal came under criticism for its weapon selection and multiplayer, which were both specifically improved upon for the 1999 spin-off title, Unreal Tournament. Unreal Tournament was a massive critical and commercial success, despite rivalry from the much anticipated Quake III Arena. Ultimately however, the success of both was overshadowed by that of Counter Strike. A sequel (UT2003) followed but was felt to be rushed out. The much improved UT2004 appeared afterwards, introducing vehicles. It essentially dominated the 'twitch-shooter' segment of the FPS market, but was still overshadowed by the continuing success of Counter Strike and its emerging commerical variants.

Since the first game and its somewhat obscure expansion pack, the series has only once returned to focus on the single-player experience, in Unreal 2: The Awakening. The game received very mixed reviews at the time and has largely been forgotten. Released in 2003 it wasn't in direct competition with any Half-Life title, and is seldom mentioned in discussion of Half-Life 2. The X-Box version received contrastingly harsh reviews due tp poor port work and comparisons with the extremely popular Halo

Epic released two console only multiplayer titles entitled 'Unreal Championship'. The first was an unsuccessful port of Unreal Tournament 2003, that later was an entirely original game with a focus on melee combat. Rather than Counter-Strike, these games were heavily overshadowed by the success of the Halo series on their native X-Box.

The Unreal brand is arguably not as strong as those associated with Valve Software. The single-player Unreal titles are often unheard of by casual players who often take 'Unreal' to mean 'Unreal Tournament'. The third UT game specifically downplays the 'III' in its title in the hope of not alienating console gamers new to the franchise. There have been no products that expand the Unreal brand beyond the video-games. The franchise's importance to developer Epic Games has arguably been superseded by their newer critical and commercial success, Gears of War.

Unreal and Source Engines

Whereas the Unreal series has seen modest success far outmatched by Half-Life related video-games, the technology behind it has been extremely successful at every stage, far eclipsing that of GoldSRC, Source and many other competitors in the industry. The latest revision, Unreal Engine 3.0 is one of the most advanced licensable engines and is used in a great number of new and upcoming games. Unreal Engine licensed games were early entrants into the Steam catalogue, culminating in the eventual appearance of the Unreal series on the system on the 17th March 2008.

It is notable that Epic Games have been openly hostile about the Episodic method of game delivery.

Unreal and halflife2.net

There has been no noteworthy reaction against or towards the Unreal series of games on the halflife2.net forums. The games of the series are enjoyed and dismissed as they are in any other gaming community.