Oh god... I never bothered to consider Unreal Tournament 2004 was 20 years old. I still consider it the "newer" unreal tournament compared to the OG and 2003...
Yeah, 2k4 was it's own thing. Also the collectors edition had a set of video tutorials on how to create and modify models in the free version of Maya. As well as how to add them to the game in the unreal editor.
You know you're old when games you still play quite regularly turn up in retro reviews! The community master server is still pretty well populated, as are UT '99 servers. These games are still the pinnacle of their genre. No micro transactions, no DRM, no pay to win. Just you, your shock rifle, and as much amphetamine as your nerve endings will take. As the reviewer says, the level design and game mechanics are legendary at this point, and players of any ability can quickly get into a flow state that modern games can only dream of. These are fine wines in a world of cheap lager. New gamers should drink deep from the pc games of the 2000's.
How noob-friendly are those servers? Haven't played since it's era, but I'd be interested in booting it up again. I'd imagine I'd just get constantly wrecked by dudes who have been playing consistently for 20 years.
I played UT99 a few months and yeah I had no chance against the regulars. The only match I got a good position turns out I was playing mostly against bots and hadn't realized it
I remember playing on a RPG invasion server and it was one of the best gaming experiences up to that point. It was PVE where you'd get XP for every monster you killed and wave you'd survive and you could use it to upgrade your weapons and stats. Sadly just a few days after discovering it, the server went offline and I haven't found another one like it.
I'm willing to bet you could probably still find servers with a handful of players on the weekend so long as you're running the last version of the game (the patch is probably not on the official site anymore though). Or with All Seeing Eye.
I still remember the outrage when they announced 2004 wasn't a free upgrade for 2003 purchasers. Stores did their best to mitigate that, but all my friends were peeved and kept to UT99 because of it.