$20 Game of the Week: Unreal Anthology (PC)

Now we all love our console games, but I think it’s time we start showing the PC some cheap gaming love. I’m no computer snob, but PC games have certain perks over their console brethren (i.e. more precise control settings, user-created content) just as console games have their advantages over PC games (i.e. not having to pre-install a game to their hard drive or buy $200+ graphics and sound cards in order to have their copies of Oblivion and Far Cry look halfway decent). Only time I’ve ever featured a PC game on here is when it’s a PC port of a console game. Now that I finally got a computer capable of running games, it’s time to spotlight the other side of gaming, and we’re gonna do just that with this week’s $20 GOTW and Lost Classics.

During the late 90s, if there was one PC first person shooter game that could be mentioned in the same breath as Quake, it was Unreal. Epic’s FPS title pushed the boundaries for graphics and enemy artificial intelligence for it’s time, even spawning a graphics engine name after it which today is in it’s third iteration. It also revolutionized multiplayer online combat, featuring various modes such as capture the flag, deathmatch, and assault. In 2005, Midway acquired the rights to the Unreal series, releasing Unreal Championship 2 for the Xbox. Later this year they will be bringing Unreal Tournament 3 to the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. To tide players over until then, they released this collection of Unreal games for the PC. This collection includes Unreal Gold (the original unreal plus the “return to Na-pali” expansion pack), Unreal Tournament, Unreal 2, and Unreal Tournament 2004. As an added bonus, Midway threw in a CD featuring music from the series. Unfortunately there are several features missing that were either introduced as downloadable mods or included in various “Editor’s choice” editions. However, they can be downloaded online from various sites such as oldunreal.com. Even with this oversight, this is an excellent introduction to one of the standout franchises of the FPS genre.

Minimum Requirements
Operating System: Windows 98 or greater (including Vista)
DVD Rom drive for instillation
Storage: 5.5 GB or Greater Available hard disk space
Video: 32 MB Windows Video Card
DirectX 9.0 compatible or greater
Memory: 128 MB RAM
Sound: Windows direct sound compatible
Processor: Pentium III 1.0GHz, Athlon 1.0 GHz, or equivalent, or faster
Minimum requirements may not guarantee optimal performance