Unreal Tournament

Unreal Tournament came out in 1999, at a time when online shooters were divided mainly between Quake III Arena and its own predecessor Unreal, and it quickly became one of the most respected multiplayer action games on the PC. It was developed by Epic Games together with Digital Extremes and focused exclusively on matches: no classic campaign, but with bots able to replace human opponents at several difficulty levels. It offered Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Domination, Capture the Flag and Assault, in which one team attacks an objective and the other defends it. The arsenal, with weapons such as the flak cannon, the shock rifle with its combinations of shots, the ripper or the Redeemer with its guided nuclear missile, was among the best known of its day. The announcer commenting on kill streaks, from Double Kill to Monster Kill, became part of gaming culture.

The sequels Unreal Tournament 2003 (2002) and Unreal Tournament 2004 (2004) moved the series to a more modern Unreal Engine. The 2002 game added modes such as Bombing Run, in which players carry a ball into the opponent's goal, while Unreal Tournament 2004 brought Onslaught, where control of the map is fought over with vehicles, and an expanded Assault. Among fans it is the fourth game that is often regarded as the peak: it combines speed, vehicles, a large number of maps and a vast modding scene. The mods gave rise to other famous games, for example Red Orchestra or Killing Floor.

Unreal Tournament 3 (2007) brought Unreal Engine 3 technology and the Warfare mode with vehicles on large maps, but it came out when players' interest was heading elsewhere, and the console versions on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 were no longer able to bring back the glory of the older games.