Atari Announces Unreal II: The Awakening Special Edition For the PC

ATARI ANNOUNCES UNREAL II: THE AWAKENING –
SPECIAL EDITION FOR PERSONAL COMPUTER

Special Edition Package Includes Original Single Player Game and Revolutionary
“Expanded Multiplayer” (XMP) Mode

— XMP To Be Made Available for Download
to Current Owners of Unreal II: The Awakening —

LOS ANGELES – Dec. 4, 2003 – Atari is
expanding the gameplay of Unreal® II: The Awakening this December with Unreal®
II: The Awakening – Special Edition for the personal computer. The Special
Edition package will include the original single-player campaign, first released
in February 2003, as well as an all-new multiplayer experience called XMP, or
“Expanded Multiplayer.” Developed by Legend Entertainment (an Atari studio) in
conjunction with Epic Games, Unreal II: The Awakening is the follow-up to Epic
Games’ 1998 smash hit Unreal and incorporates the same story-driven gameplay,
cunningly ferocious enemies and nail-biting tension that made the original title
a best seller.

“Unreal II: The Awakening was one of the most
anticipated and celebrated single-player first person shooters of the year, but
fans have been hungry to play against one another online,” said Steve Allison,
vice president of marketing in Atari’s Los Angeles studio. “Unreal II: The
Awakening – Special Edition will deliver the same epic single-player game to
those who may have missed out, along with the all-new multiplayer mode fans have
been waiting for.”

In the single-player game, players jump into
the scarred combat boots of a grizzled lawman of the future to battle a torrent
of bizarre alien creatures and hard-hitting enemy soldiers. The mission: win a
brutal galactic race to collect powerful artifacts and stop a malevolent plot to
awaken an ancient power. Dispatched to unique worlds ranging from stunningly
realistic outdoor terrain to spine-chilling alien cities, the player will face
off with Unreal’s legendary nemesis — the fearsome Skaarj — along with a host
of all-new enemies, each hell-bent on eradicating the player and his compadres.

The all new XMP mode is a class-based
multiplayer game where teams use vehicles, cooperation and Unreal II: The
Awakening’s devastating weaponry to battle it out across large-scale terrain
maps. Teams fight for control of energy sources to power their war machines,
deployment points to get to the front lines quickly, and ultimately, four
artifacts that are required to win each match. Current owners of Unreal II: The
Awakening standard edition will be able to download the XMP multiplayer mode for
free on the day the Special Edition package is released.

Unreal II: The Awakening – Special Edition
will include:

— Innovative Game Play – Unreal II: The
Awakening combines intense, pulse-pounding action with the magic of exploration
and discovery as well as in-depth character interaction

— Advanced Technology – Under the hood lays
the latest Unreal technology from Epic – a hundred-fold increase in level
geometry and a 10-fold increase in character detail over the original Unreal.
The advanced particle system creates the illusion of blazing fire, drifting
smoke and weather effects

— Knuckle-Whitening Enemy AI – Enemies use
their new AI to find cover during fire-fights, work together in teams and react
believably based on the caliber of weapon the player is carrying

— Devastating Arsenal – Fifteen
flesh-chewing instruments of destruction are available, ranging from familiar
alien-bashing favorites like the Rocket Launcher and Combat Assault Rifle to all
new exotic alien variants modified by your cantankerous ship’s engineer

— A Large Bestiary of Creatures – The
fearsome Skaarj return along with a host of all-new enemies

— Unreal Editor — Amateur level designers
and mod makers will receive the most powerful game creation toolsets ever
released to the public – the same tools the masters used to make the game. The
Unreal Editor, including the Unreal Editor’s “Matinee” tool for making
non-interactive cinematics, is included out of the box.

Unreal II: The Awakening – Special Edition
will be available for personal computer at retail stores in North America in
December with an estimated retail price of $29.95 and an ESRB rating of “M” for
Mature. Additional information about the game can be found online at

www.unreal2.com,
which features downloadable and streaming game play movies, screenshots and
other game information and background.

About Atari

New York-based Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR)
develops interactive games for all platforms and is one of the largest
third-party publishers of interactive entertainment software in the U.S. The
Company’s 1,000+ titles include hard-core, genre-defining games such as Driver™,
Enter the Matrix™, Neverwinter Nights™, Stuntman™, Test Drive®, Unreal®
Tournament 2003, and Unreal® Championship; and mass-market and children’s games
such as Backyard Sports™, Nickelodeon’s Blue’s Clues™ and Dora the Explorer™,
Civilization®, Dragon Ball Z® and RollerCoaster Tycoon®. Atari, Inc. is a
majority-owned subsidiary of France-based Infogrames Entertainment SA (Euronext
5257), the largest interactive games publisher in Europe. For more information,
visit
www.atari.com.

Unreal is a registered trademark of
Epic Games Inc.