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Unreal is a computer game franchise that was released in 1998 by Epic Games and was powered by the Unreal Engine which is now a widely used game engine used by many leading titles.

The games were first published by GT Interactive and Atari. Now, Midway Games publishes them. The Unreal series has had a long, successful run and has become one of the most recognisable brands in the gaming world.

The Unreal series is considered superior game engine in terms of technicalities. Unreal games include the Unreal Script. This is a programming language that gamers can use to modify the games and even change game play. This feature is mainly responsible for the success of the games.

The original game, named Unreal, has a sequel Unreal II: The Awakening. There are spinoffs of these games and their sequels. These are mainly multiplayer games. The first was Unreal Tournament and its sequels are Unreal Tournament 2003 and Unreal Tournament 2004. A third part is in the works. The spinoff is a sister product of the Unreal Tournament called Unreal Championships which was released to use the online gaming capabilities of the Xbox. Its sequel was released as Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict.

The original games are ‘first person shooters’ with story based game play options. In the first game, the user plays the character of a prisoner on a prison ship which has crashed on an alien planet whose inhabitants have been taken hostage by a very powerful race known as Skaarj. The user has to defeat the Skaarj and escape from the alien world. The game was released for the PC and the user controlled the character by using the keyboard. The game was highly praised for its graphics, environment and its AI and game play. Its game engine was considered revolutionary at that time.

The second game has a different storyline and has many characters and creatures. The user plays the character of a dishonoured soldier who has been given a ship to pilot in the remote reaches of space, far away from any kind of action. He is called back into service on a mission. This game was released on the PC and the Xbox.

Unreal Tournament 1 and 2 are first-person shooter and multiplayer games released on the Gamecube, PS2 and the PC. The game puts the player in tournament type modes. It has many modes for multiplayer game play. The game was widely praised for its AI.

Unreal Championship was released with the same game play options as the Tournament series but also took advantage of Xbox, which made the game popular among online users.