A lot of people will tell you that 1999 will be the year of "Multiplayer-Only" games. That assessment is usually backed by examples such as id's Quake III: Arena, Valve's Team Fortress 2, Dynamix's TRIBES and Sony's Everquest. However slapping this label on games such as the aforementioned is an unfair generalization at best.

The term "Multiplayer-Only" is, after all, taken to mean that the game has no classic single player storyline to speak of. For titles like TRIBES and Team Fortress 2, this is true. Both are designed (or being designed, as it were) for online play only and lack any kind of singular storyline.

One game in specific that always seems to get lumped in that category is Epic's upcoming Unreal Tournament. Yes, the game does have a lot of aspects that would make it seem like a multiplayer only game, but Epic assures us otherwise. What kind of "Multiplayer Only" aspects are we referring to? We'll get to that in just a second.

Unreal Tournament, even though it's being built off of the original Unreal's foundation, is a stand-alone title. It features both a single player storyline and a thorough multiplayer experience. However it is single player aspects like UT's that confuse most people. The single player game of titles like SiN or Half-Life are comprised largely of a central character and his/her quest in accomplishing a certain goal. Roadblocks to that goal usually consist of a series of smaller, largely insignificant enemies followed by a mini-boss of sorts.