History Fridge / UnrealTournament2004

** They're recreations of past events, giving a glimpse of how chaotic things were before the creation of the Tournament. Notice how many of the missions, all of them available in the Ladder, put the N.E.G. and Liandri on the "good guys" side (i.e. [[ZerothLawRebellion "an AI of a robot production facility went rogue and a Liandri team saved the day"]] -[=RobotFactory=]-, [[ApocalypseHow "humanity was on the verge of destruction but N.E.G. forces saved the day and the universe"]] -Mothership-, [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters "a rebellion of troublesome assholes was shut down by the N.E.G."]] -[=FallenCity=]-, [[TrainJob "rogues captured nuclear devices and the N.E.G. recovered them"]] -Convoy- and so on). Not counting the one mission ([[Series/ScrapheapChallenge Junkyard]]) which is a BreatherLevel in the midst of some event retelling, the Assault missions are basically Liandri/N.E.G. propaganda disguised as Tournament competitions.

** The Bonus Pack 2 missions at first seem to contradict this, seeing as there's one mission where your team takes the role of a rebel group -Thrust-, there's an N.E.G. vs. Liandri scenario -[=SubRosa=]- and a mission where the attackers are an Izanagi raiding team going against the Liandri defenders -Jumpship-. But then it hits you: those missions were introduced in order to keep some semblance of neutrality, and to shut down critics.

* The Five-Way maps in both ''[=UT2003=]'' and ''[=UT2004=]'' (plus the "Battle your team" rung in ''[=UT2004=]'', as Phobos2 back in ''2003'' is a reasonable-sized map for a 6-way battle) are meant to emulate a common happenstance in online gaming: cramped maps designed for small, 1on1 matches being used for five+ player battles. Apparently, one of the many tests the Liandri puts you through is your ability to get over such situations before having a team covering your ass.

!FridgeBrilliance

* The Anubans having the best air control of the game can be explained by their backstory. A group of egyptians were abducted and transplanted on a moon where they adapted lived and prospered unlike their Earth counterparts which succumbed to oblivion. The gravity of the moon might have played a role on them being very lightweight on Earth-like settings.
** The same is true of the Skaarj, as they keep on travelling to different worlds with different gravity settings, which made them lightweight on Earth-like settings, but not to the same point as the Anubans.

* Why the [=UT99=] team in ''2003'' and ''UC'' was formed by Malcolm, Brock and Lauren? Malcolm is the default selectable character, in both the Ladder and the Player Setup screens. Plus, if his team isn't chosen, they replace the team the player faces in the Ladder. Also, he was featured a lot in the console version covers, to the point of bordering into WolverinePublicity before Malcolm's status as a BreakoutCharacter kicked in. As for Brock, he's the one who challenged Xan in the intro of [=UT99=], and both he and Lauren lead Iron Guard, which the players get to fight against in the team game tutorials. Also, Brock and Lauren are the default selectable characters for the Iron Guard set. And finally, why Lauren? Because she was the default selectable female character.
* The Five-Way maps in both ''[=UT2003=]'' and ''[=UT2004=]'' (plus the "Battle your team" rung in ''[=UT2004=]'') are meant to emulate a common happenstance in online gaming: cramped maps designed for small, 1on1 matches being used for five+ player battles. Apparently, one of the many tests the Liandri puts you through is your ability to get over such situations before having a team covering your ass.

* There are no Mercenaries in the Invasion gametype, while back in ''VideoGame/UnrealI'' they were among the enemy classes. In all reality, they appeared [[MookThemedLevel only once in the main game]] (during the Terraniux levels, and Terraniux is ''their'' ship, so ''you'' were invading ''their'' property) and twice in ''Return to Na Pali'' (during the UMS Prometheus and Gala's Peak levels, both of which involved raiding abandoned property). The answer is right there in their name: Mercenaries aren't evil entities ''per se'', they just go wherever there's money or anything valuable for their operations. It's possible they may have even rejected Liandri's offer in order to enter into the Tournament as either a team or an Invasion enemy class.

* The Goliath, the strongest vehicle of the game outside of the Leviathan, has trouble against the Manta, the weakest, fastest and most maneuverable vehicle of the game.[[note]]The same rings true for the Leviathan itself, being even bigger and slower than the Goliath.[[/note]] You could say that the Goliath has a weakness against the Manta's David.

* The Five-Way maps in both ''[=UT2003=]'' and ''[=UT2004=]'' (plus the "Battle your team" rung in ''[=UT2004=]'') are meant to emulate a common happenstance in online gaming: cramped maps designed for small, 1on1 matches being used for more than five player battles. Apparently, one of the many tests the Liandri puts you through is your ability to get over such situations before having a team covering your ass.

* The Five-Way maps in both ''[=UT2003=]'' and ''[=UT2004=]'' (plus the "Battle your team" rung in ''[=UT2004=]'') are meant to emulate a common happenstance in online gaming: cramped maps designed for small, 1on1 matches being used for more than five player battles.

* Why the UT99 team in ''2003'' and ''UC'' was formed by Malcolm, Brock and Lauren? Malcolm is the default selectable character, in both the Ladder and the Player Setup screens. Plus, if his team isn't chosen, they replace the team the player faces in the Ladder. Also, he was featured a lot in the console version covers, to the point of bordering into WolverinePublicity before Malcolm's status as a BreakoutCharacter kicked in. As for Brock, he's the one who challenged Xan in the intro of UT99, and both he and Lauren lead Iron Guard, which the players get to fight against in the team game tutorials. Also, Brock and Lauren are the default selectable characters for the Iron Guard set. And finally, why Lauren? Because she was the default selectable female character.

* Many of the penalty loses of each race comparing the stats from ''Championship'' to ''2004'' and getting them closer to JackOfAllStats can be explained by them being accustomed to Earth's gravity by the time ''2004'' rolled around. It helps that almost any map takes place in an Earth-like setting, with a few of them taking place in space.

* The final round takes place at the maps [=DM-Deck17=] and [=DM-HyperBlast2=]. These two maps share one thing in common: in ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament'' the only maps which used [[AwesomeMusic/{{Unreal}} "Go Down"]] were [=DM-Deck16][=] and [=DM-HyperBlast=].

* The final round takes place at the maps [=DM-Deck17=] and [=DM-HyperBlast2=]. These two maps share one thing in common: in ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament'' the only maps which used the "Go Down" track were [=DM-Deck16][=] and [=DM-HyperBlast=].