Epic Games are killing off a bunch of classics like Unreal Tournament

At least there is now an official line drawn between Epic MegaGames and Epic Games.
As for the master server, as with many late 90s multiplayer FPS, players have been using their own server lists for a long time now.

I just hope that some day, a (yet to be known) dev is going to release titles as groundbreaking as Quake 3 or UT, so that we can live another golden age of the arena shooters...

For a time it looked like Nexuiz was going to be the more modern successor when they licensed out the name and design to be produced under THQ with some actual money behind it but it was so laughably inferior to the older free version and just played like garbage, it was literally online for like...8 months total before it was taken offline, and the quick join didn't work 90% of the time it was up. The name licencing also split the community as they had to change the name for future versions of the free edition to Xonotic. (still a great game, but nowhere near the playerbase it once had, and while I love it...it's definitely not unreal).

People were also saying for a while splitgate was going to be the modern UT replacement, but the game felt more Halo than UT.

It seems like any modern shooter once money gets involved it invariably turns to shit so they can force in things like battle passes, day 1 DLC, or they invariably become a hero shooter with limited maps for some reason.

This is so evil...

As usual community will do all the work to maintain thoses gems,and few years later the work done by the community will be aknowledge by Tim Sweeney's corporate and they will take back all that work and sell it as classic or HD edition, just like microsoft did with age of empires 2.


Last edited by Jahimself on 15 December 2022 at 7:08 am UTC

This is about what i would expect from epic nowadays...simply despicable

"What's the problem with DRM?" "What's the problem with always online DRM?" "It doesn't really affect me, I can still play my games just fine!"

I often hear people say.

Well this. This is why it's not cool.

Anyway, for those who may or may not care.. shameless plug:

https://www.defectivebydesign.org/
https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/v13/

I often hear people say.

You forgot “please add Denuvo” (weird, but the Steam forums of some games are full of it).

Please, remember Unreal Tournament was Open Source, but it do not apply to assets. Thanks to that it was possible to provide modified game engine, with enhancement multiplayer.

I don't like seeing games disappearing. I much rather just being abandoned. Let them being abandoned by the maker and allow the people to keep them going as they see fit.
Additionally, with steam, just keep them on steam and use steam facilities. That's it. No more need to keep them or maintain them. Just sell as-is

"What's the problem with DRM?" "What's the problem with always online DRM?" "It doesn't really affect me, I can still play my games just fine!"

I often hear people say.

Well this. This is why it's not cool.

Anyway, for those who may or may not care.. shameless plug:

https://www.defectivebydesign.org/
https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/v13/

TBF in this case none of the unreal games have DRM, which is the only reason why they'll still be playable after this. Even the CD key in 2k4 is only used by the old cd installer and for master server auth, if you're not using the master server you can still join and create games.

Please, remember Unreal Tournament was Open Source, but it do not apply to assets. Thanks to that it was possible to provide modified game engine, with enhancement multiplayer.

Only the SDK and the renderers are open source. UTPG and OldUnreal got access to source code with agreement from Epic but don't have any right to redistribute it.

At least there is now an official line drawn between Epic MegaGames and Epic Games.
As for the master server, as with many late 90s multiplayer FPS, players have been using their own server lists for a long time now.

I just hope that some day, a (yet to be known) dev is going to release titles as groundbreaking as Quake 3 or UT, so that we can live another golden age of the arena shooters...

i would argue that battle royals are somewhat the modern successor of arena shooters. just with more players bigger maps and only last man standing gamemode

think about 100 player ctf in pubg or apex. it could work ...

At least there is now an official line drawn between Epic MegaGames and Epic Games.
As for the master server, as with many late 90s multiplayer FPS, players have been using their own server lists for a long time now.

I just hope that some day, a (yet to be known) dev is going to release titles as groundbreaking as Quake 3 or UT, so that we can live another golden age of the arena shooters...

i would argue that battle royals are somewhat the modern successor of arena shooters. just with more players bigger maps and only last man standing gamemode

think about 100 player ctf in pubg or apex. it could work ...

We already had 64-player CTF in Quake 2...
While battle royals may be fun, it is no Team Death match and the intricate level design we had before is not here either. Add to this the silly cell shaded graphics and the gatcha inspired character rooster, what you get is a no-go for arena FPS players.

As surprising as it may be, the only "recent" FPS that remotely matches my tastes is CS:GO

"What's the problem with always online DRM?" "It doesn't really affect me, I can still play my games just fine!"

I'd offer this interesting, and maybe more accessible take on the issue. Do note I don't dismiss the point of the FSF or DBD (I still need to add the DBD sticker to my minifree laptop, to give you an idea of my view on it), but it's more accessible to people. "You are being scammed" is more telling than "you may, at some point once the game isn't profitable enough anymore, be screwed". It doesn't address all DRM issues, but at least the always online part.

Back a few years, I remember saying to a friend how great the bundles were and how I wasn't pirating anymore.

Now that I have the real data hoarding capacities I wished for, I guess the seas are calling back.

I often hear people say.

You forgot “please add Denuvo” (weird, but the Steam forums of some games are full of it).

That's nuts! Why would anyone; who's not profiting from the game sales, ask for DRM to be added? The phrase should be "please remove Denuvo!"

"What's the problem with always online DRM?" "It doesn't really affect me, I can still play my games just fine!"

I'd offer this interesting, and maybe more accessible take on the issue. Do note I don't dismiss the point of the FSF or DBD (I still need to add the DBD sticker to my minifree laptop, to give you an idea of my view on it), but it's more accessible to people. "You are being scammed" is more telling than "you may, at some point once the game isn't profitable enough anymore, be screwed". It doesn't address all DRM issues, but at least the always online part.

Back a few years, I remember saying to a friend how great the bundles were and how I wasn't pirating anymore.

Now that I have the real data hoarding capacities I wished for, I guess the seas are calling back.

I'm not so different myself.. prior to games working properly on Linux? You wouldn't catch me buying PC games.

On this front, Gabe Newell had it right: "One thing that we have learned is that piracy is not a pricing issue. It’s a service issue".

Stick a bunch of heavily restrictive DRM on it, force it to not work with my computer or treat me poorly as a customer? Meh. No thanks mate, my monies going elsewhere!

Ironically, it's the same reason I outright refuse to use Epic Store, they heavily peddle their EAC DRM, while on the other hand I will happily buy regularly from Steam, because they support my platform or GOG because they don't peddle restrictive DRM.

We do have to compromise sometimes in order to get said services for a benefit, but those benefits should favour the customer, not the company. I give you my money, you give me good service. Simple as that.

As for stickers, my laptop doesn't have any yet (Boo me!) but my desktop does have a nice fat GNU sticker on it, mostly because I keep getting stickers sent to me from the FSF

Why would anyone

Because without it, the poor developers will be robbed, ROBBED, you know, ROBBED!

At least there is now an official line drawn between Epic MegaGames and Epic Games.
As for the master server, as with many late 90s multiplayer FPS, players have been using their own server lists for a long time now.

I just hope that some day, a (yet to be known) dev is going to release titles as groundbreaking as Quake 3 or UT, so that we can live another golden age of the arena shooters...

i would argue that battle royals are somewhat the modern successor of arena shooters. just with more players bigger maps and only last man standing gamemode

think about 100 player ctf in pubg or apex. it could work ...

We already had 64-player CTF in Quake 2...
While battle royals may be fun, it is no Team Death match and the intricate level design we had before is not here either. Add to this the silly cell shaded graphics and the gatcha inspired character rooster, what you get is a no-go for arena FPS players.

As surprising as it may be, the only "recent" FPS that remotely matches my tastes is CS:GO

q3 arena had a very colorfull rooster too
just no microtransactions

on the level design: BRs have very big maps. but at least apex has some thought put into it: the maps feel a little bit like connected arena maps

Ironically, it's the same reason I outright refuse to use Epic Store, they heavily peddle their EAC DRM, while on the other hand I will happily buy regularly from Steam, because they support my platform or GOG because they don't peddle restrictive DRM.

EAC is an Anti-cheat, not DRM. Moreover, they're not "heavily peddling" it, and it's certainly not in every game they sell on EGS as you seem to be implying. Hell, it's not even in every game they make or have a hand in making. Certain Steam games also have EAC too, so this is even more of a strange reason to single out EGS.

I'm sure you have other reasons, but using this one specifically is honestly a bit weird.


Last edited by Dribbleondo on 4 January 2023 at 8:37 pm UTC

Yeah, ironically there's actually less DRM on the Epic store then there is on Steam.

I haven't actually bought anything on Epic yet, but most of the giveaway games I have been interested in runs fine in Wine/Proton without the store client running.