I think it depends on one's perspective on a game's success. I think one of the larger issues in modern gaming, is the " dead game" concept. I think to decently evolve as a form of entertainment, we need to shed the notion that if everyone isn't playing a certain game, that it's not worth playing. There's a lot of innovation and potential in smaller games with tighter communities, then with mass adoption. So, in one sense I do agree with you- I don't see a future where arena PvP shooters retake the center stage over Battle Royale or other popular modern trends. But I can see a future where they have a perfectly sustainable niche, that has players come and go, and keeps the games very much alive for a reasonable lifespan
yeah, I think arena shooters just dont appeal to mainstream, theres a really great tf2 themed arena shooter Open Fortress, but it doesnt seem to be able to blow up and I guess just because of the genre
@@atifarshad7624 The next id Software game is a rumored Quake reboot with both singleplayer and PvP, and John Romero is also making a brand new FPS with a PvP component. Maybe there's still some hope.
My first game was UT99, my career as a software developer started from creating maps in UT2004. My life is entirely connected to this series. And now they remove games, which get their honorable place in game history. No words epic....
Been playing Unreal since the very first game back in 1998. What Epic has done is shameful and should be condemned absolutely. Game preservation is more and more vital to prevent board members from destroying the legacy of games we grew up with, simply because they don't sell as many microtransactions to infants as Fortnite. You have a clear vocal style and good storytelling skills. Best of luck on your channel!
I already commented it but , I think i know where Unreal Turnement is. It is called Lyra and is a newer Unreal Engine 5 Project for Free in the UE Marcet Place. I never Played Unreal Turnement but it looks similer and is an Multiplayer shooter template . Would be nice if you could tell me if i´m Right ? ruclips.net/video/4j-2aAb0Y5k/видео.html
What Epic has done is unforgivable. This is just the pure disrespect and face spitting of their community. They have money, yet they can't afford a minimum to maintain their own flagship. I can only hope this is not the end (and in offline mod it never will be) of Unreal, but if this is the end, i hope Epic will follow up somewhere in the future.
F... epic . They are disgusting. Like all big publishers . Get MODS ,RETROGAMES and INDIE GAMES ..more then enough to play for a lifetime. AND if that's still not enough. Check those AAA games which have mod support. Those get at least fixed and updated my modders
I was planning to buy the unreal pack on steam this winter sales. I've been interested in this piece of FPS history for a long time and now I can't even buy it. It's so god damn frustrating.
Unreal Tournament 2004 was most of my childhood and one of the greatest games I ever played. To this day no game feels as responsive and free to move in as in that game
Tim Sweeney knew a thing or two about making instant and responsive 3d engines at the hight of CRT monitors and optical mice being at their peak. Everything when downhill since directX8
I couldn't believe the graphics at the time and would never imagine in a million years that it wouldn't be the cutting edge franchise for eternity, let alone just fizzle out.
Unreal Tournament 2004 was years of my teenager life i played this game from ( 14 years) 2005 to 2009 ( 18 years ) . Have to say no game of FPS or shooters in general come close to what ut2004 , ut2k4 was , one adrenaline kick shooter i love the walljumps one of my clan was mastefull in that in those days .
Recently I downloaded UT4 to check on its state hoping, its finally fully build game. I was disapointed to find out thats not the case and theese news really devastated me. UT franchise was the only fps shooter game that really grew to my heart and I had high hopes it will be again a game on everyones radar...This game deserved better
sure, talking about RAW mechanics Is the Best fps game ....sad to see It ended up being completely abandoned by the devs over other games made essentially to let the children have fun
IF ITS THAT BIG AND STRONG THEN WHY IT DIDNT HAVE PLAYERS?!?!!? IF IT HAD STRONG AMOUNT OF PLAYERS THEN SERVERS WOULDNT BE SHUT DOWN AND ALSO THEY WOULDVE REGULARY UPDATED THE GAME WITH CONTENT BCS THE GAME INCETIVEZED IT aka PLAYERS NUMBERS JUSTIFIED SPENDING MONEY ON NEW CONTENT!!!!!
UT99 was a big part of my childhood. Didn't have internet for years and that was one of the few games that provided a multiplayer experience with the bots.
This is very sad. UT99 was the first online multiplayer game I played (at my friend's house when I was a kid). It will always be my first memory of online gaming.
And it's no problem adding another master server and playing it. Anyone not willing to do the work, is helpless fortnite players. Being angry at fortnite is because you guys know that deep down. Consoomers
Not many things in my life ı felt the honour when doing, Except playing Unreal Tournament. And now, I more really feel proud of being a member of Unreal Tournament Community. It was a good journey playing with you guys with all of you. Thanks for the Friendship of the Unreal Tournament. Hail to those who feel the same.!
The fact That Epic kills the franchise that earned them their name is unbelievable. I built a new pc just to be able to play UT4. Even in it's unfinished state, it's a great game that really nails the UT feeling, and if they would only have dedicated resources to it, it could have truly been Epic. One of the greatest arena shooters ever, discarded in favor of some cotton-candy colored pos BR. I'm an arena fps player at heart, UT and Quake will always the greatest, so these news were devastating. I play both UT2k4, 3, and 4 on a regular basis. At least we will still have UT3, however small of a comfort that is.
I think UT3 eventually became an okay game, although it was never a match for its predecessors UT99 and UT2k4. The abomination that was the launch version of UT3 however was a clear indication already back then that Epic didn't really care about their existing community anymore.
IF they dedicated resources to it... that right there is their mortal sin...even a small team of people should have been affordable for them but noooo...fuck that company, why not do it ourselves?
And to think that, meanwhile, the original Quake got an Enhanced edition and the RTX 'treatment'. Not to mention the fact that id has released source code of their game engines up to idTech 4 which allowed the community to make their own ports, engines and games, keeping the Quake franchise alive.
lol, thats some rose tinted glasses. the latest quake that should be played in multiplayer -- quake champions -- is getting fucked every update and only has 2 developer team working on it.
@@borysjelenski5919 kinda sad because no fps is thrilling as arena fps, and i dont feel that it is true that genre is dead, but that its been lacking a good and a properly marketed game for more than a decade lol
@@whatnever Even then at least id/Bethesda still chooses to acknowledge their past, unlike Epic. If we're lucky, id's next game should be going back to standard deathmatch. the problem is the IF. id's last 2 multiplayer attempts with DOOM have been unfortunate failures (which is sad since I really liked 2016 mp post-6.66) and QC hasn't been able to pull in numbers. AFPS is seen by the industry as a genre that doesn't do well commercially, so most developers aren't willing to bother out of fear of failure.
A small group of us are working on a proof-of-concept UT5 using Unreal Engine 5. A few maps are already done, and we are currently scripting the mechanics. Will include a mapvote, DM, iDM, and iCTF modes/maps, as well as custom netcode for multiplayer and will route through steam.
Hey, Although not great at C++, I'm willing to help out with the development in UE5. Think UT4 is a fantastic game and should live on for all fraggers out there to enjoy. Let me know if needed in any capacity 😊
Unreal Tournament was my childhood. My sister and I played all the time, it became such a staple of my own tastes for shooters and was a massive influence in our relationship that has grown so much thanks to that game. I was influenced to different art practices like 3D map creation and background art. My father always played unreal for us as kids and I watched influenced to eventually play it myself (when I got older and less terrified of violence) and I really enjoyed it. The original unreal tournament will always be my favorite game of all time. I occasionally listen to the soundtrack on walks and to help me work. Recently I got my boyfriend into the Beta becuse it was free and easier for his internet to handle and we played it all the time and now we can’t anymore which really sucks.
Maaaan...I'm devastated...I REALLY REALLY hope those heroes can save UT4 from this certain death... I don't imagine myself not being able to play my favourite shooter anymore. Epic must hate us so much...
IF ITS THAT BIG AND STRONG THEN WHY IT DIDNT HAVE PLAYERS?!?!!? IF IT HAD STRONG AMOUNT OF PLAYERS THEN SERVERS WOULDNT BE SHUT DOWN AND ALSO THEY WOULDVE REGULARY UPDATED THE GAME WITH CONTENT BCS THE GAME INCETIVEZED IT aka PLAYERS NUMBERS JUSTIFIED SPENDING MONEY ON NEW CONTENT!!!!!
NO EPIC IS JUST RATIONAL!!!!!!! WHY WASTE MONEY ON SOMETHING TAH NOT ONLY DOESENT GIVE ANYTHING BUT ALSO ABRELY AHS ANY PLAYERS.SO COMPANY WASTING MONEY ON SERVER WHEN SERVER CAN BE REUSED ON SOMETHING ELSE MORE IMPORTANT!!! TEH ONLEY MAINTAINING TAT DEAD SERVER COULDVE GONE INTO MORE PRODUCTIVE PROJECTS OR EXPANDING THE ENGINEDEV TEAM OR SOME ENW PROJECTS AN DSO ON. IF UT HAD PLAYERS AND IF IT HAD CONSATNT PLAEYR COUNT THENT TAHT WOULD JUSTIFY THE MAINTANATCE OF THE GAEMITS SERVERS AND ALSO WOUDL JUSTIFY FURTEHR CONTENT ADDITIONS!!!!! UNLIEK BRAINLESS PEOPLE ON TEH INTERNET EPIC IS REPSONSIBLE FOR IST EPLOYESE AND AHS COMPANY TU RUN WHILE YOU WAHT DO YOU HAVE RESPONCIBILITY OVER?!!??!!? HUGE TEAMS HELL NO,A COMPANY HELL NO,A WHOLE PACKAGE HELL NO!!
@@goranstojanov1160 You clearly don't know how things went. Epic ABANDOND development as soon as a Fortnite coin arrived. Completely. There were many players and a lot of expectations. Likewise they didn't have to do practically anything, with just ONE person reviewing the content (which wasn't even developed by Epic but by the players themselves, spending thousands of hours developing for free) the game would have been finished by 2018. With all the money they raised With Fortnite couldn't they just do that? It's totally disrespectful to us and to a franchise that was going to have a new entry announced as a community collaboration. It cannot be seen any other way.
I play the first UT when it came out, now i'm 30 and its still on my PC. UT2K4 is my favorite. It hurt to see this awesome franchise getting abandonned and now killed... I understand fortnite give them tons of money but Unreal T has a Soul. I will never forget this game and i will always play it even with bots.
As someone who has fond memories of UT '99, I was so pleased to hear "I won't even play footage of Fortnite". Haha. I'm bitter Epic's gone down to all this and although I'm not familiar with the UT that resonated the most with you, it's always so great to find other fans of the IP, especially as someone who grew up pretty much exclusively with PC games. While this all is sad, it's awesome that you used to make content for UT and have gone on to make games.
UT has never left my hard disk since 99. I didn't play daily, weekly or montly but multiple times a year I booted it up for some old school fragging. Now I am confined to bots... it will be just you and me, Loque... FOREVER.
The death of an era. In a world where we are surrounded by dark patterns (look up the term it goes deep.), microtransactions, battlepasses, constant unlocks and immense progression goals that keep you grinding for hours, unreal was a series that never played into the schemes. It just stayed itself pure and simple unreal. There aren't very many games being released nowadays where there is no leveling and unlocks and you just get the game in its entirety right out of the box (rip physical copies too!) I still play day of defeat and stuff like that too and have way more fun on those games then newer ones...because thats the game in its entirety i didnt need to grind to unlock the fucking bazooka i can just use it.
Imagine Half-Life 2 like evolution of the first game with whole Nali villages getting attacked by Skaarj in real time. The bones of a grand adventure are there and can be expanded upon, but Epic gotta sell more Balenciaga skins to the children.
But Epic is too busy making more For nite Skins and taking aways exclusives for their barely functional and failing store. Pray for a spiritual successor by an indie studio
It would be absolutely terrible because its aesthetics are rooted in the 90's demoscene, and modern graphics just cant do that kind of grungy grit anymore. Also all the people who knew what made Unreal a good game have left Epic ages ago. The game they would "remake" now would try to hit the same notes but it would miss every single one.
No. Please no. We have enough soulless "Unreal 5 remake" trailers of games that will never come out. And the last thing we need is for Epic to pull a rockstar and butcher the art and aesthetic of the originals
I hated Epic for abandonning UT4, now I hate them even more for wiping UT franchinse from existence. This game was a part of my childhood and late teen years. Then I played UT4 long after they abandonned it but eventually I moved on. Watching your vid reminded me how dissapointed I was when Epic left UT4 to die.
Absolutely devastating news. I thought that a company like Epic, which essentially prints money with their endeavours, wouldn't even mind hosting servers for their older games and letting people play their old games, but this erasure of older games is absolutely unacceptable. I often look at Dead multiplayer games for video productions and what I always come back to compare this practice to is the warehouse fires in which so many reels of film were lost forever. Most silent era films we had, we can never ever watch again. They are lost, forever. Today in the digital age, there is no reason why archival shouldn't be possible, especially when fan communities are so dedicated about the games they love that they would go through hell to just be able to play one more match. At first when the news came out that Unreal Tournament 3 X would be a thing, I was quite excited! Maybe Epic is interested in Unreal Tournament? Look at this, a big company finally taking steps to make games playable! But then days later I found out the cost of that decision. I wholly agree with you that Unreal Tournament 4 is a special game. It has the best movement in the series, great readable aesthetics which are the most refined in the series even though the game is blatantly unfinished, and the community content even back in 2014 showed that games are not getting "too detailed for modders to handle" which was a common concern about 10 years ago, passion surpasses all. For most of the series I am not too worried, Unreal through Unreal Tournament 2004 should be rather easy to keep alive and play over LAN games and tunneled connections. Now as the games are still accessible for some, we can also try to capture packets to see how the games are communicating to central servers in order to emulate central servers some time in the future. For Unreal Tournament 4 though I am worried, especially regarding the limited time we have left. I will follow the Unreal Tournament 4 Unofficial Update closely for the time being and I am keeping my fingers crossed that things are gonna go well in the end. Thank you for this video!
Lots of good memories playing UT4. Sad to see they pulled the plug for good. Some of you might remember me as "DeplorableACE". Was just going to reinstall and then I saw the news. It's was fun while it lasted.
Excellent job capturing the state of UT4. Regardless of whether or not the community can keep UT4 running, the fact that Epic would treat UT and UT4 as shitty as this is beyond comprehension. I started following UT4 on day 1 in May 2014, made maps for it, run servers etc. Sad stuff.
I grew up with unreal tournament. I have met up at Lans and developed friendships along the way over the years, but I think unfortunately it's time to move on completely from the franchise. UT4 being canceled was a fucking slap to the face of the community, such as myself and others, who helped QA their project. Was fun over the years. Glad to have met everyone along the way.
It's much wiser to walk away from Epic Games in general. I haven't cared about their games since Fortnite released. They just want a cash cow. Disgusting corporations worship business decisions and despise breaking a sweat for the sake of innovative games. These indie developers are kicking their asses. I gave Epic shit the day they announced this
@@garrett4845 I wholeheartedly agree. Even with UT3 getting an "X" release, it would depend on the community to release mutators that offer quality of life stuff to attract new players such as ELO tracking, TAM/CA/Elim mode(which I think doesn't belong in UT), a new UTComp to replace the old one, and proper zeroping netcode. I think the UT games and communities are sorta celebrating their last horrah as we speak, but I think a few years from now, we will see them as complete ghost towns. Hopefully a proper successor comes along the way. Support indie devs!
I am devastated, as well. I, like many others, started with UT99 when my husband downloaded the demo for me. I was instantly hooked. Being a geeky family, my husband and I would play with our daughters who were only 9 and 12. When we homeschooled our girls, our "recess" was to hop online at the only safe UT server I could find. I became a member of CrAzYLaDy's server. The only "clean" server to be found. I've played nearly every Tues and Thursday night from that point on. Our daughters are 32 and 35. I'm...older. We have been playing UT4 for several years now. I'm still in denial. I have hope that a way will be found to continue playing. My game nights have been my saving grace. Something HAS to be done. I'm too old to start drinking...
Although I grew up playing CoD multi-player, I really wish there was a market for arena shooters. Playing Unreal Tournament nowadays made me realize, you can have an even more fun multi-player experience when you get rid of things like sprinting, ADS, loadouts and killstreaks.
Unreal 2004 gave me some of my best times in a shooter, even if I jumped on 16 years after its release. It's depressing now realizing how fleeting it was, and even more so knowing that I missed out on a series I started to love. Keep cracking bro. 👍
That's what I thought too, honestly ut3 doesn't look great graphically but mechanically it plays better than 2k4/99 and no1 played it cuz it released same time as cod4. Wouldn't mind if it got a second chance as its the most up to date & complete ut that isnt ut4 (which I agree is ultimately the best playing ut but its unfinished). I can see revamped ut3 leading to a new ut. This all sucks, but unreal is too pure & too good to truly die, I think it will lead to something better eventually.
They abandoned Fortnight's original vision, abandoned Paragon, abandoned UT. Now that they have all that Fortnight money you'd think they could reboot some of those other games
Thank you for this video! Unreal and UT99 will still be playable online thanks to the community master servers and unofficial patches, UT2004 is also seeing methods to get that running as well, so shutting down those wasn't too much of a problem. The fact they want to pull the games from all storefronts... I feel betrayed tbh. Will have to see if the GOG versions might stay though, as I feel they would've been removed just like the Steam versions by now. If they will, I guess the games will then be considered abandonware? Love your UT99 work as well, Nick. Good luck to you in your future projects!
I never believed theyd finish ut4 but it still hurts to see it killed, ut1 was one of first games ive ever played and 2004 is even one of my favourites many modern shooters cant even compete with
Playing UT99 between 13-19 y/o was the best period of my life. I’ve never felt that type of passion and involvement for anything since, it was all consuming in the best type of way. I’ve always given Epic the benefit of the doubt as they created something dear to me, but now I’ll not be supporting anything they do. They have so much revenue, but can’t spend a minuscule amount of it to service pieces of gaming history. I had hopes of being retired in the future and inviting my brother over to relive some of our best years, sadly it doesn’t look like that will be the case. Thanks for making this video, it would of been devastating to try revisit the game and finding this out down the line.
I’m 17, I discovered this amazing and really underrated game about 2 years ago, it’s the only game that I play regularly and really enjoy, and now, like all the big companies, Epic games choses money over passion .. but I still have hope
I feel bad for your generation, when I was a kid only completed games came out, no micro transactions, instead of battle passes costing $30 every 90 days we had expansion packs that for like $20 and provided new maps, weapons, and campaigns.
I LOOOOOOVE URT!!! Unreal Tournament 2004 is an essential building block in my gaming experience as a kid. Even fell in love with that soundtrack also. Thank you for shedding light on an amazing game series!
What a fantastic video. UT2004 is probably still one of my all time favourite games. I’m 33 now and look back fondly on the great fun I had with friends playing that game. I will cherish the good times in my heart for as long as I live.
It's bittersweet to hear your story, because I just went through a radically different path and yet ended with the same feelings than you. I played UT2004 TO DEATH in my teenage years. It was one of the defining games of my childhood and I will forever hold muscle memory from it. It was a game I gave my life and nerves to, and no other FPS could ever give me the same vibe after. Nothing could compare. I had taken in so much of Unreal Tournament 2004 that anything else felt slow, clunky, uninteresting, insufficient. Not even UT3, nothing. UT2004, to me, was an ultimate achievement of ultra-tense FPS gaming. I had grown to play the game at such a high level that I just went crazy over it, in every possible sense. It was a typical case of trying to play at a super high level, then getting pissed/mad every time I died, then just screaming. Typical teenager crap. But eventually, I realised that the amount of nerve-wracking screams and desk banging was taking more of my time as the game became less and less fun. Again, typical teenager stuff, except I had grown into enough of an adult (or at least a later teenager) that I just decided to quit. I tried UT3 then, tried a few other FPSes. NOTHING worked. Every one of them felt boring, uninteresting, just plain not worth a minute of my time. If I went back to UT2004, I loved it, but also grew extremely frustrated after barely 10 mins of play. Eventually, it got bad enough that I quit FPS. Not just Unreal Tournament 2004, I quit FPS as whole. I haven't played a SINGLE first person shooter since then. I was so hooked that I still cannot consider playing any FPS today, solo or multi. Nothing ever suffices. In 2017, I bought Overwatch out of peer pressure. I thought, mistakenly, that Overwatch was an FPS. It was, but also wasn't, it's a fundamentally different game in many ways and shouldn't be seen as part of any one genre but as its own beast. Because I mistakenly thought that it was an FPS, I bought but didn't play it. Didn't play in 2017, or 2018, or 2019, or 2020. In December 2021, a friend offered me to play OW together, and I finally said yes, because those 20 euros eventually had to have been worth something. We played a few weekends. He got enough and left. I however, tried it a bit more solo, and before I knew it, I was playing 14 hours a day, which hasn't happened since my teenage years. I fell completely in love with Overwatch. Had I known that it wasn't an FPS, that it wasn't going to give me that "slow, bad, insufficient" feeling that every other game gave me, I'd have tried it when I bought it in 2017 and would have LOVED IT. I'd have enjoyed years and years of it. In only 8 months or so that I could play it, I gave it 650+ hours. And yet I still felt like I was a total noob at the game, and that I could give it 3 times that and still have things to learn. Radically different from UT, Overwatch was nonetheless a truly unique and amazing experience, same as UT2004 was back then. On October 3rd, 2022, Activision Blizzard ended up shutting down Overwatch. They replaced it on the 4th with Overwatch 2, a F2P game with egregiously costly transactions for anything (20$ a skin, 900+ skins in the game). Now the terrible monetisation, I could tolerate. But ruining the game, I couldn't. Overwatch 2 is a parody of Overwatch. If OW was unique, special and truly amazing in its own way, and had captivated hundreds of thousands over 6 years including 2 whole years with 0 new content, Overwatch 2 is like taking Overwatch and drowning it in Generic FPS sauce. It's like taking an amazingly unique and truly special game, and making it into a more generic, poorly thought out, uninteresting slog of a game that holds none of the magic of the first. Unlike you, my adventure with Unreal had ended long ago. I'm happy to have left Unreal back then. My UT2004 memories will be cherished until I die. I had innumerable epic moments. I will forever remember the thrill of jumping out at an enemy with a flak cannon and being faster at the headshot. I will forever have mental images of the maps etched in my brain. But I've made my peace with it. UT4 looks amazing, incredible even, but I'm ok with leaving my love for UT in my past. But to see Overwatch being put to death just to have it replaced by some grubby, pathetic pale smelly copy of it, to see it go from an incredible experience to an absolutely trite one, and to think that I could have had years with it and that I simply wouldn't even try it out of fear of disappointment of it being "just another FPS that doesn't compare"...I will forever hate myself a little over it. Overwatch was amazing. Unreal Tournament was amazing. Although we walked different paths, I really feel your loss, since I've just accepted that OW2 isn't worth my time. The game will be run aground ever further until it's finally dead and gone, one more IP murdered by short term greed.
I feel for you, maybe you can give ow2 another shot (pun intendet). The team is trying to balance the game. You can pick Phara and feel like its the early 2000s and you are rocket launchering people back to the shadow realm. The game is different, yes, but now it actually gives an actual fps vibes, pick a dps role, feel the power of actually shooting at the enemy team, not their shields, like it used to be. It is early to write the game off, play QP, have fun, try new roles/heroes, you would be surprised and hooked before you know it.
try doom2 with mods (use gzdoom or zandronum engine). will not top ut2004 however it comes with a ton of great solo experience depending on the mod you choose and still has that nervosity all modern fps lack. here's a few you might want to look at: _D4T (death foretold) _QCDE (quake chanpion doom edition)
Add Apex Legends to this list.... only events with skins that cost up to 160$ a single one. I mean, the game's supported by EA so its future was sealed already.
Well, at least UT99 and 2k4 are still alive and playable online with the new master server on OpenSpy. UT99 still gets patches on OldUnreal (v469c at the time of writing).
Sadly it is the start of something far, far worse...it's not just Epic MegaGames doing this, R* did remove their "legacy titles" to enforce the shlock that is that monstrosity of a port by a mobile game development team - their publishers - "Take-Two" - fucked with an open-source project (RE3/VCRE3) which was written like Xash3d (open-source GoldSource port, pun unintended - VALVe is okay with it because it was written from scratch and I use it because it is cross-compatible and fun to mod for) and needed the game binaries itself to function, meaning it was completely legal, but they went full Disney on it and essentially threatened them. I personally wish Tim Sweeny a horrible future ahead of him, including Cliff himself, all they have done is completely 180 their progress. iD software didn't remove their legacy titles, in fact they remastered them but the atrocity that is Quake Champions is a major black eye for the game companies image, having played straight from release, I do not really need to say that the gaming industry needs to pull its big boy pants back on again, maybe more competition in the market is needed. They could've easily outsourced this to another company, something commonly done in businesses but no...we get a half-baked shooter and that fucking excuse people call Fortnite. tl;dr - The more a company gets older, the greedier and less focused it becomes due a loss of staff of the merits of the original vision. Arena shooters ain't dead, as long as my hand is on my mouse.
I want to cry. For real. This franchise aside from being an awesome game on any aspect, forged my personality so much in terms of determination, mental strength and music tastes. It has so much to offer, so much more than the value the average player can see through it. It’s a modernized murder. So many Fast-FPS keep existing on steam and Epic didn’t even give this community any chance. They just gave us fake promises and fake hopes for that new UT4. The multiplayer support for all the games in this franchise are relatively dead so why deleting them ? It makes no sense. On another note even jazz jackrabbit s legacy has been killed. Only GOG hosts it. It’s horrible to kill such wonderful pieces of creativity like it’s nothing. Thank you for making this video. I was genuinely trying to see if there sales on steam for the UT franchise and saw they were all gone and I had hope for a second that epic would like to give them life again on their store or smth. My disappointment has never been this high
reeee i want the news about when a playable UT will be released again. dang epic games, its an important series, so important that the unreal engine is named after it. REEEEE
Man, I was on the fence trying to encourage friends to get UT2004 with me, because it was a piece of my childhood, first ever shooter I played, and first ever game I played on PC. If a company no longer wants to develop a title (due to resource restraints) then sell the title to someone that wants to do the franchise justice. Don't be greedy and keep cold dead hands on it. UT deserves reinvigorating, and enough love will get it there. But if Epic clearly don't love it enough to work on it themselves - then the best thing for them to do is give to someone else.
Nick, I seriously appreciate your dedication and effort in your past couple videos, especially this one. It makes me really happy to see other content creators expressing their thoughts on the state of unreal and its future. UT4UU is on-track to provide a custom login and master server system to keep online functionality of the game. (This login/server system is independent of UT4UU). The developer has stated that it will be done within the next couple weeks. As for obtaining the game, many of us are storing fresh installs of the game and are willing to share it to new users. Adding certain startup parameters (or UT4UU) will allow the game to run without needing the epic games launcher.
I think Epic games lost their street cred in the late 2010s after Cliff left the company. He had his finger on the pulse of what gamers truly value in a gaming community. Not that a company shouldn't care about money but when you're one of the most profitable in the industry, you owe it to the fans to provide them the community development tools. Ironically, Epic was one of the first companies to do exactly that in the late 90s, fostering the most active community modding scene at the time. Epic games could learn a thing or two from Valve and Bethesda in how they treat their consumers. Rip Unreal and cheers to all the players out there that I shared good times fragging with for over 20 years.
Man, the second I saw the article the other day of Epic delisting Unreal games from Steam AND shutting down all the master servers... was the moment I decided I am officially 100% done buying anything from Epic until they come back to their sense and pick Unreal back up. They have been one of my favorite game companies EVER for the longest time. Jazz Jackrabbit 1 and 2, Jill of The Jungle, One Must Fall 2097, Radix, Tyrian, Unreal, Unreal Tournament(s), Gears of War. Fortnite was the only game of theirs I never really cared about. But those earlier games, ESPECIALLY Jazz Jackrabbit and all the Unreal games, have been a stable of my life since I was a kid. I still play both series pretty frequently. Well at least I did, not so sure how much I'll have to wait for someone to make an unofficial master server for UT... Unreal Tournament is the only FPS I've been actively going out of my way to play online regularly. I have short periods of time when I play certain games. But Unreal was always the one that really kept standing. And It helped me through some of the roughest times of my life. Times that I have had to face over and over again and still to this day continue to do so. As cheesy as it sounds, these games really helped shape a part of me, and have helped me cope with depression and anger more than any other outlet or medication ever has. Unreal 1 is also one of the main reasons I went to school and got my Bachelor's degree to become a game designer. Specifially Unreal 1, Quake, and Rune I believe. Those games made me want to create worlds that people could absorb themselves into, just as I've experienced with those games. I kept playing UT on and off every week or so until the other day. Still pissed off just thinking about it, ugh. Thanks for making this video, you did an awesome job and more people need to be aware of this stuff. Hard years for us Unreal fans. With Epic spitting right in our faces and whatnot.
i had all the games on gog but they are no longer avalible so i have to sail the seven seas to get them back as my pc does'nt have an optical disc drive
I've loved Unreal Tournament ever since I was a kid! A shame to see Epic never finish UT4 and now not even let people buy previous UT versions! Such a shame!
well, i was 14 when i played the then newly released unreal tournament and it is to this day my favorite shooter of all time with elements you dont find anywhere else. The gory deaths, the quick respawn into action, the really fast reflexes, the powerups, and man, the weapons are mostly still unique. While sure it has its problems, i mean its more than 2 decades old....it still did so much right. The soundtrack as example heck it even has better story than many modern shooters....
Unreal gold is one only few experiences that made me really intrigued by a game's world and UT refined the mechanics in such a good way that i was hooked for years, though my favorite one will always be 2K4. its really devastating how epic games just shuts these games down without any kind of alternative. Cant believe this is how they treat one of their genre defining series. Really hope UT4UU can save ut4 it really deserves it
I was the main admin of the UT4 community Discord of Spain, we used to have a few hundreds of player players hanging around, we also shared clips of our plays, and made "community videofrags" showing some of our clips, it was great. It was very sad to see the community fading away because of the lack of support for the game. Epic could open source the code of UT4 and let the community keep working on it, it would be a great opportunity for us to finish what they started.
I'm glad Unreal/Tournament 99 won't get hit bad. You can add MasterServers after they shutdown theirs. I don't know about UT2K4 or UT2K3 though, in the forums, but I think there's a way around. I've never played UT4, to just kill like that. Unbelievable. Remember when Mark Rein said "We can't imagine not making an Unreal Tournament game"? How ironic.
Games preservation as a whole is just an issue that has become extremely widespread and it seems like the gaming community is reticent to protest the fact that 90% of live services today will be no longer playable.
Games are increasingly getting ruined by Ceo-s. A Wall Street type lizard race who never played a single game. Same goes for everything. A future. Idiocracy
Unreal games were part of my life since I was 8 years old, and now I'm 32. Knowing that this franchise will be dead officially it feels like one of the organs in my body no longer functions, it hurts so much. There was enormous amount of work from the community has been done, thousands of maps, hundreds of mods, and dozens of gameplay modes. I doubt if any other game can be proud of its community like unreal franchise. Thanks to every single person who has been involved in any kind of modding all over these years, you made unreal tournament games part of my life. Thanks to fantastic bot support, I made over 500 different and unique bots with their own skills and RPG XP level, these are like virtual pets in different universe. Epic games once was one of the favourite companies all over gamers around the world but now they become from Epic Games to Epic Fail. Removing from the market completely saying because it lacks multiplayer is complete nonsense because you can still play the game offline with one of the best bots and hundreds of mods. Whatever the reasons it is unforgivable how they treated unreal tournament franchises in general.
Unreal Tournament is what got me into video games, back in the early 2000s when I was a youngin. I have very fond memories of these games. It's a shame they fell off so hard.
UT4 was so much fun, it's such a shame Epic dropped it. You would think with all their Fortnite money they could easily fund the small dev team that was working on UT4. Its a slap in the face to all the fans that have been following the series and epic for 20 plus years.
I'm a big fan of UT2004 and UT4, and obviously everybody loves UT99, but the game that is the most special to me is UT3. I guess the silver lining is that UT3 will come back as UT3X, but I will REALLY miss the UT4 alpha if Epic makes it impossible to play.
I am also one of the few who likes UT3 (2nd favorite after UT99). Mainly because it had the best weapon balance in my opinion, at least among the one's I played. Never got the chance to play UT4. Will definitely check it out
Hell, that's crushing to hear! Some exec up the ladder has probably decided that they need to cull everything old, so the "new audience" wouldn't get distracted - and that they might be able to save a few bucks per year by "optimising costs". Considering how much the world has become digital in the past couple of decades, and how much of that world was shaped by games, this is akin to destroying cultural artefacts...
Well said. The ignorance and cynicism of those companies is hard to swallow. We should do everything we can to fight these things. There should be laws that prevent this. I hope that the community will find a way to preserve the Unreal legacy.
I played Unreal single player when it first released, still early in high school and fiddling with rigs, back when Voodoo was both a graphics card and a (reasonably) fresh track from Prodigy. 10 years after that in Uni, regardless of what flashy CoD titles were floating around, proficiency in UT 99 was maybe second only to Brood War as the gold standard of your ability with Keyboard and mouse. I guess like a lot of people in that demographic life got in the way since, and I was unaware of continuing projects. Hearing those tunes again in context of your video is ripping my heart up, what a miserable conclusion to such a critical facet of gaming history. A bizarre decision, akin to Nintendo announcing it would no longer sell Zelda titles.
All epic needs to do to redeem themselves is RELEASING THE SOURCE CODE FOR THE OLDER GAMES AS TIM HAD SAID THEY INTENDED TO, AFTER THEY GOT RID OF THIRD PARTY APIs in the games.
Grew up with this series on the original xbox with Unreal Championship. Has always been a favourite and since then, this series has been my standard for what a multiplayer focused game should be. UT4 is easily my favourite in the series, I find myself enjoying just about every weapon the game has. where as previous entries there are weapons that I don't enjoy as much. The wallrunning, sliding and easier dodging I also find add some enjoyment to the game, since the challenge isn't in using the mechanics since they are all easy to do, but rather the challenge is mastering them to fluidly maneuver the maps. It's the only game in the series where I care to get better at movement and it's also the only one where I've played around in it's map editor. Haven't made a map yet, but I still plan on recreating my favourite map from ut2004. It's sad to see this series get treated so terribly. I understand not wanting to foot the bill for online services, especially since these games have offline bots that are pretty fun to play with imo. But it's horrible to completely kill the games entirely, preventing others from appreciating the hard work the games had put into them including the original Unreal which I finished recently and loved. I'm at least glad that UT3 will still have some support since I do like the game. But I can't help but feel ticked off at the fact that the only game being preserved is the one the fans like the least. Like they are specifically trying to anger ut fans. Part of me hopes this somewhat brings a wave of players to Toxikk. It's a good spiritual successor to UT made by a smaller company and I believe that it does deserve some love. Great video, its a shame that I've discovered you through such circumstances, but I wish you luck in the future games you work on.
I too thoroughly enjoyed ut4. I was addicted to it for a few months at a time it had a sizable amount of players. Loved memorizing the levels getting into that flow state dominating the lobby many games in a row. Definitely an unforgettable moment in gaming for me as an arena shooter addict
Truly a phenomenal series. Epic seems to be going down the Valve route of becoming a platform/store rather than a games studio - Hopefully someone will pick up the mantle and re-create this franchise in their own way.
UT2K4 is one of the best games ever. Made a retrospective on it my 2nd channel and seeing the love and nostalgia for this franchise after so many years is proof that there is a community out there hungry for more Unreal.
What sucks is that if Epic marketed and developed UT4 like they did Fortnite it would have a pretty good shot at becoming a success. Pretty saddening that they feel the need to blacklist the other UT games for no reason
UT should never die just like Quake. This was the title that made Epic ffs, it's sad they treat it like a trivial thing. When UT 99 came out I didn't have a pc to run the game, I was playing PS at the time. My friend invited me to his house, he just got himself a nice new pc with a nice crt samsung flat monitor XD. He told me " come over I have to show you something", he runs UT on the pc and proceeds to show me the carnage XD. Needless to say my jaw was on the floor, I was so hyped up I booted him off the chair and said "my turn" lol. I was hooked, everything around me was white noise, I was IN THE GAME, XD. The announcer, the gore bits, the gun sounds, movement, and I was just playing against the bots, rofl. I had a blast, I was there for hours, and came back every chance I could. I ended up becoming the best UT player in our group of friends, we faced each other during our private LAN's. We had periods when I would just leave my PC at my friend's house, and we would play duels every day XD. I remember every iteration of this game, they all left me with memories and fun times, it's sad to see they're shutting it down. I know Fartnite is a big deal, but for the life of me how's scrolling your mouse wheel to build bs in FArtnite trump dodging, sliding, wall dodging, shooting at the same time in a nice arena. @Nick Burns I'm happy that you found UT and that it drove you to make content, and that led to more opportunities in doing something you love.
always loved Unreal, decided to speedrun Unreal a while back and uncovered a truly deep and satisfying speedrun. If you ever get the chance, watch the current world record in both categories, they are very optimized. utilizing plenty of boost and good mechanics
I am truly devastated I’m 32 years old started on UT99 when I was only 9 years old . This is unforgivable and i just hope that team keep ut4 alive. To kill off a franchise that gave them there name is ludicrous shame on them. Scamming little kids on Fortnite. Money money money that’s all they care about. F#ck the fans
I have never spent more time in any other franchise. Has to be over 10k hours at minimum. Been playing pretty consistently since 2003. With all their money, they just could not spread any love to the franchise that first brought them to prominence. Goodbye Unreal.
Arena shooters didn't deserve to die twice.
Between Quake Champions failing and Epic's treatment towards Unreal/UT series, I sadly see no hope for online/pvp arena shooters
I think it depends on one's perspective on a game's success. I think one of the larger issues in modern gaming, is the " dead game" concept. I think to decently evolve as a form of entertainment, we need to shed the notion that if everyone isn't playing a certain game, that it's not worth playing. There's a lot of innovation and potential in smaller games with tighter communities, then with mass adoption. So, in one sense I do agree with you- I don't see a future where arena PvP shooters retake the center stage over Battle Royale or other popular modern trends. But I can see a future where they have a perfectly sustainable niche, that has players come and go, and keeps the games very much alive for a reasonable lifespan
yeah, I think arena shooters just dont appeal to mainstream, theres a really great tf2 themed arena shooter Open Fortress, but it doesnt seem to be able to blow up and I guess just because of the genre
Yes they did fk you im gay
@@atifarshad7624 The next id Software game is a rumored Quake reboot with both singleplayer and PvP, and John Romero is also making a brand new FPS with a PvP component. Maybe there's still some hope.
My first game was UT99, my career as a software developer started from creating maps in UT2004. My life is entirely connected to this series. And now they remove games, which get their honorable place in game history. No words epic....
Been playing Unreal since the very first game back in 1998. What Epic has done is shameful and should be condemned absolutely. Game preservation is more and more vital to prevent board members from destroying the legacy of games we grew up with, simply because they don't sell as many microtransactions to infants as Fortnite. You have a clear vocal style and good storytelling skills. Best of luck on your channel!
Thanks!
They should definitely support the game that made them who they are
I already commented it but , I think i know where Unreal Turnement is. It is called Lyra and is a newer Unreal Engine 5 Project for Free in the UE Marcet Place. I never Played Unreal Turnement but it looks similer and is an Multiplayer shooter template . Would be nice if you could tell me if i´m Right ? ruclips.net/video/4j-2aAb0Y5k/видео.html
@@sonicalstudios Can you imagine abandoning DOOM, Half-Life or any others for some new shiny IP?
@@Covidcola exactly they should be ashamed
What Epic has done is unforgivable. This is just the pure disrespect and face spitting of their community. They have money, yet they can't afford a minimum to maintain their own flagship. I can only hope this is not the end (and in offline mod it never will be) of Unreal, but if this is the end, i hope Epic will follow up somewhere in the future.
*Spoiled rotten.*
F... epic .
They are disgusting. Like all big publishers .
Get MODS ,RETROGAMES and INDIE GAMES ..more then enough to play for a lifetime. AND if that's still not enough.
Check those AAA games which have mod support. Those get at least fixed and updated my modders
I was planning to buy the unreal pack on steam this winter sales. I've been interested in this piece of FPS history for a long time and now I can't even buy it. It's so god damn frustrating.
@@edwardwhitehead8800 Hey, SiN runs perfectly for me on Windows 10
@@the8a9522 try to buy it at gog
Unreal Tournament 2004 was most of my childhood and one of the greatest games I ever played. To this day no game feels as responsive and free to move in as in that game
and all the mods / custom maps / skins / etc
Tim Sweeney knew a thing or two about making instant and responsive 3d engines at the hight of CRT monitors and optical mice being at their peak. Everything when downhill since directX8
I couldn't believe the graphics at the time and would never imagine in a million years that it wouldn't be the cutting edge franchise for eternity, let alone just fizzle out.
Unreal Tournament 2004 was years of my teenager life i played this game from ( 14 years) 2005 to 2009 ( 18 years ) .
Have to say no game of FPS or shooters in general come close to what ut2004 , ut2k4 was , one adrenaline kick shooter i love the walljumps one of my clan was mastefull in that in those days .
Recently I downloaded UT4 to check on its state hoping, its finally fully build game. I was disapointed to find out thats not the case and theese news really devastated me. UT franchise was the only fps shooter game that really grew to my heart and I had high hopes it will be again a game on everyones radar...This game deserved better
Come to the dark side, come to Quake!
sure, talking about RAW mechanics Is the Best fps game ....sad to see It ended up being completely abandoned by the devs over other games made essentially to let the children have fun
UT4 is by far the best UT to date, very smooth movement, crisp visuals, great new maps. Sad that were never getting it 😭
For a game that was supposed to be co-developed by the fans & devs, the community sure did bolt after Epic abandoned the project.
IF ITS THAT BIG AND STRONG THEN WHY IT DIDNT HAVE PLAYERS?!?!!? IF IT HAD STRONG AMOUNT OF PLAYERS THEN SERVERS WOULDNT BE SHUT DOWN AND ALSO THEY WOULDVE REGULARY UPDATED THE GAME WITH CONTENT BCS THE GAME INCETIVEZED IT aka PLAYERS NUMBERS JUSTIFIED SPENDING MONEY ON NEW CONTENT!!!!!
UT99 was a big part of my childhood. Didn't have internet for years and that was one of the few games that provided a multiplayer experience with the bots.
This is very sad. UT99 was the first online multiplayer game I played (at my friend's house when I was a kid). It will always be my first memory of online gaming.
And it's no problem adding another master server and playing it. Anyone not willing to do the work, is helpless fortnite players. Being angry at fortnite is because you guys know that deep down. Consoomers
UT99 was legendary my friend...for us to have played a game like this back in the early 2000s is just a gift from life!!!!
I'm in the same boat as you m8 and hoping UT4UU will be able to accomplish the miracle we all wait for UT4!
Not many things in my life ı felt the honour when doing, Except playing Unreal Tournament. And now, I more really feel proud of being a member of Unreal Tournament Community. It was a good journey playing with you guys with all of you. Thanks for the Friendship of the Unreal Tournament. Hail to those who feel the same.!
The fact That Epic kills the franchise that earned them their name is unbelievable. I built a new pc just to be able to play UT4. Even in it's unfinished state, it's a great game that really nails the UT feeling, and if they would only have dedicated resources to it, it could have truly been Epic. One of the greatest arena shooters ever, discarded in favor of some cotton-candy colored pos BR.
I'm an arena fps player at heart, UT and Quake will always the greatest, so these news were devastating. I play both UT2k4, 3, and 4 on a regular basis. At least we will still have UT3, however small of a comfort that is.
I think UT3 eventually became an okay game, although it was never a match for its predecessors UT99 and UT2k4. The abomination that was the launch version of UT3 however was a clear indication already back then that Epic didn't really care about their existing community anymore.
IF they dedicated resources to it... that right there is their mortal sin...even a small team of people should have been affordable for them but noooo...fuck that company, why not do it ourselves?
true! I fear, they will reboot the franchise some day as a GaaS to monetize it heavily ...
@@Wishbone1977 UT3 warfare was perfect, to this day its one of if not the best team&objective "game"
And to think that, meanwhile, the original Quake got an Enhanced edition and the RTX 'treatment'. Not to mention the fact that id has released source code of their game engines up to idTech 4 which allowed the community to make their own ports, engines and games, keeping the Quake franchise alive.
lol, thats some rose tinted glasses. the latest quake that should be played in multiplayer -- quake champions -- is getting fucked every update and only has 2 developer team working on it.
That's a fair point, I guess.
@@borysjelenski5919 kinda sad because no fps is thrilling as arena fps, and i dont feel that it is true that genre is dead, but that its been lacking a good and a properly marketed game for more than a decade lol
@@whatnever Even then at least id/Bethesda still chooses to acknowledge their past, unlike Epic. If we're lucky, id's next game should be going back to standard deathmatch.
the problem is the IF. id's last 2 multiplayer attempts with DOOM have been unfortunate failures (which is sad since I really liked 2016 mp post-6.66) and QC hasn't been able to pull in numbers. AFPS is seen by the industry as a genre that doesn't do well commercially, so most developers aren't willing to bother out of fear of failure.
A small group of us are working on a proof-of-concept UT5 using Unreal Engine 5. A few maps are already done, and we are currently scripting the mechanics. Will include a mapvote, DM, iDM, and iCTF modes/maps, as well as custom netcode for multiplayer and will route through steam.
Any links to showcase your work right now?
How can we support/follow this project?
Hey,
Although not great at C++, I'm willing to help out with the development in UE5.
Think UT4 is a fantastic game and should live on for all fraggers out there to enjoy.
Let me know if needed in any capacity 😊
Anyone know if this for real? If so your doing God's work.
@@empofxeno Its real lol
Unreal Tournament was my childhood. My sister and I played all the time, it became such a staple of my own tastes for shooters and was a massive influence in our relationship that has grown so much thanks to that game. I was influenced to different art practices like 3D map creation and background art. My father always played unreal for us as kids and I watched influenced to eventually play it myself (when I got older and less terrified of violence) and I really enjoyed it. The original unreal tournament will always be my favorite game of all time. I occasionally listen to the soundtrack on walks and to help me work. Recently I got my boyfriend into the Beta becuse it was free and easier for his internet to handle and we played it all the time and now we can’t anymore which really sucks.
Maaaan...I'm devastated...I REALLY REALLY hope those heroes can save UT4 from this certain death... I don't imagine myself not being able to play my favourite shooter anymore. Epic must hate us so much...
Thats why i have ut2004 on its own flash drive lol ill always have my favorite fps and the amazing ballistic weapons mod
IF ITS THAT BIG AND STRONG THEN WHY IT DIDNT HAVE PLAYERS?!?!!? IF IT HAD STRONG AMOUNT OF PLAYERS THEN SERVERS WOULDNT BE SHUT DOWN AND ALSO THEY WOULDVE REGULARY UPDATED THE GAME WITH CONTENT BCS THE GAME INCETIVEZED IT aka PLAYERS NUMBERS JUSTIFIED SPENDING MONEY ON NEW CONTENT!!!!!
NO EPIC IS JUST RATIONAL!!!!!!! WHY WASTE MONEY ON SOMETHING TAH NOT ONLY DOESENT GIVE ANYTHING BUT ALSO ABRELY AHS ANY PLAYERS.SO COMPANY WASTING MONEY ON SERVER WHEN SERVER CAN BE REUSED ON SOMETHING ELSE MORE IMPORTANT!!! TEH ONLEY MAINTAINING TAT DEAD SERVER COULDVE GONE INTO MORE PRODUCTIVE PROJECTS OR EXPANDING THE ENGINEDEV TEAM OR SOME ENW PROJECTS AN DSO ON.
IF UT HAD PLAYERS AND IF IT HAD CONSATNT PLAEYR COUNT THENT TAHT WOULD JUSTIFY THE MAINTANATCE OF THE GAEMITS SERVERS AND ALSO WOUDL JUSTIFY FURTEHR CONTENT ADDITIONS!!!!!
UNLIEK BRAINLESS PEOPLE ON TEH INTERNET EPIC IS REPSONSIBLE FOR IST EPLOYESE AND AHS COMPANY TU RUN WHILE YOU WAHT DO YOU HAVE RESPONCIBILITY OVER?!!??!!? HUGE TEAMS HELL NO,A COMPANY HELL NO,A WHOLE PACKAGE HELL NO!!
@@goranstojanov1160 You clearly don't know how things went. Epic ABANDOND development as soon as a Fortnite coin arrived. Completely. There were many players and a lot of expectations. Likewise they didn't have to do practically anything, with just ONE person reviewing the content (which wasn't even developed by Epic but by the players themselves, spending thousands of hours developing for free) the game would have been finished by 2018. With all the money they raised With Fortnite couldn't they just do that? It's totally disrespectful to us and to a franchise that was going to have a new entry announced as a community collaboration. It cannot be seen any other way.
@@edwardwhitehead8800 The brain of a 12 year old... enough said :P
I always found the Unreal ending quite melancholic, and to hear the music again as you conclude the video adds an extra bit of sadness.
I play the first UT when it came out, now i'm 30 and its still on my PC. UT2K4 is my favorite.
It hurt to see this awesome franchise getting abandonned and now killed... I understand fortnite give them tons of money but Unreal T has a Soul.
I will never forget this game and i will always play it even with bots.
As someone who has fond memories of UT '99, I was so pleased to hear "I won't even play footage of Fortnite". Haha. I'm bitter Epic's gone down to all this and although I'm not familiar with the UT that resonated the most with you, it's always so great to find other fans of the IP, especially as someone who grew up pretty much exclusively with PC games. While this all is sad, it's awesome that you used to make content for UT and have gone on to make games.
UT has never left my hard disk since 99. I didn't play daily, weekly or montly but multiple times a year I booted it up for some old school fragging. Now I am confined to bots... it will be just you and me, Loque... FOREVER.
The death of an era. In a world where we are surrounded by dark patterns (look up the term it goes deep.), microtransactions, battlepasses, constant unlocks and immense progression goals that keep you grinding for hours, unreal was a series that never played into the schemes. It just stayed itself pure and simple unreal. There aren't very many games being released nowadays where there is no leveling and unlocks and you just get the game in its entirety right out of the box (rip physical copies too!) I still play day of defeat and stuff like that too and have way more fun on those games then newer ones...because thats the game in its entirety i didnt need to grind to unlock the fucking bazooka i can just use it.
The Unreal series deserves a remake in Unreal Engine 5!
Imagine Half-Life 2 like evolution of the first game with whole Nali villages getting attacked by Skaarj in real time. The bones of a grand adventure are there and can be expanded upon, but Epic gotta sell more Balenciaga skins to the children.
But Epic is too busy making more For nite Skins and taking aways exclusives for their barely functional and failing store. Pray for a spiritual successor by an indie studio
It would be absolutely terrible because its aesthetics are rooted in the 90's demoscene, and modern graphics just cant do that kind of grungy grit anymore.
Also all the people who knew what made Unreal a good game have left Epic ages ago.
The game they would "remake" now would try to hit the same notes but it would miss every single one.
No.
Please no.
We have enough soulless "Unreal 5 remake" trailers of games that will never come out.
And the last thing we need is for Epic to pull a rockstar and butcher the art and aesthetic of the originals
A fan made one is being made :)
I hated Epic for abandonning UT4, now I hate them even more for wiping UT franchinse from existence. This game was a part of my childhood and late teen years. Then I played UT4 long after they abandonned it but eventually I moved on. Watching your vid reminded me how dissapointed I was when Epic left UT4 to die.
Absolutely devastating news. I thought that a company like Epic, which essentially prints money with their endeavours, wouldn't even mind hosting servers for their older games and letting people play their old games, but this erasure of older games is absolutely unacceptable. I often look at Dead multiplayer games for video productions and what I always come back to compare this practice to is the warehouse fires in which so many reels of film were lost forever. Most silent era films we had, we can never ever watch again. They are lost, forever.
Today in the digital age, there is no reason why archival shouldn't be possible, especially when fan communities are so dedicated about the games they love that they would go through hell to just be able to play one more match. At first when the news came out that Unreal Tournament 3 X would be a thing, I was quite excited! Maybe Epic is interested in Unreal Tournament? Look at this, a big company finally taking steps to make games playable! But then days later I found out the cost of that decision.
I wholly agree with you that Unreal Tournament 4 is a special game. It has the best movement in the series, great readable aesthetics which are the most refined in the series even though the game is blatantly unfinished, and the community content even back in 2014 showed that games are not getting "too detailed for modders to handle" which was a common concern about 10 years ago, passion surpasses all. For most of the series I am not too worried, Unreal through Unreal Tournament 2004 should be rather easy to keep alive and play over LAN games and tunneled connections. Now as the games are still accessible for some, we can also try to capture packets to see how the games are communicating to central servers in order to emulate central servers some time in the future. For Unreal Tournament 4 though I am worried, especially regarding the limited time we have left. I will follow the Unreal Tournament 4 Unofficial Update closely for the time being and I am keeping my fingers crossed that things are gonna go well in the end. Thank you for this video!
Lots of good memories playing UT4. Sad to see they pulled the plug for good. Some of you might remember me as "DeplorableACE". Was just going to reinstall and then I saw the news. It's was fun while it lasted.
Excellent job capturing the state of UT4. Regardless of whether or not the community can keep UT4 running, the fact that Epic would treat UT and UT4 as shitty as this is beyond comprehension. I started following UT4 on day 1 in May 2014, made maps for it, run servers etc. Sad stuff.
Damn i still have gigs of ut2k4 maps and mods and all that
I grew up with unreal tournament. I have met up at Lans and developed friendships along the way over the years, but I think unfortunately it's time to move on completely from the franchise.
UT4 being canceled was a fucking slap to the face of the community, such as myself and others, who helped QA their project.
Was fun over the years. Glad to have met everyone along the way.
It's much wiser to walk away from Epic Games in general. I haven't cared about their games since Fortnite released. They just want a cash cow. Disgusting corporations worship business decisions and despise breaking a sweat for the sake of innovative games. These indie developers are kicking their asses. I gave Epic shit the day they announced this
Nice meeting you nvz, we had a great run. Like you I don't think Unreal will survive this move by Epic.
-Taffy
@@garrett4845 I wholeheartedly agree. Even with UT3 getting an "X" release, it would depend on the community to release mutators that offer quality of life stuff to attract new players such as ELO tracking, TAM/CA/Elim mode(which I think doesn't belong in UT), a new UTComp to replace the old one, and proper zeroping netcode.
I think the UT games and communities are sorta celebrating their last horrah as we speak, but I think a few years from now, we will see them as complete ghost towns. Hopefully a proper successor comes along the way. Support indie devs!
Still playing UT2004 online, DM Servers mainly.
I am devastated, as well. I, like many others, started with UT99 when my husband downloaded the demo for me. I was instantly hooked. Being a geeky family, my husband and I would play with our daughters who were only 9 and 12. When we homeschooled our girls, our "recess" was to hop online at the only safe UT server I could find. I became a member of CrAzYLaDy's server. The only "clean" server to be found. I've played nearly every Tues and Thursday night from that point on. Our daughters are 32 and 35. I'm...older. We have been playing UT4 for several years now. I'm still in denial. I have hope that a way will be found to continue playing. My game nights have been my saving grace. Something HAS to be done. I'm too old to start drinking...
Although I grew up playing CoD multi-player, I really wish there was a market for arena shooters. Playing Unreal Tournament nowadays made me realize, you can have an even more fun multi-player experience when you get rid of things like sprinting, ADS, loadouts and killstreaks.
Luckily the Oldunreal UT99 469 and Oldunreal Unreal 227 patches change the master server. With UT2004 there should be OpenSpy.
Unreal 2004 gave me some of my best times in a shooter, even if I jumped on 16 years after its release. It's depressing now realizing how fleeting it was, and even more so knowing that I missed out on a series I started to love. Keep cracking bro. 👍
best of the series in my opinion.
What are the odds that UT3X is an appetizer for a new UT game in production using Unreal Engine 5?
I would think it's highly unlikely. I'd love to be wrong, but having been here a long time, I doubt it.
That's what I thought too, honestly ut3 doesn't look great graphically but mechanically it plays better than 2k4/99 and no1 played it cuz it released same time as cod4. Wouldn't mind if it got a second chance as its the most up to date & complete ut that isnt ut4 (which I agree is ultimately the best playing ut but its unfinished). I can see revamped ut3 leading to a new ut. This all sucks, but unreal is too pure & too good to truly die, I think it will lead to something better eventually.
They abandoned Fortnight's original vision, abandoned Paragon, abandoned UT. Now that they have all that Fortnight money you'd think they could reboot some of those other games
Thank you for this video! Unreal and UT99 will still be playable online thanks to the community master servers and unofficial patches, UT2004 is also seeing methods to get that running as well, so shutting down those wasn't too much of a problem. The fact they want to pull the games from all storefronts... I feel betrayed tbh. Will have to see if the GOG versions might stay though, as I feel they would've been removed just like the Steam versions by now. If they will, I guess the games will then be considered abandonware?
Love your UT99 work as well, Nick. Good luck to you in your future projects!
Unfortunately they were delisted from GOG as well. Such a shame, as they truly are good old games that deserve to be immortalized.
If the games can't be bought anywhere anymore, they're practically abandonware, and people are free to download them legally from unofficial sources.
@@marcdwonn9772 just fucking imagine that. Unreal and Unreal Tournament abandonware... Blows my mind. These are truly the dark times
I have fond memories of Unreal Tournament as well. I didn't know that times were looking so bleak. I hope we will get through it.
I never believed theyd finish ut4 but it still hurts to see it killed, ut1 was one of first games ive ever played and 2004 is even one of my favourites many modern shooters cant even compete with
Playing UT99 between 13-19 y/o was the best period of my life. I’ve never felt that type of passion and involvement for anything since, it was all consuming in the best type of way. I’ve always given Epic the benefit of the doubt as they created something dear to me, but now I’ll not be supporting anything they do. They have so much revenue, but can’t spend a minuscule amount of it to service pieces of gaming history. I had hopes of being retired in the future and inviting my brother over to relive some of our best years, sadly it doesn’t look like that will be the case. Thanks for making this video, it would of been devastating to try revisit the game and finding this out down the line.
So Quake gets RTX and the Unreal gets tossed in the trash. What an age we live in!
I’m 17, I discovered this amazing and really underrated game about 2 years ago, it’s the only game that I play regularly and really enjoy, and now, like all the big companies, Epic games choses money over passion .. but I still have hope
have you tried quake champions?
@@rossuk123 is it still alive?
I feel bad for your generation, when I was a kid only completed games came out, no micro transactions, instead of battle passes costing $30 every 90 days we had expansion packs that for like $20 and provided new maps, weapons, and campaigns.
I LOOOOOOVE URT!!! Unreal Tournament 2004 is an essential building block in my gaming experience as a kid. Even fell in love with that soundtrack also. Thank you for shedding light on an amazing game series!
God damn you used that beautiful piece of music, nice
What a fantastic video.
UT2004 is probably still one of my all time favourite games.
I’m 33 now and look back fondly on the great fun I had with friends playing that game.
I will cherish the good times in my heart for as long as I live.
It's bittersweet to hear your story, because I just went through a radically different path and yet ended with the same feelings than you.
I played UT2004 TO DEATH in my teenage years. It was one of the defining games of my childhood and I will forever hold muscle memory from it. It was a game I gave my life and nerves to, and no other FPS could ever give me the same vibe after. Nothing could compare. I had taken in so much of Unreal Tournament 2004 that anything else felt slow, clunky, uninteresting, insufficient. Not even UT3, nothing. UT2004, to me, was an ultimate achievement of ultra-tense FPS gaming.
I had grown to play the game at such a high level that I just went crazy over it, in every possible sense. It was a typical case of trying to play at a super high level, then getting pissed/mad every time I died, then just screaming. Typical teenager crap. But eventually, I realised that the amount of nerve-wracking screams and desk banging was taking more of my time as the game became less and less fun. Again, typical teenager stuff, except I had grown into enough of an adult (or at least a later teenager) that I just decided to quit. I tried UT3 then, tried a few other FPSes. NOTHING worked. Every one of them felt boring, uninteresting, just plain not worth a minute of my time. If I went back to UT2004, I loved it, but also grew extremely frustrated after barely 10 mins of play.
Eventually, it got bad enough that I quit FPS. Not just Unreal Tournament 2004, I quit FPS as whole. I haven't played a SINGLE first person shooter since then. I was so hooked that I still cannot consider playing any FPS today, solo or multi. Nothing ever suffices.
In 2017, I bought Overwatch out of peer pressure. I thought, mistakenly, that Overwatch was an FPS. It was, but also wasn't, it's a fundamentally different game in many ways and shouldn't be seen as part of any one genre but as its own beast.
Because I mistakenly thought that it was an FPS, I bought but didn't play it. Didn't play in 2017, or 2018, or 2019, or 2020.
In December 2021, a friend offered me to play OW together, and I finally said yes, because those 20 euros eventually had to have been worth something.
We played a few weekends. He got enough and left. I however, tried it a bit more solo, and before I knew it, I was playing 14 hours a day, which hasn't happened since my teenage years. I fell completely in love with Overwatch. Had I known that it wasn't an FPS, that it wasn't going to give me that "slow, bad, insufficient" feeling that every other game gave me, I'd have tried it when I bought it in 2017 and would have LOVED IT. I'd have enjoyed years and years of it. In only 8 months or so that I could play it, I gave it 650+ hours. And yet I still felt like I was a total noob at the game, and that I could give it 3 times that and still have things to learn. Radically different from UT, Overwatch was nonetheless a truly unique and amazing experience, same as UT2004 was back then.
On October 3rd, 2022, Activision Blizzard ended up shutting down Overwatch. They replaced it on the 4th with Overwatch 2, a F2P game with egregiously costly transactions for anything (20$ a skin, 900+ skins in the game).
Now the terrible monetisation, I could tolerate.
But ruining the game, I couldn't. Overwatch 2 is a parody of Overwatch. If OW was unique, special and truly amazing in its own way, and had captivated hundreds of thousands over 6 years including 2 whole years with 0 new content, Overwatch 2 is like taking Overwatch and drowning it in Generic FPS sauce. It's like taking an amazingly unique and truly special game, and making it into a more generic, poorly thought out, uninteresting slog of a game that holds none of the magic of the first.
Unlike you, my adventure with Unreal had ended long ago. I'm happy to have left Unreal back then. My UT2004 memories will be cherished until I die. I had innumerable epic moments. I will forever remember the thrill of jumping out at an enemy with a flak cannon and being faster at the headshot. I will forever have mental images of the maps etched in my brain. But I've made my peace with it. UT4 looks amazing, incredible even, but I'm ok with leaving my love for UT in my past.
But to see Overwatch being put to death just to have it replaced by some grubby, pathetic pale smelly copy of it, to see it go from an incredible experience to an absolutely trite one, and to think that I could have had years with it and that I simply wouldn't even try it out of fear of disappointment of it being "just another FPS that doesn't compare"...I will forever hate myself a little over it. Overwatch was amazing. Unreal Tournament was amazing. Although we walked different paths, I really feel your loss, since I've just accepted that OW2 isn't worth my time. The game will be run aground ever further until it's finally dead and gone, one more IP murdered by short term greed.
I feel for you, maybe you can give ow2 another shot (pun intendet). The team is trying to balance the game. You can pick Phara and feel like its the early 2000s and you are rocket launchering people back to the shadow realm. The game is different, yes, but now it actually gives an actual fps vibes, pick a dps role, feel the power of actually shooting at the enemy team, not their shields, like it used to be. It is early to write the game off, play QP, have fun, try new roles/heroes, you would be surprised and hooked before you know it.
try doom2 with mods (use gzdoom or zandronum engine). will not top ut2004 however it comes with a ton of great solo experience depending on the mod you choose and still has that nervosity all modern fps lack.
here's a few you might want to look at:
_D4T (death foretold)
_QCDE (quake chanpion doom edition)
Add Apex Legends to this list.... only events with skins that cost up to 160$ a single one. I mean, the game's supported by EA so its future was sealed already.
Tried unreal gold with the evolution mod?
I always boot up Overwatch 2 ranked thinking I’m going to have fun this time but then it’s Push
Well, at least UT99 and 2k4 are still alive and playable online with the new master server on OpenSpy. UT99 still gets patches on OldUnreal (v469c at the time of writing).
I feel like more people should know so the player base doesn't abandon the games thinking they're all dead!
I- honestly have no words for how upset and disgusted I am with Epic by doing this. Absolutely revolting.
Sadly it is the start of something far, far worse...it's not just Epic MegaGames doing this, R* did remove their "legacy titles" to enforce the shlock that is that monstrosity of a port by a mobile game development team - their publishers - "Take-Two" - fucked with an open-source project (RE3/VCRE3) which was written like Xash3d (open-source GoldSource port, pun unintended - VALVe is okay with it because it was written from scratch and I use it because it is cross-compatible and fun to mod for) and needed the game binaries itself to function, meaning it was completely legal, but they went full Disney on it and essentially threatened them. I personally wish Tim Sweeny a horrible future ahead of him, including Cliff himself, all they have done is completely 180 their progress.
iD software didn't remove their legacy titles, in fact they remastered them but the atrocity that is Quake Champions is a major black eye for the game companies image, having played straight from release, I do not really need to say that the gaming industry needs to pull its big boy pants back on again, maybe more competition in the market is needed.
They could've easily outsourced this to another company, something commonly done in businesses but no...we get a half-baked shooter and that fucking excuse people call Fortnite.
tl;dr - The more a company gets older, the greedier and less focused it becomes due a loss of staff of the merits of the original vision. Arena shooters ain't dead, as long as my hand is on my mouse.
I want to cry. For real. This franchise aside from being an awesome game on any aspect, forged my personality so much in terms of determination, mental strength and music tastes. It has so much to offer, so much more than the value the average player can see through it.
It’s a modernized murder. So many Fast-FPS keep existing on steam and Epic didn’t even give this community any chance. They just gave us fake promises and fake hopes for that new UT4.
The multiplayer support for all the games in this franchise are relatively dead so why deleting them ? It makes no sense.
On another note even jazz jackrabbit s legacy has been killed. Only GOG hosts it. It’s horrible to kill such wonderful pieces of creativity like it’s nothing.
Thank you for making this video. I was genuinely trying to see if there sales on steam for the UT franchise and saw they were all gone and I had hope for a second that epic would like to give them life again on their store or smth.
My disappointment has never been this high
I can't even download UT4. They took it off the store. Absolutely ridiculous.
It's still out there and playable tho. Just a few extra steps, but really worth it imo
reeee i want the news about when a playable UT will be released again. dang epic games, its an important series, so important that the unreal engine is named after it. REEEEE
Epic might as well start calling Unreal Engine "Fortnite Engine" now.
Man, I was on the fence trying to encourage friends to get UT2004 with me, because it was a piece of my childhood, first ever shooter I played, and first ever game I played on PC.
If a company no longer wants to develop a title (due to resource restraints) then sell the title to someone that wants to do the franchise justice. Don't be greedy and keep cold dead hands on it. UT deserves reinvigorating, and enough love will get it there. But if Epic clearly don't love it enough to work on it themselves - then the best thing for them to do is give to someone else.
Nick, I seriously appreciate your dedication and effort in your past couple videos, especially this one. It makes me really happy to see other content creators expressing their thoughts on the state of unreal and its future.
UT4UU is on-track to provide a custom login and master server system to keep online functionality of the game. (This login/server system is independent of UT4UU). The developer has stated that it will be done within the next couple weeks. As for obtaining the game, many of us are storing fresh installs of the game and are willing to share it to new users. Adding certain startup parameters (or UT4UU) will allow the game to run without needing the epic games launcher.
Thats great news ill be looking forward to trying it out again
Sick!
I think Epic games lost their street cred in the late 2010s after Cliff left the company. He had his finger on the pulse of what gamers truly value in a gaming community. Not that a company shouldn't care about money but when you're one of the most profitable in the industry, you owe it to the fans to provide them the community development tools. Ironically, Epic was one of the first companies to do exactly that in the late 90s, fostering the most active community modding scene at the time. Epic games could learn a thing or two from Valve and Bethesda in how they treat their consumers. Rip Unreal and cheers to all the players out there that I shared good times fragging with for over 20 years.
Man, the second I saw the article the other day of Epic delisting Unreal games from Steam AND shutting down all the master servers... was the moment I decided I am officially 100% done buying anything from Epic until they come back to their sense and pick Unreal back up. They have been one of my favorite game companies EVER for the longest time. Jazz Jackrabbit 1 and 2, Jill of The Jungle, One Must Fall 2097, Radix, Tyrian, Unreal, Unreal Tournament(s), Gears of War. Fortnite was the only game of theirs I never really cared about. But those earlier games, ESPECIALLY Jazz Jackrabbit and all the Unreal games, have been a stable of my life since I was a kid. I still play both series pretty frequently. Well at least I did, not so sure how much I'll have to wait for someone to make an unofficial master server for UT...
Unreal Tournament is the only FPS I've been actively going out of my way to play online regularly. I have short periods of time when I play certain games. But Unreal was always the one that really kept standing. And It helped me through some of the roughest times of my life. Times that I have had to face over and over again and still to this day continue to do so. As cheesy as it sounds, these games really helped shape a part of me, and have helped me cope with depression and anger more than any other outlet or medication ever has. Unreal 1 is also one of the main reasons I went to school and got my Bachelor's degree to become a game designer. Specifially Unreal 1, Quake, and Rune I believe. Those games made me want to create worlds that people could absorb themselves into, just as I've experienced with those games. I kept playing UT on and off every week or so until the other day. Still pissed off just thinking about it, ugh.
Thanks for making this video, you did an awesome job and more people need to be aware of this stuff. Hard years for us Unreal fans. With Epic spitting right in our faces and whatnot.
i had all the games on gog but they are no longer avalible so i have to sail the seven seas to get them back as my pc does'nt have an optical disc drive
I hope there is dude that downloaded open source of ut4.
You are NOT alone!
I've loved Unreal Tournament ever since I was a kid! A shame to see Epic never finish UT4 and now not even let people buy previous UT versions! Such a shame!
because the mainstream prefers shit like fortnite 😣
I honestly wonder if we will even see a new quake.. Maybe a new single player quake, but I have my doubts for a QC 2 tbh 🙁
well, i was 14 when i played the then newly released unreal tournament and it is to this day my favorite shooter of all time with elements you dont find anywhere else. The gory deaths, the quick respawn into action, the really fast reflexes, the powerups, and man, the weapons are mostly still unique. While sure it has its problems, i mean its more than 2 decades old....it still did so much right. The soundtrack as example heck it even has better story than many modern shooters....
Unreal gold is one only few experiences that made me really intrigued by a game's world and UT refined the mechanics in such a good way that i was hooked for years, though my favorite one will always be 2K4. its really devastating how epic games just shuts these games down without any kind of alternative. Cant believe this is how they treat one of their genre defining series. Really hope UT4UU can save ut4 it really deserves it
I was the main admin of the UT4 community Discord of Spain, we used to have a few hundreds of player players hanging around, we also shared clips of our plays, and made "community videofrags" showing some of our clips, it was great. It was very sad to see the community fading away because of the lack of support for the game.
Epic could open source the code of UT4 and let the community keep working on it, it would be a great opportunity for us to finish what they started.
I'm glad Unreal/Tournament 99 won't get hit bad. You can add MasterServers after they shutdown theirs. I don't know about UT2K4 or UT2K3 though, in the forums, but I think there's a way around.
I've never played UT4, to just kill like that. Unbelievable. Remember when Mark Rein said "We can't imagine not making an Unreal Tournament game"? How ironic.
Who decided to make unreal 3 the only playable version instead of 4? Crazy.
Thank God I have hard copies of UT99, UT 2003, UT 2004, UT 3 and other games I love.
Unreal Engine with no Unreal lol... :/
UT2004 was iconic, never forget.
very sad, its not about the games anymore, the memories they create, just all about money , sad day
2:04 - beautiful scenery!
I remember discovering UT4 5 years ago... and I can't believe they're taking it from us.
I don't know what to say... Its like childhood memories are torn to shreds now.
Games preservation as a whole is just an issue that has become extremely widespread and it seems like the gaming community is reticent to protest the fact that 90% of live services today will be no longer playable.
It’s all as intended. Delete the old to re-create the same with more abuseable use of power for a new generation none the wiser.
Games are increasingly getting ruined by Ceo-s. A Wall Street type lizard race who never played a single game. Same goes for everything. A future. Idiocracy
Unreal games were part of my life since I was 8 years old, and now I'm 32. Knowing that this franchise will be dead officially it feels like one of the organs in my body no longer functions, it hurts so much. There was enormous amount of work from the community has been done, thousands of maps, hundreds of mods, and dozens of gameplay modes. I doubt if any other game can be proud of its community like unreal franchise. Thanks to every single person who has been involved in any kind of modding all over these years, you made unreal tournament games part of my life. Thanks to fantastic bot support, I made over 500 different and unique bots with their own skills and RPG XP level, these are like virtual pets in different universe. Epic games once was one of the favourite companies all over gamers around the world but now they become from Epic Games to Epic Fail. Removing from the market completely saying because it lacks multiplayer is complete nonsense because you can still play the game offline with one of the best bots and hundreds of mods. Whatever the reasons it is unforgivable how they treated unreal tournament franchises in general.
So sad :'( UT2004 is my favorite first person shooter and will be
Wtf i am glad I have Unreal and UT on my gog library . Those are my childhood .
One of my favourite franchises. I can't believe they're doing this. I hate companies nowadays.
God this made me cry a bit. I hate what Epic did here. Unreal Tournament and the Unreal series deserved so much better...
Unreal Tournament is what got me into video games, back in the early 2000s when I was a youngin. I have very fond memories of these games. It's a shame they fell off so hard.
UT4 was so much fun, it's such a shame Epic dropped it. You would think with all their Fortnite money they could easily fund the small dev team that was working on UT4. Its a slap in the face to all the fans that have been following the series and epic for 20 plus years.
Thank god UT4UU picked it up.
Every sentence you utter makes my heart sink deeper.
I'm a big fan of UT2004 and UT4, and obviously everybody loves UT99, but the game that is the most special to me is UT3. I guess the silver lining is that UT3 will come back as UT3X, but I will REALLY miss the UT4 alpha if Epic makes it impossible to play.
I am also one of the few who likes UT3 (2nd favorite after UT99). Mainly because it had the best weapon balance in my opinion, at least among the one's I played. Never got the chance to play UT4. Will definitely check it out
That's shocking! 😲
Thank you for bringing attention to it!
Hell, that's crushing to hear! Some exec up the ladder has probably decided that they need to cull everything old, so the "new audience" wouldn't get distracted - and that they might be able to save a few bucks per year by "optimising costs". Considering how much the world has become digital in the past couple of decades, and how much of that world was shaped by games, this is akin to destroying cultural artefacts...
Well said. The ignorance and cynicism of those companies is hard to swallow. We should do everything we can to fight these things. There should be laws that prevent this. I hope that the community will find a way to preserve the Unreal legacy.
Epic wishes you Merry Christmas and a very happy new year!
Somebody tell Ross from Accursed farms to cover this as well
I played Unreal single player when it first released, still early in high school and fiddling with rigs, back when Voodoo was both a graphics card and a (reasonably) fresh track from Prodigy. 10 years after that in Uni, regardless of what flashy CoD titles were floating around, proficiency in UT 99 was maybe second only to Brood War as the gold standard of your ability with Keyboard and mouse. I guess like a lot of people in that demographic life got in the way since, and I was unaware of continuing projects. Hearing those tunes again in context of your video is ripping my heart up, what a miserable conclusion to such a critical facet of gaming history. A bizarre decision, akin to Nintendo announcing it would no longer sell Zelda titles.
All epic needs to do to redeem themselves is RELEASING THE SOURCE CODE FOR THE OLDER GAMES AS TIM HAD SAID THEY INTENDED TO, AFTER THEY GOT RID OF THIRD PARTY APIs in the games.
Grew up with this series on the original xbox with Unreal Championship. Has always been a favourite and since then, this series has been my standard for what a multiplayer focused game should be. UT4 is easily my favourite in the series, I find myself enjoying just about every weapon the game has. where as previous entries there are weapons that I don't enjoy as much. The wallrunning, sliding and easier dodging I also find add some enjoyment to the game, since the challenge isn't in using the mechanics since they are all easy to do, but rather the challenge is mastering them to fluidly maneuver the maps. It's the only game in the series where I care to get better at movement and it's also the only one where I've played around in it's map editor. Haven't made a map yet, but I still plan on recreating my favourite map from ut2004.
It's sad to see this series get treated so terribly. I understand not wanting to foot the bill for online services, especially since these games have offline bots that are pretty fun to play with imo. But it's horrible to completely kill the games entirely, preventing others from appreciating the hard work the games had put into them including the original Unreal which I finished recently and loved. I'm at least glad that UT3 will still have some support since I do like the game. But I can't help but feel ticked off at the fact that the only game being preserved is the one the fans like the least. Like they are specifically trying to anger ut fans.
Part of me hopes this somewhat brings a wave of players to Toxikk. It's a good spiritual successor to UT made by a smaller company and I believe that it does deserve some love.
Great video, its a shame that I've discovered you through such circumstances, but I wish you luck in the future games you work on.
I too thoroughly enjoyed ut4. I was addicted to it for a few months at a time it had a sizable amount of players. Loved memorizing the levels getting into that flow state dominating the lobby many games in a row. Definitely an unforgettable moment in gaming for me as an arena shooter addict
Did I just find an underrated youtuber? Ty youtube recommendations. Good video!
Ut99 can continue because of the community's created its own masterservers allready a couple years ago.
Excellent and heartfelt video. Props.
Truly a phenomenal series. Epic seems to be going down the Valve route of becoming a platform/store rather than a games studio - Hopefully someone will pick up the mantle and re-create this franchise in their own way.
UT2K4 is one of the best games ever. Made a retrospective on it my 2nd channel and seeing the love and nostalgia for this franchise after so many years is proof that there is a community out there hungry for more Unreal.
What sucks is that if Epic marketed and developed UT4 like they did Fortnite it would have a pretty good shot at becoming a success. Pretty saddening that they feel the need to blacklist the other UT games for no reason
The amount of arena shooters that have been made and have failed says otherwise. Unfortunately it just isn't a very popular genre these days.
@Daedric Zweihander +15 Mocking people for liking other things just makes you look bitter and out of touch.
UT should never die just like Quake. This was the title that made Epic ffs, it's sad they treat it like a trivial thing. When UT 99 came out I didn't have a pc to run the game, I was playing PS at the time. My friend invited me to his house, he just got himself a nice new pc with a nice crt samsung flat monitor XD. He told me " come over I have to show you something", he runs UT on the pc and proceeds to show me the carnage XD. Needless to say my jaw was on the floor, I was so hyped up I booted him off the chair and said "my turn" lol. I was hooked, everything around me was white noise, I was IN THE GAME, XD. The announcer, the gore bits, the gun sounds, movement, and I was just playing against the bots, rofl. I had a blast, I was there for hours, and came back every chance I could. I ended up becoming the best UT player in our group of friends, we faced each other during our private LAN's. We had periods when I would just leave my PC at my friend's house, and we would play duels every day XD.
I remember every iteration of this game, they all left me with memories and fun times, it's sad to see they're shutting it down. I know Fartnite is a big deal, but for the life of me how's scrolling your mouse wheel to build bs in FArtnite trump dodging, sliding, wall dodging, shooting at the same time in a nice arena.
@Nick Burns I'm happy that you found UT and that it drove you to make content, and that led to more opportunities in doing something you love.
always loved Unreal, decided to speedrun Unreal a while back and uncovered a truly deep and satisfying speedrun. If you ever get the chance, watch the current world record in both categories, they are very optimized. utilizing plenty of boost and good mechanics
I am truly devastated I’m 32 years old started on UT99 when I was only 9 years old . This is unforgivable and i just hope that team keep ut4 alive. To kill off a franchise that gave them there name is ludicrous shame on them. Scamming little kids on Fortnite. Money money money that’s all they care about. F#ck the fans
5:03 yep
Having played and enjoyed the UT series since '99, all of this is soul-crushing to hear.
I have never spent more time in any other franchise. Has to be over 10k hours at minimum. Been playing pretty consistently since 2003. With all their money, they just could not spread any love to the franchise that first brought them to prominence. Goodbye Unreal.