XMP Update

[Prophetus]

As we all know, our friends at Legend Entertainment, creators of such Unreal Engine titles as Unreal: Return to Na Pali, Wheel of Time, Unreal 2 and most recently XMP have been closed down by Atari. I'm not sure what Atari plans to do with continuing support for XMP, but the LE team and us Beta testers will push out one last official patch.

The patch will be released with the updated XMP Community Bonus Pack. The pack will provide new maps and the patch does fix several bugs and add new features. Stay tuned to BeyondUnreal for the release.

Update: Glen Dahlgren has posted on ShackNews confirming the sad news.

We're very sad to see this happen too. It was a bit of a surprise to all of us. Legend had a lot of talented people, and it's a damn shame that we won't be together to make our next game.

I'm glad to see that people remember our roots. I designed (or co-designed) Gateway I & II and Death Gate long before Wheel of Time and Unreal II, and I've got a fond place in my heart for the old adventures.

Thanks for the support.

 

[MachDelta]

Its not perfect... couple of things still unfixed, a few things that coulda been added... but all in all, I think its a pretty damned good last-hurrah for Legend. You guys are gonna love it.





(Especially Suicide Raptors! OMFG, they're like PH33R TEH CUT3 ONES!!!! )

 

[Rob0tic]

Which new features?

 

[TheCatcher]

One last "Official Patch". Does that imply that Atari has possibly left some room open for "unofficial patches"? Or does the Legend Employee's access to the Unreal Engine and the U2XMP code die with Legend?

After Sierra and Tribes 2, I really didn't expect to see this again.

This sort of makes me wonder if Jack Tramiel is running Atari again? It also makes me question if buying Atari software is a good idea? "Buy our products, so we can leave you high and dry!"

 

[PRG]

Last night,Scott from Legend left this(and just anout everything) rather vague on IRC then we all tried out the latest(last?) patch on a beta server. The latest beta patch was rushed out the backdoor me thinks. =( Like Mach said the patch is not exactly perfect, but it's got a lot of improvements. It makes me sick to see all this happen after the untold hours I spent beta'ing the game. Such a great game, arguably the best multiplayer FPS ever made, now has zero support.

 

[TMPVenom]

WTF

I mean I have played online fps games for more years than I care to remember and this is by far the best.

Dont the software companies know when they on to a good thing?????

It has only been out what 2 months?

Most UT players dont even know it exists and now that word is spreadin through the comunity of this new solid game they gonna pull the plug?

I know of 30 in the last 2 days that have only just heard of it and loads of times in chat rooms peeps are saying what the hell is xmp?

They on a loser if they shut it down. There is a comunity out there baying for a good team based game and xmp fits the bill?

so Why leave it? Legends did a rock solid job and atari shafted them!

As usual!

No friggin wonder Atari always in diar straights. FFS pay attention to your customers. We the consumer PAY you! so give us what we want.

Ut has been here 5 years and there are still peeps playing it and new ones coming every day but the older guys are looking for that little bit of somthing that was left for UT2k3 and looks like wont be in ut2k4 so come on do somthing about it :-(

its a sad day to see a big company that knows nothing about gamers (prob never even played the damn thing ) shut it down...

Bah If ya wanna know what the gamers want then play it hehehe you get hooked

 

[JaFO]

Looks like all the comments about how much Unreal 2 sucked finally hit home ... too bad it happened after XMP started to revive the game for those that initially hated it.

Then again ... XMP would have become a definite to the UT-series had it been allowed to achieve it's ultimate goal.
I guess Atari didn't want that to happen so they just killed it.

 

[SirYawnalot]

Hopefully someone quick on the uptake will pick up some of Legend's employees and negotiate with Atari to take on an official capacity for supporting XMP (and perhaps making expansion packs for U2).

 

[EXE-973]

Funny how the Atari site is still pimping a game they have no real support for now

 

[Rooster]

I'm not surprised given how much Unreal II and XMP sucks.

It feels & plays like a $5 bargain basement game. Totally undeserving of the Unreal title.

Legend is dead. Long live Epic.

 

[Recoil812]

wow. Cant say I'm TOO surprised, what with Unreal 2 being a sucky game and the 'you're only as good as your last game' motto of the industry.

Thanks to those at Legend that continued to work and gave us XMP.

Best of luck to everyone.

 

[MachDelta]

I'm not surprised given how much Unreal II and XMP sucks.

It feels & plays like a $5 bargain basement game. Totally undeserving of the Unreal title.

Legend is dead. Long live Epic.

Well thats a nice bit of flame bait.

 

[MÆST]

I'm not surprised given how much Unreal II and XMP sucks.

It feels & plays like a $5 bargain basement game. Totally undeserving of the Unreal title.

Legend is dead. Long live Epic.

And UT 2003 is deserving of the title I'll take.

 

[TossMonkey]

I'm not surprised given how much Unreal II and XMP sucks.

It feels & plays like a $5 bargain basement game. Totally undeserving of the Unreal title.

Legend is dead. Long live Epic.

Unreal 2's downfall was that it was far too short and XMP was too late to make a difference. XMP though is better than UT2003 in terms of raw gameplay, it has strategy, graphics, gameplay... dunno what you've been playing but it ain't XMP.

Epic sucks, they destroyed UT2003 after they took it from DE's hands. Ask anybody who has played the pre-demo alpha.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

Epic sucks, they destroyed UT2003 after they took it from DE's hands. Ask anybody who has played the pre-demo alpha.

ask anyone who has played UC?

They didn't ruin it they just didn't fix it enough.

 

[atropos]

DE ruined UT2003 and there wasn't enough time for Epic to resolve all the probs and bugs that DE made.

Anyway, I love XMP, and I want for ex-Legend employees to know that they've made one of the best MP-games ever, and that they have made a difference in the gaming industry.

 

[Rooster]

Actually no, it wasn't flame bait.

The game actually is horrible.

It doesn't flow, it has nothing over UT2003.. UT2003 has the FEEL of a game. XMP feels like crap, similar to DOOM. (Not Doom2, not Quake, but feels like DOOM).

 

[Rooster]

And UT 2003 is deserving of the title I'll take.

Actually yes.

I'm not saying the defaults are the best settings... but at least it feels like a real game made by a real studio.

 

[TWD]

Sorry but epic screwed up the game de screwed up the game blah blah blah it's all BS.

Sit back and look at the bigger picture here. Look at all the things that have happened:
First epic takes over 2003 at the final stages of development.
Epic has changed publishers after 2004 they won't be with atari.
Several comments that there are many reasons 2003 failed and a lot of them are ones the public knows thing about.
Future projects epic is looking at.
And now legend being dropped.

Piece it all together. I think that epic completely knows what it's doing, and that in the end all the things that are happening are happening for the best. They can see the big picture and right now all we're seeing is ut2003 failing and making all these excuses as to why. I would bet that closing down legened was the plan from the very start. It may well be that XMP was doomed to fail from the start. I think legend knew this, and looking back at how legened has handled it's self in the past while it makes perfect sense to me.

 

[RegularX]

It doesn't flow, it has nothing over UT2003.. UT2003 has the FEEL of a game. XMP feels like crap, similar to DOOM. (Not Doom2, not Quake, but feels like DOOM).

That quote makes me think that you've either not played much XMP or much DooM.