Best way to enjoy old Unreal games after Epic pulled them down Created 11 months ago2023-04-24 01:45:45 UTC by MegaBrutal

I really liked Unreal Tournament games (especially 1999) when I was a schoolkid (heck, I remember the days when UT2003 was new). I must admit, I never saw such artistic value in them like in Half-Life, but still they have good vibes and left an impact. Also I've never played Unreal, the single player campaign, but it was on my bucket list (maybe it even gives some backstory to UT, if there's any). Not so long ago I noticed they are on Steam and wishlisted them to buy them later. However, in recent days I noticed that they are not available anymore. I searched a little and found out that they were pulled down by Epic Games and unlikely that they'll ever come back. (Also it creates a very sad precedent for me – can this ever happen to Half-Life too?)

So I ask those who are into these games and follow the news much better than I did.

• How can I still get these games?
• How do I still play them online?
• Should I run a server to help UT be alive?
• Is there a master server so other players can find my server in a server list?

Yeah, I can use web search, but there is too much info to filter, most of the guides were possibly written at the time when Epic still supported these games. That's why I ask someone who is following the news and possibly runs a server and were probably doing this for decades. I'm also very aware that it's a HL forum, still it seems so friendly that I give it a shot here before seeking out dedicated UT communities.

You can always get these games, there are many ways. I don't know much about Unreal, but I downloaded a random version of UT2004 like a decade ago, and it's multiplayer just works to this day. Not that I play it much, cause it kind of sucks.

You can find games in their original form, as they were originally released. You can also find them in versions suitable for playing online, and anything in between. Just look for it. Try redump.org and archive.org

How can HL be delisted? Why would Valve pull its flagship title from its own distribution platform? Unreal games are gone because Epic's pissy due to their so called "platform war" with Valve. They don't want the games sold on their competitor's digital storefront.

As for getting them, just search around on the net. GoG still sells them if I recall correctly. Or you can find different ways to get them, you know, they're ancient games after all.

How can HL be delisted? Why would Valve pull its flagship title from its own distribution platform? Unreal games are gone because Epic's pissy due to their so called "platform war" with Valve. They don't want the games sold on their competitor's digital storefront.

In their defence, Unreal was Epic's flagship series and that's been pulled from all digital store fronts (including their own) as well as other distributors such as GoG. It's highly unlikely that Valve will ever do this since Tencent probably had a hand in Epic's decision, but Fortnite is basically printing astronomical amounts of money for both companies so they can make all the shitty decisions they please sadly.

If the "platform war" idea was true, they wouldn't have pulled anything off of GoG while EGS simultaneously hosts GoG Galaxy.
From what I've been told, old Unreal games got pulled because of a lawsuit against Epic, about in-game child protection because Fortnite was 1) designed to get kids hooked on spending money on the game 2) no (or not enough) parental controls. Someone big sued them over that and they kinda had to comply.

This affected all of Epic's games. Unreal and others, not having any parental controls whatsoever, had to get delisted cuz' Epic just didn't wanna bother adding those to their ancient games. Unreal is gone from GoG, I cannot find it there any more. Seriously.

This likely won't happen to Half-Life, because of the nature of the lawsuit against Epic (it was ultimately about children being encouraged to gamble), and Epic being cheap. Now I know Valve is cheap too, and they've had their fair share of lawsuits before, but something of this kind just ain't happening any time soon.

If it does happen though, we might see Xash being used a lot more, and that's going to be very damn interesting.