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by suddenclarity 1112 days ago
Even in OSS it's wise to have some people steer the direction. I tried the game about eight years ago but it didn't run well on my laptop. I've tried to keep up somewhat but lost interest when it felt like they just added new features instead of polishing and improving core functionality.

I had a similar feeling with Black Mesa. At a certain point, it feels like they've worked so long on the project that they lost the original selling point. At what stage does it make more sense to just remake the game in the latest UE than offering a 20 year old game that still isn't close to being released.

I don't want to talk down on the project but it's a question I think about every time I see these types of products.
3 comments
saiya-jin 1112 days ago
Not sure what exactly you meant, but Black mesa was mighty playable and 100% stable when it was released as full. Maybe stay away from half-working early builds of these kind of games, IMHO its not worth the frustration just because of some nostalgia.

Now if somebody would port first Deux ex into Unreal 5.2 engine that would get me interested (but still, keep your emotions in check and play when its ready, otherwise just a recipe for regrets)

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wsgeorge 1112 days ago
Fair point. On my part, I like to think of them as "ever-green" projects. So they're never "done", they just keep evolving at whatever rate the community can manage, and people check out and check in once in a while to see where it's at.

> I tried the game about eight years ago but it didn't run well on my laptop

Care to try it now? I've been playing Alpha 26 for a few weeks, and I actually love it.

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BlueTemplar 1109 days ago
It has been released 13 years ago.

Unreal Engine isn't an option if open sourcing it again was a goal and/or a means to attract new developers after the death of half of the previous core team.

Old engine foundations doesn't necessarily mean a bad thing : for instance the Spring engine was started in the late 90s, released in 2005, and not only is still used today, the fork of it that is even more successful (and with the fanciest looking games, and the best performance) today, Recoil, is the one that decided to stick with legacy OpenGL3 features rather than radically change to better fit with how OpenGL4 does things(?), in order to not break games !

https://youtube.com/watch?v=GEQmm4UhLAg

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