If you can see this, boils and gargolyes, you are wondering why I've secceeded into that OTHER next-gen GPLFPS. Simple. You're not gonna like the ending, though, Nexuiz veterans.
Let's start with the basics, will we?
Nexuiz was originally developed by Lee Vermeulen and Forest 'LordHavoc' Hale, who started Alientrap Software in the summer of 2002. The goal of the project was to create a high quality first person shooter that could be played freely across all platforms in one package: PC, Mac, and Linux. The engine that powered Nexuiz was Forest Hale's Darkplaces engine.
The first version of the game was released in 2005. Development continued with many online contributors over the years, with version 2.5 released in October of 2009. Since its release it has been downloaded over 5 million times, and is included with many Linux distributions.
In mid-2010, it was announced that a new XBLA, PSN, and Steam downloadable version of Nexuiz would be done from the ground up by IllFonic using Crytek's highly anticipated CryENGINE3 game engine.
That's where everything blew out of proportion... and out of the airlock, naturally, for Nexuiz players.
In short: everything was fun and games of death when Alientrap created this gem of a freeware FPS we called Nexuiz out of the modified Quake DP engine... until that team of showoffs named IllFonic showed up and announced the console version powered by CryENGINE3 like they own the game or sumfin'.
*PFFT* Least they were so kind to put the classic Nexuiz up for download.
While I appreciate the Victorian-style designs - after all, it's not "The Beauty of Brutality" for nothing - this did not bode well for we freeware gamers and Nexuiz players. It was an outrage - a bleedin', fraggin' OUTRAGE! So great was this outrage, we would make AT wish they NEVER did that!
So sad, and yet so true, that all this is happening live before all our faces.
That's where the fork comes into play.
That's where Xonotic comes in.
Some of us were smart enough to fork early in March 2010 and continued where Nexuiz left off. The classic deathmatch you knew and loved in DooM, Quake, Painkiller, Serious Sam and other classics with next-gen effects known in Halo, F.E.A.R., Crysis and so on... only this bird's focus is on the community - power to the people, you might dare say.
And what did I do? Easy.
A hijacked game with its absentee founder and the hijackers themselves has no future at all as it stands, so I promptly blew this old deathmatch joint for another.
Don't believe me? Take a stroll here and you'll see what I mean.
Of course, I had to pay respects to the original AT freeware FPS Nexuiz (by playing some deathmatch games, of course) before moving on to the future that is Xonotic, the community-powered Phoenix of GPLFPS. You too can be part of the team, but heads up - some of the community can be... crude and crass.
Hey, isn't democracy that way?
Lose not hope, X-Commies, for this open source remake of the real deal uses elements from the X-COM series you all knew and loved - but wait, there's more - such as Multiplayer Support, something that, even in our best dreams in '93, we cannot imagine pulling off. Plus, for everything old you have, you need to get something new for a change - take new weaponsets for instance. From UFO 2000 to Galactic, there will be more than enough Human and Alien firearms for your soldiers to get their hands on and start blastin' away. Trust me - X-COM, as you know it, has gone open source to all of us.