I've always said that there are four classic games that are real masterpieces and will never be bested:

1) Archon
2) Murder on the Zinderneuf
3) Monster Rancher (Mail Order Monsters held this place until Monster Rancher came out, and well... it was bested)
4) M.U.L.E.

That puts you guys in great company. Thanks for bringing it back.

I was happy to find a version of M.U.L.E. actually being developed with the help of the original designers, and really exited to get all my friends together who used to play and try out the new version. So I was disappointed to find that the game is so focused on online play. It's not that I don't mind the extra step of creating an account for everybody (or even creating multiple accounts myself) but making sure everyone has their own computer is a hassle.

I even thought that a two player option was possible, since I saw the secondary keys on that option screen. I could see the "Join" button adding multiple players in local mode, even if they were all auto selected as the human species.

Oh, well, I'm still happy to see a new version of M.U.L.E. And the graphic update is really cute.