Epic has just closed some doors, but it can open a very attractive window indeed. Today it seems to have accidentally announced a new one totally free version of the excellent Unreal Tournament 3 that you can crossplay with friends via Steam, the Epic Games Store and even GOG (via Wario64).
It is called Unreal Tournament 3Xand according its Steam page, there’s no catch — “No microtransactions and no strings attached. This is the full-featured, award-winning first-person shooter you fell in love with…all for free.”
And, assuming the list is correct, the game still features all of the primary modes, including the single-player campaign from Unreal Tournament 3 black and the Greed and Betrayal game types originally introduced in the 2009 Titan Pack expansion.
We’re pretty sure this is all legit because you can see in SteamDB that these changes have been rolled out just hours ago – replace the name, full description and assets with the previous ones Unreal Tournament 3 black with the one you see above.
Another reason I suspect it’s legit: Epic wouldn’t confirm or deny each of this when we asked about it. The company wouldn’t tell us if it’s a mistake, a rudimentary project, or give some other possible reason why the page was changed so heavily (like, say, hacking the Steam developer account or something).
Do you want to feel old? Last month it was the 15th anniversary of this game
Also note that while the release date is still confusingly “November 19, 2007”, SteamDB shows that this is simply the original release date on the Windows platform, period. Technically the game only came to Steam in 2009, but has since shown the 2007 release date. You can also view the previous one Unreal Tournament 3 black list from Steam through the wayback machineif you are curious.
There doesn’t seem to be a listing for the new one UT3X on GOG or the Epic Games Store so far – or any Unreal games on the Epic Games Store. But we expect them to appear after Epic makes this game announcement official. And hopefully a release date.
Earlier today, Epic announced that it will be shutting down servers for six other Unreal games, including UT3, UT2004, UT2003and the original UT, among other titles. While I wouldn’t say it UT3 was necessarily the best – movement in 2004 and the original both have their own frantic flavors that I enjoy – I think I’ll be quite pleased with this outcome. After all, I can always go back and play the others over LAN.
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