Unreal Tournament 3(UT3) is a first-person shooter and online multiplayer video game by Epic Games, and is the latest installment of the Unreal series. It is published by Midway Games, and was released for Microsoft Windows on November 19, 2007,PlayStation 3 on December 11, 2007, and Xbox 360 on July 3, 2008. The Linux and Mac OS X versions of the game were planned to be released as downloadable installers that work with the retail disc. Ryan C. Gordon has uploaded screenshots of the game, dating from September 2008, running on both platforms. On May 22, 2009, Ryan stated that the UT3 port for Linux was still in process. On December 16, 2010, Steve Polge announced that the Linux port would never be released, making it the first Unreal Tournament game not to be released on Linux. Although there is no official version for Linux, the Windows version can run on Linux through Wine.
Unreal Tournament 3 is the fourth game in the Unreal Tournamentseries and the eighth Unreal game, but is numbered in terms of the engine it runs on. The original Unreal Tournament uses the first Unreal Engine, while UT2003 and UT2004 use Unreal Engine 2. Since 2004 incorporates all of the content from 2003, they are regarded as part of the same generation.UT3 is the third generation, as it runs on Unreal Engine 3, and does not reuse any content. In March 2008, Midway announced that UT3 had sold over a million copies worldwide.
Game modes
Similar to the prior entries of the series, the game is primarily an online multiplayer title offering several game modes, including large-scale Warfare, Capture-the-Flag, and Death match. It also includes an extensive offline single-player game with an in-depth story, beginning with a simple tournament ladder and including team members with unique personalities. The following game modes are included:
- Deathmatch
- Team Deathmatch
- Capture the flag
- Duel – A one versus one game mode. It uses a queuing system: the winner stays, and the loser goes back to the end of the queue. A typical match lasts fifteen minutes with the winner being the player with most kills.
- Warfare – A mix of Onslaught and Assault game modes. While basic game rules are equal to those of Onslaught, Warfare adds countdown nodes (which, after being captured and defended for a certain period of time, create a vehicle or trigger an event helpful to the capturing team) as well as the orb, which can be used to instantly capture and defend nodes.
- Vehicle Capture the Flag – Capture the Flag, with vehicles as part of the map; this game mode is distinct from the standard Capture the Flag mode. Also, players are given a hoverboard rather than a translocator.
- Betrayal – This game type places freelance players on teams, and when the members of each team kill enemies, the pot for that team grows. Anybody on a team with a pot can betray the rest of the team by shooting them, thus taking the pot, but they must defend themselves from the betrayed teammates for 30 seconds after that, or the teammates receive extra points.
- Greed – Greed is a game that (like the UT2004 mod of the same name) focuses on collecting skulls dropped from dead players and capturing them in the opposing team's base. For Greed, the game uses all Capture the Flag and Vehicle Capture the Flag maps.
Modes not returning from the prior Unreal Tournament games include Invasion, Mutant (having been later on partially replaced by the Titan mutator in the UT3 Titan Pack), Onslaught (replaced by Warfare), Bombing Run, Last Man Standing, Domination, Double Domination, and Assault; Assault was removed from the game during production.
[edit]Vehicles
In this installment of Unreal Tournament, the vehicles are split into two factions, the Axon vehicles and Necris vehicles. The Axon vehicles are the same vehicles from UT2004, but several have significant game play changes. In addition, on vehicle maps every player is equipped with a personal hover board, a skateboard-like device that allows players to quickly traverse large maps and grapple onto other team-mates' vehicles. The hover board is very vulnerable to attack, and any hit will knock the player off the board and disable him or her for several seconds, leaving the player exposed and vulnerable. The player cannot use any weapons while on the board.
Titan Pack (Modification)
On March 5, 2009, a free update called the Titan Pack was released for the PC; the PS3 version of the pack was released on March 19, 2009.
The pack includes five maps and two characters that were formerly exclusive to the Xbox 360 version, along with eleven brand new maps, two new game modes ("Greed" and "Betrayal"), and the Titan Mutator. The Titan Mutator causes a player to grow in size as they do better, while carrying alternative weapons and power ups. The expansion also includes a new power up, a new vehicle, two new deployables, and the addition of stinger turrets. A new patch was also released in conjunction with the Titan Pack, which allowed for various AI improvements (especially in vehicle modes), networking performance upgrades and added support for Steam Achievements (PC) and Trophies (PS3). It also adds a two player split screen mode (formerly exclusive to the 360 version) and mod browsing for the PS3 version.
The Black Edition is a complete Unreal Tournament III package -- included is the complete UT3 (with patch 2.0) as well as the Titan Pack. The Titan Pack gives players a substantial amount of enhanced features and new content, including many original environments, new gametypes, the namesake Titan mutator, powerful deployables and weapons, new characters, and the Stealthbender vehicle.This is a version released only for the Windows platforms.