14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that gamers everywhere liked the fact that they could play Unreal Tournament 3 for free during the last weekend. There are reports saying that the number of players (non bots) on the online servers for the first person shooter has gone up by more than 2,000%.
This is great for the people at Epic Games, because since its launch in the fall of November 2007, Unreal Tournament 3 has seen significantly less players online than Unreal Tournament 2004, a game released four years earlier (I personally blame Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and its blasted classes for online matches).
Since all that went so well and because sales of the videogame probably shot up, helped by the price reduction, to about 12%, of the price charged by Steam, Epic and Valve have decided to allow players to try Unreal Tournament 3 for free for another weekend. So, dust off those FPS skills and take a look at the game which, at one point, was more important for Epic Games than the Gears of War franchise. The Steam sales for UT3 have also been extended until March 22, so you can pick up the game on the cheap.
And don't forget that Unreal Tournament 3 has recently received a new content pack, called the Titan Pack. It adds two entirely fresh game modes, the Betrayal one being especially nice; there are also new multiplayer maps, character models and mutators to spice up the game. So, there are quite a lot of reasons to try the game.
Will the sale, combined with the free play time, help lead to a revival of Unreal Tournament 3? Probably not. After all, you can always return to your favorite online shooter after playing the free weekend or go and play Quake Live, if you like something quick and free.