Holy cow where did the time go? Epic Games just reminded us that the Unreal Tournament demo--a classic on its own along with the three original Quake Test "demos"--turns a whopping ten years old tomorrow. To celebrate this landmark event in PC gaming history, Epic is bringing back its Unreal Tournament 3 Black weekend on Steam, allowing fans to play the latest Unreal Tournament installment for free starting tomorrow; the preload for the free weekend begins today.
Fans of the original version, the classic Unreal Tournament game that took on id Software's Quake 3 Arena back in 1999, will be available to purchase on Steam for a whopping $1.99. In addition, both Unreal Tournament 3 Black and the Unreal Deal Pack will be locked and loaded on Valve's digital distribution service for 60-percent off the original price until September 27. That means Unreal Tournament 3 Black will cost fans a mere $8!
"Unreal Tournament 3 Black comprises Unreal Tournament 3 together with the free Titan Pack, a massive bonus pack with countless enhancements and new environments, the Titan mutator, the Greed and Betrayal gametypes, the Stealthbender vehicle, weapons, deployables, characters and more," the company said. "Unreal Tournament 3 Black also includes over 50 Steamworks Achievements."
In non-related Steam news, LucasArts uploaded the entire Jedi Knight collection onto Steam, including the original Dark Forces (using 3D Realms' Build engine), Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith, Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, and Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. Fans can purchase the games separately, or together in a $20 digital bundle.
Will Epic ever return to the Unreal franchise with a third installment? "Hey, you never know…one of these days maybe we’ll get around to doing something else cool with the series," an Epic "birdie" told us in an email.