Unreally Back In Black

Just when you thought you were not going to have anything good to hold you over until the news from E3 starts rolling out next week, Epic Games and Steam hook us all up. Hook us up with free play weekend for Unreal Tournament Black. Not just a free play weekend, but a free play four day weekend, for those who have yet to actually pick up this title. Also so you don't miss out on any of the free time at all, you can start loading the game right now so when the clock strikes midnight you can hop in and go to town enjoying this game. Enjoy it you will. No doubt in that. Unless you are blind and deaf. Then maybe not so much.

Oh, and for you people, like me, who own a retail copy already, you are not totally ass out on this either. You can now "Activate the product on Steam," thus allowing for your copy to be linked up like all the other Steam games you have. That way you won't miss out on the fun free add-on content that will most likely be out in the future. Or to get the new 2.1 patch and Titan Pack if you haven't already. Also so you can start hunting for the 50+ Steamworks Achievements that are packaged into Unreal Tournament Black. I guess, think of it as a free upgrade to the new retail version that the weekend will let people try out. Only difference is that it won't go away or force you to pay once Sunday is past.

On another fun note for the whole Unreal thing, Epic has posted links to some of the really cool mods, levels, and all other kinds of content being produced for their Make Something Unreal "contest". Yes that is still going on. They have just entered judging of Phase 3 of the contest. Check them out and see who might be pulling down $1 million as Phase 4 gets underway.

Links are in the official release below. Also a few images from the new content.

Unreal Tournament 3 Black Gets Free Steam Weekend, Patch 2.1, and All New Content with Phase 3 of Mod Contest

Free Steam Weekend Begins Thursday, May 28
Preload Starts Now!

CARY, N.C. (May 26, 2009) – Epic Games, Inc. is giving players more reasons than ever to jump online and check out Unreal Tournament 3 Black. This Thursday, May 28, will commence a long weekend in which anyone can log onto Valve's Steam digital distribution service (www.steamgames.com), download Unreal Tournament 3 Black and play the game through the weekend free of charge. Preload for the follow-up Free Weekend begins today.

During the previous Free Weekend of Unreal Tournament 3 Black on Steam, the game claimed the number one spot on the bestseller list, and simultaneous player numbers jumped by more than 2000%.

Unreal Tournament 3 together with the free Titan Pack constitutes Unreal Tournament 3 Black. The Titan Pack is a massive bonus pack with loads of enhancements and new content including environments, the Titan mutator, the Greed and Betrayal gametypes, the Stealthbender vehicle, weapons, deployables, characters and more. Unreal Tournament 3 Black also includes over 50 Steamworks Achievements.

Players who purchased Unreal Tournament 3 at retail can enter their retail key by using the "Activate a product on Steam" feature in the Steam client, and Steam will automatically update them to Unreal Tournament 3 Black for free.

Unreal Tournament 3 Black now also includes the recently released Patch 2.1 with even more fixes and upgrades such as award progress when using custom maps and characters, mod support enhancements, various gameplay tweaks and bug fixes, and additional user interface improvements.

In addition to Epic's internal efforts to support Unreal Tournament 3, mod authors all over the world have created new levels, characters, weapons, vehicles and total conversions for the game as part of the $1 Million Intel Make Something Unreal Contest (www.makesomethingunreal.com). Phase 3 of the competition just closed, and the judging process has begun. A few notable entries so far include:

And there's much, much more available at www.makesomethingunreal.com/phase3.aspx.

To download Unreal Tournament 3 Black, visit http://store.steampowered.com/app/13210.