Ah, thought I was missing something.

Well, then it's a win in any case.

... yeah and the old Unreal games are going away from GOG, also for free. Thanks Epic! /sarcasm

I have a feeling they will, yes...

I would probably choose the third option here:
claim it to own it, but probably never actually play it.

I've never actually gotten to play UT3, so I'm actually looking forward to this. Are the bots as dumb when it comes to using vehicles as in UT '04? As far as I recall, the latter's problem was due to the AI having been written for the original UT '03 which at the time didn't feature vehicles at all, so when the '04 version came around the AI just didn't know what to do with them.

Still sucks that everything else Unreal-related is being pulled for dumb reasons. =/
Pssh. The internet has been for porn long before that - besides, Avenue Q predates WoW - and that hasn't really changed since. ;)

It is definitely improved. They are quite capable.

However, there was one big issue with vehicles in general. The turn rates on some of them get bugged on very high frame rates and it becomes basically impossible to steer them. Like you turn at 10% of the intended rate and it also affects bots, leading to them getting stuck regularly in those vehicles as the AI does not account for the altered turn rates. And I don't think this is going to be fixed. It was the most severe on Nemesis, Leviathan, Scorpion and Hellbender.

If I remember, the limit was beteeen 60-100 FPS or something, before it started happening. But without the bug, the bots can drive pretty well. Other than the vehicle issues, I haven't spotted any other bugs stemming from high framerate at 240 FPS. I played mostly deathmatch anyway and had no physics issues or anything. But I don't think anyone is even aware of the vehicle turn rate issue, so the X release probably won't do anything about it.

Oh, and I was also getting tons of stuttering when I tried multiplayer in 240 FPS. The reason I basically haven't touched multiplayer in that game. Probably caused by the FPS being vastly faster that the server tic rate.

I still play UT3 from time to time, but there aren't many players left online. If this gets some more people playing then that will be good. Given how terrible Unreal 2 was, I doubt there is any chance of them making an Unreal 3 that's worth playing.

True, but the WoW version popularized it. Though, I did failed at finding something fitting and equally as popular within the context of "sharing is caring".

Anyway, would love to see some continuation of the Unreal games, besides all these "rehashes".

There was a new Unreal Tournament in the works from 2014, before Epic pulled all devs from it to Fortnite in 2018 and eventually pulled the plug completely.

https://www.epicgames.com/unrealtournament/en-US/#splash

Kind of surprised the page is still even up. But it was an always online only game anyway, so no big loss.

I am afraid that was the last we've seen of the Unreal name for good, other than cannibalizing the series' name for their engine.

EDIT:
Ah, it says on wiki that the pre-alpha servers will be shut down in January next year. That's why the site is still up.
The game's servers will be shut down on January 24, 2023, rendering the game inaccessible.

So if anyone wants to take a peek at the UT 2014 pre-alpha, you have about a month to do so. But you're not missing out on much. Was still pretty barebones and almost exclusively multiplayer only.

I'm glad it's coming (not for myself but others), but if the other Unreal games don't return, I imagine the vast majority of the reviews will be very low. (I guess they might be deleted for being "off topic")

almost 1600 votes - https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/unreal_tournament_3

All the hours I spent playing UT 04 and dealing with those dumb bots, I had never heard that explanation, makes sense.

I'd say that in Assault, the bots are quite decent with vehicles. Generally capable of getting in and driving them towards objectives. It was mostly Onsalught where the most issues were and that mode wasn't even part of the single player.

The difficulty you play at is also a factor. The AI has all capabilities unlocked on Inhuman (where they start bailing out of vehicles if a killing rocket is locked on them). Any lower difficulty removes/limits the bots in some aspect or other. Adept would generally be the "normal" difficulty. Masterful is the last difficulty where the AI can be considered to not be cheating. Godlike gives the bots a 360 degree field of view and no Line of Sight limitations, meaning it always knows exactly where everything is, including you. Below Adept difficulty levels leave a lot to be desired in the bot behavior.

Pretty much this. So much for free UT3. I also wonder what kind of "goodies" will it come bundled with, since it will have a crossplay with epic and steam and since they are axing the oldschool mp master server, it won't be anything transparent.

Epic is releasing the 15 days of Christmas free games happening right now. We are through 7 right now, and we have 8 more to go. Since everything's moving so quick, we're bound to see Unreal 3 X released by December 29th as that is the big release window that lasts until January 5th.

UT3 is the weakest of the series. It doesn't even look as good as the first game or 2004. If you were lucky enough to have bought the those before epic's dick move then just stick with those. They have more out of the box than most games do with all the mods.