Some big news was announced a couple days ago in the land of video games. The former PC/PS3 exclusive Unreal Tournament 2007 is now headed to the Xbox 360 and has been renamed, Unreal Tournament 3. Wait, what? Now, it’s been a while since I’ve been in school so my math skills are a little hazy, but doesn’t 3+1=4? I’ve been a fan of the UT series since it’s debut and have all current releases sitting next to me as I type this. All 3 of them – Unreal Tournament, Unreal Tournament 2003 and Unreal Tournament 2004. Notice, there’s no Unreal Tournament 2 in that list and there’s also 3 of them.
Epic VP Mark Rein explains the decision to change the name to UT3 – “The new name is to reflect the fact that this game is the next generation of the Unreal series, based on the Unreal Engine 3.” So, it’s because the game is built on Unreal Engine 3? Nope, sorry dude, still doesn’t make sense.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a mis-count like this, though. Remember Battlefield 2? Yeah, it came after Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield Vietnam. I’m pretty sure there’s been another instance of this sort of unexplainable numbering, but I can’t put my finger on it at the moment.
In any case, I’m sure I will love UT3 and am really happy to see it coming to the Xbox 360. I’m sure in time, I’ll get over the stupid name. 
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10 people have had something to contribute so far.
Well, it is a bit like GTa3 and Vice City and San Andreas, and soon GTa4… they’re going on the game engine. The only real difference between the ‘3′ series was the storylines, cities and tweaks. I suppose it’s the same with Battlefield.
Matt, I think the argument could be made that UT2k3 should have been UT2, and UT2k4 should have been UT2.5. Let’s just hope UT4 doesn’t get renamed to UT2K10!
What’s not to understand? UT2003 and 2004 are essentially the same game, albeit with updated maps and game modes, and the introduction of vehicles in the latter. In fact, it was released as a “stand alone expansion pack”, and owners of 2003 were given $10 off when they traded in. I remember that because I was pissed that I was only getting $10 for an obsolete game I paid $50 for.
And they named it UT3 because they finally realized that naming it after the year it’s released was, and is a stupid idea.
@Trovster: Ah, that’s the one I couldn’t think of. Same engine or not, they were stand-alone, full retail games and should count as such. With that logic, that would make Vice City and San Andreas expansions. Which clearly, they’re not.
Battlefield Vietnam was a different engine from BF1942, from what I recall. Still on the BF tip, BF2142 is the same engine as BF2. So does that mean the next in the series is BF3? WTF, seriously.
@Shawn & Zach: I can see that, but again, UT 2004 wasn’t an expansion. It was a full retail game.
All this really illustrates is poor planning on behalf of the developers.
UT 3 makes sense in my ears – as Shawn says UT2k3 should have been UT2 and UT2k4 should have been UT2.5.
The same applies to Battlefield, first comes Battlefield 1942 and then some expansion packs which adds content to it.
Then they decide they need to do something new but rather then doing a completely new version they are just making the existing game a bit nicier – adding some new sort of new gameplay which didn’t exist in the original game or trimming the graphics engine or something. It’s far too much work to have it be an expansion but it’s still the old game – it’s only half new – therefore it’s the .5 version. It’s like a spin off of a specific version of the game released while the work is being done on the next generation.
It’s the same with UT as with Battlefield as with GTA as with Firefox. Kind of weird but mostly logical I think
This is nothing but good news. It’s just one more thing the Xbox 360 can add to it’s ever expanding utility belt. Bring it on.
P.S. Matt, when you gonna answer my emails?
Year of the three!
PSthree
XBOX three60
HALO three
Unreal Engine three
Unreal Tournament three
Matt, I’ve owned all the UT games, trust me, I got my hours out of it, but in essence, they charged full price for a UT2003 update, rather than pump out a ton of new material (enough to constitute an entirely new games, IMHO).
Either way, I’m just like you; I’ll buy UT3, and I’m sure it’ll rock, so in the end, it’s win win for us.
both UT2K3 and UT2K4 were built on the unreal 2 engine. hence the 2.5 sentiment.
@raptue…
lol.