Developer: Epic Games

Publisher: Epic Games

Release date: TBA

Price: Free

http://www.unrealtournament.com/blog/

UT is one of the genre’s holy trinity. Even after a decade and a half, we’re still reverentially reminiscing about our favorite arenas and tools of destruction in Epic’s groundbreaking FPS. For me, Unreal Tournament’s greatest achievement is portraying the concept of deathmatch as a blood-spattered spectator sport complete with rising stars, monolithic corporate sponsorships, and officiated leagues.

Epic isn’t done with UT, and it’s coming with shock rifles blazing with a new iteration grounded almost entirely in community input. Instead of opting for a closed development team in a studio, the next UT pulls talent from scores of ambitious modders, level designers, concept artists, and anyone else willing to fire up the Unreal Engine and add their mark. The official website houses plenty of sketches, work-in-progress videos, and milestone updates (highlight: the return of the insane ChaosUT mod) all freely viewable.

That transparency and capitalization on modding’s popularity is a wise move on Epic’s part. The absence of a price tag only bolsters UT’s potency against the Call of Dutys and Counter-Strikes of the gaming world, but I hope to see elements of what made those franchises successful—such as skill-based matchmaking— eventually show up.

If you don’t mind creating a free forum account and fishing for the few match IP addresses currently active, you can play an early alpha build right now.

Play it because: You missed UT’s heyday of sniping on Facing Worlds on dialup; you’ll experience a truly collaborative work between developer and community; you’re the alpha and the omega