Unreal Tournament 3

After Unreal Tournament 3 launched in 2007 on PC and PlayStation 3 with classic modes like Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and the vehicle-heavy Onslaught, it arrived on Xbox 360 in mid-2008, the last of the three platforms at the time, with a noticeable delay.

Unlike the concurrent PS3 release, the Xbox 360 version didn't support mouse and keyboard — it was played exclusively with a gamepad, which slowed down an arena shooter built around fast, precise aiming somewhat compared to PC and to the PS3 version played on a keyboard. The map editor that the PS3 version offered directly on the console was left out entirely on Xbox 360, so players couldn't create or share custom maps or game modes. Online multiplayer ran through Xbox Live instead of the PlayStation Network, meaning a completely separate player base from the PS3 version, plus the need for a paid Xbox Live Gold subscription for access to online play, something PS3 owners didn't have to pay for at the time.

Otherwise, content-wise it was the same game — the same weapons, maps, game modes, and story campaign as on the other platforms — just with a delay of almost a year compared to PC and roughly half a year compared to PS3, which reviews cited as the release's main drawback: by the time it reached Xbox 360, the game had long since settled in on PC, community maps had already been made and tested, and much of the player base had largely moved on elsewhere or to other, newer titles. Graphics and performance on Xbox 360 were comparable to the concurrent PS3 version, both running on the same Unreal Engine 3 at a comparable resolution. Still, for Xbox 360-only owners, it was the only way to play the then-new Unreal Tournament on that console at all, even with a year's delay behind the rest of the gaming world. Reviewers at the time consistently noted that the quality of the port itself wasn't to blame — the game ran stably and without serious technical issues — it simply arrived at a time when most players had already made up their minds elsewhere, on PC or PlayStation 3.

Why play it: For Xbox 360-only owners, this was the only way to play Unreal Tournament 3 at the time, albeit with a delay of almost a year behind PC and its more established, more active community.