Apparently, the creative folks over at Epic have figured out a way to get the Unreal Engine 3 running on the iPhone 3GS and the iPod Touch. Even if it's only in a fifteen second clip, seeing the engine that powers a number of major games, including Gears of War 2, running smoothly on a third-generation iPod Touch is impressive, as Lai Shimpi points out.

The demo section comes from a modified version of Unreal Tournament originally shown at the Game Developers Conference and includes a single-level fly-through and a playable one-on-one battle with a respawning enemy. Rein told AnandTech that the demo will also be shown on another mobile platform at this year's Consumer Electronics Show.

Although there's still some experimentation being done with the controls (including possible tilt functionality), the ones shown in the demo seem quite capable. "A virtual thumbstick on the left side of the screen controls your movement, while tracking your thumb in the lower right corner of the screen controls the camera. Just tap the screen to shoot."

The demo requires OpenGL ES 2.0, which means that iPhone 2G, 3G, and older iPod Touch models aren't compatible. Though Epic isn't officially entering the iPhone games market or pursuing iPhone engine licences, Rein indicated that they intend to allow enterprising developers to licence the technology sometime in the near future for use in developing their own games.