Are you holding out for a Wii version of Gears of War, complete with chainsaw motion controls? Well, I wouldn’t hold your breath. According to Epic Games’ president, Mike Capps, the developer will never make a game for the Wii. When asked about it, Capps stated, “No, we go forward, not back. It makes more sense for us to invest in the next-generation tech.” He then went on to discuss why he thinks the Nintendo’s machine has been so popular:

It’s a virus where you buy it and you play it with your friends and they’re like, “Oh my God that’s so cool, I’m gonna go buy it.” So you stop playing it after two months, but they buy it and they stop playing it after two months but they’ve showed it to someone else who then go out and buy it and so on. Everyone I know bought one and nobody turns it on. Obviously there’s a class of people who really love it and enjoy it and are getting into the games but I’m still waiting for that one game that makes me play it.

Wow, it’s like he was specifically talking about me and my Wii-owning friends. Mine’s been collecting dust for awhile now, in fact. So I guess you can take this news for what it is though. In the debate of whether graphics truly represent the next-generation of gaming, Epic would apparently argue that they do.

Via MegaTonik

If you found this story interesting, why not subscribe to our RSS feed to get your daily fix of gaming news?

DC seems to be all over the video game industry these days. Just this week they’ve announced a comic book series for Prototype and a game featuring their beloved superheroes battling the Mortal Kombat crew. Well, now you can add “Gears of War” to the list of tie-ins, as they’ve now announced a new comic books series based on the popular shooter. The book is set to debut through DC’s Wildstorm label in October. And, like the Prototype comic, that’s pretty much all we know at this time. Wildstorm did however mention that the comic will fill in the timeframe between the first and second game:

“Big guns and monsters — what a perfect comic book for WildStorm! We have an opportunity to work closely with Epic to add to the canon of the Gears of War mythos, so you can imagine how excited we all are, said Hank Kanalz, VP – General Manager, WildStorm. “Epic sets the bar very high, in graphics, story, and gameplay — and expect no less from our series, starting with our lead-in arc that fills in the gaps between the first game and the upcoming sequel.”

Via Press Release

EA and Epic Games have announced that they are expanding their license agreement with the Unreal Engine 3. The company has already used the engine in several title, including Medal of Honor Airborne and Army of Two. According to the agreement, EA will implement the engine in at least five new title currently under development.

“With the largest and most talented studio operation in the world, it’s critical for us to give our studio teams the best tools they need to make great games,” said Frank Gibeau, President, at EA. “This agreement reflects our commitment to Epic’s technology which, in combination with our own cutting-edge systems, allows us to create ground breaking hits.”

That just leaves us to speculate at what games EA could be working on that would involve this technology. My guess is that they’re all going to involve shooting stuff though.

Via Press Release

Epic Games and Intel have partnered up to bring us the “$1 Million Make Something Unreal Contest.” The companies are asing aspiring game developers to come up with their own mods for Unreal Tournament III (PC version only; sorry PS3 owners) in the form of environments, gameplay, weapons, vehicles, and more; though full-conversion mods probably have the best chance. Winners will be selected in several categories with prizes including Intel Software Development Products and Velocity Micro PCs, as well as the grand prize of one Unreal Engine 3 license. Judging will begin in June with four preliminary phases until the grand final prizes are awarded in Fall of 2009.

But this is actually something for all of us PC gamers to pay attention too, whether we enter the contest or not. Why? Well the last time this contest was held, the winner was a game called “Red Orchestra,” which eventually made its way to retail and helped found Tripwire Studios. With a cool million worth of prizes at stake, you can bet some of the hidden best and brightest modders are going to start coming out of the woodwork. Besides that, since the prize is essentially the means to start your own development studio, the top ones are sure to be works of passion from the developers. And all the mods created for this competition will be made available online absolutely free. In other words, we’re probably going to start getting some good games next year for free. For more information, be sure to check out the contest’s official site.

Via Press Release

Midway and Epic Games have announced that three new maps are now available for download for Unreal Tournament III on the PS3 and PC. As icing on the cake, it turns out this new content is 100% free for both versions of the game (take that microtransactions). PC users can download the maps by clicking the link below, while PS3 users can find them on the Playstation Network. The three maps include Morbias, Facing Worlds, and Searchlight:

Morbias is the deathmatch arena that started it all, perfectly suited for anything from small intense duels to chaotic free-for-all matches.  The Unreal Tournament classic, Facing Worlds was one of the most played maps in gaming history.  This beloved sniper map makes its return alongside an intricate new capture the flag map, Searchlight, designed for both z-axis rooftop runs and strategic indoor gameplay.

Maybe this will convince more people to jump on this woefully underappreciated game.

Via Press Release

There’s been a lot of talk about developers having difficulty with the PS3. In this case, developer High Moon seems to indicate that the problem lies with the Unreal Engine 3 rather than the console. VP Paul O’Connor commented on the difficulties of developing The Bourne Conspiracy game using the Unreal Engine 3 for the PS3 in a recent interview with Gamasutra. The title is currently being developed for both the Xbox 360 and the PS3.

“We needed a lot of support on Unreal to make it run on the PlayStation 3. We got caught in the same crunch as everybody else when [Epic] finalized Gears [Of War], so that definitely slowed down the PS3 support at the time.

But, that being said, the guys have done extraordinary work with the PS3, and it’s just about ready to pipeline.”

O’Connor elaborated on the apparently largely out of the way trials and tribulations of simultaneous SKU development with Unreal Engine 3, explaining:

“I don’t want to badmouth Unreal. It’s an awesome toolset. We wouldn’t be where we were if not for Unreal.

Their support has been as good as it could be for a company that’s had its attention so divided between supporting the developer community and making their own game. But we had to roll a lot of our own stuff on the PS3.”

O’Connor also told Gamasutra about the influence of having source code for Epic’s Gears of War on the development of the Bourne game.

“A key part of the shooting is that we have a cover system. We used Unreal 3, as you know, so our guys had the luxury of picking and choosing the parts of the Gears of War cover system that we thought that fits the Bourne shooting experience.”

When asked to clarify that Epic handed over the Gears Of War source code as part of Unreal Engine 3 license, O’Connor explained:

“We got the whole level layout, too. That was a cold bath for my guys when they saw how they built the Gears of War levels. They look a lot more complex than they are. They’re brilliantly executed in that regard.”

Read the entire interview with O’Connor on Gamasutra.

via Gamasutra

Not content to just make the game any way they please, Epic is asking gamers what they would like to see in the upcoming Gear of War 2. Whether gamers suggestions will seriously be taken into consideration or not is still the big question, but it is nice to know that they supposedly care about what the gamer wants.

When you go to the Gears of War 2 survey, you will be expected to log into your Windows Live account. Why you have to do this is beyond me unless Microsoft is secretly watching you. Here are some of the questions you will be asked:

• What is the best OG moment from Gears 1?
• Which Delta Squad member would you want to have your back?
• Who is the vilest member of the Locust Horde?
• What’s the toughest battle in Gears 1?

There are four more questions they ask of gamers and the survey is multiple choice, so you don’t really have to think too hard. If you want to take the survey, just click here. Personally, if I were to take the survey I would have to say that the toughest battle was the final one with General RAAM, man I hated that guy.

Epic’s Cliff Bleszinski has claimed that PC gaming is currently in “disarray” and because of this, Epic will now be concentrating more of its focus on console titles. Speaking to MTV Multiplayer, Cliff had this to say about the current state of PC games:

“I think people would rather make a game that sells 4.5 million copies than a million and “Gears” is at 4.5 million right now on the 360. I think the PC is just in disarray… what’s driving the PC right now is ‘Sims’-type games and ‘WoW‘ and a lot of stuff that’s in a web-based interface. You just click on it and play it. That’s the direction PC is evolving into So for me, the PC is kind of the secondary part of what we’re doing. It’s important for us, but right now making AAA games on consoles is where we’re at.”

Cliff did not name names on which games he feels are detrimental to PC gaming, and also in the interview he was asked about a sequel to Gears of War, but refused to comment on that as well. He did, however, mention that he will continue to cater to his core demographic and while he does indeed like the Wii and love to play it, he is not interesting in making what he calls “soft games”:

“I don’t want to win over [someone’s] little college sister, because that’s not the kind of game I do,” he said. “I’m not going to make f***ing Cooking Mama.”

So basically this means that he will continue making the same style of gameplay. While he admits that sometimes “you need to step back a little and take a break. If I was tasked with creating a new universe I might just step back and say, “Okay, maybe no marines in this one. Let’s make it cops or pirates or something, ” he has no plans of going soft.

So there you have it folks. Cliffy B has spoken. No soft games, less focus on PC games, more hardcore titles. How is this any different than what he was already doing? Sometimes I think he talks just to hear himself. There are two reasons why PC gamers are flocking to games that “you click on it and play”. One being the fact that the majority of MMOs give you tons of new content all the time instead of sporadically, and two being the fact that even with the popularity of XBL, most gamers would rather log on to their PC to play multiplayer games. Yes, XBL players get to sit in their comfy chairs and frag until they cannot frag anymore. What would you rather do? Sit in your lazy boy or and uncomfortable office-type desk chair? Of course you would rather have the comfy chair - but the problem with a lot of PC games is that fact that gaming companies should be more focused on giving us a PC title that is worthy of the time and money spent on it; instead of buggy, choppy, five year old concepts.  If this were the case, console makers could not or would not insult the PC they way they have been as of late. Especially ones that love to toot their own horn as much as Cliffy B does - it is almost like he has inherited John Romero’s godlike complex . I would suggest that he get his ego in check before it burns him in the tail-end.

Via: MTV Multiplayer

After what seems to be a leak of sorts for the PS3 UT3 Mod Tools promised earlier, the first cross-platform mod ever for UT3 has just been released.

The Action Cam modification for both the PC and PS3 versions of Unreal Tournament III does what it implies: it allows the player to get an over the shoulder perspective (shown above) a la Gears of War. You can download either version of the mod from the links provided here:

Download Action Cam v1.0 (PS3) @ FileFront

Download Action Cam v1.0 (PC) @ FileFront

To get the mod up and running on a PS3, you’ll need at minimum a USB memory stick. A summary of how to use the tools as well as getting the custom content onto the PS3 are provided after the break.

Read the full article

iD Tech Camps is aiming to teach kids game development skills using the Unreal Engine 3 tools that come with Unreal Tournament 3 for PC. The Campbell CA based camp, the largest national youth summer computer camp in the U.S.. offers programs for beginning to advanced students, hands-on learning and instruction in small groups.

“We provide an environment where instruction is personalized and fluid,” said Pete Ingram-Cauchi, president and CEO of iD Tech Camps. “Teens choose our computer camp because we have the cutting edge software and tools that are most relevant in the industry. Partnering with industry leaders like Epic Games is vital. They believe in our teaching philosophy. They understand that a key component to offering the best tech courses involves instruction of the industry’s leading game engine, Unreal Engine 3, as provided with the Unreal Tournament 3 game.”

The Unreal Engine has been used in best selling games such as Mass Effect, BioShock and Gears of War.

“We’ve partnered with iD Tech Camps because of their reputation for quality game development instruction for As a student in a video game design program, this sounds like a lot more fun than the courses I’ve taken.teens,” said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games. “Unreal Tournament 3 delivers unparalleled game quality that gamers have come to know and expect from Epic Games. We are reaching an audience of gaming enthusiasts who play the game as well as learn to design and mod with our deep set of tools.”

Both iD Tech Camps and the iD Gaming Academy use Unreal Tournament 3 in their curriculum as well as getting some playtime in during NVIDIA-hosted Gaming Tournaments. Students will be taught to use the engine to add new levels, mod skins and replace characters to customize game play. Eventually they should be able to create personalized 3D video games with 3D environments and levels using the advanced special effects available with the UT3 engine.

As a student in a video game design program, this sounds like a lot more fun than the courses I’ve taken. Wish they’d had stuff like this when I was a kid. Where do I sign up?

Anyone interested can sign up at www.internalDrive.com

via Press Release

Red Mile Entertainment has announced that they have licensed the Unreal Engine 3 from Epic Games for their Sin City video game…and that’s pretty much it. No new info on what the player might be doing or which of the many storylines the game will use. I mean, seriously, do we get to play as Marv at least? Is there going to be a genital-ripping mini-game?

“The Unreal Engine is one of the most technically advanced engines on the market and is a perfect fit for our Sin City video games,” said Glenn Wong, president and COO for Red Mile. “The engine has powered several of the best-selling games of all time and I am very glad we have the opportunity to arm our developers with such a world-class product.”

Well at least we know the game will probably look pretty slick. As much as I love the Sin City movie and comic books, I’m a little hesitant about seeing it turned into a video game. Usually movies and TV shows with a heavy plot and sparse action don’t translate too well into a good game (see Reservoir Dogs, The Sopranos: Road to Respect).

Via Press Release

The Unreal series isn’t really considered the grand-daddy of gaming; in fact, it’s more like the middle-aged uncle. But as some of you may know, a middle-aged uncle (who, in my case, lives out in the backwoods and has a surplus of guns and fireworks) can still be a lot of fun. The newest installment in the franchise, Unreal Tournament III, is finally out; and while it may show of the series’ age with its simple FPS gameplay, it can still provide an endless source of entertainment. Full review after the break.
Read the full article

Epic VP Mark Rein, has stated that Unreal Tournament 3 for the PS3 should integrate with Sony’s Home online world space in a recent interview with Gamasutra. UT3 is now confirmed for a December launch with Home set to go live early 2008.

“We’re planning that you’ll be able to get a party together in Home and then file into the game from an Unreal space. Home’s pretty cool, so we’re planning to do that. That’ll make it easy for… what I like about that is that you’ll be able to form without us having to build a party system. It won’t be as detailed as a real party system, but the idea is that we could all meet up in a room and go together in the game.

I think it’s really smart that eventually if everybody does that, each company doesn’t have to develop its own way to all meet up somewhere and all go into a game. I think that’s a very smart way to do it, and I kind of wish Xbox 360 would do that, and I’m hoping that they will at some point.

In other words, all these games have these different systems for getting together and then traveling into the games together or playing as teams or whatever. I expect that to be a dashboard functionality at some point in the future for the Xbox 360, and I think Sony’s already thinking that way with Home.”

Rein also approves of Sony’s Trojan Horse strategy of incorporating blu-ray into the PS3 gaming system.

I think there’s nothing wrong with the Trojan Horse strategy of “let’s get this device in the living room, and it can play music and DVDs and high-definition movies.”

Publishers will say, “Hey, there’s ten or however many million of those. Let’s spend a little bit extra to buy our disc and stick it in.”

I think once it’s there, there’s the temptation to play games on it, regardless of what your original meaning was. If people buy it as a Blu-ray player, they… will play games. When the big ads come out in August for a new Madden game, they’ll pick up Madden. They’ve got the equipment, so why not? They’ve made the investment.”

Players can get the whole detailed interview with Epic’s Mark Rein on Gamasutra.

Here’s an Unreal Tournament III cinematic trailer of Epic proportions (pun intended). Up until now, we have heard rumors that UT3 was getting a single player campaign. Now when I say single player, I mean beyond that of just throwing you in a multiplayer level with bots. If this new trailer is indication, it looks like we’re getting something a little more serious than that.

I must say, the Necris look awesome. Will UT3 have a single player story more epic than Gears, or are we expecting too much from Epic in regards to single player? The multiplayer offerings of UT3 are already dizzying. All this speculation is making UT3 more and more a “must buy”. I guess we’ll have to wait an see.

Coming November 2007? Hmm…

British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced that it has named Sims creator Will Wright as a fellow.  This prestigious honor has been awarded to artists such as Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock and Steven Spielberg.

The award is a first in video game history, and recognizes the impact games have had on films and pop culture.

Hilary Bevan Jones, chairwoman of BAFTA, said: “Will’s immense, creative body of work and his continued contribution to the industry make him a most worthy recipient of the fellowship and being such a pioneer, we are thrilled that he will be the first person to receive this honor.”

Games up for awards at the October 23 British Academy Video Games Awards include:

• Nintendo’s Wii Sports leads with seven nominations
• Gears of War from Epic Games and Microsoft Game Studios with six nominations
• Crackdown from Realtime Worlds and Microsoft Game Studios
• God of War II from SCE Santa Monica Studio and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
• Okami from Clover and Capcom have five noms each.

via Variety

The Inquirer recently fired off a question regarding upcoming video cards at the opinion of Epic’s Tim Sweeney, THE man behind all the Unreal Engine technology to date:

Two major titles from Epic are coming out now, Gears of War for PC and Unreal Tournament 3, mega-titles that are also going to be on market in November. When asked about the amount of video memory, here is what Tim stated:

“In Unreal Tournament 3 and Gears of War for PC, there is a significant gain in having 512MB of video memory rather than 256MB. So, first and foremost, get at least a 512MB card if you can afford it. If you haven’t maxed out your budget, then go for the maximum single-card performance that doesn’t require extreme cooling, e.g. buy an entry-level GeForce 8800 over a GeForce 8600.”

The whole 8800 > 8600 comparison seems logical. So what about all those early adopters who skimped and got the 8800 GTS with 320MB of onboard ram? Are they SoL come time for UT3? I think what Sweeney meant to say here is that unless you want to turn off a lot of graphical options in UT3, you’d best invest in a card with lots of onboard ram. Now the really confusing part is which does he recommend more? The 8600 variant with 512MB or the 8800 with 320MB? I guess the gist of it is that Sweeney recommends anyone who can squeeze the budget should go for the 8800 640MB flavor. What the hell was Nvidia thinking with the non 128 multiples anyway?

Also it makes me wonder how much more extra detail the retail version of UT3 will bring. I know it will have higher res textures. Just how much higher compared to the demo? The demo seemed pretty reasonable on the sys reqs. Yes, I know it’s a beta demo. Anyway, they should put a “Holy Sh@t!” checkbox in the retail UT3 settings for those crazy enough to buy a video card with a gig of ram. If anything do it for comical value.

Via The Inq

It seems during the excitement of getting the Unreal Tournament 3 “Beta Demo” to the masses, Epic didn’t quite thoroughly test the executable on Windows XP 64 or Windows Server 2003 operating systems. It seems many of those users were left scratching their heads yesterday when presented with an error message denying them play. Today, balance in the universe has been restored. Epic has sent word:

We created a fix for the game not starting up on Windows XP 64 and Windows Server 2003 systems. This patch has not undergone the same amount of QA as the released demo so I strongly encourage to ONLY replace the UT3Demo.exe with the one from the patch if you are experiencing the “Modified executable code is not allowed” issue at startup.

http://www.epicgames.com/download/UT3Demo-XP64-2K3.zip

UT3Demo.exe md5sum: 9ac494f243bdd6d71c2d612d8d98fba3

Assuming you didn’t already nuke the demo from your hard drive, a small 9.5MB download will solve all your problems. If you haven’t been able to even install the demo, there is a workaround here.

Via Epic Games Forums

As if yesterday’s Call of Duty 4 PC Demo wasn’t enough, here’s something else to occupy your time.

We’ve just received the PC demo for Midway and Epic Games’ Unreal Tournament III here at FileFront, and it’s available for your downloading pleasure. If you’re a fan of the series, you can expect the same high-speed, low-drag action that has become a hallmark of the multiplayer based shooter. If you’ve never played an Unreal Tournament title before, hang on to your hat. The frantic pace of this shooter is sure to keep you coming back.

So, on to the downloads!

You can grab the demo of Unreal Tournament III here.

You can also check out the UT3 page over at FileFront here for all the videos and screens your little heart desires. You can even head over to the FileFront Files Network site for UT if you so desire.

As hinted earlier, the “Beta Demo” for Epic Games’ Unreal Tournament 3 (for Windows) is now pre-loading for those with a fancy FilePlanet membership. What this means is the very hour Epic decides to make the demo release official to the public, you will be able to jump in a game immediately. Note that this does not mean FilePlanet have exclusivity on the UT3 demo.

Since that release date is privy to a select few, it could be hours, weeks, maybe even months of waiting. According to Mark Reign, the demo will weigh in 800MB. Here are the supposed system requirements:

Minimum System Requirements
Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista
2.0+ GHZ Single Core Processor
512 Mbytes of System RAM
NVIDIA 6200+ or ATI Radeon 9600+ Video Card
8 GB of Free Hard Drive Space

Recommended System Requirements
2.4+ GHZ Dual Core Processor
1 GBytes of System RAM
NVIDIA 7800GTX+ or ATI x1300+ Video Card
8 GB of Free Hard Drive Space

No clue as to what the demo will contain, content-wise.

This whole secret release date seems like a good idea on Epic’s part as they ready enough dedicated servers to handle the expected massive load. Having sufficient dedicated servers (not starved of bandwidth) would guarantee an enjoyable experience to the end user. Although, I wonder if the demand will be greater than the supply? Based on the hype, it seems almost a given. If the UT3 demo is to be anything like the UT2k4 demo launch, then I’m sure we’ll have our fair share of locally hosted games. Of course, the locally hosted games will vary in gameplay experience due to the variable bandwidth available as well as system specs of said user. For now, the majority of us wait - fingernails intact.

Rest assured, we’ll be providing download links to the demo here at FileFront asap.

[Edit: Demo is Out!]

As Epic’s Mark Reign confirmed a while back, Gears of War was getting extra content with its debut on the PC platform. His exact words were “it’s about 20 percent extra” when discussing extra content added between chapters 4 & 5 of the campaign. Gears of War will also bring three new multi-player maps, new game modes, a game editor, and of course Games for Windows - Live support. Sorry, no PC to 360 cross-platform networking. Epic felt such a daunting task would have pushed the long awaited title well past the holidays.

Regardless, PC gamers have been anxiously waiting on Gears of War to come to their beloved platform. With Epic’s stance on Unreal Tournament III being released “when it’s done”, and news of UT3’s potential November release date now in the air, many fans have been looking to GoW as a stopgap to UT3. In any event, the above video shows new gameplay footage taken from the PC version of Gears of War. It should give a good idea of what PC gamers are to expect this holiday.

[Fair Warning regarding the video: There is a fair amount of adult language used as well as graphic violence.]