Tagged: epic games
Unreal Engine 3 demo in your browser!
Long live HTML5! Epic Games has released a public web version of Epic Citadel, its engine demo, which runs entirely on HTML5, Javascript, and WebGL. It doesn’t need any plugins like Flash and will theoretically run on any browser that can handle modern web technologies.
This is actually quite impressive, even incredible when you take into account the fact that someday down the line you can play Unreal Engine 3 games directly in your browser. For the time being, the demo prefers Firefox, especially the latest nightly release, but it should be playable soon in other browsers.
First high resolution screenshots from Unreal Engine 4
Epic Games has finally taken the wraps off Unreal Engine 4. Check out these glorious high-resolution screenshots. More information is expected soon.
Epic Games CEO: Industry moving towards web browsers as platform in a few years
Browsers have become ridiculously flexible and powerful over the past few years. They now support advanced 3D graphics, among other features, that power Google Maps and other such applications. Keeping that in mind, Epic Games’ CEO Tim Sweeney noted that the gaming industry will embrace browsers, predicting a future where games can be enjoyed in a browser.
“We’re slowly heading in that direction as an industry,” he said. “You should be able to take any game – a PlayStation 3 or iOS game, for example – and just go to that and play it from any web browser.”
The studio has ported Unreal Engine 3 to Flash, enabling developers the chance to make their games run in supported web browsers. Sweeney hopes this will eliminate the middle man.
“In another few years, I think that’s going to be a very realistic scenario,” he concluded. “And so the web will generally be a platform, and you can have a real application with a full feature set that runs within a web browser.”
I can’t help but agree with him. I practically live in browsers now. The only desktop applications I run are games and MP3 player (because I have a large offline collection).
Blizzard, Epic, and Insomniac to talk about surviving in the industry
If you’ve always wondered what it takes to survive in the games industry then you’ll love the “Staying Around, Playing Around” session at D.I.C.E. Summit. Speakers at this session are Mike Capps of Epic Games, Frank Pearce of Blizzard, and Ted Price of Insomniac – all of them are from studios that have been around for long periods of time.
The session will take place on February 9 at 4.15pm. It sounds extremely interesting to me and possible to many of you as well. The aforementioned speakers will discuss “what it takes to survive for 20+ years in the game industry while maintaining growth and original content.” They will talk about basically anything, so it should be a rather interesting talk.
Bulletstorm PC demo in the works, coming next month
PS3 and Xbox 360 gamers have impaled, kicked, shot and generally had a fun time for a month in the Bulletstorm demo while PC gamers were moping in the corner. Thankfully, Epic Games has announced a cure: there’s a PC demo in the works!
Company co-founder Mark Rein announced through Twitter that despite it being made, the demo won’t ship until after the full game is released today.
The PC demo will feature the same content as the console version that offered a glimpse of the single-player campaign.
Meanwhile, Best Buy is offering a special deal for those who get the Epic Edition of the game: you can get Gears of War Triple Pack for an extra $5 only. The pack includes the two installments in the series and a token to download the additional DLC.
Epic’s Rein: “We have not abandoned PC”
The games industry just isn’t what it used to be – many believe that developers focus only on consoles, especially big-hitters such as Epic Games, makers of Unreal Tournament and Gears of War. Many say that they have abandoned the PC platform. This put company VP Mark Rein on the defense: while speaking with Rock, Paper, Shotgun, he clarified the company’s focus:
We’ve released an update to the Unreal Development Kit every single month, with huge amounts of changes and improvements which are obviously going into our engine and making them available to customers, we’ve tested them on PC.
If you look at all the UDK games they’re PC only at this point, and we will eventually see them on other devices. But I think that’s a myth that we’ve abandoned the PC, it’s just not true. I mean, Bulletstorm is coming out on three platforms; we’ve just been in this situation where our biggest franchise has been published by a console-holder, and was a very console designed-IP.
While it is easy to point out that Epic’s recent successes have all been on consoles, it would still be too early (and too rash) to say they have abandoned the PC.
Bulletstorm, their next title, hits PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 this coming February.
Gears of War 2 “Snowblind DLC” Trailer
A new trailer shows off the wintery playgrounds to be found in the upcoming “Snowblind” map pack DLC for Gears of War 2.
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Snowblind DLC, Patch Heading for Gears of War 2
Gears of War 2 fans wake up! More multiplayer maps and another patch for the cover-heavy action game is due out by the end of the month.
The “Snowblind Map Pack” is due out on March 31, and will deliver four winter-themed maps: Grind Yard, Under Hill, Courtyard and a remake of Fuel Depot from the first game. While no pricing was given, the last multiplayer map pack sold for 800 Microsoft points ($10).
As for the patch, it will bring a new experience-based ranking system plus a variety of fixes when it is released on March 24. Hit the jump for full details.
Epic Apologizes for Gears of War Mess
Epic has finally given us an explanation and apology for the digital certificate that expired last week, borking the original Gears of War for PC gamers.
Company VP Mark Rein said online cheat detection features in the game are based on digital signatures.
"We made an embarrassing mistake," said Rein. "We signed the executable with a certificate that expired in a way that broke the game."
"We know how much this situation sucks, and we apologize for the inconvenience," he added.
The company is currently working with Microsoft to fix the issue. Meanwhile, it is suggested that players backdate their computer clock to a date before January 28, 2009 in order to play the game.
Unreal Now on Good Old Games
Delivering even more awesome goods, Good Old Games is now host to titles from Epic’s classic shooter franchise Unreal.
The first titles to be available are Unreal Gold (with the Return to Napali expansion pack) and Unreal Tournament: GOTY Edition. Two more titles – Unreal 2 and Unreal Tournament 2004 – will also be made available completely DRM-free.
“Epic Games redefined the first-person shooter with the Unreal series, and we’re very happy to welcome them to the growing list of companies that share our vision of digital distribution,” said Adam Oldakowski, Managing Director of GOG.com. “We know that a lot of gamers have been waiting for new deals, and we’re sure that the Unreal games will satisfy their lust for alien blood and intense multiplayer action… DRM-free, of course.”
BDGamers 