Epic was well represented at the latest GDC, which just wrapped up in San Francisco. They showcased the latest version of their popular Unreal Engine 3, and the demo certainly blew us away, with a dark, Blade Runner meets Robocop meets Deus Ex look. Watch for yourself and be amazed. We can only wish that this would be a game one day, but sadly, it appears to only be a demo showcasing what the engine can do today.
Unreal Engine 3 is the de facto game engine of this generation console games, and has powered dozens of games, including Gears of War, Unreal 3, Bulletstorm, and many many others. A typical license fee for the engine runs upwards of $1 million, with a 5% royalty paid to Epic on all game sales. Yes, everything comes with its price.
Nintendo has a rather large line up of exclusives including hard hitting franchises like Mario, Donkey Kong, Kirby and Zelda. While we’ve already seen a recent entry into the Mario, Donkey Kong and Kirby franchise we haven’t seen a major Zelda release since Twilight Princess back in 2006. Luckily, during last year’s E3, Nintendo came forth to announce the latest addition to The Legend of Zelda series dubbed Skyward Sword. From what we’ve seen so far, the gameplay seems to be quite similar to what we’ve come to know in games like Twilight Princess but Nintendo is touting the addition of full support for the MotionPlus peripheral quite highly.
If you’re craving more media surrounding Skyward Sword, you’ll be happy to hear that a new trailer was just debuted by Nintendo during this year’s Game’s Developers Conference (GDC). Seeing how we love you, we’ve included the trailer after the break for your viewing pleasure. Be sure to check it out and let us know what you think. READ ON »
Just earlier today we told you that that Gears of War 3 beta would be kicking off on April 18th for Bulletstorm Epic Edition owners but if you’re a PS3 owner, that probably doesn’t mean much to you. Luckily, the PS3 has their own respective line up of exclusive shooters as well – one of them being Zipper Interactive’s highly popular SOCOM franchise.
The SOCOM franchise has seen numerous releases over just about every one of Sony’s consoles both portable and not. However, as of now, Zipper Interactive has not released a game SOCOM game for the PlayStation 3 with the console’s only SOCOM title, SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation, being developed by Slant Six Games. This just won’t do considering Zipper created the franchise and the PS3 is one of the most technologically advanced consoles on the market. Luckily, Zipper will be going on to produce a SOCOM game for the PS3 simply dubbed SOCOM 4.
We’ve seen several tech demos of this game in the past with the developers making an emphasis on the Move support but until we actually get our hands on the game we won’t know for sure how it will fare. While the game itself won’t hit store shelves until April 19th, Zipper has just let us know some details regarding the game’s beta.
First of all, a private beta will be launching in March 15th with Zipper simply stating that they’ll be “contacting elegible players soon.” Following that is a more widespread release with PlayStation Plus subscribers getting the beat on March 22nd, Killzone 3 owners getting it on March 29th and finally all PS3 owners with PSN access getting it on April 5th.
In terms of gameplay, the beta will include two different maps dubbed Assault & Battery and Port Authority and 4 different game modes including Uplink, Bomb Squad, Last Defense and Suppression.
That being said, as an extra tidbit we’ve included a video of SOCOM 4 being played with the PlayStation Move after the break. Be sure to check it out and let us know what you think. READ ON »
Bungie is one of the most iconic video game development studios of recent memory with their Halo franchise selling millions of copies and securing itself as one of the Xbox 360′s premiere exclusives. However, if you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know that Halo: Reach is the last Halo game the studio will be producing with the rights instead being shipped off to Microsoft who will find another studio. While there will always be questions regarding the next Halo game, an arguably more interesting question (seeing how they haven’t produced a game besides Halo in over a decade) is what is Bungie’s next title?
Well, it seems that according to some reports and Bungie’s lead network engineer David Aldridge taking center stage during GDC 2011, we now know that the studio’s next title will be an MMO. There’s no telling exactly what kind of MMO Bungie will be producing but Aldrige did take the time to let GDC attendees know that the name of the game will not be WoW in space… glad we got that cleared up!
Anyways, seeing how Activision and Bungie have now teamed up for future titles, it will be very interesting to see what they’re able to come up with. A StarCraft MMO, please?
Every home video game console currently on the market has their own share of respective exclusives that help push the hardware and please loyal games. Just to name a few, on the Nintendo side of things we have hard hitting franchises like Mario and Zelda, Sony has Killzone, LittleBigPlanet and Uncharted while Microsoft has Halo and Gears of War.
Gears of War from Epic Games, in particular, has managed to impress with just about every release and is currently on its second iteration appropriately dubbed Gears of War 2. However, it’s long been known that Epic Games is currently working on a sequel to the game, also appropriately dubbed Gears of War 3. While we’ve seen things such as game3play videos, screen shots and more, we haven’t known when we’ll be able to get down on the game’s beta.
Lucky for us, Epic Games has just come forth to finally give us some insight saying those who purchased the Bulletstorm Epic Edition will be getting early access starting April 8th while those who pre-ordered Gears of War 3 at GameStop will be getting in on April 25th. For all, the beta will conclude on May 15th with the game actually hitting store shelves on September 20th, 2011.
Want some more info on the beta? Check out the official press release after the break.
THQ has announced that its upcoming FPS Homefront has been pre-ordered 200,000 times, making it the most pre-ordered game in THQ’s history. And those pre-orders are just for the US only.
Homefront is a shooter set in the near future where north Korea invades the US and you’re the leader of the resistance. I launches on March 15.
Of all the different video game companies currently on the market Nintendo arguably has the most timeless classics. In fact, it seems like just about anybody who’s anybody has played their exclusives such as Mario Bros., Zelda and Donkey Kong (among others). Over the years these platforms have changed and evolved alongside the release of new hardware while maintaining the gameplay we’ve all come to know and love.
If you’re a Wii game who sticks by Nintendo exclusive you’ll know that the company recently released Donkey Kong Country Returns – a follow up and reboot of the popular Donkey Kong country series left behind on the Super Nintendo. The game did quite well with millions of copies sold worldwide since its release back in November of last year – but, of course, this is no surprise since it is a Nintendo game.
Due to this success, many gamers are sure to be wondering when, if ever, we’ll see a sequel. Unfortunately, it seems that, at this time, there is no such thing planned. Producer Kensuke Tanaber recently sat down with Game Informer to talk the sequel. When asked about said sequel he responded:
“I wasn’t even thinking about doing a sequel for Metroid Prime until Retro showed me the last scene in the game, which was near the end of development. I wouldn’t say we won’t do a sequel, but we don’t have anything planned at this time.”
Before you get too upset, make note that just because they don’t have anything currently planned does not mean we won’t be seeing a Donkey Kong Country Returns sequel. Seeing how the Nintendo 3DS is just around the corner, I’d say chances are pretty good that we’ll see every one’s favorite ape make the jump to the eye popping handheld.
As we’ve told you many times in the past, Activision’s Call of Duty has continuously been one of the most popular with the company even coming forth to note that the franchise’s recent entry, Call of Duty: Black Ops, managed to become the best selling PS3 game of all time. But, if you’re a fan of the series you might not care about things such as sales numbers and all that jazz but what you will care about is the fact that a Double XP weekend as just gone live.
That’s right, to celebrate the recent launch of the PS3′s First Strike Map Pack, Treyarch is giving gamers on any platform (Xbox 360, PS3, PC) the ability to rack up double experience points this weekend until 11AM EST on Monday, March 7th.
There are several different fighting franchises on the market with behemoths like Street Fighter and Tekken currently leading the pack. However, retro gamers will know that Mortal Kombat has long been one of the most iconic fighting franchises to ever hit the market.
The latest title to hit the current generation of consoles is Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe but if you weren’t aware, NetherRealm Studios is currently hard at work on a reboot of the franchise for the Xbox 360 and PS3 simply dubbed Mortal Kombat. While the game isn’t set to hit store shelves until April 19th, it was just made known today that a demo of the game will be hitting the PlayStation Network later this month. PlayStation Plus subscribers will be getting preferential treatment here with access to the demo on March 8th while normal PSN users will grab the demo on March 15th. As for the Xbox 360, there is currently no word on when a demo will be released for Microsoft’s console.
Again, Mortal Kombat is currently set to hit store shelves for the Xbox 360 and PS3 on April 19th of this year.
If you haven’t been living under a rock you’ll know that the recent debut trailer for Dead Island stirred up quite a bit of interest. If you’re not familiar with Dead Island it will task players with killing zombies (of course) with an emphasis on melee combat in a sandbox style level. The game’s developers have also told us that various RPG elements will be built-in along with the ability to craft weapons using various materials found around the island.
Well, if you’re interested in the game you’ll be happy to hear that some new screen shots have just been released for your viewing pleasure. To check them out, peep the gallery below and be sure to let us know what you think.
Deep Silver’s Dead Island is currently slated to hit store shelves sometime during Q3 of this year for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.
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THQ has announced that its upcoming FPS Homefront has been pre-ordered 200,000 times, making it the most pre-ordered game in THQ’s history. And those pre-orders are just for the US only.
