That narrows it down to about 75% of the company's product line, meaning it could be related to Epic Games' Unreal Engine, the Unreal franchise or the Unreal Tournament franchise. Or it could be a new Unreal product altogether. Or Epic Games is screwing with us. What we're relatively certain it's not is a proper Unreal Engine 4, as Epic prez Mike Capps said that next-gen engine is still years away at this year's Tokyo Game Show.

So. Which is it? Best guesses in the comments!

Thanks to Jos for the heads up.

A simulation like America's Army pales by comparison, and not just for aesthetic reasons. Gears 2 features destructible cover, and concepts like projectile refraction (that is, rounds altering course as they pass through permeable surfaces) and even how lighting factors into one's comprehension of a hostile environment. Through it all, Capps — who studied for four years at the Navy Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., and was part of the America's Army team — provides a very informed perspective on how Gears 2's deep aesthetics are more than just eye candy.

Hauling off with a futuristic machine gun and a chin-mounted chainsaw bayonet, while suffering multiple wounds from elephant-stopping firepower, sure, that's not a part of anyone's combat skills manual. But the hunkered-down, is-that-a-threat, open-fire mentality created by Gears — and Unreal 3 — is.

How Gears of War 2 Raises the Bar for Military Simulators [Popular Mechanics]

There is a long life ahead for Unreal Engine 3. Version 4 will exclusively target the next console generation, Microsoft's successor for the Xbox 360, Sony's successor for the Playstation 3 - and if Nintendo ships a machine with similar hardware specs, then that also. PCs will follow after that.

LOS ANGELES—Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3 technology is grabbing the attention of Hollywood producers. Once Warner Bros. Television's "Chadam" project, a 10-part, short form Internet series produced by HDFilms, appears online, Jace Hall, former game developer, Hollywood executive and technology expert believes the floodgates could open for more entertainment business.

"The bottom line is that generally speaking, for every dollar you spend on 3D you're going to get a better result out of the Unreal Engine 3 than you would from a standard package like Maya up to a certain point," said Hall, founder of HDFilms. "There's this area where if you are given $5,000 to make animation using UE3 where it will be better than what you'd get out of giving the same amount of money to Pixar to use Maya. You'd get maybe a texture. We're not trying to set a new bar for 3D, we'll leave that to the films that come out and spend $100 million. But we will bring the best 3D yet seen in short form online entertainment."

Hall and his small team of creators are laying the groundwork for what he believes will be a new way for other shows to be made. "Chadam" is the beginning of a new franchise, which could lead to other UE3 projects.

"If we successfully tell this story and it's enjoyed by people, we'll potentially be able to increase the budget and re-use the production pathways that we've created and really push the engine as far as it can go and maybe create a longer-form 3D film like a direct-to-DVD or something like that," said Hall.

Since the team is working within a videogame format, that gives them an advantage should Alex Pardee's "Chadam" migrate to gaming.

"Having all of your assets game-ready lends itself towards moving toward the game medium," said Hall. "There are some constraints because when we do render this series, we don't have to produce 60 frames per second in real-time. We'll be able to create scenes that generally wouldn't work on Xbox 360. We can construct an elaborate room that has nothing behind it. But at least we're starting with something that we know will work inside the engine and we can move forward from this when working on games."

Hall said the look of "Chadam" is only limited by its budget.

"You can't expect cinematic quality of 3D movies that are coming out today with $100 million budgets," said Hall. "You can expect a quality level that's on par with some of the more common Unreal videogames that you've seen. We're not selling this show on graphics."

As a former game creator and founder of Monolith, Hall said "Chadam" will combine the best of the game and Hollywood creative worlds.

"Part of this is a little avant gard because you're going to get a hybrid of game production and television production," said Hall. "Typically, with a game you'll capture all of your animations and then inside the Unreal Engine you'll have a character play the animation but you'll map out the pathway of him walking down the hall. In movies, you capture the entire scene with him walking down the hall and you play the whole thing in one big chunk. There's no discreet break-up like in games, which require flexibility for interactivity. The balance we're trying to do is when does it make sense to do it like a game and when does it make sense to do it like a film? We have to figure all of that out and once it's figured out it will help with future shows."

Once this new process is established, not only will additional "Chadam" opportunities arise, but HDFilms will be able to explore other entertainment ideas utilizing this new technology.

"Chadam" creator Pardee had his original plan of bringing his hero to Hollywood squashed because of technology constraints.

"Alex had always envisioned telling this story via live action," said Hall. "The problem with that is because of the nature of the content, it'd be very expensive to shoot and have it feel authentic. In some parts of his world there are fronts without backs, lefts without rights. That's difficult to shoot. When we brought Unreal Engine 3 to him, the limitation became our own imagination rather than the physicality of the camera. We can do camera movements that replicate what's done in the real world, while depicting things that could never been done in the real world."

Gamers will be able to explore the world of "Chadam" in multiple formats over the coming years.

He tells Gamespot that development on the Xbox 360 was harder due to the 32-person multiplayer goal and that the PS3's smaller available memory makes it challenging to develop for. Plus, SIXAXIS controls are still being balanced, adding an extra layer of development difficulty.

Halper discusses how the PS3 controller will be used in greater detail later in the interview.

Frontlines' delay is just another reminder that Epic and Sony Computer Entertainment had better be making good on their intentions to make the Unreal Engine a better fit for the PlayStation 3.

Q&A: Joe Halper on Frontlines: Fuel of War [Gamespot]

First Person 3D Engine [ActionScript Architect via The In-Between]

Who's pumped?! Personally, I'm thrilled that we're down to three letter monosyllabic game titles now. In a field that was once dominated by dull names plastered with extensive subtitles, we're entering the era of efficient succinct game naming. I look forward to a time when game titles will be reduced to nothing but a grunt or a glance or a single pointed finger at a glass display case. How far we'll have come.

Unreal Engine 3 Powered FPS 'End' (X360/PC) Announced [Worth Playing]

BCFX [Dtoid]

So what is the Black College Football Experience? As a lily white dude whose closest hands-on experience with such a thing was flipping past a FAMU game once, I'll have to wait for the PC release to find out. Based on the press release, it's apparently not only football, but halftime shows, too, as you'll "step into the boots of a drum major" for an interactive battle of the bands. Hey! I like rhythm games, too!

Far more details are available at the Nerjyzed site, but a handy press release follows.

NERJYZED ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCES BLACK COLLEGE FOOTBALL VIDEOGAME: BCFx

Videogame to Showcase Classic HBCU Rivalries, Interactive Halftime Shows, Original Music and High Intensity Game Play

Nerjyzed Launched a Multi-Market Road Show Labor Day Weekend To Give Fans a Hands-on Experience with the Game

BATON ROUGE, LA - September 5, 2007 - Nerjyzed Entertainment, Inc., a privately held, African American owned digital entertainment company, announced today the launch of its new sports videogame, Black College Football Experience. An authentic, action-packed football game created using the Unreal 3.0 engine, BCFx is a cultural experience that puts players and fans into the heart of black college football. The game will be supported by a 12-week promotional road tour to HBCU campuses, Classics and homecoming games. BCFx will be available for the PC this November.

"Nerjyzed Entertainment was founded by a veteran team whose mission is to create positive interactive products for the urban market," said Jacqueline Beauchamp, chief executive officer of Nerjyzed Entertainment, Inc. "As HBCU alumni and black college football enthusiasts, we're proud that BCFx honors our rich tradition and provides an incredibly fun football game for the whole family to play."

BCFx is a sports game that captures the unique culture of the black college football experience, fusing advanced videogame design with music, and entertainment. Nerjyzed has secured an exclusive 5-year licensing agreement with three HBCU conferences including the SWAC, SIAC, and CIAA, several schools within the MEAC as well as independent HBCUs. The game features more than 40 teams, bands and mascots; interactive halftime shows; realistic stadiums; play-by-play commentary; and ten authentic Classics. For more information about BCFx, the latest game trailers, fight song ring-tones, behind-the-scenes video footage and the BCFx Road Show schedule, go to www.nerjyzed.com.

What we told Microsoft last year — they wanted a demo for Gears of War and we said 'you've got a choice — you can have the demo this year or the game this year'... We're not a big huge company with the resources to do that, and all the time we're testing that demo we're not testing our full game, which we need to be doing constantly... We'll have a PC demo for UT, [but] I don't think we'll have a PS3 demo before the game ships.

Today, Rein underscored that claim with a clarification on Epic's engine building policy.

Mark Rein's answer to a moderator seeking examples of each panel members engine to meet developer's needs was that "We specifically don't do that. We feel that the best way to make an engine, and the fastest most productive way to get to a finished point— not that an engine is ever really finished, we're constantly improving on them—we feel that the way to do that is to make our game, to make the most optimized, best performing, best cross platform game you can possibly make using our technology and then licensees know exactly what they're going to get when we're done."

He added, "It's very important for us to stay focused, make the best game that we can, as soon as we can and make sure that every feature we do ship is of professional quality."

In case that wasn't clear enough, should you have a beef with the Unreal Engine's capabilities, Rein spoke directly to you, telling the crowd "We will not put your features in our engine. We're happy to advise you how to get those features in. Our door is always open, you can talk to us at any time. but we make a very clear distinction about, you know, we're making this engine for our game. Ultimately, that's what's best for us and best for our customers."

Unfortunately, it seems it might also be best served helping each party's legal team put a down payment on their new boats.

- Silicon Knights originally wanted Epic to endorse the "suitability" of their engine for Too Human, Epic refused

- Silicon Knights has used Unreal 3 Technology in their own "Silicon Knights Engine"

- Silicon Knights has used UT3 technology with a new Sega partnership without further license

This is, at its core, one of the simplest contract disputes. Party A promised to deliver a good in form X, and Party B alleges that good arrived in form X-1 and Party A never fulfilled their contractual agreement.

Assuming Silicon Knights can show that Epic neglected the licensees in order to work on Gears, the Gears profits will become some measure of damages. While it seems unlikely Silicon will receive all of the profits they demanded, a substantial award for Silicon would not be out of the ordinary.

Silicon Knights v. Epic: The Unreal 3 Engine Case [lawofthegame]

America's Army for arcades will focus less on the shooting of terrorists or insurgents and will instead consist of a series of eight mini-games that emulate real-life Army training exercises. Sounds not too dissimilar from P&P Marketing's popular Police Trainer series of arcade games, no?

The game is assumed to be built on the PC version of America's Army which also runs on the Unreal Engine. Global VR has a number of PC game products repurposed for arcade play, including Paradise Lost based on Far Cry, Desert Gunner based on the (awful) Beach Head series as well as EA Sports brand titles.

Global VR to Deploy America's Army at AAMA Gala [Arcade Renaissance via GameSetWatch]

I was personally wondering what the agreement between Epic and Sony to refine the Unreal Engine on the PS3 really meant. Fortunately, GI's Billy Berghammer asked the man who would know best. Phil says:

If we're honest, we didn't do enough of a good job supporting [Epic Games] and getting them the tools and technology early enough. Also, Epic isn't a huge company. They don't have unlimited resource. We have parachuted in some of our SWAT team of super engineers to help them. Specifically, to optimize for SPUs, which are the point of difference that the Cell Processor has. That process is under way. The benefits that it yields to end developers whether they're writing exclusive titles or multiplatform titles is that the performance on PS3 goes up exponentially, and it will make for a much better game experience.

Great! But what follows is even more interesting. When asked about Epic not "[having] their tech up to speed" with developers "waiting for updates", Phil responded to the announcement as an admission that "It's going to get fixed, it's going to get better?" with:

Yes, I think that's a fair summary. We know that there are a lot of developers who are using the technology, so this is a significant impact for the industry.

Granted, this was in relation to multiplatform games built on the Unreal Engine, something that Silicon Knights' Too Human needn't have worried about. But does this lend credibility to the claim that Epic was not providing proper support to its clients licensing UE3?

A Conversation With Phil Harrison [Game Informer]

According to the suit, which seems more than $75,000, Epic Games misrepresented the abilities of their Unreal Engine 3 when selling the license agreement to Silicon Knights. The suit says that Epic failed to "provide a working game engine" to Silicon causing them to "experience considerable losses."

The developer was rumored to be experiencing problems with the Unreal Engine platform last summer, but later denied speculation it was dropping the platform and commented that the game was still "progressing very well." Silicon Knights eventually decided to drop the Unreal engine and instead build their own, according to the suit.

Silicon also claims that Epic has been "sabotaging" Silicon Knights efforts to make a game by using the money earned from their licensing deals to make their own games rather than to provide support for their engine to Silicon and other licensees.

Update: In a nutshell, SK claims that Epic used a slicker version of their Unreal Engine for Gears of War and released a hamstringed version to SK and others, in order to show them up at E3. They also failed to release the Gears version until much more recently, SK claims. They also claim that Epic made several very specific statements about what the engine could do, but which it was never able to deliver on including the number of on-screen characters and lighting effects.

The suit is based on a dozen causes of action including fraud, negligent misrepresentation, intentional interference with contractual relations, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, breach of warranty and a violation of North Carolina's unfair and deceptive trade practices act.

The suit also says that Epic missed the deadlines for providing both the 360 and PS3 engines. Finally, the suit alleges, the SK gave up on the engine and built their own, which is what Too Human use.

Hit the jump for the press release or the link to download a copy of the suit.

SILICON KNIGHTS SUES EPIC OVER UNSATISFACTORY PERFORMANCE OF UNREAL ENGINE 3

ST. CATHARINES, ONTARIO, CANADA, July 19th, 2007 - Video game developer Silicon Knights, Inc. has filed suit against Epic Games, Inc. for breach of contract, fraud, and several other tort claims in federal court in Greenville, North Carolina. In the lawsuit, Silicon Knights alleges that it has lost revenue as a result of the considerable delay in developing its video game for the Xbox 360, Too Human, because Unreal Engine 3, a game engine licensed from Epic, did not work as Epic represented it would and, moreover, Epic has been unable or unwilling to fix it.

As Denis Dyack, President and Founder of Silicon Knights, explained, "Our strong preference is to focus on making games, not be in court. Unfortunately though, as explained in our lawsuit, we have had extensive problems with the Unreal Engine 3 that Epic has been unwilling or unable to rectify. For more than a year, we have been trying to reach an agreement with Epic to resolve these issues without resorting to litigation, but were unable to come to reasonable terms with Epic. Regrettably, we are now forced to go to court in order to achieve satisfaction. We remain hopeful, however, that we can reach a reasonable business resolution with Epic at some point."

The lawsuit further alleges that Epic in fact never intended to deliver Unreal Engine 3 as a fully functional game engine as promised. Instead, Epic collected licensing fees from Silicon Knights and others in order to fund the development of its own video game, Gears of War. "No doubt Gears is a fun and phenomenally successful game, but as we alleged in our complaint against them, we strongly believe that from the perspective of someone waiting for a game engine that Epic promised it would deliver almost two years ago, it seems pretty clear that Gears was built on the backs of the Unreal Engine licensees. We certainly stand by our allegations in the lawsuit that instead of using our licensing fees to develop and support the Unreal Engine 3, Epic used that money to build Gears," said Mr. Dyack.

Based on Epic's website and press releases, it appears that Epic has sold licenses to Unreal Engine 3 to over 150 video game developers and publishers. For more information about this lawsuit, contact Chris Holland, Partner at the law firm of Krieg, Keller, Sloan, Reilley & Roman, LLP in San Francisco, California.

Download file

Let's go over quick notes before we get to impressions.

• There is vehicular combat
• You explore on foot in squads of 3
• You can collect all the characters in the game (or just some) in one play through.
• Getting certain characters won't prevent you from getting others.
• Your vehicles have guns and jump jets for getting around
• Space travel is just for travel—there isn't space combat

That said, everything looks fantastic. The framerates are totally smooth (with occasional stutters that we'll chalk up to it being almost done, but not quite), and the characters look gorgeous. All those trailers you've seen are actually of in-game footage, and when you zoom close in on alien characters, they look just as good as any of the Unreal Engine demos we've been seeing for years. If not better. This makes sense, since it uses the Unreal Engine.

Traveling from planet to planet is simple and quick, and you do so by a galaxy map that you zoom in and out of from solar systems to nebulas to the entire galaxy. This zooming, and the galaxy itself, looks as good as any special effects on say, the show Battlestar Galactica. You can also do stuff like scan a planet from orbit, but if you want to do anything you'll have to land. The ship you're riding out in is also explorable. You're the Commander of the ship, so you call the shots.

As for going on missions and advancing the plot, you take a team of 3 crew members you pick up along the way. You have the choice of denying people from joining your crew if you want, which actually cuts out whole swaths of the storyline and changes encounters. It's KOTOR-esque, in the sense that who you take on missions actually matters. (A few key designers from KOTOR also worked on Mass Effect).

Dialogue is totally smooth, in that you have dialogue options that pop up on the screen while other people are speaking. Select an option in time and the in-game cutscene will actually seem like an interactive cutscene. Did we mention that the character models look great? They do. Especially in dialogue scenes. The action was very smooth and very cinematic.

They demoed a certain scene, which we won't spoil for you here, that actually had you making life and death decisions based on your dialogue choice. You can play the game as a good character, a jackass, or anywhere in-between, based on which dialogue options you select. Again, similar to KOTOR, but much more refined.

Combat is in third person, and you have the option of using either weapons or special skills you pick up. A lot of things can be customized in terms of weapons, skills, and vehicles, so you'll have breadth in the way you want to take on fights. You can even control your teammates and send them in first as a distraction (or as cannon fodder) while you sneak around and flank. The skills you use are kind of like magic, or dark force powers in KOTOR, and should supplement or complement your regular attacks depending on how you want to play.

The game's due in November, and judging from the completeness level of the demo they've got now, there's no doubt that the game will be fantastic when it's released.

"The versatility and technological advantages provided by the Unreal Engine 3 have determined it to be our exclusive choice of technology for next-generation development," said Geremy Mustard, technical director at Chair Entertainment. "UE3 will enable our overflowing creative vision to spill into the hands of gamers sooner and at a much higher level of quality."

Has everyone licensed the Unreal Engine 3 now, or do we still have stragglers? Come on people, everyone's doing it. Michael Fahey

Chair Entertainment Signs Exclusive Deal With Epic Games

Unreal Engine 3 to power existing and new intellectual properties across all platforms

Provo, Utah - June 19, 2007 - Chair Entertainment Group, an independent video game production company, today announced that it has signed an exclusive deal with Epic Games to license the award-winning Unreal® Engine 3 for all its present and upcoming game development projects.

The deal covers all games developed for Xbox® 360, PlayStation® 3 and PC and the first game that will be released under the new agreement will be Undertow® for Xbox LIVE® Arcade, which is due to go live worldwide this summer. The game, which reveals some of the most stunning graphics seen on Xbox LIVE® Arcade, features a 15 level campaign for single-player or co-op, and two robust multiplayer modes for up to 16 players which has been delivered in just 50mb - something that has not been achieved in any other Xbox LIVE® Arcade to date.

"The versatility and technological advantages provided by the Unreal Engine 3 have determined it to be our exclusive choice of technology for next-generation development," said Geremy Mustard, technical director at Chair Entertainment. "UE3 will enable our overflowing creative vision to spill into the hands of gamers sooner and at a much higher level of quality."

Mark Rein, Vice-President, Epic Games comments, "We love working with cool independent studios like Chair that are truly focused on delivering value to gamers and creating experiences that break new boundaries in gameplay and creativity. Sure, we love working with the big developers and publishers too, but there's something really satisfying about seeing a young company with great talent doing some awesome stuff with our technology. Undertow is just the first great game you'll see from these guys - prepare to be wowed some more."