Kotaku: Unreal

Unreal's Next Engine Will Need a Console At Least Ten Times More Powerful than the Xbox 360

Owen Good — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 14:00:00 EST

The human eye can only perceive 72 frames per second. We've been seeing games at 60 frames per second for some time. And as graphics approach photorealism with current computing power, some suggest that the days of giant leaps in visual quality are past us, and we'll be seeing smaller refinements going forward. More »

Courtroom Setback in Epic Fight 'Tis a Flesh Wound, Says Silicon Knights

Owen Good — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:00:00 EST

Much has been made of a recent ruling adverse to Silicon Knights in its long-running lawsuit with Epic Games, the Gears of War maker whose Unreal Engine was to have been the guts of 2008 flop Too Human. Basically, a judge tossed out an expert witness for Silicon Knights; he was going to give his estimates of the losses Silicon Knights suffered when its deal with Epic went in the crapper. More »

The Next Unreal Engine Probably Won't be out Until, oh, Around 2014

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 01:30:00 EDT

From what we've heard, the next generation of consoles from Microsoft and Sony won't be with us until around 2014. Now CEO of Epic Games, Tim Sweeney, suggests something similar. More »

Unreal Dev Kit Adds Mac Support... So How About Some More Mac Games, Developers?

Michael McWhertor — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 20:00:00 EDT

Epic Games' Unreal Development Kit, the developer side of the engine that powers Gears of War, Mass Effect, Mortal Kombat, and dozens of other titles, has a new beta release. Within is support for UDK games on Mac OS X, meaning, hopefully, more native games on Apple-made computers. More »

Insane Unreal Tournament 3 Modders Weaponize Nyan Cat

Mike Fahey — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:00:00 EDT

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Modder Scott Coxhead lives up to his Cr4zyB4st4rd handle by merging Unreal Tournament 3's player-guided Redeemer with that scourge of the internet, Nyan Cat. More »

The Latest Victim of the Account Hacking Horde is Epic Games

Michael McWhertor — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 21:30:00 EDT

Gears of War and Unreal Engine developer Epic Games now has something in common with Sony and Codemasters—the company was recently the target of hackers who may have stolen its customers' personal data. More »

This Is What It Takes To Play Duke Nukem Forever On PC (And What It Might've Taken 14 Years Ago)

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 03 May 2011 20:00:00 EDT

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Gearbox Software, the developer controlling the reins of Duke Nukem Forever, revealed the official minimum specs required to play the game on a PC today. That's an important milestone that lets us know Duke Nukem Forever is one step closer to actual release and it helps us answer the question "Can my PC handle that much Duke?" More »

The Making of Gears of War 3 Multiplayer

Joel Johnson — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:20:00 EDT

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I'll stay out of the way of this one, since I know you really just want to watch it. I will indulge myself to say, however, that I like the slight cooling of the color palette while still allowing more varied hues than previous titles. It's still "gritty" but looks much cleaner. More »

World Exclusive First Look Under the Hood of the Next Unreal Engine

Joel Johnson — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:00:00 EDT

You've seen the sexed up trailer showing what games based on Epic's Unreal Engine will look like in the coming generation. Now join Kotaku and Gizmodo for the world's first peek at the tools and technology that will be used to create some of the biggest games on every platform from PC to iOS in coming years. More »

Epic Games' New Unreal Engine—This Is What Next Gen Gaming Looks Like

Joel Johnson — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 15:11:00 EST

Fresh off the surreptitiously filmed, embargo-breaking train, it's the video footage of the engine that we previously showed you only in stills. This is the engine Epic describes as beyond what modern consoles can do. It's just one of many signs that a new crop of consoles are coming 'round the bend. [VentureBeat] More »

Epic Boss Doesn't Think The 3DS Can Run The Unreal Engine

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 04:30:00 EDT

Though he hasn't got his hands on the system himself, Epic's Mark Rein reckons he knows what's under the hood of Nintendo's new 3D handheld. And from what he knows, he says there'll be no Unreal Engine on the thing. More »

Out Of Ammo: Our Favorite Shooter Melee Weapons

Mike Fahey — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:20:00 EDT

Whether you're seriously low on ammo or just want to make someone's life completely miserable, there's nothing quite like bringing a hammer, crowbar, or chainsaw to a gun fight. Here are some of our favorite gun alternatives. More »

The Best Terminator Game May Be Fan Made

Michael McWhertor — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:40:00 EDT

We can't say with total certainty whether FPS Terminator, a fan-made mod built on the Unreal Engine, will be the best, but it's safe to assume that it's better than the most recent entry, Terminator Salvation. Sorry, GRIN! More »

Unreal Engine 4 "Still A Long Ways Off"

Stephen Totilo — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:00:26 EST

Attending the DICE gaming summit to promote his company's Unreal Engine technology and celebrate the conclusion of the Make Something Unreal modding contest, Epic Games' Mark Rein said that the next generation of Unreal game-making tech is a ways off. More »

More than 50,000 Snap Up the Free Unreal SDK

Owen Good — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:00:00 EST

Epic Games announced more than 50,000 downloads of its Unreal Development Kit in the first week the publisher started offering it for free. More »

Rumor: Epic Teases Something "Unreal"

Michael McWhertor — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:20:00 EDT

The Epic Games official web site featured a cryptic teaser about... something, an Unreal-related teaser that has since been removed. That teaser featured the above graphic and the tagline "It's Unreal. And it's almost here." More »

A Patch Of Gaming Pumpkins

AJ Glasser — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:40:00 EDT

I asked and many of you answered. We almost have enough gaming-themed pumpkins to cover a post a day between now and Halloween. Here's a gallery of ceemdee's pumpkins. More »

Rival Universities Stage 24-Hour LAN Party

Owen Good — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:00:00 EST

This weekend, #21 Oregon State and #24 Oregon (I cite the land-grant school first, since I went to one) meet up in their "Civil War" football rivalry, with a Rose Bowl bid on the line for OSU. Preceding that, both schools are staging a LAN party at two sites 50 miles apart, bringing together some 400 gamers. It started at noon pacific yesterday and will end at noon today. More »

Hearing Voices - The Top Faceless Game Announcers

Mike Fahey — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:40:00 EST

While I generally don't pay too much attention to Maxim's video game coverage, mainly because I don't feel like I fit into their core demographic (Maxim readers), every once in a while the magazine that gave Sudeki for the Xbox 5 stars has something interesting to offer. Like a list of the 7 Greatest Faceless Announcers in Video Games, a celebration of those announcers we never see but will never forget. You may know them as "The Finish Him Guy", or "the guy from Soul Calibur who sounds like he's just making shit up as he goes along", but you love them just the same. More »

Good Old Games Gets Unreal

Mike Fahey — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:20:00 EST

Purveyors of classic, DRM-free games at low, low prices Good Old Games have just announced a rather epic addition to their library. They've entered into an agreement with Epic Games to bring a selection of titles from the Unreal series to their service, including Unreal Gold, Unreal II The Awakening Special Edition, Unreal Tournament GOTY and Unreal Tournament 2004 Editor's Choice Edition. Both Gold and Tournament GOTY are both available now for only $9.99, with the other two arriving in the near future. More »

Epic Preps Unreal Engine 4 For "Next Console Generation"

Leigh Alexander — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:40:00 EDT

Epic president Mike Capps guesses the next console generation will begin anywhere between 2012 and 2018 — and when it does, Unreal Engine 4 will be already waiting for it. At least, that's what Capps told an audience Microsoft's Gamefest 2008 in Seattle this week, according to a Gamasutra report. More »

You Might Get Another Unreal Game. Maybe.

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 01 May 2008 00:30:00 EDT

Unreal's an engine that's making Epic some serious money. Pity, then, that Unreal as a franchise is a shadow of its former self. UTIII's done OK, don't get me wrong, but few at Epic or Midway would say it's performed as expected. So what does that mean for the proper Unreal games? You remember, those singleplayer ones with a story and stuff. What about them? Take it away, Mark Rein:

I'm sure that at some point in our future we will make another Unreal, single-player, story-driven game. I'm sure at some point there will be one...[however] there are no plans to do one today.

What about tomorrow? Oh yeah. Gears 2. OK, we'll get back to you in 2011, thanks. More »

Samus, Unreal Tournament III's Newest Contender

Mark Wilson — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:40:00 EDT

After transplanting Master Chief from his warm, green home on the Xbox 360 to the PlayStation 3, it was hard to imagine a greater iconoclastic modder offense...but one may have just happened. The newest entrant to the UTIII unlicensed mods club is this Samus Aran skin. Play Metroid, kinda, on your PS3! More »

Epic Gets Steamed

Michael McWhertor — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:20:30 EDT

Alright, who isn't on Steam at this point? We can add Epic Games to the list, as the developer announced (with the help of Valve) that its catalog has come to Steam. Everything Unreal and Unreal Tournament is now available via legal digital distribution starting today, with a tremendous bundle of savings at your fingertips in the Unreal Deal Pack. That pack features Unreal Gold, Unreal 2: The Awakening, Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition, Unreal Tournament 2004: Editor's Choice Edition and Unreal Tournament 3 for just $53.95 American for a limited time. Yowza. More »

Unreal Engine 4 Targeting Consoles, Not PCs

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 23:20:00 EDT

Yeah, the Unreal Engine was once synonomous with cutting-edge PC graphics tech. Once. But in the future? With Unreal Engine 4.0? Well, it's going to be geared towards consoles, not the PC. So says Epic boss Tim Sweeney:

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.

Exclusively targeting consoles? PCs following after a Nintendo console? Egads. Epic and PC fanboys, let me get my boat and a paddle together before your salty tears cry me a river. More »

Enjoy Video Game Death Reenactments Live

Mark Wilson — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:40:34 EST

Those living in the LA area have the opportunity to partake in one of the weird (read: more awesome) stories we've come across this week. Performance venue Machine Project will be featuring artist Brody Condon...well, we'd best just let the program description tell the rest:

10 performers outfitted in medieval/space/fantasy armor re-create Bruce Nauman's 1973 work "Tony Sinking into the Floor, Face Up and Face Down". Performed in slow motion and combined with movements based on computer game death animations, this piece is accompanied by a high volume binaural beats reputed to induce out of body experiences.

Now that, my friends, is how to spend a Saturday night. The picture here is from a collection Condon made a few years ago using the Unreal Engine. More »

Epic Still Fighting For UT3 Mods on 360

Mark Wilson — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 14:40:56 EST

After finally getting around to loading my copy of UT3 for PS3 last weekend, I can really appreciate just how easily Epic made downloading elements during multiplayer—it feels just as simple as it did years ago on PC. But Epic is still fighting the good fight to bring this same level of PC integration to the Xbox 360 version of their game. From Mark Rein:

...we're hopeful. Microsoft hasn't said "no" yet, but then they haven't said "yes" either. We need them to say "yes," and we need them to do it soon.

So what happens if Epic can't strike a deal with Microsoft? More »

Latest Unreal 3 Extras To Be Shown at GDC

Brian Crecente — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:00:47 EST

Epic Games plan to demonstrate the latest Unreal Engine 3 features at this year's Game Developers Conference next month. The presentation will run on the half hour for each day of the show. More »

Unreal Tournament 3 Mod Cooker Coming Soon

Brian Crecente — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 10:00:16 EST

Epic's Mark Rein dropped into the Epic forums last night to let people know that the PS3 cooker for the Unreal Engine 3 editor is in the final stages of testing and could be out as early as next week. More »

Unreal 4 Engine in Development

Mark Wilson — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 14:00:20 EDT

Who would have thought that, after making three successful Unreal engines, Epic would make another? During a recent visit to Epic's offices, several noticed a pile of Beautiful Mindesque scribbles on programmer Tim Sweeney's desk. And that crazy scribble, my friends, was confirmed to be the early strings of code for the Unreal 4 engine. Those little pencil markings will become headshots, chainsawed bodies and probably even ponies and crap. More »

Silicon Knights Responds To Epic Countersuit

Mike Fahey — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 19:00:20 EDT

Welcome back to Kotaku Square Garden, where we join the match between Epic and Silicon Knights, already in progress. The action has been fast and furious today, ladies and gentlemen. As you may remember, the match started with Silicon Knights serving a suit to Epic, claiming they were provided a gimp version of the Unreal Engine 3. Then earlier today Epic volleyed back a dramatic countersuit, accusing Silicon Knights of copyright infringement and breach of contract, among other things. Speaking to GameDaily.biz, Silicon Knights' attorney, Christopher T. Holland delivers the countersuit a dismissive backhand.

"We don't think Epic's counterclaim has any merit," Holland told us. "We believe strongly that our claims in our complaint will prevail and the damages Silicon Knights has suffered in connection with its original complaint are vastly more, millions of dollars more than what Epic claims its damages are in its counterclaim. They've set forth $650,000 and our claims will dwarf that substantially."

Epic Vs. Silicon Knights is a Common Lawsuit

Mark Wilson — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 13:40:38 EDT

While we've told you about Silicon Knights' case against Epic for issues surrounding the Unreal 3 engine, Law of the Game, in all their properly-qualified-to-talk-about-law snootiness, has pointed out that Silicon Knights has a strong case that is actually quite common in the non-gaming world.

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.

So is Silicon Knights in the money? More »

Marathon Resurrected

Mike Fahey — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 10:30:06 EDT

Now you can relive the glory of a thirteen year-old game from within an eight year-old game! A labor of love seven years in the making, the team behind the just released Marathon: Resurrection 2.0 project have poured their hearts, minds, and a good chunk of free time into recreating Bungie's 2.5D shooter in full 3D as a modification for Unreal Tournament. While the mod takes several liberties in updating the game to the new engine, the flavor of the original is strong in this extremely comprehensive mod. It comes complete with 27 solo maps, 16 new multiplayer maps, 10 new monsters, 10 new weapons, and 15 new and remastered music tracks. A hell of a lot of love has been put into the project, and all it requires from you is a working version of Unreal Tournament An excellent way to dust off one of your old favorites and experience an even older one at the same time. More »

Drawn To Be Alive, Amazing UT2K4 Mod

Michael McWhertor — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 19:11:20 EDT

As someone who has some slight... difficulty succeeding at even the most simple, AI-coddling, stealth-based gameplay, my natural instinct to see such a title is to douse it with kerosene, set it ablaze, and dance around the pyre. But this little paper fella is so cute my desire to destroy all things stealth has been noticeably softened. More »

Midway Acquires Rights to Epic Back Catalogue

egauger — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 17:40:04 EDT

Games publisher Midway, distributor of my very favorite arcade shooter CarnEvil, has snapped up the rights to many of the Epic Games back catalogue. Unsurprisingly, the very first puppy they plan to unleash is an all-inclusive Unreal package: More »

Kotaku Stalku: CliffyB Thumbs Up New Kotaku Design

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 11 May 2006 16:22:44 EDT

CliffyB bright-eyed and bushy-tailed this morning. The Unreal mastermind seyz, "I love the site redesign." To all the haters, he'll pop a cap in your ass. More »

Second City Does Machinima

Brian Crecente — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 03:44:19 EDT

This odd bit of machinima has been making the rounds latetly. It's an Unreal love story that was put together by an alumni of the Second City comedy troupe. It's sorta Hair meets Red versus Blue. More »

DNF From E3past

brownlee — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 17:35:13 EST

To celebrate the imminent arrival of Duke Nukem Forever 2 in the year 20X6, we here at Kotaku are pleased to present this nostalgic rememberances of the game that never was, Duke Nukem Forever! More »

Live from Macworld: Mac Still Not a Gaming Machine

kourosh — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 16:30:53 EST

Kourosh here, reporting from Macworld in San Francisco for our more-popular-jock brother site Gizmodo. So, Apple announced two new computers based on Intel dual core processors, the iMac and the MacBook Pro laptop. Both go on sale in weeks. Both are screaming fast. Does this bode well for gamers who prefer Macs? Not that I can see. I walked by the Mac gaming pavillion on the show floor and here's what I saw: Star Wars Battlefront, Unreal Tournament 2004, Rise of Nations, Halo. Catch the common thread? Nothing's newer than two years old. More »

900 Ways to Know You Play Too Much Unreal

Brian Crecente — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 10:36:23 EDT

How can there be 900 ways to know you've played too much Unreal? I'm a huge fan of the shooter, but 900? Good thing putting the list together tops the list. Here's a taste: More »