See that screenshot? Looks pretty cool, but it's doesn't seem very special. In this case looks can be deceiving. That screenshot is the future of gaming. It is the first screenshot from the Unreal Engine 4 demo reel. And if history is any indicator you'll be playing this engine a lot in the years to come. Here's a description of the demo shown to industry big wigs behind closed doors at GDC in March.
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Here’s what the Unreal guys are hoping will singe the eyeballs of executives, hardware engineers, and game developers when they see it at GDC: A heavily armored demon knight sits frozen to his throne in a ruined mountain fortress. As he awakens, lava begins to flow around him and flames engulf the world. A magma vent spews a column of smoke and smoldering embers. He stands, sending up showers of sparks that dance, fall out of focus, and fade into ash. The knight hefts a massive hammer that glows with an inner fire. As he stalks down an empty corridor, a deep rumble sounds and masonry falls from the ceiling—this is no mountain but a volcano on the verge of eruption. When the knight steps outside, we see a range of snow-capped peaks in the far-off distance, rendered in stunning clarity. Behind him the volcano belches black smoke, while burning embers mix with swirling snowflakes.
In previous engines, one floating ember was enough to slow performance considerably; a shower of them was impossible. With Unreal Engine 4, there can be millions of such particles, as long as the hardware is potent enough to sustain them. Game developers overuse features of every new engine, because they are suddenly so easy to implement. In the original Unreal Engine, for example, the ability to render colored lighting led to a rash of games that employed the effect. The same may prove true for UE4′s particle effects, for better or worse. (“Mark my words,” Bleszinski says, “those particles are going to be whored by developers.”)
From there the demo moved seamlessly to a first person perspective where senior technical artist Alan Willard began to actually play the short game. He then revealed that the demo was operating not from a compiled game file but from the UE4 editor using only a single video card - an Nvidia GTX 680. That's mighty impressive.
The most recent iteration of the Unreal Engine is the most widely used middleware platform in the industry, powering everything from Arkham City, Mass Effect and Mortal Kombat to arcade games like Shadow Complex and even iOS titles like Infinity Blade. If you're a gamer, any sort of gamer, then you've played a game built on UE3.
More than almost any single company, Epic is going to be shaping the next generation of console hardware. The success of Unreal Engine 3 makes it likely that UE4 will enjoy a similarly ubiquitous place in the next gen, so the console makers will take their input very seriously. At least, they will up to a point. Epic's braintrust seems to be channeling Tim Allen with chants of "More Power", an impulse Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have to be wary of following.
Epic has also revealed that a demo of Unreal Engine 4 will be shown off at E3 next month, so you'll be able to see for yourselves what the future will be running on.
So Borderlands 2 is getting a pair of special editions and a pre-order bonus. Not a shock to anyone, especially since I already did a story on this a month back. But this is the official announcement, and I feel like posting it again. It's a slow news week.
First and foremost is the Premiere Club, which is included with all pre-ordered copies of the game. The Premiere Club gets you the Gearbox Gun Pack (a collection of unique, early game weapons), a Golden Key (used to unlock a special chest later in the game), the Vault Hunter’s Relic (an artifact which boosts loot drop rates) and an all-new fifth character class - the Mechromancer, which will be made available post launch.
Next we have the $99 Deluxe Vault Hunter CE. It includes:
Borderlands 2 Game
Authentic Marcus Kincaid Bobblehead
4 Exclusive Stickers
Map of Pandora
Comic Book Download
Inside the Vault: The Art of Borderlands 2 Hardbound Book
Bonus Digital Content
What you see pictured above is the $149 Ultimate Vault Hunter CE, which gives you everything in the Deluxe CE plus
Replica Borderlands Loot Chest
Numbered Certificate of Authenticity
Steelbook Case
Creatures of Pandora Wide Format ID Chart
4 Lithograph Postcards
Field Notes from Sir Hammerlock
Borderlands 2 will be released on September 18 for the 360, PS3 and PC.
On Monday we showed you the debut trailer for Eerie Canal Games' Dreadline. Today we have a quick interview with Bryn Bennett, co-founder and executive producer over at Eerie Canal, about the game.
Colony of Gamers: Give me a quick thumbnail of what a mission in Dreadlands will entail?
Bryn Bennett: All missions will take place during a calamity, both historic and imagined. (Like, maybe there are a bunch of zombies in a mall, but the monsters want to kill the humans first.) Generally the players will control monsters as they rampage through the level, trying to kill as many humans as possible before the catastrophe hits.
Sub missions might also be possible, like freeing another monster or saving a few people that weren't going to die.
CoG: How many monsters will be on the squad for each mission? And how many total characters will be playable?
BB: Four monsters will be available on the squad. We messed around with this number a bit, and 4 seemed to be the sweet spot.
Total characters are yet to be decided... mainly because we keep having more ideas! Additional monsters may also be DLC if we decide to go that route.
CoG: What sort of character progression will there be? How unique will I be able to make my character?
BB: We're working on this right now. It definitely won't be a deep RPG to the level of Diablo or anything. I mean, I really don't want my mummy to have a +7 vorpal sword of truth. I just want him to rip people apart with is sweet mummy hands.
CoG: The trailer seemed to straddle the line between humor and horror. What sort of content level are you aiming for?
BB: It's a tough line. You play a group of monsters who are doing terrible things, but we also want the players to be able to relate to them. There will definitely be a lot of dark humor in this game. If not, it's kind of psychopathic!
CoG: Will the 'Cuberick' have an Elevator of Blood power? Maybe an "It's full of stars!" power?
Hi Rez Studios have announced that the closed beta for Smite, their action MOBA title, will begin on May 31. I know, I know. Another MOBA/DOTA type game. But this one may be different. Firstly, it's being developed by Hi Rez Studios, creators of - for me - the game of the year to date, Tribes Ascend. Smite is a different sort of game, but playing Tribes I know that Hi Rez can run a F2P game without making it pay to win (P2W).
Smite is an action-oriented variant on the genre, played from a third person perspective with gods from various ancient pantheons occupying the hero roles. You can apply for the beta at the official site. They're also offering an early access starter pack, which gets you into the closed beta and gives you 10 additional gods right off the bat.
Alternate headline "THQ: We're Still Boned, But Not As Boned"
Ok, that may be a bit harsh, but things are not going well for THQ. The company announced a net loss of $240M for the recently ended fiscal year, an increase of $100M over the previous year. That sounds really bad, but many of the red numbers are one time losses - such as the demise of the UDraw, the closure of Kaos Studios and the termination of several kid-centric licenses - which likely won't be on the books for the next FY. But THQ also announced that they're looking to sell the rights to Devil's Third, the debut title from Tomonobu Itagaki's Valhalla Game Studios. Devil's Third had reportedly been set for an early 2013 launch, but all plans are likely on hold until it's publisher situation has been settled. THQ also announced that the South Park game had also slipped to 2013.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Darksiders II has a new release date of August 14, and pre-orders are five times what they were at this point for the original Darksiders. Early pre-orders for the September releasing standalone Saints' Row: Enter the Dominatrix expansion are also strong. A slight rebranding of the WWE titles also saw a bump in sales.
In addition to those franchises, THQ seems to be banking strongly on the next generation of consoles. CEO Brian Farrell says that having multiple launch or early cycle games is a "key part of our strategy". It seems likely that at least some of THQ's announced future titles - such as Guillermo Del Toro's InSane, Crytek's Homefront 2 and the unnamed project from former Assassins' Creed head Patrice Desilets - may be shifted to the next gen.
In short things are bad at THQ, but they're still operating.
The financial situation at Kingdoms of Amalur developer 38 Studios is so troubling that the governor of Rhode Island is meeting with company officials to try and hash out a way to keep the Providence-based studio solvent. The exact details of 38's troubles are still unknown, but the situation is bad enough that governor Lincoln Chafee is intervening publicly on their behalf.
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“We’re concerned and just doing everything possible to ensure that 38 Studios stays part of the Rhode Island community,” Governor Chafee told WPRI.com on Monday night. “We’re working on different issues with them.” Asked whether he thinks 38 Studios can be stabilized, Chafee paused and said: “We’re working on it.”
While Chafee is trying to keep a company that employs upwards of 300 people in Rhode Island afloat, the real bone of contention here is a $75M loan guarantee given to 38 by the previous administration. The loan guarantee lured 38 Studios to Providence from Maynard in Massachusetts and was not terribly popular amongst the electorate at the time, with governor Chafee arguing against it in his successful gubernatorial campaign. Chafee and the state house want to make sure that loan is repaid, and a bankruptcy now would likely mean the state taking a massive loss on the loan.
Kingdoms of Amalur sold fairly well after it's February release, but the loan was not for Kingdoms. The loan, and most of 38 Studio's efforts, are on Project Copernicus, the MMO they were founded to develop. The game currently codenamed Copernicus is the pet project of studio founder Curt Schilling, and boasts the creative talents of fantasy novelist RA Salvatore and comic artist Todd McFarland. The studio had said they hoped to release Copernicus later this year, but an announcement that the studio would not be exhibiting at E3 makes that release unlikely. Missing E3 seems to have prompted the current worry over 38's finances, but it's not the first time these questions have been raised.
WPRI reports that accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers issued an audit last June which expressed "substantial doubts" about the studio's continued solvency. So far 38 Studios has not commented on the story.
Square Enix and developer Crystal Dynamics announced today that the new Tomb Raider title won't make it's announced fall release. Instead they're now aiming at an early 2013 launch. Tomb Raider was supposed to return the series to its roots with a slight reimagining of Lara Croft's early days. She's marooned on an island after a shipwreck and forced to fight to survive.
The reboot/revamp was announced a year and a half back, but little has been released about it since this past E3. Square Enix demoed the new game at the show to fairly mediocre response. Since then it's been radio silence on the part of both the publisher and developer in regards to Lara Croft's next outing.
Rarely has a headline made me smile more. It's like the developers of Dreadline looked deep into my soul and came up with a concept aimed right at my core. A crack squad of time traveling monsters - a werewolf, a mummy, a ghost and a 'Cuberick' are shown in the trailer - who have to kill specific individuals at the scene of history's greatest disasters. Even better, developer Eerie Canal Entertainment is staffed with some of the best devs in the Boston area, a crew whose credits include Bioshock, Rock Band, System Shock 2, Titan Quest and Freedom Force. The game is described by it's creators as a "Diablo/Freedom Force mashup, but faster and with more blood". That's a hell of a way to sell a game.
Dreadline is slated for an early 2013 release on the PC.
It took a lot less convincing than I'd expected to get Jeremy and Scott on board with Diablo 3. I hadn't planned to cajole or persuade at all, and I only suggested they play the beta weekend so they could comment on an experience that every other human in the free world was sharing at the time. Neither of them is particularly attracted to the setting or the lore of Diablo, and there's really nothing in the genre that turns them on. They are, however, suckers for what may be the slickest, simplest, and most trouble-free multiplayer engagement we've every experienced as a group. The fact that you're playing with friends is often more important that what it is you're playing, and usability can rank awfully high on our list of priorities. There are now at least two preorders based entirely on that premise. It seems that even in its current and very well-fed form, Blizzard still has some things to teach the rest of the world.
Welcome to Kickstart My Game, our weekly stroll through the projects vying for your support dollars.
We start off this week with Grim Dawn, from Crate Entertainment. Crate includes several members of the old Iron Lore team which developed Titan Quest. But Grim Dawn is something bigger. An open world action RPG with randomized events to produce almost limitless replayability. It's ambitious as hell, but also exactly the sort of thing I love. They've hit their goal already, but you can still get in on the fun.
Some other worthy projects
- Two Guys SpaceVenture - Another old school adventure game, but this one is from the two creators of the classic Space Quest titles from the 80s and 90s. They're still quite a way from their ambitious $500K goal.
- On the other hand Haunts: The Manse Macabre has a much more modest goal of $25K since the game is already in development. Haunts is a turn based horror game where you can play as either the haunter or the hauntee.
- Old school adventure isn't the only genre trying to use Kickstarter to revive it. Skyjacker looks to do the same for hardcore space flight sims in the vein of Wing Commander and X-Wing. Skyjacker has also been in development for a while now, so there are several in-game videos you can watch to see that this isn't a vaporware dream.
- In the pen and paper realm, Book of Jade looks to bring 'Jadeclaw' to the 'Ironclaw' system. I'm not quite sure what that means, but I'm told it's very impressive.
If there's a project you think deserves a spotlight, please let us know about it in the master thread.
Hey guys, the cool folks over at Runic have given me a bunch of keys for the Torchlight 2 beta to hand out. They're running a stress test this weekend and want some gamers on to push those servers. In light of that, nothing fancy will be required of you. The first 15 of you that post in this thread and joined CoG before today will get a key.
So here's the idea for a game. You're a vampire, and you use your vampirey powers to take down an evil company. Sounds good right? Then you find out the game is named simply Dark. I would have gone with 'Draculas vs the 1%' but that's probably why I don't make the big publisher bucks.
Developed by RealmForge Studios (Dungeons) and published by Kalypso, Dark is a stealth action title where you have to use your vampire abilities to stay hidden from powerful forces while trying to uncover the secrets of the Geoforge corporation.
Dark is set for an early 2013 release on the 360 and PC.
Yeah there's plenty of Redcoat-stabbin and powdered wig-bashing in the new gameplay trailer for Assassins Creed 3, but the real story here is bear fighting. Too few games let you fight bears, natures most monstrous creation. Skyrim lets you fight them, and it's awesome, therefore logically AC3 will be awesome. And you can't argue with logic.
Bethesda and Arkane Studios have announced that Dishonored will be released in North America on October 9, and Europe on October 12.
Dishonored tells the story of Corvo, former bodyguard of the Queen, now accused of her murder. Corvo is granted supernatural powers by a mysterious entity known as The Outsider and becomes a renowned assassin trying to clear his name.
Square Enix and developer IO Interactive today announced that Hitman Absolution will be released on November 20 in North America. This nugget of info was buried in a press release touting one of the more elaborate pre-order bonuses I've yet seen. If you pre-order Hitman from Gamestop - and apparently only from Gamestop - you'll get the Hitman Sniper Challenge stand alone title for free starting next week. This downloadable game will score your attempts to kill a corrupt CEO with your trusty sniper rifle from a distant balcony. The Kazo TRG sniper rifle you use in Sniper Challenge can be carried over to the main game along with the upgrades and unlockables earned therein.
This is, as far as I can remember, the first time a separate XBLA/PSN quality game was created just to be a pre-order bonus for another game. Dead Rising 2 had the Case Zero game, but I don't think that was given away with pre-orders. And in any case, that wasn't really a separate game, just the first level of DR2 dressed up as a separate game. Facebook games and flash games? Sure, but an XBLA/PSN/Steam release of this sort is, I think, a first.
Sony, home entertainment behemoth for many, many years, has just posted its fifth straight quarterly loss, and it's a stonker - $3.2 Billion for the January-March 2012 quarter.
Granted, a lot of this can be attributed to factors outwith Sony's control (earthquake, tsunami, etc.), but that's still a distressing figure!
This loss puts the icing on a horrific year for the once dominant entertainment conglomerate - the worst in the company's 66-year histrory.
Oh, and this comes on the heels of last month's announcement that Sony plans to cut approximately 10,000 jobs (about six per cent of the global Sony workforce).
However, it's not all that bad. Under the leadership of Kaz Hirai, Sony is forecasting a return to comparatively modest profit of $375 million for the 2013 fiscal year, based in most part on the growing smartphone and tablet markets.
Whichever way you cut it, it has been a very tough couple of years for Sony.
- What time is it? Adddddventure time! At least it will be for owners of Nintendo's 3DS and DS handhelds when a licensed video game based on Cartoon Network's acclaimed Adventure Time cartoon comes to the systems this Fall. Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why’d you steal our garbage?! will be the first game to be based on the Adventure Time license. Developer Wayforward, known for their well-received DSiWare and 3DSWare titles, will be heading up development on the game, while series creator Pendleton Ward will be writing a new story just for the game.
- Show creator Kurt Sutter says that the browser based Sons of Anarchy game has been scrapped in favor of a full fledged console title. The larger game will obviously take longer to produce, but chances are it will be better than the multiplayer browser game announced a few months back.
- Capcom's upcoming Dragon's Dogma will feature a neat take on the mega boss battle. The optional 'Ur-Dragon' has so many hit points that it will take most everyone who owns the game to take it down. The asynchronous multiplayer battle will record every bit of damage against a massive pool of hit points. But it will reward anyone who makes an attempt with some phat lootz, with an even bigger haul for the player to strikes the fatal blow. The Ur-Dragon can still be beaten offline, but for much smaller rewards.
- On the same day a delay was announced, new sleuth Superannuation discovers that Irrational is hiring a network engineer for Bioshock Infinite. This seem to indicate that some sort of multiplayer may be in the cards. (via Eurogamer)
The holiday gaming season just got a bit less stellar. Irrational Games today announced that Bioshock Infinite will not make it's announced fall release. To give the team more time, they're now moving the date back to February 26, 2013. Irrational is also holding Infinite back from the summer's big game expos - E3 and Gamescom - to maximize the team's development time.
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