Remember the Gears of War action figures that are due in stores in late spring? You get to see them again in all their plastic glory, from Comic-Con no doubt. The detail in these toys is amazing. Like I complained earlier, just don’t expect them to survive a good ass-whooping.

I like the detail in my toys like the next guy, but perhaps the main reason I stopped playing action figures and putting in more time playing video games is that the newer plastic toys aren’t as durable as they used to. Yes, I used to launch my G.I. Joes into orbit. That’s probably why I keep doing the same thing to Niko Bellic when playing Grand Theft Auto IV.

But the detailed-yet-frail action figures? No thanks. I’d rather play my toys than use them as paperweight.

Post from: EveryJoe

See Gears of War action figures in all their plastic glory

Here’s something that would leave you thinking: Epic Games announced that its Unreal Engine 3 will be used for unannounced games in development by 2K Games, the publisher of recent bestseller Bioshock.

As you know, Bioshock uses a modified version of the Unreal Engine 3, so this news doesn’t come as a surprise at all. However, the most perplexing part of this tidbit is about those “unannounced games in development.”

What are those games?

You mean aside from rumors of Bioshock making its way to the PS3, 2K is coming out with another game that uses Unreal Engine 3? I guess they are.

Remember when we discovered that 2K Boston/Irrational Games is looking for PS3 programmers? Perhaps Irrational are the developers tapped by 2K to work on these unannounced games, and that said games are going to be multiplatform.

Whatever the case, we’re all looking forward to hearing more about these unannounced games. When 2K Boston is in charge, good things happen.

Post from: EveryJoe

2K Games licenses Unreal Engine 3

Beast, Illuminate’s global illumination system, will allow the Epic engine to have more realistic lighting. This system takes into account not only the light that comes directly from a light source, but also cases where light rays from the same source are reflected by other surfaces.

Under the terms of the agreement, Illuminate Labs will join Epic’s partners program, and its technology will be available to any publishers or developers that license Unreal Engine 3.

Beast is also a platform-independent baker that uses the FBX file format, which allows users to add baking functionality to 3D asset creation tools. The new Beast features include:

• Global Illumination baking;
• Skylights from HDR images;
• Baked soft shadows with transparency.

With all these new effects, how does it affect the average PC? Not very good, I’m afraid. Such lighting would take more computations to generate, making things more difficult if you have a year-old rig or video card. If you want to see this new eye candy in all its glory, focus your attention on future games that will use Unreal Engine 3.

Post from: EveryJoe

More eye candy making its way to Unreal Engine 3

If you can’t get the software updates that Gears of War for the PC is asking for, then be prepared to crash, and often. You’ll crash so often that you’d want to burn your copy of Gears. The factors that could probably stop you is the amount of time it took you to get the game (it’s two weeks late in our shores, and a year late for the PC), and the price tag.

Then again, I don’t know if not having the AMD Processor Driver for Windows XP version 1.3.2.16 is the main culprit for my frequent desktop crashes. I’ve tried so many times to update my processor’s driver, but it doesn’t work.

I just hope that Epic Games is working on a fix to this problem because my reasons for not picking up a blowtorch in Ace Hardware might not hold for so long.

Post from: EveryJoe

Gears of War annoyance #4: Crashing makes you want to burn

We all know that PC gamers are getting Unreal Tournament 3 this very month, but the release date for the Playstation 3 version remains tentative. Mark Rein, vice president at Epic Games, told Eurogamer that the chances of getting the PS3 version this year is still pretty good.

“Right now we’re very close to a release candidate, and we should have it finished by the end of this week. Then we send it off and it’s just a matter of what happens from there.”

While Rein never said it explicitly, I think it’s very doable. Why? This Eurogamer quote was given roughly around November 8, Thursday, at an event in Birmingham. The end of that week would be the 10^th or 11^th. Production would take from two to three weeks (around the end of November), and delivery would probably be another two weeks (this would roughly fall in the first week of December).

There’s a catch.

UT3 won’t make it to Europe until 2008 because according to Rein, the region’s certification process takes longer. They’ll still be testing the game in different languages, so that will eat up some more time.

Post from: EveryJoe

UT3 for the PS3 might launch this year, but Europe gets no love

The designer then proceeds to rave about specific parts of the game that I won’t spill.

We may be days away from the onslaught of Halo 3, and the Bungie shooter may break new sales records (then again, it may not). Halo multiplayer matches may again rule Xbox Live, but aside from slightly updated graphics, what new thing does Halo 3 have to offer?

Bioshock may not have multiplayer like any Halo game, but it gets Cliffy B.’s vote for GOTY. It’s rather ironic that the designer known for making great multiplayer games is choosing a full-blown solo experience for such honors.

What’s your vote for GOTY?

Post from: EveryJoe

Cliffy B. says Bioshock is his Game of the Year

You see, Mark Rein announced that the PS3 version of UT3 will support the keyboard and mouse scheme.

“I checked with Steve Polge and he said that YES we are supporting keyboard and mouse in Unreal Tournament 3 on PS3. He is confident we are doing it in a way that will be balanced without feeling “gimped” for either side. We’ll also allow people to choose whether or not they want to allow mixed controller vs. keyboard/mouse games or not.”

Good one, Mark. In retrospect, your news of UT3 not having cross-platform play between the PC and PS3 is almost making me feel bad because this new keyboard/mouse scheme for the PS3 levels the playing field between the two platforms.

Then again, aging video cards resulting in choppy visuals would give PC jockeys a scapegoat if they ever lose to a PS3 gamer. I mean, have you seen how purdy UT3 is? It’s almost as scary as Crysis.

Thanks to Wikipedia for the image.

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Post from: EveryJoe

UT3 for PS3 will have keyboard support

Mark Rein, vice president at Epic Games, announced at the developer’s forums that Unreal Tournament 3 doesn’t use Games For Windows Live.

“We have not decided about cross platform play between PC and PS3. We’re not 100% sure that users want that feature but if we get time we’ll play around with it and see how it works. In the mean time we plan to be able to serve the PS3 from PC servers so that should help us gets lots of great servers going.”

The PS3 users won’t stand a chance, unless they sell out and use auto-aim.

Post from: EveryJoe

Epic: UT3 won’t use Games For Windows Live

Is such a claim possible? You and I know how purdy Gears of War looks.

Here’s the short of it: Epic Games, the makers of both games, has been working furiously to improve the Unreal Engine 3 since they released Gears of War late last year. Your proof:

Steven Polge, Epic Games’ lead designer for Unreal Tournament 3, confirmed that the game’s Xbox 360 version will come with four-player cooperative play and two-player split-screen in single player. You’ll also see 18 different vehicles and five types of turrets.

Spiffy becomes iffy
The preview gets a bit iffy when Polge started to ramp up the hype regarding the game’s controls. The controls were so good that half the people that work on the game prefer to use the Xbox 360 version.

When the guy responsible for the controls joined the playtesting sessions, he used a controller while everyone else used keyboards. The amazing part is, he “kicked everyone’s butt.”

How can controls be so good that people using controllers start beating keyboard users? Doesn’t that sound a wee bit unbalanced? It sounds more like auto-aim, a disturbing trend that became more prevalent when more FPS games are being created for consoles.

Halo grows horns
Case in point: Halo 2 for the PC. Plug in an Xbox 360 controller when playing multiplayer and you’ll notice that it’s easier to land your attacks when using a gamepad. The worst part—you can’t disable it, or find out if an opponent is using a controller.

Ergo, it’s not the UT3 controls that are good. It’s the auto-aim that’s spectacular.

Make no mistake, I love console shooters like the next rabid gamer. I just don’t like it when unfair advantages are exploited, especially in multiplayer when everything should be equal. Keyboards versus controllers may not be equal, but so is auto-aim, regardless of control scheme.

Great work Epic. You’re showing the world that people who use controllers need to resort to auto-aim to beat keyboard users.

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Post from: EveryJoe

New Unreal Tournament controls are so slick