If you think Unreal Engine 3 games feature too much gray and brown, laden with "pillars and girders," all being stomped around on by bald space marines, Cliff "Young Clifford" Bleszinski wants you to blame the tech. Speaking with Develop recently, the man that birthed Marcus Fenix said, "The technology of this generation just happens to be very good at rendering metals and stones and dramatic lighting." He argues that "translucent effects" are much harder to pull of with the technology given and as such, "the tech is good at showing off armor and it's not that good at doing hair ... that's why we have bald space marines."

Though we'd argue that there are lots of bald men in our lives who happen to not be space marines -- CheapyD and Dr. Manhattan prime among them -- we can appreciate how Marcus Fenix may be more equipped to take down the Locust than an omnipotent blue man. Wait a minute! Interestingly, Bleszinski also notes during the interview that he's got "like five projects going on right now" -- we're counting Shadow Complex and another (still unannounced) Gears of War, which leaves three unannounced projects? Something is afoot at Epic Games. And it almost certainly involves bald space marines.

Epic Games has opened a new subsidiary in Seoul, Korea, with plans to provide licensing services and support resources to development teams using its Unreal Engine. Epic Games Korea will be led by Ray Park, formerly the business and strategy development manager for Microsoft's in-game advertising company, Massive, Inc.

While Epic Games has provided its Unreal Engine to teams in the territory for over five years, Park states the opening of a Korean subsidiary signifies Epic's "desire to collaborate more closely with the [local] game development community." Jay Wilbur, Epic Games' vice president of business development, noted Epic Games Korea would serve as "a hub for Unreal Engine access, knowledge and support in the Korean marketplace."

Rumors of developer Silicon Knights moving to Korea in search of the support it claims to have never received from Epic Games could not be confirmed ... because we made it up for the sake of a bad joke.

In addition to the upcoming Alpha Protocol and Fallout: New Vegas, as well as the perpetually delayed/possibly dead Aliens RPG, Obsidian Entertainment is apparently working on a fourth, unannounced title. In an interview with GameBanshee, Obsidian's Feargus Urquhart said, "We have been working on another title for the last four months that we can't talk about yet."

According to the piece, the game is being developed on the company's internal engine, though Urquhart had, more or less, positive things to say about his company's experience with Unreal Engine 3. "Our engine, like Unreal, is a tool and different jobs can be done better with tools that are made for them ... there are things that our engine may never do as well as Unreal, but likewise there are things that our engine will do that will be better than Unreal," Urquhart says of the choice. Considering the rest of the interviews answers, we're fairly certainly that the game's not a new Neverwinter Nights nor Knights of the Old Republic 3. Guesses, friends?

We first heard about some changes coming to Unreal Engine 3's backend way back at GDC, where the tech was first demonstrated for developers. At last week's E3, Epic was kind enough to give us a demonstration of some of the changes coming to its famous engine, and we have to say they're pretty spiffy. Nothing is jaw-dropping, but with some tweaks under the hood, the development process and post-release analysis can help developers utilizing Unreal Engine 3 in many surprising ways.

Epic has some new additions to its famous Unreal Engine 3 planned, adding to the host of new features shown at GDC this year. Though the company isn't spilling the beans on exactly what we can expect, some objects doing stuff in an environment is likely a safe bet. The news is seriously that there will be news later.

Through a press release that just landed into our inbox, we can confirm that this new tech wil be on display for "prospective customers, evaluators, licensees, and members of its Integrated Partners Program" who would be interested in the PC, Xbox 360, and PS3-compatible engine. Sadly, we have no more details than that at this time.

If Epic is looking to win back lost Gears of War 2 players, then it's going about it the right way. The company has released the laundry list of changes coming in Title Update 3, and we have to say a majority of them look nice on paper, but we'll have to wait and see if they can be properly executed before we pass judgment. Find the full list after the break.

Epic isn't stopping there, as the development studio also dropped information on something else Gears fans have been waiting for: a price for the new Snowblind map pack. As expected, it will cost you a cool 800 ($10) when it releases on March 31, just as the Combustible maps did.

[Via Major Nelson]

Though we usually have some expectations for what big announcements will be dropped at the annual Game Developers Conference, the happenings of this year's event, beginning next Monday, seem to be veiled in secrecy. However, Epic Games recently announced something for PC gamers to look forward to -- the developer will be showcasing some of the big changes it's implementing in Unreal Engine 3 during GDC 2009.

Among said changes is the introduction of the Unreal Lightmass, which will add "high-quality static lighting with next-generation effects." It will also include a few tools to make things easier on Unreal-focused artists and designers, such as the Master Control Program, which tracks and collects statistics of online gaming activity. It also enslaves and destroys its fellow programs, attempting to take over the world from within the ENCOM mainframe computer. End of line!

Mark Rein and company will have another memento to share during the office barbeque as Epic has been recognized as the "Top Industry Driven Technology Company of the Year," at least on the Atlantic Seaboard. The accolade was given by the North Carolina Technology Association, or NCTA, as part of the organization's annual NCTA 21 awards ceremony, which applauds technology go-getters in the Tar Heel State.

Other finalists for the award included Parata Systems, PeopleClick and Railinc, companies we imagine lost out due to their flagrant disregard for rag doll physics and courtroom shenanigans.

Remember back when Mark Rein let loose somebody was working on Unreal Engine 3 for Wii? Well, we finally know what game will be using it, we guess. Kind of. We don't really know much about the exact game, per se. What game? The one that EA is publishing from Q Entertainment, Resident Evil co-creator Shinji Mikami and the man responsible for one of our most favorite Wii games, Suda51.

Suda says Unreal Engine 3 is a "powerful, easy-to-implement game engine" that is aiding his company to "quickly bring our vision to life." He also added that the "tools and technology" allow him to "create games faster, easier and with less risk." So are we excited? Well, maybe. It's not like the Wii version is mentioned and we would think it should be, considering no title up until now has utilized Unreal Engine 3 technology. But, hey, we'll try to be as optimistic as we can, because we feel confident in the abilities of all involved, to tell the truth.

Now if only we could some information on what this game is ...

It may seem like a stretch, but we're keeping a close eye on every scrap of information surrounding the collaboration with Goichi "Suda51" Suda and Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami (as well as Tetsuya Mizuguchi's Q Entertainment). Publisher Electronic Arts has announced (via press release) that Suda51's studio Grasshopper Manufacture has licensed Epic's Unreal Engine 3 for the multiplatform horror franchise. We're curious what the use of UE3 means for the Wii version of the game, given Epic's non-support of the console.

Unfortunately, what's lacking in the press release is any information about the game itself. Said Epic VP Jay Wilbur, "Grasshopper Manufacture is one of the most daring and innovative studios in the world, and we can't wait to see what they're able to do with Unreal Engine 3." Welcome to the club, buddy.

Want to know a secret? Videogame adaptations of war can be pretty violent. Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway is the recently released first-person shooter from UbiSoft that proves our point. Setting itself apart in gameplay style, Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway features a light tactical overlay within its squad based system that allows players to control nearly all aspect of the soldiers under their command. According to Metacritic, if that's your thing, Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway has been given generally favorable reviews; currently sitting with a score of 76. The trailer, found after the jump, showcases some of the more violent action in the game. Looking to see how insane war can be or just want to watch sheep react to physics through a grenade blast? Jump in.

A flash-based trailer showcasing one of the most impressive looking titles to hit this holiday? OK, EA we'll bite. In a society seemingly ripped from the pages (in concept) from a George Orwell novel, Mirror's Edge is the story of a world where citizens are trained and controlled. After a failed resistance the city has grown sterile and without emotion but now a new group leaps from rooftop-to-rooftop in search of freedom from control. How does Mirror's Edge rank on your holiday buying list?

It's been quite awhile since we've heard anything about the Silicon Knights and Epic Games lawsuit -- we last reported on it in January 2008 and were all prepared to make jokes about the lawsuit being on the cusp of vaporware like Duke Nukem Forever is and Too Human was. Thankfully, our curiosity has been rewarded; on the eve of the latter game's launch, Silicon Knights President Denis Dyack managed to put the legal proceedings back into the limelight.

In an interview with Develop, Dyack said that the trial is proceeding and that he was confident in his claims. "We're hopeful that justice will be done. We all feel really strongly that [Epic Games has] defrauded us, and a major portion of the industry," he said.

To recap: In late July 2007, Silicon Knights filed a lawsuit against Epic Games over what it felt was inadequate support for its Unreal Engine 3, thus harming development of Too Human. Epic responded and filed a countersuit. In November, Epic's motion for dismissal was denied. In January 2008, multiple subpoenas were issued to other UE3 licensees. As for Too Human's involvement, we'll be keeping a mental tally of how many reviews mention the lawsuit.

From the looks of the first video, the game appears to draw heavy influences from Capcom's online hack-'n-slasher, Monster Hunter, working in character designs which seem like they could have been created for the PS2 action title Bujingai. Interactive environments are also part of the mix. In other words, it's definitely not the MMO equivalent of Jade Empire, but maybe BioWare will get to that after its so-not-a-secret KOTOR MMO?

[Via Massively]

People should probably stop asking them about it. Seriously. We think that's what Mark Rein wants.

But, people still keep doing it, the latest being an interview with GamesIndustry.biz. When asked about Wii development, Rein busted out his Fragalator 5000 and shot the possibility down into a heaping mess of blood and guts. "That's like asking a sculptor when he's going to start painting," he said. "That's just not our medium. That's not our area of expertise - our area of expertise is the more high-end consoles and things that push technology higher. That's what we do - there's a lot more water in that well for us, when that runs dry then maybe we'd have to think of doing something else but I don't think that well is going to run dry anytime soon."

Oh well, not like Unreal Tournament would be the same with Miis anyway ...