Epic Games to Bring Their Load in For GDC

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GDC’s hitting the floor next Monday and we’ve already got plenty to be excited about. Epic Games will be hitting the show to showcase goodies for the Unreal Engine 3.
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Epic Making New IP with EA

Epic Games

Epic, impressed by their work on the Gears of War PC port, bought People Can Fly not very long ago. Now’s the time for action. Epic has announced that their Poland-based PCF studio will be working on a whole new IP to be released for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3, all by EA. About time.

And we just got you excited on that, then sorry, we don’t have much else to report. That’s pretty much all that has been released upto now. No title, no hint of story, nothing. Still, being the keen industry analysts that we are, we’re guessing it will be a sci-fi first person shooter, involving either a dystopia or an alien invasion.

Epic seems to have been on a roll recently. While they have always prospered by selling their uber Unreal Engine to other devs, they took a walk out of the tent with Gears of War and are working on its sequel as we speak. They’re also doing great licensing Unreal Engine 3 and have a 4th version in the works.

Their flagship product, Unreal Tournament 3 didn’t do so well, however. This has left the franchise abandoned for the while, as no more news has been announced regarding it yet. Still, in an informal chat conducted by BeyondUnreal, an Epic employee (hehe) had said that Unreal Tournament will last as long as Epic does.

First Look at Gerard Butler in Game

Gerard Butler!

Gerard Butler: ever since 300’s first trailer came out, he has been seen on dictionary entries for “awesome”. Butler will be next seen doing awesome shit in Game from Lionsgate studios. As the name suggests, the movie will be about a game, but judging by the first photo released (that you see above), it is going to be a far cry from Game Over and most other abysmal video-game-inspired movies.

In Game, we see a huge uber-violent multiplayer game called Slayers, that involves real death row inmates. Butler plays Kabel, one such inmate who must go through what must be one hell of an adventure of death, fury and destruction. Funny thing is, Kabel will be completely controlled by a nerdy teen, who, going by our experiences with Halo, will be screaming expletives while munching on potato chips and tacos.

No, seriously: Kabel will have to fight the creator of the maniacal game and overthrow the system, while at the same time being entirely controlled as a sim character. This is a very promising concept that should most likely go pretty well. The photo above seems to suggest that a bit of 300 style will be applied here as well, which can only be good. The plot also sounds pretty similar to Death Race, starring Jason Statham. Personally, I’d prefer this to Death Race.

The plot also sounds unusually similar to Unreal Tournament and its sequels. In UT, we see a futuristic gladiatorial tournament where humans, aliens, mutated humans and other such beings fight each other for fame, glory and fortune in a ultra-violent killing frenzy of a tournament relished by seemingly adolescent viewers across the globe. Interestingly, the background on some of the characters in UT2003 says that they were prisoners and were forcibly entered into the tournament.

Whatever the case, this is one movie to watch out for. It is scheduled for release this year, although we have practically no information about it, such as more photos, a trailer or anything like that…

GamePro: Microsoft may buy Epic Games

Gears of War does an illegal operation
Think independent game developers, and Epic comes to mind. One of the industry’s veterans, Epic is known for their Unreal franchise, as well as their famed Gears of War. But GamePro magazine predicts that this is about to change and monster publisher Microsoft Games will buy Epic eventually.

To find out more on the diabolical deal of doom, hit the jump!
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