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Epic's Fortnite is a 'fresh and bubbly' co-op survival sandbox game
Epic Games kicked off our experience at Comic-Con this year with a panel about Fortnite, the oft-mentioned but not yet seen game that serves as the studio's followup to Gears of War. Producer Tanya Jessen, Lead Artist Pete Ellis, and Design Director Cliff Bleszinski talked at length about the game, revealing it to be a mashup of Minecraft, The Walking Dead and Team Fortress 2. It's designed and built in Unreal Engine 4, and destined for a PC-only launch.Jessen described Fortnite as a "co-op sandbox survival game" with three different elements. Scavenging will allow players to go out into the ruined world and find items and materials wherever they can. Building will let players first erect and then customize various structures of all shapes and sizes. Combat, the last part of the game, pits players against creepy yet "Looney Tunes-inspired" monsters attempting to take those structures down."This is not just a game for people who like shooters or RPGS," said Jessen. "It's a game for everybody." And according to Bleszinski, Fortnite is a big change internally from what the studio has been working on more recently. "It's been really fresh for us," he said. "We've had like six years of Gears and we've perfected the art of killing. Fortnite is serving as a fresh change of pace for us."%Gallery-160290%
Fortnite is Epic's first Unreal Engine 4 game, heading exclusively to PC
Fortnite is Epic's first Unreal Engine 4 game and it'll ship "exclusively for the PC," Epic Games' Cliff Bleszinksi said today during a San Diego Comic-Con 2012 panel. "We're here and we're announcing that this is a PC-designed game, it's shipping exclusively for the PC," he told a crowd of attendees."Next-gen's here. It's been here. It's a high-end PC," Bleszinski said. He added that the dudebro-free Fortnite didn't "make sense" for Unreal Engine 3, and cheered PCs as being part of Epic's "heritage."Fortnite, which sees characters building bunkers and emplacements to defend against the monsters of the night, was suspected of being a PC exclusive earlier this year when it popped up on a LinkedIn listing for PC. The listing was quickly changed after we brought it to the attention of Epic Games.We'll have more from Epic's SDCC panel as soon as we can (it's still going on!).
A guided tour of Bulletstorm's Gamescom demo
Ready for a little cognitive dissonance? Check out this footage of the Gamescom build of Bulletstorm, featuring commentary by producer Tanya Jessen. The game is as violent, gory, and inexplicably disgusting as ever (you can even hear the infamous "Yum yum blister juice" line spoken in this clip), and Jessen's discussion is calm and conversational, even as she describes four-barreled shotguns and mutants covered with pus . It's not that we expected everyone who worked on this game to sound like "Macho Man" Randy Savage, but ... no, actually, that's exactly what it is. See the video after the break.
