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Infinity Blade 3: Soul Hunter adds a Deathless Bloodmage, out Oct. 31
Infinity Blade 3's first DLC pack, Soul Hunter, hits iOS devices for free tomorrow, October 31, compatible with both iOS6 and iOS7. Soul Hunter adds a campaign quest with a new enemy whose name alone is fitting for the Halloween launch, Oslim the Deathless Bloodmage. It also packs in a new weapon – dual Infinity Blades – after beating Oslim the Creepy, and two new sets of armor. The update makes it possible for players to return to past quests and re-introduces Holiday Helms, beginning with the Pumpkin Helm. Soul Hunter also fixes a few UI and balance issues.
Infinity Blade 3 launches alongside iPhone 5S on Sept. 20
Infinity Blade 3 will launch on September 20, right with the iPhone 5S, Chair co-founder Donald Mustard revealed during Apple's conference today. Infinity Blade 3 is the conclusion of the series. Players will embody two characters in eight worlds, each of which is bigger than the entire first game, Mustard said. We got the first look at Infinity Blade 3 on Engadget's Apple liveblog. Infinity Blade: Dungeons, a dungeon-crawling iteration in the series, was canceled this year when developer Impossible Studios was shut down. Sales of Infinity Blade 2, which launched in December 2011, hit 50 million units in July 2013.
Massively does Geek Week: The top 10 most epic encounters in Guild Wars 2
As MMO players, we know all about being geeks; we're the geekiest video gamers around! Join in the fun today as we celebrate Google's Geek Week with a series of MMO-flavored videos to introduce fellow geeks to our favorite games: Guild Wars 2, SWTOR, The Secret World, and more! Guild Wars 2 is gorgeous. It's as simple as that. Even as it approaches the first anniversary of its launch, we still find ourselves gawking at the painterly landscapes and impressive character models. Lush environments, enormous world bosses, and breathtaking vistas are all accented by an emotionally gripping soundtrack in an immersive experience. To illustrate this, we've compiled a top 10 list of the most epic encounters in Guild Wars 2 based on its environments, animations, and sound design. Temporary content was off the table (with one big exception), so some fan favorites like Super Adventure Box, Molten Weapon Facility, and the Wintersday festivities weren't included. Enjoy our take on the most epic encounters in GW2 in celebration of Geek Week!
Unreal Engine 3 licensed to contractor for US Army training sims
Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3 is now in the hands of Intelligent Decisions, a company that creates virtual training simulations for the US Army Research, Development and Engineering Command. Intelligent Decisions wants to use UE3 to polish the movements of autonomous avatars in its Dismounted Soldier Training System, and add haptic feedback from incoming fire, full skeletal controls and environmental variation, VP of Simulation and Training Clarence Pape says. Intelligent Decisions secured the license from Applied Research Associates, Virtual Heroes and Epic via the Unreal Government Network, a program that handles government contracts for the Unreal engine. Insert your own "gears of war" joke here.
City of Heroes spiritual successor plans Kickstarter for Sept. 8th
One of the candidates vying to be the spiritual successor to City of Heroes will be moving into its fundraising stage come this September. Missing Worlds Media's The Phoenix Project, is preparing a Kickstarter campaign for September 8th. The team says that if all goes well (read: the project gets the moolah it needs), the title could be launched by the end of 2015, although it's hoping to get an avatar creator in our hands by next summer. In an interview with Polygon, Technical Director Nate Downes said that the project is 25% to 33% done, although the game is being made completely by 136 volunteers who have other jobs or are full-time students. The Phoenix Project is being built using the Unreal Engine, as Epic has licensed the engine to Missing Worlds with no money down until the team gets funded. Downes hopes that fans will continue to rally to the cause: "This project has grown out of the community that was left behind when City of Heroes closed, so it's really just a lot of passionate people getting together to rebuild that home for themselves."
Is Epic hiring devs for a Gears of War MMO?
GamesRadar reports that Epic has posted a job listing related to "an unannounced competitive online action game." Senior Systems Designer is the official position title, and it apparently requires someone with "a passion for building and/or playing shooters, MMOs, RPGs, or RTS games." Epic is advertising for one of two projects. The first is a tower defense title called Fortnite, while the other is an unnamed game that "includes player progression, heavy itemization, and a dynamic economy." GamesRadar notes that its Gears of War speculation is just that, but we have to admit that it sounds both plausible and interesting.
Epic job listing outs unannounced 'competitive online action game'
Epic Games is currently working on two projects: the tower defense action game, Fortnite, and another game yet to be unveiled. A job listing calling for a senior systems designer mentions "an unannounced competitive online action game that includes player progression, heavy itemization, and a dynamic economy." The listing, which does not specify platforms, calls for a senior systems designer on both Fortnite and the unannounced game. Last year, Chinese company Tencent Holdings invested $330 million into Epic Games, acquiring a minority stake in the Cary, North Carolina-based studio. Epic Games' most recent game was the Xbox 360 exclusive, Gears of War: Judgment, made by its People Can Fly division.
Maingear launches liquid-cooled Epic series with 4th-gen Intel Core-i7 CPUs
Liquid-cooled PCs are de rigueur for serious gamers, but Maingear knows there are plenty who'd rather crowbar headcrabs than fiddle with plumbing. To that end, the company's just buttressed its water-chilled desktop lineup with the Epic Series, consisting of the full-tower Force and mid-sized Rush models. Each pack a "BiTurbo" pump design that keeps things cool in the event of a single pump failure, along with the latest Intel 4th-generation Core i7 or AMD FX processors. As for graphics, you'll get four-way SLI NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan or Radeon HD 7970 GPUs if you opt for the Force model, while the Rush offers two-way GeForce GTX Titan SLI or dual Radeon HD 7990 graphics. There are also numerous memory, storage and static pressure fans using Corsair parts, and custom touches like lighting and Glasurit paint with an "automotive finish." Prices start at $3,259 for the Force and $3,059 for the Rush and go way up from there -- if that doesn't phase you, check the source for more.
Infinity Blade 2 on sale for $0.99
Infinity Blade 2 is kicking off the summer by slashing, and cutting, and chopping its price down to $1... sorry, it's cut another penny off to make it $0.99. The sequel in the infinitely successful iOS franchise is regularly priced at $6.99, and has gone on sale for $2.99, but this is the first time it's dropped to that App Store sweet spot of a buck.%Gallery-161653%
Oculus Rift support added to Unreal Engine 4
Unreal Engine 4 will support the Oculus Rift thanks to Epic's Integrated Partners Program, the developer announced today. The company also listed Intel, Nvidia, RealD and others as "inaugural" members of the new UE4 version of the program; member companies will contribute "tools and features that are trusted for high-quality game development" to the new engine. The Integrated Partners Program (or "IPP") aims to reduce development time by building commonly used middleware and hardware support directly into Unreal Engine's toolkit – Unreal Engine 3's IPP currently has 25 member companies, including Oculus VR. Only a small handful of games are known to run on Unreal Engine 4 at this time, though we fully expect that number to grow as the next generation unfolds itself like the dewy morning petals of a flower wearing a head-mounted virtual reality display, or something. We may have had trouble pulling that simile back together.
Unreal Engine 4 now supports Oculus Rift, introduces 'Integrated Partners Program'
Unreal Engine 4 now supports the Oculus Rift VR headset, Epic Games announced this morning. The move comes as part of an "Integrated Partners Program," which also adds support from a variety of other middleware companies (Autodesk, IDV, and NVIDIA to name just a few). Licensees have access to the entire list of middleware software, and can implement functionality in their UE4-powered projects starting today. Epic Games VP Mark Rein told us at GDC 2013 that Unreal Engine 4 support for Oculus Rift was in the works, but we didn't think it'd arrive this soon!
Mozilla shows off Epic Citadel web version ported with Unreal Engine 3 (video)
Mozilla wants to quell any doubt that its Unreal Engine 3 Firefox port works well, so it's just released a demo browser version of Epic Citadel so you can see for yourself. The game was ported to Javascript using the technology, and will run in HTML5 on most browsers without any plugins -- though using the latest nightly build of Firefox is recommended. Epic says that the performance of such games "rivals native" with "stunning" visuals, and in a short test, we managed to get about 16fps on a reasonably equipped PC. Mozilla wants to recruit more developers to the new platform as part of its Emscripten project (see More Coverage link), but meanwhile you can grab the game at the source or see the video after the jump -- just don't count on wreaking any havoc, as the demo's strictly a scenic tour.
The Daily Grind: What was the best random drop you ever got?
The Skinner Box design to MMOs and the random nature of loot tables means that an absolutely epic piece of gear could conceivably drop with the next kill. Or the kill after that! Or after that! Or... yeah, you know the drill. The unpredictability of corpse looting is like a little slot machine built into our games, mostly giving us trash while once in a while paying off in incredible dividends. It's the latter that I'd like us to discuss today. Every once in a while I do a double-take when I see that I just looted an ultra-rare item. I didn't even know text that color existed in the chat window, to be honest! And getting that incredible drop can make my evening (not to mention give me bragging rights to my guild). So what was the best random drop you ever got in an MMO -- and what did you do when it happened? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Gears of War: Judgment 'Call to Arms' map pack available April 23
The next Gears of War: Judgment map pack, entitled "Call to Arms," will launch on April 23.The pack includes three new maps, a new multiplayer mode called "Master of Arms," and six armor and gun skins.The pack will cost $12.50 (1000 Microsoft Points) on its own, but is included in the $20 (1600 MSP) season pass. The pass will also cover one more similarly sized pack. %Gallery-186202%
Epic's Torq Roadster three-wheeled EV gets taken on a test drive (video)
While the Tesla Roadster did a great job of satisfying our jones for an electric vehicle with great performance and no roof, it was a bit pricey and is now out of production. Into that void steps the three-wheeled Torq Roadster from Epic EV, a team also responsible for that electric-engined DeLorean prototype we saw a couple of years ago. This video shows Translogic's Bradley Hasemeyer behind the wheel of the track-friendly (but also street legal, licensed as a motorcyle) vehicle and talking to the people who built it. It's not quite as fast as the Tesla Roadster, but it's still capable of 0 - 60 in about four seconds and a top speed of 110mph. You'll notice a Samsung tablet mounted on the dash, and many of the components are sourced from Volkswagen. Unlike most of the daily driver-aimed electric vehicles we're familiar with that are very locked down, founder Chris Anthony claims its design allows owners to tweak and tune many features. Its DC motor means there's no regenerative braking, but he claims it's cheaper and allows owners to rewind the armature or upgrade the brushes. The first Torq Roadster was delivered earlier this month to a former Tesla exec and you can read about his experiences on BoostedGroup. Those of us who haven't paid the $65,000 base price can check it out in the video, which is embedded after the break.
Red unveils the Motion mount for Epic and Scarlet cameras to eliminate CMOS rolling shutter
Red has just announced the Red Motion lens mounting system for Epic and Scarlet motion camera systems that'll eliminate one of their chief snags: the dreaded CMOS rolling shutter. Though details are scant, it seems it'll do that in a similar manner to the Tessive system (see More Coverage), where a second liquid crystal shutter is placed in front of the main sensor and timed to engage only when the camera's CMOS is fully "open." That'll help eliminate artifacts like skew / judder in pans, repeating motion artifacts (think distorted propellers) and flicker from lights or displays, among others. The mount also brings an 8x electronic ND filter adjustable to 1/100th of an f-stop, partially negating the need for a matte-box in bright lighting situations. The Red Motion's drawback is that it'll cost you a stop of speed even when the ND is off, meaning you may have to change to a classic mount in low-light situations. Red's showing it now at its NAB booth-cum-factory and it'll ship out this fall in PL-mount form (with a Canon mount arriving later) for $4,500. Check the source for more discussion.
Red Epic Dragon sensor updates start tomorrow for $8,500
Red has announced that Dragon sensor updates will start tomorrow for Epic-M and Epic-X owners and, interestingly, is letting owners (and the public) see the operation for themselves at its NAB booth. The new sensor will bring 6K resolution, 120 fps at 5K and 15+ stops of dynamic range in a slightly larger format, according to Red. Early adopters will be able to pre-order now for $8,500, while Epic owners who wait until Thursday or later will be able to grab the update for $9,500. Filmmakers hoping for a new Epic-M with the Dragon instead of the Mysterium-X sensor will be able to pre-order tomorrow for $29,000 or so. Meanwhile, there's good news for those with the more budget-minded Scarlet -- they'll be able to upgrade to the Epic directly or get a 6k Dragon sensor and ASICs, with pricing details coming tomorrow and pre-orders launching on Thursday. Red may have a tough row to hoe with recent NAB news from the likes of BlackMagic Design and Vision Systems, but how many companies will actually let you watch your camera get operated on? Check the source for more.
In conversation with Epic Games' Mark Rein: Unreal Engine 4 support for Oculus Rift (and everything else), and thoughts on next-gen
Epic Games isn't just offering up its ubiquitous current-gen game creation tool Unreal Engine 3 to Oculus Rift developers, but also its next-gen tool, Unreal Engine 4. Epic Games VP Mark Rein told Engadget as much during an interview at this year's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, repeatedly stating he's "super bullish" on the Rift, all the while rocking an Oculus pin on his exhibitor lanyard. "Oh, for sure," he said when we asked about UE4 support for the Rift. "We're working on that now." The Rift dev kit was demoed at CES 2013 running Unreal Engine 3's "Epic Citadel" demo, and Epic's offered support to the Oculus folks since early on, making the UE4 news not a huge surprise, but welcome nonetheless. The next-gen game engine was being shown off at GDC 2013 with a flashy new demo (seen below the break), as well as a version of its "Elemental" demo running on a PlayStation 4 dev kit (shrouded behind a curtain, of course). Rein was visibly excited about that as well, unable to contain random vocal outbursts during the presentation. "It's a war out there, and we sell bullets and bandaids," he jokingly told us in an interview the following day. The quote comes from coworker and Epic VP of business development Jay Wilbur, and it's fitting -- Epic only makes a handful of games, and the company's real money comes from game engine licensees. In so many words, the more platforms that Unreal Engine variants can go, the better for Epic (as well as for engine licensees, of course). "It's a good place to be -- we try to support everything we can. We have to place some timed bets on things that we feel are gonna be the most important to licensees, and also to us where we're taking games. But because the engine is portable -- it's written in C++ -- a licensee can take and do whatever they want," he said.
Unreal Engine 4 'Infiltrator' video
Here's the Unreal Engine 4 "Infiltrator" video, which was shown off as a demo this week at GDC, displaying the power of Epic's latest tech. The company jumped through different filters to show the demo was being rendered in real-time. Yes, it will run so many major titles for next-gen systems. Now, enjoy.
Oculus Rift dev kit includes access to free Oculus version of Unreal Development Kit
To help Oculus Rift developer kit owners develop things, Oculus will give a custom version of the Unreal Development Kit to everyone who has purchased the VR goggles. It will be released through the Oculus Developer Center in April. The UDK will include a VR-enhanced version of the Epic Citadel demo.Even if you don't have an Oculus, you'll be able to develop games for its stereoscopic display, as all full source licensees of Unreal Engine 3 will be provided with code to integrate Oculus support into UE3. Oculus is now part of Epic's "UE3 Integrated Partners Program." Of course, if you're developing for Oculus without an Oculus, we don't know how you'll test the 3D. Perhaps scoot two monitors right up into your face?
