Long gone are the days when almost every game development studio came up with its own proprietary game engine. It's been a long time coming, but we're finally at the stage where Unreal Engine 5 truly dominates the i?ndustry, and I feel this isn't a good thing at all.

One could argue about the ubiquity of Unreal Engine all day long, granted. The engine's claim to fame began way, way back in the days of Unreal Engine 2, only for it to develop into one of the go-to third-party development solutions as Epic Games moved to release Unreal Engine 3. It's difficult?? to overstate the importance of U??E, as we've had close to a thousand games produced on UE3 and UE4 in the past. UE5, in comparison, is even more monumental.

Having access to a comprehensive one-size-fits-most set of game production tools effectively democratized the production pipeline for small teams that couldn't afford to make their own development kit. From that point of view, UE is a phenomenal choice. Is it perfect, ?though?

The pros and cons of using a third-party game engine

Before moving on to the crux of the matter, I've got to set t??he stage for my qualms about Unreal. For someone who isn't familiar with the verbiage of the what, why, and how of a "game engine," it's easy to lose track of the argument?.

A game engine is essentially the framework within which games are made. Generic game engines such as Unreal and Unity can be modified to accommodate virtually any type of game, while stuff such as RPGMaker is obviously tailored towards role-playing games, specifically. There's no hard line to be drawn between the two, however: most game engines can be used to build most game types. It's just a matter of how easy or ??????????????????????????difficult it is to adapt them.

Now, the thing about UE and Unity, specifically, is that they're extremely popular ??due to having a lot of general-purpose software already embedded. On one side, this means game developers can rapidly deploy gameplay solutions (physics, rendering, features, assets, etc.) without spending time on developing them from the ground up. On the other hand, it also means you may inherit some of an engine's quirks and problems that won't be easy to fix.

The pro of using a third-party game engine is that you're essentially relegating the very baseline of your production pipeline to someone else. This frees you up to work on the bits? that make sense for your particular project! Tech debt? becomes effectively a non-issue with Unreal, as Epic Games works tirelessly to stay at the cutting edge of game dev.

Why is Unreal, specifically, problematic?

Had I worked on this article just a few years ago, it wouldn't have been all about Unreal to begin with. Notably, Unreal and Unity walked in effective lock-step until Unity nuked its own goodwill by attempting to implement a runtime fee policy?. This was a phenomenally terrible business decision that not only diminished Unity's market share, but elevated the appeal of Unreal Engine 5. It also led to a situation where everyone and their mum was using UE5 for game dev.

Now, if you're even remotely sensitive to shoddy performance and questionable optimization, you're not going to like where I'm going with this. We only really need to look at Digital Foundry's coverage of Unreal Engine games on YouTube to get a sense of where the issues lie. Take the recent (phenomenal) Silent Hill 2 Remake, for example:

And let's not forget the unexpected darling of this year's gaming landscape, Black Myth: Wukong:

Notice a pattern? Unreal Engine 5 struggles a whole lot with stuttering. Partially due to shoddy shader compilation setups and partially due to strange traversal load-ins, it seems like the majority of game developers working with Epic's engine have a problem delivering a stutter-free gaming experience. And even though some would claim they're "not?? experiencing these problems" on their rigs, this is factually impossible due to the nature of UE5's performance issues.

Granted, it's not that the previous versions of Unreal were immune to these problems, as shown with the UE4 build used for Respawn Entertainment's Jedi: Survivor titles.

This is the bit I mentioned about inherited problems: Unreal Engine 5 is infamous for its seemingly unfixable stuttering. To say nothing of just how heavy it is, performance-wise. From Remnant 2 to Lords of the Fallen, there's not a sing?le UE5 game I'd class??ify as viable for low-spec rigs.

The problem isn't the current-day situation, but the state of things 10 years down the line

Now, to be perfectly fair, I'm a pretty big fan of Unreal Engine 5 as a software kit. I'm a proponent of tech such as Lumen and Nanite, and I think we'd probably be better off with Epic's standardized rendering solutions rather than with something Nvidia might cook up. Tech exclusivity is ?not something I'm keen on.

My biggest conc?ern isn't with the fact that eve?ryone's trying to build something on top of UE5 as such, but the fact that we've got huge, tenured studios leaving behind their legacy tech stacks to move on to someone else's third-party solution.

Just off the top of?? my head, we already kno??w that all of the following projects are or will be running on Unreal 5:

• STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl
• Cyberpunk 2077 sequel
• The Witcher remake
• new Halo titles
• Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater

On this short list, we're losing some really interesting, bespoke tech. Sure, much of it had been left to rot several generations behind, but still. Between the loss of X-Ray, REDEngine, Slipspace, Fox Engine, and countless others, I cannot imagine that relying purely on Unreal for everything will be a g?ood ??idea in the long run. But hey, maybe I'm just being annoying for no good reason, right? Surely there's no value in losing unique, purpose-built game engines? Makes you wonder, though.

Unreal has a choke-hold on the gaming industry, and that's not going to change anytime soon

I'll concede that all of this might just be fear-mongering and? I may very well be wrong? in being skeptical over Unreal Engine's domination of the modern game development scene.

The fact of the matter is that Epic didn't just win over developers by now, but the wider "gamer" communities as well. People are already callin??g for anything and everything to be remad??e or moved over to new builds of Unreal, and it's not even hard to see why:

• AAAs running on Unreal look great (and run awfully, but that's less important).
• Indie studios and solo developers can slap together rapid-fire UE5 demos that look photo-realistic.
• "Fan-remakes" of beloved titles are being developed left and right.

There's an awful lot of grassroots marketing mojo that's gone into UE5 by now, and much of that is well-warranted. Whether the pros truly outweigh the cons in the long run, though, we'll just have to wait and see. Unreal is way too entrenched by now to be done away with, and the competition is unfortunately ques?tionable at best. And so it goes.

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The STALKER series has a long, complicated, and extremely storied history of development. From the earliest days of Oblivion Lost all the way to the release of the open-source port of GSC Game World's X-Ray engine, it's quite fascinating. How likely, though, is it that STALKER 2 tops all that?

Here's the thing about STALKER 2: the odds of it truly substituting and improving upon every single aspect of its predecessors are remarkably slim. I've said before that, following the latest developer deep dive, I'm way more keen on the state of the game tha?n ever before. The developer, GSC Game World, is obviously doing its best to replicate the immaculate vibes of the old STALKER titles in every possible way, but I just don't see it h??appening across? the board, and modding is one of the reasons why I feel this way.

Now, obviously, this article may well prove to be incorrect within a couple of years: STALKER 2 may well be the title that will kickstart full-fledged Unreal Engine 5 modding in an unprecedented way. You're going to want to keep a pinch of salt at hand as you read, is what I'm getting at. Yet, having been at the ground zero of each and every one of STALKER's PC releases, I ??can't help but be skeptical o?f UE's ability to host this franchise's burgeoning modding community. Down below, I'll explain why that's the case.

STALKER 2 replaces X-Ray with Unreal Engine 5, but is it for the better?

Obviously, this header is a bit of a stinker when you think about it, because good grief was X-Ray an absolute mess in its Shadow of Chernobyl build. Yet, as years went by and OpenXRay came into its own, the community ended up fixing and improving upon every single aspect of the old, original STALKER titles while developing a new standalone?? exper?ience along the way.

This materialized in the form of Call of Chernobyl - a free single-player mod that unifies all the content from Shadow of Chernobyl, Clear Sky, and Call of Pripyat into one A-Life simulating super-sandbox. It is phenomenal, and if you haven't yet given it a chance, I highly recommend doing so. Avoid the usual assortment of Anomaly and GAMMA modpacks that players often recommend, too: just give STALKER a chance for its ecology to start popping off. Now, had STALKER always relied on third-party engines, this wouldn't have been possible, and I firmly believe that, in turn, we wouldn't be so vigorously discussing the merits of a full-featured STALKER 2 to begin with.

Don't get me wrong: Unreal Engine 5 is obviously going to be a huge improvement to the core stability and feature-set of STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl. Its tech-stack is so massive that GSC Game World didn't have to spend time producing their own custom engine that would, inevitably, come apart at the seams if X-Ray is anything to go by. Yet, in moving over to a mainstream third-party solution, GSC Game World is without a doubt losing something that's been absolutely crucial to STALKER: modding capacity.

The STALKER modding community is almost guaranteed to suffer

Certainly, there are moddable Unreal Engine 5 g??ames. The engine lends itself to third-party customization way better than its immediate p?redecessor, but it's still not even close to the flexibility of Unreal Engine 3. UE3, in turn, was a pale shadow of some other game engines when it comes to modding, and X-Ray is one of them.

It's crucial to understand that STALKER games have had prolific modding communities basically from day one onwards. True, we didn't get to enjoy the golden age of Call of Chernobyl until after the release of OpenXRay in 2020, but that's beside the point: deep modding is a crucial implement for a STALKER game. It's a pillar of the franchise's community, and I sadly do not think this will continue with STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl.

Here's the jig: it all has to do with Unreal Engine 5 and how moddable it is or is not. Now, obviously, all of this depends entirely on the developer, a game's community, and whether or not they end up releasing the mod-kit/SDK for a game in the end. Some UE5 games are moddable, to an extent. Take Ready or Not, for example, which has map mods, gun mods, AI mods, and a variety ?of other thingamabobs players can ??install through t??he integrated modding UI.

Thing is, though, that virtually everyone recommends manually installing mods regardless, because the in-game UI is simply unreliable and doesn't work properly half the time. I can vouch for this, too: the mods will not reliably load in Ready or Not if you don't put in some elbow grease.

Technically, the possibility of modding is on the table for STALKER 2 and, certainly, GSC Game World has promised to support it, as per the official website. Given UE5's track record, though, I just don't think the game's modding community will ever reach the ridiculous heights of its predecessors. Predecessors which, note, did not come with SDKs of any sort, ??only for modders themselves to reverse-engine??er them into being.

STALKER 2 will continue the franchise's legacy, but jankiness and free-form modding may be a thing of the past

I fear that this article's tone may suggest that I'm somehow skeptical of STALKER 2 in general. Not at all, though: not after the latest batch of gamepl??ay trailers and ?showpieces. Heck, I was absolutely thrilled when Scar of Clear Sky fame made a triumphant (and surprisingly jolly) appearance in his own dedicated trailer.

No, I genuinely believe that STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl will deliver a true STALKER gaming experience that meaningfully riffs on what came before it. I just don't think the game's new tech-stack is going to allow the modding community to spread its wings quite as much as it did with Call of Chernobyl.

Gun skins, armors, and perhaps even some new content? I'm sure it'll drop in, sooner or later. Something resembling a full-scale retrofit such as GAMMA, though? No shot. At least not from what we've seen of Unreal Engine 5 so far. And, really, it's hard to argue that this hypothetical scenario wouldn't be a marked loss for the STALKER community.

For the time being, let's wait and see what comes of all this. Even if STALKER 2 does manage to find its footing as a proper modding platform, it'll take years before we know how far modders can take it. In the interim, ?we just gotta hope that GSC Game World can deliver the base gameplay experience we're all hoping to see.

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Despite how vast the Fallout games typically are and how much there is to do, it seems some fans just want more. Which is perfectly understandable, but instead of tweaking the vanilla releases with extra content, some decide to just straight-up make a diffe??rent version of the post-apocalyptic series.

As spotted by DSO Gaming, a developer called Milwaukee Games has set about creating their own Fallout. While it's still in the prototype stages at this point, the project is notable fo?r using the Unreal Engine 5. Check it out below. Ooh. Look at all that shininess!

To clarify: it doesn't appear to be a remake of any of the current games that are out. It seems like it's more of a separate entity, but made inside the Fallout universe. Look, there's a Mr. Handy robot!

Will we get to play this Fallout game?

There's no way of knowing how far Milwaukee Games will go with this. Whether we'll see it fleshed out into a full game with an expansive storyline or it'll be used as a sort of tech demo, it's hard?? to say. However, it seems as though the developer may be planning to release a build at some point.

In the YouTube descriptio?n, as well as mentioning a behind-the-scenes type of video that's coming, the message asks whether anyone would be interested in testing it. This means that it's technically "playable," so there might be a download available at some point in the future.

It should be noted that the footage above was posted back in April, and there don't appear to have been many updates on the project since. Still, it's one to keep an eye on in case we do get to play a Fallout ?g?ame as imagined in Unreal Engine. These are the good times. Possibly.

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Having come out in 2007, the original BioShock is now pretty old,?? but that doesn't stop it from having quite the legacy. With its twisted meta-narrative, it was more than just a basic FPS, proving that there are still interesting ways ?of telling stories in video games.

But what if it was remade in say, oh I don't know, Unreal Engine 5? Well, that's what one person wondered. As spotted by DSO Gaming, environmental artist Kaleb Nekumanesh (who worked as a designer on Halo Infinite) has rendered some screenshots and videos from BioShock, reimagined in UE5.

Now, the original game was already pretty gloomy, but these renderings really make the environments pop with a much prettier version of s?aid gloom. We see hints of a Big Daddy in one of them, with each image showing recognizable parts of Rapture with more modern vis?ual acuity. It should be made clear that these images and clips don't represent an actual remake, as far as I can tell. They're just a concept.

Would you kindly... make a fourth game?

It's been 17 years since the first game of the series came out, and 11 years since the last installment. As lauded as 2K's BioShock is, it remains to be seen what's happening regarding anything new on the horizon. It's been said that a BioShock 4 has been in development for years, but we haven't really had any updates for ??qui??te some time.

We know very little about what the fourth game's story will be about, where it'll be set, what platforms it'll be available on, and even less on a potential release date. We do know that a BioShock movie adaptation is in developmen??t at Netflix, so we'll probably be seeing th?at before a new game.

In the meantime, feel free to check out the rest of Kaleb's renderings on their ArtStation page, as well as the rest of their work.

The post While we wait for BioShock 4, here’s what the original could look like in Unreal Engine 5 appeared first on Destructoid.

No doubt about it, Unreal Engine is probably the world's most popular video game development toolkits. It's also free to use, with Epic Games taking a cut whenever games earn above a certain threshold. However, if you're a no?n-game company, you will need to pay for th??e software soon enough.

In a recent news post over on the Unreal Engine website, a new pricing scheme is being introduced with the r??elease of version 5.4 in April. This will only affect those who are working on non-gaming projects, but there are at least a few additional criteria to go with that.

The post goes on to say that non-game outfits will need to pay a "seat based" fee on an annual basis,? but only if they meet the following:

• You are a company that generates over $1 million in annual gross revenue
• You do not create games
• And you do not create applications licensed to third-party end users and rely on Unreal Engine code at runtime

Fear not, video game studios

The price "per seat" will be $1,850 and �just to reiterate �is only intended for companies that are using Unreal for something that's not a game. Examples given include linear content for film and TV, "immersive experiences" that aren't sold to the public, such as theme park rides, and products that "incorporate Unreal Engine code at runtime and are not licensed to third ?parties."

However, if you're a games company, the new pricing structure will not affect you. In the past, Epic Games has charged a 5% fee for any titles powered by UE that earn over $1 million in "lifetime gross re??venue". This is not being changed.

Unreal Engine will also continue to be free for "students, educators, hobbyists, and companies generating less than $1 million in annual gross revenue." Are you hearing this, Unity?

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Even though Silent Hill is coming back in a big way, many still wonder what could have been with P.T., which Konami pulled the plug on. While we'll likely never see a Kojima/del Toro horror collaboration set in the titular foggy town, fan??s will never stop dreaming.

In a video uploaded to YouTube (as spotted by DSO Gaming), user Maxim Dorokhov has offered their own interpretation of Silent Hill 4: The Room. That i??s to say, they've recrea?ted the 2004 game entirely in Unreal Engine 5.

A look around the apartment that's been rendered in more up-to-date software gives this 20-year-old release a bit of pep. It's gloomy, pretty realistic looking, and with its first-person perspective, really does make me think of P.T.

Another tease for something that will never be

According to the report, this is not something that's likely to be made available for public consumption. It seems to be more about showing what UE5 can do in terms of rendering, and Silent Hill 4 appeared to be a?? ?good fit for showing off all this detail and moody lighting.

It's also just the apartment sections as well, but that's okay. SH4 is generally regarded as the weakest entry in the classic Silent Hill franchise. However, those moments in the apartment I found to be pretty standout stu?ff, especially for the time.

First-person horror was not so common back in the early 2000s, so to get to experience some of it in this game was quite something. It's a shame I never actually got around to finishing SH4, but then I was a l?ot younger then. I probably had some important kid stuff to be thinking about, like hopes and dreams.

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The Callisto Protocol developer Striking Distance Studios has opened up some new positions for an upcoming project that's being built in Unreal Engine 5. It seems the studio ??is on the hunt for additional talent, just months after last August's layoffs.

As reported by VGC, Twitter user MauroNL �a games industry analyst �has noted that Striking Distance is embarking on a new venture. A total of nine vacancies have become available?, with the studio intending to create something brand-new.

Some of the positions include a Lead Technical Artist, UI Technical Artist, Lead Gameplay Animator, and a Lead Gameplay Engineer. What this elusive project will be is anyone's gues?s at this stage.

Can only go up from here, yeah?

With 32 people being laid off from the studio and director Glen Schofield leaving last September, things didn't look good for Striking Distance. The Callisto Protocol should have been a slam-dunk, particularly with it being billed as a spiritual successor to Dead Space.

However, poor performance left people unimpressed with the developer's first release. While recent scores on Steam have it at? "Mostly Positive," overall it remains "Mixed." Even with? patches to fix issues, the damage appeared to have already been done.

Now that a new game is said to be in the works, maybe some will give Callisto Protocol another chance. Still, what's left of the team is still trucking along on something. Maybe the next one will be more of a success.

The post The Callisto Protocol dev is hiring for a new, ‘unannounced UE5 title’ appeared first on Destructoid.

Those who were around when the original Deus Ex released will no doubt have an appreciation for this pretty innovative RPG. While we're still not 100% sure whether a new game is in development or not, there's so?mething interesting happening with the OG.

As spotted by PCGamer, a modder is taking the 2000 Deus Ex title and putting it through an Unreal Engine 5 filter. That is to say, the quarter of a century old ?game is being given a bit of a boost, and it's all possible?? thanks to a toolkit called DXU24.

The software is a fan-made project that aims to convert older releases (in this case, games that run on Unreal Engine 1) into ones that run through UE5. The above video shows how far things have come, with the modder expecting to implement VR into Deus Ex as well.

A sort of new lease on life

It should be pointed out that this is not an unofficial remake or remaster of the game. The DXU24 Patreon page describes the toolkit thus:

The general idea is the original game is booted as it normally would be, and through my software, communicates with another running instance of Unreal Engine 5. Through this communication link the games state, ass??ets, everything, is communicated to Unreal Engine 5 and reinterpreted as a modern game asset, all at runtime.

So it'll still be the original Deus Ex, but with som?e modern features, such as advanced lighting and upscaled AI. The fact that it's being filtered (I know it's more complicated than that) through Unreal Engine 5 is what makes this special.

The developer says they expect the software to work on any game that was built on UE1. Here's a recent video of it rendering a fly-through of Unreal Gold. It may even run other classics, such as Unreal Tournament or possibly Thief.

As for when DXU24 will? be out, the creator ??is anticipating a mid-2024 release. The project has been in development for some time now, so they're hoping to launch it as soon as they can.

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There are few fantasy creatures more fascinating than slimes, but have you wondered what it's like to be a slime? Senior technical artist at Epic Games and Slime Master Asher Zhu is working on bringing this dream to life and has shown off his results on X (Twitter).

He's been using the company's tools and engine to create an adorable slime game set in a modern city. The results are impressive based on a short video ?that shows how goopy the little guy is. It's mostly clips of it doing mundane things like roaming around and showering, but it might also be one of the best UE5 showcases for an actual game.

The slime's r??eactivity to the world around it ?is incredible, as the parts hanging off the slide fall off. What got me the most was seeing it mold to a tub's space with some spillover due to size.

Since the slime is a liquid ????entity, Zhu's game has it interact with the world as a liquid does. This means it can conform to the space it's in, flatten itself, and evaporate in the summer sun.

That last part even ties into the game's premise! Keeping the slime hydrated seems to be the main goal, with sho?wers and vending machines shown as good sources of sustenance.

Zhu has been working on a slime game for several years now, posting updates every so often. As impressive as UE5 is, most of the ?credit goes to Zhu for developing this specific tech for some time.

Zhu's slime game doesn't have a name or any indication of a release date, and it won't be for a while. He's cl??arified that it's in the prototype stages because the slime tech has been difficult to engineer. Hopefully, he continues taking his time, because the world deserves an amazing slime protagonist.

The post Game artist shows off some incredible slime tech, and I’m obsessed appeared first on Destructoid.

While the original Alone in the Dark arguably set the scene for modern survival horror, Resident Evil is the one most think of when it comes to the genre. Capcom's legendary series has endured and while official remakes have been hitting the ground running, fan projects have also been attempting to leave their? ?mark.

Team Arklay has recently uploaded a trailer for its unofficial remake of the first Resident Evil entry. Simply called Biohazard RE1, the upcoming g?ame is being made in Unreal Engine 5, and from what we can see in the footage, it looks pretty impressive.

While it's fair to say it's not exactly sporting photorealistic visuals, the post-cutscene moments definitely breathe new life into the OG RE??. It should also be noted that this trailer is representative of work that's currently in progress. As such, we can expect things to look even better further down the line.

A mix of old and new

What's interesting about this fan remake is it seems to aim for the graphics of a more modern Resident Evil installment without compromising on some of that old horror movie cheese. The series has notably become a b??it more serious and gritty over the years, so it's nice to see Team Arklay keeping some of that goofiness.

Biohazard RE1 is still in development, with no projected release window yet. However, we know the game will give you the option to choose between the over-the-shoulder camera or go old school with a fixed camera perspective. Again, it seems to be going for a mix between classic and modern RE.

The future of Resident Evil is looking pretty good at the moment. Brand-new entries and official remakes have kept Capcom's franchise fresh and exciting. There was a period in which the RE name was starting to ??lose focus. However, with the way things are going, a ninth mainline game is somethin?g fans will be looking forward to.

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Having just passed its 12th birthday, Skyrim continues to take up real estate in the AAA gaming sphere. As one of the most successful RPGs in recent memory, Bethesda's epic Elder Scrolls game is still quite pre??tty, but has evidently aged over the p??ast decade or so.

That's where artist and YouTuber Leo Torres coming into the picture. As spotted by DSO Gaming, Torres has recently uploaded a new video showing what Skyrim? would lo??ok like were it built today in Unreal Engine 5.

More specifically, we get to see some incredible shots of the bitterly cold northerly city Winterhold. It looks, for want of a better phrase, pretty spectacular, which is not something many people are willing to say about TES5 these days.

What could have been

In this era of remakes, it's fun to imagine what an aging game like Skyrim would look like in something such as Unreal. Torres' render gives us a taste of how things could have been in a different universe. Obviously, this is just a video render demonstrating Winterghold at a "more realistic and lore-accu?rate scale." It's not a remake currently in development, official or otherwise.

It also gives us an idea of just how far gaming visuals have come over the years. That's not to say Skyrim is ugly ??(far from it), merely that many of us take it for granted just how advanced graphics become given? enough time.

As for The Elder Scrolls itself, we're currently on day seventy-squillion (citation needed) and no word on the sixth entry yet. There's a good chance Skyrim's popularity may drop off suddenly once TES6 comes out, b?ut we'll probably all be a lot older and wiser by then.

The post If you haven’t seen Skyrim in Unreal Engine 5, you’re missing out appeared first on Destructoid.

Even though Starfield isn't out yet, there's been so much content and sneak previews for the game that some people are trying to piece it together ahead of schedule. For example, one person has decided to recreate an outpost styled after the upcoming sci-fi RPG in something other than Bethesda's in-?house engine.

As spotted by DSO Gaming, YouTuber Ghost Design recently uploaded footage from an Unreal Engine 5 project they've been working on. Spanning seven minutes, the footage shows what a typical Starfield outpost looks like when re?ndered in? this software.

//youtu.be/Q67J3Aw_GEM

Using the free "Mission to Minerva" pack, Ghost Design has created what is essentially a facsimile of something that looks like it could be from Starfield itself. Only it's ?done in Unreal rather than Creation Engi?ne.

Imagine the whole game in Unreal

UE5 is currently one of (if not the) most powerful accessible game engines in the world. It's also one of the most popular, more so by the fact that any developer, big or small, can make use of it. Conversely, ?Bethesda's Creati?on Engine is proprietary, so only Bethesda games get made with it.

While the use of Creation Engine for Starfield has likely drawn some criticism given how old it is, it's worth remembering that this is version 2.0. The studio has allegedly overhauled the software, bringing it more up-to-date, so games made it in should hopefully not have that Skyrim jank to them. From what we've all seen so far, it's fair to say that Starfield does look pretty. It's likely that official fo?otage has been captured on PC using the most modern h?ardware around, so we'll see whether it looks as nice on a mid-range system or the Xbox Series S.

Starfield will be releasing on September?? 6 for Series X|S and PC.

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Given that it was one of the most popular shows on TV back in its prime, it's not surprising there have been a number of video game adaptations of The Simpsons.

Some have been less than impactful, while others have been downright abysmal. However, one that tends to get mentioned (even these days) is Simpsons: Hit & Run, the collective of open world adventures of the titular yellow characters that parodied the likes of GTA.

//youtu.be/AHAY-teQoFc

Now, it's made a comeback. Sort of. That is to say that someone has managed to remake Hit & Run entirely in Unreal Engine 5. Taking a year to complete, developer reubs has now finally managed to do a full recreation from scratch of the iconic 2003 Simpsons game.

Not for public consumption

Sadly, reubs says he won't be making his UE5 version available for all to ??play, ??stating clearly that this is not a downloadable mod. However, we do get to see the first 30-minutes of this unofficial remake.

There's plenty of content that the developer goes through, showing us the new graphics (with artwork done by technical artist korylonplay) and the new cutscenes. It still has that Simpsons: Hit & Run charm that Radical Ente??rtainment gave us 20 years ago. It just looks more up-to-date.

For those who remember playing the original, it's a little trip down memory lane. Okay, so we can't play it, which ki??nd of sucks, but you?? can imagine the litigation that would have to be traversed to get a remake approved by Disney (which now owns the franchise).

Simpsons writer and joint showrunner Matt Selman has expressed interest in seeing the game get remade, but describes the "complicated corporate octopus to try to make that happen." Given that, reubs' proof-of-concept is probably the closest we'll ever get to a modern take on Hit & Run.

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Horror Almost Unreal (5)

Bloober Team has revealed the launch date for its long-in-development release, Layers of Fear �The ?highly technical psychological horror title will launch on PC and Gen9 platforms on June 15, with a time-limited demo available ?to play on PC from now until May 22.

Built in Unreal 5 for MAXIMUM TERROR, Layers of Fear is a remade compendium of both Layers of Fear (2016) and Layers of Fear 2 (2019), along with all previously released DLC and a brand new concluding chapter, titled The Writer. Developer Anshar Studios is hoping that the incredible technical acumen of Unreal 5 will allow for a truly immersive and unsettling experience,? as players pick their way through a shifting environment �trapped, lost, and attacked by no less than the twisted mind of the self.

"We are thrilled to announce the release date for Layers of Fear and to bring this definitive horror experience to players," writes Bloober Team CEO Piotr Babieno. "With the power of Unreal Engine 5, we’ve be??en abl??e to create a game that visually surpasses our previous works, delivering an unforgettable journey into the minds of tormented artists. We are excited for both new and returning players to jump in."

Bl?oober Team also released the PC requirem??ents, which you can check out above.

The demo will give fans an opportunity to check that their rig is up to handling the high visual standards of this new edition, which utilizes 4K resolution, HDR, and Ray-Tracing, while also enhancing its lighting, reflection, and particle techniques with some of the most modern graphics tools available. Dedicated Layers of Fear fans will be ab??le to enjoy new mechanics and twists on the original gameplay, while newcomers can experience the entire story of both titles and their DLC expansions seamlessly branched together.

It's too scary for me, is wh?at I'm basically saying.

Layers of Fear launches June 15 on PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X.

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A new Fortnite creation tool is on the way

Epic is launching its Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and its arriving very soon. The creation application will let users design and publish content directly into Fortnite starting March 22, 2023.

This creative tool has been talked about before by Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, as a way for people to build in-game content and release it in Fortnite. Thanks to the new store page for the Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN), we've got details on what exactly tha??t entails.

The UEFN will allow users to import meshes, textures, animations, and audio. Animation, gameplay design, custom content, and more are all in store. Plus, it will have a Live Edit tool for real-time collaboration an?d revision control, as well.

Epic plans to share more details next week, during its State of Unreal talk at GDC 2023.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=teTroOAGZjM

Tap into the unreal

A few FAQs on the Unreal Editor for Fortnite page clear up a bit about how this differs from other creation tools, as Fortnite already has Creative mode. UEFN is a PC-only editor with a range of tools. Rather than Creative, where you're controlling a character to build and edit islands, UEFN has more similarities with the tools and workflows used to develop Fortnite Battle Royale itself. It's planned to be ??built out and ev?olve through its Beta launch.

The result could be a fair bit of user-generated content, a la Roblox. Which, given how massive Roblox is, makes sense. I'm curious to see just what people can do with these tools, but also very curious about what plans look like for publishing and potentially monetizing this new wave of Fortnite content. ???Hopefully we'll learn a bit more during next week's State of Unreal chat.

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Telltale is shifting to avoid crunch and accommodate an engine shift

The Wolf Among Us 2 is being delayed out of this year. Telltale Games confirms ??that the sequel will be moving into 2024, as the team makes an effort to both avoid crunch and move from Unreal Eng?ine 4 to 5.

Speaking to IGN, Telltale Games CEO Jamie Ottilie attribute??s the choice?? to a number of reasons. Part of those is concerns over burnout: "I've done [crunch], and I don't want to do it again, and it's not fair to ask it," Ottilie said.

"Making games is difficult and they? need time to be right," Ottilie told IGN. "And it doesn't do any of us any good to ship something that??'s not ready."

The other concern is a shift from Unreal Engine 4 to 5. According to the CE??O, many on the team feel its worth the extra work, but he does say it entails redoing "quite a bit of work" that was already finished.

Rather than crunch or ship an unfinished project, Telltale will work to finish The Wolf Among Us 2 on its new schedule. The new series is episodic, like its predecessor; but unlike the first Wolf Among Us, it's being made all at once?, so the whole run will be finished by the time Episode?? 1 rolls out.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkXwW5H28m0

A wolf in the wings

While that might be disappointing for those hoping for some investigative fantasy stories this year, it sounds like it could be a good thing for the team working on The Wolf Among Us 2. More breathing room a??nd no looming crunch overhead will hopefully make bringing this legend back into the spotlight easier to do.

The resurrected Telltale is still rolling out games, though. The Expanse: A Telltale Series is due out this year, in collaboration with Deck Nine Games. And hey, with all that extra time, it's a good excuse to brush up on the first Wolf Among Us if you haven't yet. It's pretty darn good.

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The new project will be built in Unreal Engine 5

Developer 1047 Games is moving on to a new project. The studio announced today that it is ending feature development on its portal-based shooter Splitgate, and moving on to a new game.

In a new statement shared on the Splitgate site, 1047 says that the FPS has reached a level of success it co??uld not have anticipated. This has led to the studio growing substantially and bringing on new talent. It's also meant a lot of time trying to rework older content and systems, in what it characterizes as "bailing water" from a ship.

In light of this, 1047 Games has decided to build something new. And to do so, it's ending feature development on Splitgate.

"We’re turning our attention away from iterative, smaller updates and going all-in to focus on a new game in the Splitgate universe which will present revolutionary, not evolutionary, changes to our game. ??It will be a shooter, it will have portals, and it will be built in Unreal Engi??ne 5. Oh, and it will be free."

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5XKcTM_NM8

A portal to a new world

That doesn't mean Splitgate is going away, though. 1047 Games says Splitgate will remain online, as will items and progression. There's also a new Battle Pass rolling out on September 15. The pass will be free for everyone, as a thank-you to everyone who's played Splitgate.

Support will ??also continue, though it will be l?imited in scope to smaller updates and fixes. The bulk of 1047's focus, the studio says, will be on an entirely new shooter.

Splitgate started out as an interesting combination of Portal and Halo, which worked pretty well at the time for those waiting on Halo Infinite. It's since grown to be its own thing, and it'll be interesting to see what 1047 does with a new engine, larger team, and all the lessons learned from making Splitgate.

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Add it now to stay in the Matrix

The tech demo experience The Matrix Awakens is leavin?g digital storefronts soon. PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S owne??rs have until July 9 to pick this demo up, before it departs.

Announced during the 2021 Game Awards, The Matrix Awakens is an Unreal Engine 5 tech demo that also intersects with The Matrix. It features ??performances from Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss in alarmingly realistic CG.

But it's also not just a cutscene, but some playable slices of game a?nd an op??en-world sandbox where you can mess with the world. Different areas show off parts of Unreal Engine 5's tech. It is a tech demo, after all.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU0gvPcc3jQ

The Matrix is here

It's a fun demo with some neat tech to show off, and is already worth the low, low price of free for that. But for Matrix fans, there's also some charming banter between Reeves' Neo and Moss' Trinity that makes for a genuinely nice little slice of game. It would kind of rule to see a new Matrix game with this kind of approach. Especially considering how wild The Matrix Online got.

You can find The Matrix Awakens tech demo on the PlayStation Store and Xbox store until July 9, 2022.

Meanwhile, if The Matrix Awakens awoke a taste for new Matrix games for you, there's not much else new. You can, however, check this cool Sifu mod that replaces the main character with Neo and the enemies with Agent Smith. It's not the Path of Neo, but it's a mod that unsurprisingly fits the mood of the Burly Brawl from The Matrix Reloaded. Agent Smith just cannot catch a break, no matter where in The Matrix he goes.

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Early development underway with Unreal Engine 5

Not to be confused with a certain high-profile Super Smash Bros. Brawl mod, Project M from NCSOFT is an upcoming Unreal Engine 5-developed, console-bound "interactive movie experience" with an eye-catching trailer. I can't say I'm exactly pi??cturing a full-fledged game yet from this limited proof-of-co?ncept, but the premise of a "man seeking vengeance" �combined with these high production values �speaks to me.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SApk_2ktfg

The footage is heavy on the "is revenge ever really worth it" theme? and shows a few action sequences that would look at home in one of Supermassive's cinematic horror adventures like The Quarry. For some players, there's not enough interactivity?, but I don't mind as ??long as the pacing is tight and my mind doesn't have room to wander too much.

Plus, these sorts of accessible choice-based cinematic games tend to be a riot with other players in the room lending their voices (and other antics). For Project M, NCSOFT says the game will "feature different stories and endings depending on th?e player's choices."

[caption id="attachment_328639" align="alignnone" width="2000"] _{Take the shot?}[/caption]

Coming to consoles... eventually

Details are limited, to the point where NCSOFT has only said Project M is in development for "consoles," but the traile?r features "actual gameplay content." Why show it now?

According to principal development management officer Moon Young Choi, the reveal ??trailer is a part of a new "NCing" R&D initiative. "NCing expresses the company's commitment to unveil the development process and to continue communicating with the players earlier with regards to new projects," he said in a press statement.

"Going forw??ard, we will proactively showcase our development progress in various fo?rms of content such as trailer videos, interviews, novels, and webtoons."

I'll avenge my wife any day of the week. Just point me in the right direction!

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A train station that looks more real than real life

It feels like every few years, we all marvel at the new game graphics that are coming out and wondering to ourselves, "how could it get any better than this?" Somehow game devs still manage to one-up themselves every time, because I find myself yet again speaking those same words in awe and a little bit of existential dread. You see, I am quite afraid of the uncanny valley, and we have crossed so far into it that game graphics are indistinguishable from reality, thanks to Unreal Engine 5. We've seen some seriously convincing faces, but thi?s ??is the first environment I've seen that has my jaw on the floor.

A short video surfaced yesterday on the r/gaming subreddit that featured an abandoned train station �it looks inconspicuous at first, which made me wonder what the big deal c??ould be about this train station. The shaky camera pans around toward the tracks, and then suddenly everything switches to nighttime, and you realize that? this entire thing is a digital rendering of a train station in Unreal Engine 5. I'm sorry, what now?

//www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/ulvnuo/the_generat??io??n_of_games_after_current_one_is/

The way the light streams down the stairs, the way the fluorescent lights shine in the puddles on the ground, the way the flashlight bounces off the rusted metal walls, it's all just a little bit too convincing for me. I've seen some real?ly great graphics over the years, but this is the first time I've truly seen a video of something rendered in a game engine that I truly could not distinguish from real life or not.

So this train station is really impressive, but what does it mean for games using Unreal Engine 5? moving forward? These are? easily the most impressive photorealistic graphics I've ever seen, but this was just a short, most likely pre-rendered video.

Would our consoles and PCs really be able to run something this advanced without melting through our furniture? Time will only tell, but one certainty still r??emains �I'm gonna stick to my stylized art styles??, because this stuff gives me the heebie-jeebies.

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Take me there

A Chrono Cross Unreal Engine 5 project, especially in light of how the recent re-release project was approached, has me interested.

If you've played Chrono Cross, odds are you remember Arni Village. It made an imprint on me when I first played it decades ago, and pieces of it are a part of the iconic intro. Like Final Fantasy villages before it (X comes to mind), the idyllic seaside town has a chill vib??e that we absolutely need in 2022: that includes an Unreal Engine 5 rendition.

Crafted by Studio Logic, there's a new version in tow (viewable below) that includes "a new shot, more landscape, props, and colors." The music is a lovely guitar cover by Sam Griffin, which you can listen to ??here. Just listening to it and watching this screen saver go by: it's still crazy to me to see people in 2022 who care about Chrono Cross. I thought I was one of the few, enj?oying it in silence in a crowded 1999. It turns out there's more than dozens of us!

You can also grab the Chrono Cross Unreal Engine 5 scene on Wallpaper Engine, where it clocks in at nea?rly 500MB. While some people ?might be tired of Unreal Engine project concepts, this one has done a great job of chilling out a busy day.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJPnZlPy7C0

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Returning to their Croft

The next entry in the Tomb Raider series is on the way, and it'll be built in Epic's engine. Crystal Dynamics confirms that it's working on the next Tomb Raider in Unreal Engine 5.

The news arrived during today's State of Unreal presentation, where Epic launched UE5 to the public. The engine is now available to use, alongside some extra tools like the Lyra Starter Game and a city sample from The Matrix Awakens Unreal demo from late last year.

//twitter.com/tombraider/sta??tus/151136871??2279904258

Legacy of the Tomb Raider

No details were announced yet on where this journey will go or how it links in to previous Tomb Raider games. Crystal Dynamics helmed the first two reboot games, starting with 2013's Tomb Raider and then Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos-Montréal, meanwhile, took up 2018's Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Things have been quiet for Lara since then, as Crystal Dynamics went to work on Marvel's Avengers and Eidos-Montréal went to Guardians of the Galaxy. Now, it looks like CD is back on the Tomb Raider franchise, and I'm interested t?o see where they take the chara?cter from here.

It'll be some added work, as Crystal Dynamics is also collaborating on the Perfect Dark reboot with The Initiative. That's another project we've yet to see much of, outside of the initial announcement. It's unclear when we'll see either Joanna Dark or Lara Croft back on the scree??n again.

With all that, I'm happy to see Tomb Raider games back in development. I was a fan of reboot trilogy, and would definitely like to see where Crystal Dynamics could go. The Matrix demo was pretty impressive too, and Tomb Raider g?ames have ??usually been good showpieces for tech and visuals.

The new Tomb Raider is also now one of several projects in development on Unreal, including the next Witcher game from CD Projekt Red. Today, Epic confirmed over 85 studios are working on UE5, including t??hose two and The Coalition. Seems like Unreal is off to a running start with the new engine.

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This could mean a new school is in session

CD Projekt Red recently confirmed it's working on a new saga in The Witcher universe. The announcement came?? with an image, showing a medallion that's a little different from Geralt's wolf medallion. The Witcher medallion is, as CD Projekt Red now confirms, shaped like a lynx.

Speculation first started circling when CDPR Global Community Director Marcin Marmot replied with an enthusiastic nodding GIF to a user speculating that the medallion looks like a lynx. Speaking to Eurogamer, CD Proje??kt Red's Global Communication Director Robin Malinowski said "some mysteries should not be so mysterious."

"I can confir??m that the medallion is, in fac??t, shaped after a lynx," Malinowski told Eurogamer.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-l29HlKkXU

Those who don't know The Witcher too well might wonder why any of this matters. Well, in The Witcher universe, each monster hunter hails from different schools. Geralt, the series protagonist up to this point, falls under the School of the Wolf, as did his mentor Vesemir. Letho, an antagonist of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, hailed from the School of the Viper.

The School of the Lynx, however, is not an official school—yet. There is some fan-made content, or "fanon," about the School of the Lynx online that some have mistaken for where The Witcher may go. It proposes the idea of the witcher Lambert and sorceress Keira Metz setting off for new horizons. This isn't actual Witcher canon, though.

One of the authors of the page confirmed as much, speaking to Kotaku. So while the Lynx medallion does bring up some interesting possibilites, we don't know for sure what it could mean for t?he new saga.

All we know at the moment is that a new journey for The Witcher is under?way at CD Projekt Red, and it's being made in Unreal Engine 5. As for bigger questions of schools, sorcery, and where Ciri is in all this, time will ultimately tell. Or rather, CD Projekt Red will, when it's ready.

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Whatever's next in The Witcher universe will be in Unreal

CD Projekt Red is working on the next game in The Witcher se?ries. And this new saga will be taking place on a new engine, too.

The Witcher studio confirms it is developing the next installment of The Witcher on Unreal Engine 5. The move is part of a multi-year strategic partnership with Epic Games. The?? deal will cover licensing and technical development of UE5, and CDPR says it will closely collaborate with Epic's developers to tailor the engine for open-world experiences.

CD Projekt Red isn't saying much more about the new Witcher game. No development time frame or release date has been set. The teaser image in today's blog post does note that "a new saga begins." Given the nice ending Geralt got in Blood and Wine, it'd be nice to ??see someone else take up the silver swor??d.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0i88t0Kacs

REDengine will still be used at CD Projekt Red, as it's the engine behind Cyberpunk 2077. CDPR confirms that REDengine will still be used for developing the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 expansion. 2077 recently got a pretty significant overhaul patch, tuning many features of the futuristic open-world game. The patch also brough??t t?he game officially onto next-gen consoles.

Confirmation of more games in The Witcher series is big, though. The fantasy series got a second surge from the Netflix adaptation, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt still stands as a top game of the last generation. It's even, eventually, coming over to the next-gen consoles too.

With a new engine behind it, the same one seemingly powering some other big games, it'll be interesting to see what's ?in store for hunting monsters on the new consoles.

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Show up for the tech showcase, stick around for the fun banter

Last night, Epic released a free interactive experience called The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience. It's a neat tech demo for what the Unreal Engine 5 can do, for now and for the future. But for fans of The Matrix, it's also a fun slice of life in The Matrix.

It's available for free on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, and you can find the download pages through the Unreal site here. And i?t's pretty short too, so if you want to go in?? completely fresh, it's worth doing so.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU0gvPcc3jQ

The tech demo kicks off with a sequence that blends FMV into CGI, blurring the line between real and Unreal pretty quick. It's a lot of Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss talking about the themes of The Matrix: what do concepts like body, identi??ty, and soul mean in a digital space?

Along the way, there are callbacks to The Matrix movies, specifically the first one. The Matrix Awakens goes back to scenes like "wake up Neo" and Morph??eus revealing the true nature of the Matrix in the first film. And, of course, red pill / blue pill.

When it jumps out to a car chase in the city, though, things get even more intense. Here, animated versions of Reeves and Moss banter back and forth about marketing and missing these old days. It's honestly one of my favorite parts of the whole experience; these two still have a ton of on-screen chemistry, even within the Unreal Engine, and for Matrix fans it's fun to watch them quip back and forth.

Then your ?player character shows up, Neo does his Superman thing, and you take the controls. As Trinity steers the car down the freeway, you try to shoot out the tires of pursuing Agents. It's really straightforward—choose target and shoot are your options here—but it's still a pretty fun sequence that looks great. Eventually the big guns get brought out to bring down a helicopter, and one last QTE brings the overpass down to end a massive chase sequence.

It was here that I had a crash of my demo, the one blemish on the ?experience, though I didn't mind the excuse to re-watch the opening. And once that concluded, a series of tech demos rolled across the screen before plopping me? down, right in the middle of the city.

This is the "end" of the demo, or at least the guided portion of it. From here on, you're able to roam the city to your heart's content. You can run around, snatch a car from the side of the road and drive, or make like Neo and fly. Certain points in the city will let you toggle effects like day/night lighting. And of course, there's a pho?to mode.

Others have pointed out that this is an impressive tech demo of what Unreal can do on next-gen hardware, and I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment. But as someone who also recently re-watched The Matrix trilogy in anticipation of the new movie, this was a neat little slice of Matrix content.

If anything, I hope this becomes a bullet point in a pitch deck somewhere that leads to a new Matrix game. It's been ages since The Path of Neo or Enter the Matrix, and I think we're just about due for a new one. With the tech Epic and Unreal put on display with The Matrix Awakens, it could be a real good time.

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Welcome to the uncanny valley

Gaming technology has been on the cusp of complete photorealism for years, but things seem to have taken a turn recently with Unreal Engine 5. I feel like every day now I'm seeing something from a game engine that is indistinguishable from real life. At first it was just Forza Horizon 5 ??screenshots, which didn't freak me out as much, but now that we're seeing an increased number of rendered human faces that are so lifelike, it's hard to tell what's real and what's not anymore?.

//www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/r0f9aw/realt?ime_controlled_cgi_puppets_in_unreal_engine_5/

Enter Ziva Dynamics' ZRT Face Trainer, a software that allows game developers and animators to plug in their own face meshes and puppet them into dynamic expressions in real time. A video of the program's demo running in Unreal 5 landed on Reddit, where it's been doing some n?umbers and unsurprisingly freakin?g everyone out.

The Face Trainer's website boasts some impressive stats, like a database of over 15TB of 4D sca??n data, over 72,000 unique training shapes, and puppets that? can "run at real-time frame rates." The software entered early access today, and there's an application for the waitlist on the website for anyone who might be interested in the tech.

The video actually reminds me of some behind-the-scenes stuff I've seen before with motion-capture technology, specifically a tech demo for The Last of Us Part II. From what I understand, they were able to ??map the face of E?llie's actress, Ashley Johnson, onto her character's face in real time, and the results look pretty similar to the ZRT Face Trainer. Now they can just do that with faces that are entirely fabricated, I guess.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn5_-aZIVlU

Assuming the Face Trainer is going to be widely available to anyone who might want it in the coming years, I'll bet we're going to see huge leaps and bounds in the visual quality of games. This stuff makes what we have now look like PS2 graphics. While I am intrigued by the implications this kind of software has for the future of the games industry, it also makes me pretty uncomfortable. I'm also afraid of monkeys and Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors because they're t??oo uncanny for? me, so take that as you will.

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Robot, hit the dab

Games have all kinds of hidden secrets, and few are as infamous as the Konami code. It's so pervasive that it's become the input to trigger Easter eggs in other games, and even demos like one for Unreal En?gine 5.

Discovered by Jon Terp and shared on social media, and confirmed by an Unreal engineer at Epic, inputting the Konami code during the UE5 demo Valley of the Ancients makes its giant robot dab. And it dabs a lot. 

Apparently if you enter the Konami code in the @UnrealEngine 5 demo project the big robot dabs. Forever. 10/10 pic.twitter.com/o8eYHvPaKc

— Jon Terp (@JonTerp) May 27, 2021

Unreal Engine 5 has been pretty remarkable to see in motion already, but this adds another layer. Hopefully someone ends up recreating this moment in Dreams as well.

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