Long gone are the days when almost every game development studio c??ame 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 industry, 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 UE, as we've had close to a thousand games produced on UE3 ?and UE4 in the past. UE5, in comparison, is even more mo?numental.

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, th?ough?

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

Before moving on to the crux of the matt?er, I've got to set the stage for my qualms about Unreal. For someone who isn't familiar with the verbiage of the what, why, and how o?f 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 (p?hysics, 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 issue?s.

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 single ??UE5 game I'd classify 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 o??ff with Epic's standardized rendering solutions rather than with something Nvidia might cook up. Tech exclusivity is not somet??hing I'm keen on.

My biggest concern isn't with the fact that everyone'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 al?ready know 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 good 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 w??ell 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 calling for anything and ??everything to be remade 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 i?s 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 entr??enched by now to be done away with, and the competition is unfortunately questionable at best. And so it goes.

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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 release?s with extra content, some decide to just straight-up make a different version of the post-apocalyptic s?eries.

As spotted by DSO Gaming, a developer called Milwaukee Games has set about creating their own Fallout. While it's still in the protot??ype stages at this point, the project is notable for 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 storylin?e 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 description, 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 game as imagined in Unreal Engine. The??se are th??e good times. Possibly.

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Having come out in 2007, the original BioShock is now pretty old, but that does??n'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 v?ersion of said gloom. We see hints of a Big Daddy in one of them, with each image showing recognizable parts of Rapture with more modern visual 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 reall??y had any updates for quite 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 de??velopment a??t Netflix, so we'll probably be seeing that 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, wi?th Epic Games taking a cut whenever games earn above a certain?? threshold. However, if you're a non-game company, you will need to pay for the software soon enough.

In a recent news post over on the Unreal Engine website, a new pricing scheme is being introduced with the release of version 5.4 in April. This will only affect those who are working on non-gaming projects, but there are at least a fe??w 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, t?he 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 revenue". 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 se?t in the titular foggy town, fans 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 is to sa??y, they've recreated 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 stan??dout stuff, 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 lot younger then. I probably had some impo??rtant kid stuff to be thinking about, like hopes and dreams.

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The Callisto Protocol developer Striking Dist??ance Studios has opened up some new positions for an upc?oming 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 in?tending to create something brand-new.

Some of the positions include a Lead Technical Artist, UI Technical Artist, Lead Gameplay Animator, and a Lead Gameplay E??ngineer. What this elusive proje?ct will be is anyone's guess 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 ha??ve 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.

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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 n??ot, there's something interesting happening with the O??G.

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 no??rmally would be, and through my software, communicates with another running instance of Unreal Engine 5. Through this communication link the games state, assets, everything, is communicated to Unreal Engine 5 and reinterpreted as a modern game asset, al??l at runtime.

So it'll still be the original Deus Ex, but with some mo?dern 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 la?unch it as soon as they can.

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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 c??omes to the genre. Capcom's legendary series has endured and while official remakes have been hitting the ground runn?ing, 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 game is being made in Unreal Engine 5, and from what we can see in the footage, it looks pretty impre??ssive.

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 bit 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, wi??th the way th??ings are going, a ninth mainline game is something 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 prett?y, but has evidently aged over the pas?t 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 woul??d look li??ke 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-accurate 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 u??s 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??, but we'll probably all be a lot older and wiser by then.

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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 outp??ost looks like when rendered 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 t??han Creation Engine.

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 Creation 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 footage has been ??captured on PC using the most modern hardware 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 th??is 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 Entertainment 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 kind 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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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 this 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 could be ab?out 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.reddi?t.com/r/gaming/comments/ulvnuo/the_generation_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 really 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 remai?ns �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 vibe 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, enjoying it in silence in a crowd??ed 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 cloc?ks in at nearly 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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Yeah, I'd play it

Here we are with another Ocarina of Time Unreal demo, and it's still just as impressive as the last time we all looked at one and judged it collect?ively.

This iteration comes from RwanLink, who recreated Lake Hylia from Ocarina of Time.  As the creator puts it, "this lake is beautiful and full of mysteries so I wanted to recreate this feel by imagining how it could? look like with the visual of a film." They eve?n had a theme song crafted for Lake Hylia for the purpose of the video. Oh, and it's voiced, too (well, Navi is)!

The intro is several minutes long, but ??the real opening on the area start??s roughly here????, and the pan out is a sight to behold. The theme also really comes together and makes the entire thing, which is presented in 4K60 using Unreal Engine 5.

I'm not ashamed to admit that while "Unreal Zelda" is something that happens on a weekly basis, I'm a sucker for it. Nintendo already did a lot of the groundwork creating these incredible locales??, and folks have paid homage to them for decades:? this is no different.

I actually really like the visual style of Breath of the Wild, and many Zelda games in the past, but it would be incredible to see just one done in this style with the latest ??tech. No, not eve??ryone is going to like it! But some people might.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp9OUSxXoDg

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Enter the Matrix

Epic Games announced today that the pre-load for a new Matrix experience is live now, ahead of its full reveal. The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience is ready to get loaded onto your PlayStation 5 or Xbox ??Series X|S console right now.

You can find the link on the Epic and Unreal Engine page here. As for what it entails? The trailer description says The Matrix Awakens is created by members of the original movie team, including Lana Wachowski, alongside Epic Games and its partners. It's a ride into the universe of The Matrix featuring performances by series mainstays K??eanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss?.

Both Reeves and Moss are appearing at the 2021 Game Awards, where all will be revealed.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV7BRjFzKH8

Epic also recently collaborated on the KID A MNESIA Exhibition, a virtual celebration of Radiohead's music. And with Fortnite being as meta-versey as it is, its?? parent company working on larger media crossovers certainly makes a good deal of sense.

It's also cool to see The Matrix back in the games space. It's been ages since the days of Path of Neo or even the (possibly canon-affecting) Matrix Online. With The Matrix Resurrections premiering later this month, I'm hopeful this means a general Matrix resurgence.

All will be announced at The Game Awards 2021. The show goes live on Thursday, Dec. 9, and the nominee list is already out and able to be voted on. In a new interview with USA Today, showrunner Geoff Keighley assured there would be "at least four or five things" at the show on the scale of the Elden Ring gameplay reveal.

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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 a??s 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/realtime_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 numbers and unsurprisingly freaking eve??ryone out.

The Face Trainer's website boasts some impressive stats, like a database of over?? 15TB of 4D scan 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 Ellie's actress, Ashley Johnson, onto her character's face in real time, and the results look pretty simila?r 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 to??o uncanny for me, so take that as you will.

The post These lifelike faces in Unreal 5 are freaking peo??ple out appeared first on Destructoid.

Shifting Gears

Gears of War studio The Coalition has annou?nced today that it's moving into next-gen development and using Unreal Engine 5. The studio says it will be developing on Unreal Engine 5 for "multiple new projects" in the coming years, but don't expect an announce?ment of those titles for some time.

Today's announcement notes that shifting to a new engine for development is a big undertaking, so The Coalition says it will "not be ??announcing any new projects or titles for some time."

Gears 5 will still receive Operations 7 and 8, and there will be more store updates and new content through the end of the year. As for new games, the studio says it is eager?? to show what it's working on "when the time is right."

The Coalition has been hard at work over the last year or so, bringing Gears 5 to 120 FPS on the Xbox Series X and launching both Gears Tactics and the Hivebusters mini-c??ampai??gn. Whatever they can put together with a new Unreal Engine will certainly be something to see. 

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RPG mode getting new chapters as well

It was a bit odd last December when Arc System Works and Cygames pulled back the curtain on the second season of DLC characters for Granblue Fantasy: Versus before the first season had even been revealed. But with such a large Granblue cast to choose from, it was pretty predictable the DLC train would keep rolling full-steam ahead. After wrapping up its first season with the addition of Zooey, Versus is ready to start its so??phomore year with the previously revealed Belial and cute-as-a-button Cagliostro.

Belial will be available for download on September 23 with Cagliostro following in late October. It should be noted due to COVID-19, neither character will launch with their English language voice overs. Twenty-twenty will see one more character added to the season pass with three ?mor??e to follow in 2021.

Additionally, on August 9 -- or late night on August 8 depending on your timezone -- Granblue Fantasy: Versus&nb??sp?;will update to version 1.40. This update will add Boss Battle Time Attack and Blitz modes, as well as new chapters to the RPG mode. 

Granblue Fantasy: Versus is now available on PS4 and PC.

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One of the first confirmations

After Epic unveiled Unreal Engine 5 last week, we were given vague assurances? that developers for both PS5 and Xbox Series X would have access to this new engine (and a console war argument was inadvertently sparked in the process). However, we haven't really heard of?? any games that would use Unreal Engine 5, possibly because it's still more than a year away and not a lot of next-gen games have been revealed yet.

That's why it might not be super remarkable but it is noteworthy that inXile has confirmed its next game after Wasteland 3 ?will be built on Unreal Engine 5. Studio founder Brian Fargo confirmed as much a few hours ago while replying to a fan.

We've had quite a few questions about our next gen RPG and can confirm it will use Unreal Engine 5. //t.co/65jq0ckz5f

— Brian Fargo (@BrianFargo) May 19, 2020

In recent years, inXile has primarily switched back and forth between Unreal Engine 4 and Unity. The Wasteland games and Torment: Tides of Numenera, for instance, run on Unity. The Bard's Tale IV, however, is Unreal Engine. Th?ere's probably no hint as t??o inXile's next game based on which engine the developer chooses.

Although, there may be an indication as to the time table we're working with. Unreal Engine 5 will go into preview in early 2021 before a full launch in late 2021. That probably means it'll be in the? hands of big-name developers first before it's available to everyone. Maybe the takeaway isn't so much "inXile's next tri??ple-A RPG will be built in UE5" so much as it's "A lot of next-gen games will make use of UE5 but they'll take upward of two more years to get here."

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In between molecules of oxygen and carbon dioxide

Dreams on PS4 is quickly becoming the place for creative types to recreate things they love. It's no wonder it's the new go-to. As Jordan told us in February (which was somehow only three months ago), Dreams is a fantastically robust suite of creative tools assembled in an intui??tive and easy-to-use way.

Earlier this week, Epic showed us the first glimpse of the next chapter of its cutting edge game engine. As we saw in a nine-minute video, Unreal Engine 5's two biggest tech advancements are Nanite (importing photorealistic source materials and the engine turns them into vi?rtualized geometry) and Lumen (automatic global illumination that reacts to the scene, eliminating the need for developers to create lightmaps). It? seems really impressive, and Epic confirmed UE5 will release to developers working on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X games sometime in mid-2021.

Okay, now that the technical jargon stuff is out of the way, that video acc?ompanying UE5's reveal was set in a cave. Like, a really beautiful cave. A cave with approximately a bajillion highly-detailed rocks and gorgeous lighting. It looked great, but tech demos pretty much always look great.

All of this is to say that someone made the UE5 cave in Dreams. It was made by artist Martin Nebelong, who apparently only spent a few hours working on it. Needless to say, it's quite impressive considering it's built inside of another game. But, Dreams creators have been finding ways to continually impress us for months now.

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Enter Lumen in the Land of the Nanite

Today during a Summer Game Fest showcase stream, Epic Games has revealed Unreal Engine 5 with a new demo t??hey are calling "Lumen in the Land of Nanite," shown on the PlayStation 5.

There's two technological advancements at play here for this faux game: Nanite and Lumen. For the former, Epic says that the engine uses 8K textures, and "millions of triangles of source technology in each frame, for roughly 20 million drawn triangles." Their main goal is "to achieve photorealism on par with movie CG and real life," but also maintain a high framerate and performance. The demo shows off "hundreds" of objects at once and maintains a smooth framerate on PS5. Yeah: I'm interested in a Souls-level u??niverse with this tech keeping everything ??stable.

Lumen, as expected, deals with light. Epic calls it a "fully dynamic global Illumination solution that immediately reacts to scene and light changes." Evidently developers can bend Lumen to their will, performing gargantuan feats such as "changing the sun angle for the time of day," or something as simple as flashlight physics. I'm gonna need another Alan Wake with Lumen, stat.

You can watch the footage below and witness all of the advancements for yourself. Epic has also confirmed that there is a "$1 million royalty exemption for Unreal Engine game developers," and has launched Epic Online Services "for all game developers." Epic Online Services includes "lobbies, matchmaking, peer-to-peer connectivity, player data storage, achievements and stats, leaderboards, game analytics, and player ticketing" as well as cross-platf??orm accounts, with voice chat "comi??ng later."

Unreal Engine 5 is coming in 2021. First an "early 2021" preview will arrive, followed by a "full release in late 2021." "Current and next-gen consoles" are confir?med, as well as PC, Mac, iOS and Android platforms.

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RADICAL!

I feel as though Ninjala has always existed on the precipice of mainstream relevance. For almost two years now, it's been building toward its release, never really garnering that much attention outside of its constant comparisons to Splatoon. Even though they're two distinctly different games, it's always lived in the shadow of Nintendo's kid-and-squid shooter. If Ninjala wanted the spotlight on itself, ?it could do so with a successful open beta.

It did not do that.

Rather than giving players a taste of the bubblegum-brawler gameplay, the recent Ninjala Exclusive Ninja Club beta left most people pursuing an endless series of error codes until emergency maintenance blocked anyone from playing. That more-or-less describes my experience with it, so rather than write-up an impressions piece of a game I really don't have a??ny impressions of, I thought I'd share with you the most balls-to-the-wall error codes I ran into when attempting to play this gam?e.

Error Code #: G-0--001

Error Code G-0-001 deserves mention right out the gate for being the most common error code I encountered when trying to play Ninjala. It's also the craziest because you never knew when it would pop up. You could be trying to access the multiplayer, the training center, or the closet to deck your avatar out in some dope d?uds, and then BAM!, there i??t is to ruin your day.

Error Code #: G-2-05000-15000

Unlike the more promiscuous error code above, G-2-05000-15000 proved particularly gnarly because it always popped up whenever it seemed I was the closest to actually connecting to the multiplayer mode. This specific error code screenshot was captured after I spent five minutes waiting, hoping, and praying that my connection would finally go through. And just when?? I thought I had it, this bastard flew in doing a 1080 twisty through a flaming hoop just to slap me down.

Error Code: Connection Error

That's right. Connection Error is confirmed to be in Ninjala. I know a lot of people were wondering if it would make the jump from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, so I'm happy to confirm GungHo Online was able to secure its presence in its new Switch exclusive. Considered the Margo Martindale of error codes, I can't wait to see how Connection Error manifests itself when Ninjala officially launches.

Error Code: Unable to Enter Game

This was the screen players saw when trying to access the open beta outside of the scheduled hours. Or, it was the screen players eventually saw when trying to access the open beta within the scheduled hours. Getting the unable-to-enter-game error was like being smacked in the face by one of Ninjala's colorful Ippon Katanas. If video games had bouncers -- outside of the game The Bouncer -- this screen woul??d be the 400 lb. white guy, who used to be a marine, wearing sunglasses just waiting to beat the shit out of any dickhead who tries to force himself into the club.

Error Code #: G-0-1200

Finally, error code G-0-1200, the unicorn error code that was so rare, I only saw it once. A?? legit mystery of what role this error code filled that couldn't be filled by G-0--001 or G-2-05000-15000. What s?ecrets does this error code hold? Could it contain the reason as to why a company with the word "Online" in its name hosted a public beta that went this poorly? Only time and data miners will tell.

Despite the frequent error codes and GungHo sending the game into emergency maintenance 20 minutes into the 8:00 pm beta session, I was able to play and complete a single round of free-for-all Ninjala against other players. It was okay. I started in first place with a quick kill, but by the end of the match, I'd dropped into fifth as these gum-chewing cretins kicked my ass from one side of the stage to the other. It's hard to make a ??judgment with such limited time under my belt, but it ran surprisingly well given how the rest of the beta went and I can say the gameplay didn't do anything to swear me off downloading the title when it actually launches. 

Ninjala ;launches exclusively for Nintendo Switch on May 27. Whether or not that will change based on the beta remains to be seen. Hopefully, all the connection kinks I experienced will be ironed out by then, because if ther??e is one thing the Switch doesn't lack, it's engaging free-to-play ga?mes.

The post The 5 most thrilling, jaw-dropping, over?-the-top error codes from the Ninjala public beta appeared first on Destructoid.

A New Year's surprise for everyone

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. developer GSC Game World isn't really ready to talk about the sequel, apart from the fact that it exists and it's tentatively set to release next year. However, a ?business partner is willing to spill the beans.

On New Year's Eve, Epic published a big l??ist of upcoming games that are bui?lt on Unreal Engine. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 was included despite GSC Game World never independently divulging that information. Epic has since edited its post to omit S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, but the game's subreddit dutifully captured a screenshot.

Today, GSC reluctantly confirmed that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 uses Unreal Engine 4:

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is powered by Unreal Engine: pic.twitter.com/RdDWr4yYj3

— S.T.A.L.K.E.R. OFFICIAL (@stalker_thegame) January 2, 2020

The previous S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games used the X-Ray Engine, which GSC made itself. However, the most recent of those?? titles released in 2010. It's c?ertainly outdated and would require a significant overhaul, likely a major factor in the decision to move to one of the most high-profile and well-supported engines available.

GSC also points out that switching to Unreal Engine will make modding more accessible. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has continued to live on largely because its community keeps creating mods. That trend probably won't die with the s??equel, so Unreal Engine should make it easier on ever?yone. 

The post S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 uses Unre?al Engine, partially so modders have it easier appeared first on Destructoid.

Tribute to Unreal Engine

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has announced that they will p?resent developer Epic Games with a BAFTA Special Award at this year's E3 conference, which takes place in Los Angeles next month. The BAFTA will be accepted by Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney on June 12 at an event held at the Lo?ndon West Hollywood hotel.

Epic has been afforded the honour mostly for the creation of Unreal Engine, which has powered a plethora of popular video games since 1998, where it was first developed for FPS title Unreal. No doubt the BAFTA is also awarded in part for global phenomenon Fortnite, which has already proven itself one of the biggest video game releases of all??-time.

"We are delighted to present this year’s Special Award to Epic Games," said Dr. Jo Twist of the BAFTA's games committee. "Having powered the creativity and imaginations of development teams of all sizes over the years – many of whom have gone on to win BAFTAs - it’s right to mark their huge contribution wi??th this Special Award as part of BAFTA’s commitment to celebrating and promoting the very best in games."

Tim Sweeney also noted: "All of us at Epic Games are honored that BAFTA has awarded Unreal En??gine for excellence in technology, and we share this recognition with our partners and the c??reative community."

E3 2019 takes place between June 11-14 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Epic Games to receive BAFTA Special Award at E3 [BAFTA Official]

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Another storefront? Unreal!

In a turn of events that has become increasingly common, another game company has announced that it plans to directly compete with Steam by starting its own storefront. Epic Games, developer of the wildly popular Fortnite and Unreal Tournament series, is the next on the block to try and chop down the digital behemoth that is Steam. Its plan to dent the platform's gilded armor? Appease developers. That's the best plan I've seen in a while.

Whereas Steam takes a 30 percent cut of the profits from games sold on its storefront, Epic plans to only take a 12 percent cut of the sale. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney claimed that through their distribution of Fortnite they learned the costs of distributing games and found that other storefronts were marking their costs up to 400% over what they should be. Based on Epic's calculations, a 12% cut for the sto??refront was a profitable compromise that would be more enticing to developers. Even more enticing? How about waived fees for using the Unre??al Engine?

Ever since the Unreal Engine was made widely available for game development, Epic has taken a 5% cut of the revenue for games that sold more than $3,000 per quarter that used the Unreal En??gine 4's development kit. To sweeten the pot for developers using the engine, Epic plans to waive said fee so long as the game is sold on its storefront.

There are goodies planned for consumers and post-production content?? creators as well. Throughout the entirety of 2019, Epic plans to give away a free game every two weeks. I'm not expecting these to be barn-burners but 26 free games is 26 free games. Hard to complain about that.

For content creators such as streamers and bloggers, there are also plans in place to "matchmake" creators with developers so there is a bit more in the way of kickback for cr?eators who bring in more sales of the games they promote. Not many details were made public, but this could be a big incentive for creators to start using the storefront if it means more money in their pocket.

As if they are taking a page from Bethesda's screwup, the Epic Games Store will launch with a "no questions asked" return policy for games ?that were purchased less than 14 days prior. The store plans to launch with? manual refunds, with automated refunds to follow soon after.

So far it all sounds really g??reat, at least ??on paper. I'm definitely not loving the trend of every Tom, Dick, and Harry developer getting their own storefront and launcher for PC games, but I do think Steam has gone unopposed for too long. Do I think this will be the storefront to sink Steam? No, not really. But with these policies and incentives in place, I think it's going to rattle the foundations Steam has built up over the years.

The Epic Games Store is currently available through the company's website and Epic will be on site for The Game Awards this week to announce ??more games that will soon be available on its store.

Epic launching Steam rival with 88% revenue share for develop??ers [GamesIndustry.biz]

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Bien joue

The intro to Metal Gear Solid is burned in my mind. Not just the opening cinematic, but the entire first hour or so, which felt like eons as I slowly grasped the game's ins and outs and experimented with ways to mess with guards. I had also just come off beating the original Tenchu (they both released around the same time!), and w??as on an action stealth kick. It was a glorious time to own a P??layStation.

It's not just that nostalgia trip that really drew me into this Unreal Engine 4 remake from YouTuber Warpgazer though. I periodically flip through my Metal Gear collection and the original still holds up. The boss fights, the locales, the insanely long cutscenes: if you can deal with the dated visuals (or the GameCube's Twin Snakes), you're in for a ride even in 2018.

It's also insane to hear phrases like "the remains of Big Boss," and not think of all of the future implications over the next 20 years. Four minutes is all you need! Give it a watch and maybe replay Metal Gear Solid with me in spirit.

The post This Metal Gear Solid Unreal Engine 4 intro isn’t (les enfants) terribles appeared first on Destructoid.

From Charles Fortin and a small team

We're lucky the Ice Climbers are official members of the Super Smash Bros. roster, because outside of Nana and Popo's inclusion their source material, Ice Climber, remains firmly frozen in time. Outside of a "Vs" iteration for arcades released three years after the original NES classic it's been pure crickets, but this Unreal Engine 4 demo sold me on the idea that it's time to tak?e them out of retirement.

Built almost like a mix of the modern Loderunner games and like something you'd see out of one of the recent Donkey Kong Country entries, this demo from Charles Fortin and his small team looks like ??it plays great for an early build. Acco??rding to Fortin it took his team seven weeks, with 11 people and "one musician."

I can easily see this working with more ?polish as an?? eShop release on Switch.

The post Ice Climbe??r in the Unreal Engine sold me on a new entry in this 30-year dormant franchise appeared first on Destructoid.

Tallon Canyon never looked so good

Metroid Prime has one of the all-time great openings. After a hectic battle and escape sequence aboard a Space Pirate frigate, you touch down on Tallon IV, the setting for ?the rest of the lonely adventure. As raindrops roll down your visor, you have a chance to breathe -- an ??opportunity to take in the natural beauty of an alien world just begging to be explored and cataloged. It's such an awe-inspiring moment.

I've seen a bunch of mildly amusing Unreal Engine mock-ups, but this one takes it. YouTube user MilkyMax shared his "reimagining of the amazing atmosphere of the opening hours of Metroid Prime."

The end result is a must-see for fans.

Watching this footage calls to mind memories of exploring Metroid Prime for the first time, an??d that's probably the best complimen?t I could ever give it. A lot of love and thought went into crafting this.

We've heard so little about Metroid Prime 4 lately that it hasn't been on my?? mind. ??That just changed.

[Via reddit]

The post This Unreal Engine 4 tribute to Metroid Prime i?s out of this wo??rld appeared first on Destructoid.

They're all in on it

Epic pretty much has it made right now. Back in the day they ruled the FPS realm with Unreal Tournament, and now with Fortnite they're more popular than eve??r. Oh, and an overwhelming amount of games use their engine -- you know, tha??t whole chestnut.

That list includes CCP, developer of EVE Online. The Icelandic-based developer that also has studios across the world re-commited to the Unreal Engine 4 today, noting that it is now the "exclusive development tool for all unannounced projects."

Bing Xi, development director at CCP Shanghai, explains why: "Although CCP Games has used versions of Unreal Engine for more than 10 years on various projects, Unreal Engine 4.20 has massive improvements. UE4’s latest enhancements, like the new ProxyLOD mesh reduction tool and the new Niagara VFX editor ar??e among the many features that make game development a more efficient process.”

It might not seem like a big deal, but for CCP, it really is. The studio recently went through a ton of changes, shifting priority back onto EVE Online proper as they shuttered several of other studios and their VR efforts as a whole. While Project NOVA is still looming on the horizon the reveal that they have other unannounced projects highlights t??hat they're back on track.

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Return to Na Pali

Epic Games' first 3D title, Unreal, is 20 years old this year (and now I feel old). The game and its incredible follow-up, Unreal Tournament, played a massive part of my childhood and helped get me into PC gaming in a big way. I recommend that everyone at least give it a try, not only to see the beginnings of one of the industry's biggest game engines, but because it is simply a great game (hell, watch LGR's retrospective on it to see why).

Trying it has gotten a whole lot easier as Epic Games is handing out Unreal Gold for free on Steam and GOG. Unreal Gold is a compilation of the original title and its decent expansion, Return to Na Pali. For a limited time, you'll be able to grab the game and add it to your account for the low price of a mouse click. If you're worried about your PC being able to run it, don't be. The game is not only incredibly scalable, but runs perfectly fine on modern hardware with a few quick fixes.

Epic Games [Twitter]

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