Obviously, it’s only intended for games that are free, similarly to mods, since the “real” Unreal Engine 3 costs upwards of $900,000 for a commercial license.

You can find the Unreal Development Kit at www.udk.com, and where you can already download games build with the new kit.

If you haven’t already registered and are interested, just head over to the official website and put in a few computer specs and contact information, and voila, you’re done. Mind you, the system requirements for the game are pretty hefty.

No release date is planned for the game, but the developers are hoping to launch it before the end of the year.

via BluesNews

“Unreal Tournament is certainly a major long-term priority but we’re planning not to release a major retail game in the series for several years,” Sweeney said. “So we have that effort somewhat on hold while we work on a few other initiatives.”

Sweeney also mentioned that Epic will continue to support the creation of third party mods in the long run, saying that Epic will “open up the engine to more people to use freely and use cool stuff.”

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Those impressive physics could be attributed to none other than Unreal Engine 3. This realization was made known during an OXM interview with Epic’s Mark Rein.

Sure, it proves that Unreal Engine 3’s capabilites are still prevalent years after it was released but the real gem here is that current game engines could in fact support the new motion control technology. This inevitably means that game developers will be able to create immersive Project Natal games without much difficulty.

Videos of the Paint Party and Richochet demonstration from E3 ‘09 included after the break.

The game was meant to be unveiled in an article in PC Gamer magazine, however, the publisher unveiled the details earlier than the developer expected, leading to some confusion (and a lot of PR work).

The only piece of information released is that the new game will be build using the Unreal Engine 3, which is always a safe bet when it comes to game development.

The new version of the engine will be getting a full MMO dev suite, including scalable statistics, data management backend and a content browser. More details about the new features will be detailed at GDC, where another heavyweight engine will be showcased, CryTek’s CryEngine 3, which also features MMO functionalities.

“To be direct: my sources are not saying Unreal Engine, and Epic Games, are the cause of its problems,” Fritz wrote. “Rather it’s the decision by Midway to use UE3 for all its games, and subsequent problems adapting the code, which caused game delays and then cash flow problems.”

This move was taken by the publisher as a cost-cutting measure. Midway had wanted its studios to share resources more efficiently, but instead individual projects demanded adapting the engine to their specific needs.

This caused a problem for Midway as the projects got delayed due to complexity in coding. So, Midway pushed out games in a desperate bid for revenue, but that plan didn’t go so well either.

“The trial is proceeding,” Dyack said. “We feel really good about our claims, and we’re hopeful that justice will be done. We all feel really strongly that they have defrauded us, and a major portion of the industry.”

The dispute is centered around the studio’s claim that Epic did not deliver promised features in Unreal Engine 3 in order to focus on its own UE3 project – Gears of War.

“The Too Human you see today only really started development when [Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes] was completed,” noted Dyack. “So it’s been a four-year development cycle and it would have been out even quicker, but we had to re-write the engine because of all the Epic stuff.”

Ambient Occlusion

Ambient Occlusion is a form of producing soft shadows. It’s also a way of making objects seem soft and smooth.

Notice how the ball looks soft and more defined. it also doesn’t have an annoying glare. This feature also works well with characters. Can you tell Which Marcus Fenix has Ambient occlusion?

High Density Crowds

I’ve always wondered in games or movies like Halo for example, if the enemies were so desperate to get rid of one particular person, why they don’t just send a whole army of soldiers to defeat them? Well now they can! The Unreal Engine 3 can now process hundreds of characters in a scene. That said, they won’t all have AI, but still at least developers can recreate the running of the bulls in real time.

Dynamic Fluid Surfaces

This is one of the more graphically impressive additions to the Unreal Engine 3, and ironically, the simplest to describe: water acts like water. Whatever you do in, to, or at, any type of liquid, be it water or blood, will result in a dynamic and realistic reaction.

Matinee Improvements

This feature is more important for developers than players. Basically, Epic has refined the tool used to create real-time cut-scenes, called Matinee, so that is is easier for game developers to create more cinematic cut scenes. The end result: the Gears of War 2 intro will look really cool.

Soft Body Physics

Object with soft body physics can react realistically to touch or other interactions from outside forces. For example if Marcus Fenix was, very, very, carefully holding a water balloon and pressed it, gently, with his thumb, the water balloon would squish and squeeze realistically. This is great for creating realistic objects that are naturally not solid, like a body.

Destructible Environments

Destructible environments are pretty self explanatory, players can destroy their surroundings at a whim. This can either be a big feature, or a neat gimmick. If players can break the environment in ways that influence the situation, for example being able to break down a tree, like in Crysis, it could lead to very innovative uses of the engine.

However, if what Epic calls “destructible environments” simply consists of breaking bits of cement, at best this is fun eye-candy.

This is all that Epic has revealed so far. Watch the Microsoft GDC keynote for a video demonstration of these features.