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At long last, Renegade X: Black Dawn has been released! Congrats to the entire team.

Renegade X is an indie standalone game, bringing the world of Command & Conquer to ground level. Renegade X is a tactical First Person Shooter with RTS elements, featuring two unique factions, each with distinctive weapons and vehicles. With stunning visuals and remarkable gameplay, Renegade X aims to push the Unreal Engine 3 to its climax.

As the news headline suggest, a trailer showcasing the upcoming RO2 mod, Rising Storm. There's a lot of talent behind this one, including some loving from TWI, so it's definitely one to watch.

A bit more regarding what's going on behind the scenes of Rising Storm:

It's been a busy few months for the Rising Storm team, integrating our work with the public version of the recently released Red Orchestra 2 SDK and getting on board some top talent. New additions include the composer, Ben Hollway, who has worked on the music promoting this year's Oscar ceremonies and with recording artists such as Devlin, and Harlan Glenn, who has worked in a research capacity for HBO's 'The Pacific' and 'Band of Brothers' and as Pacific theatre researcher for both the Medal of Honor and Call of Duty franchises. The trailer itself features the special effects work of Richard Dawson, another new member of the team.

As you can see, with TWI's support, this is a mod that is able to punch above its weight in terms of the quality of its crew. This is particularly so as RS has long been recruiting from the fertile gounds of the modding communities which grew up around TWI's previous hits, Red Orchestra: Ostfront 1941-45 and Killing Floor. We do, however, still have openings for a couple more talented modellers to round off the ranks and applications can be made through the RS website.

I know Mass Effect 3 is on a lot of wishlists around here, so have a look at the brand new trailer featuring Mass Effect's multiplayer component, sprinkled in between cutscenes.

The upcoming free-to-play Marvel Heroes MMO will be powered by Unreal Engine 3, according to a press release from developer Gazillion Entertainment.

"We love Unreal Engine 3's streaming system. It's made our entire technical approach possible and is easy to work with," said Jeff Lind, studio director of Gazillion's Secret Identity Studios. "We also love the flexibility we get from the actor components, which have empowered us to make all kinds of customizations without sacrificing the built-in features of the engine."

Secret Identity Studios Art Director Josh Book added, "Our artists love the Unreal Content Browser, the visual art pipeline, and how functional UE3 is with different 3D packages. We had assets in the game within hours of starting work with the engine. In addition, Unreal Lightmass is a very advanced global illumination tool that has helped push the look of our game further than we thought it could go."

"Capturing the distinctive moments of such revered fiction within a game environment is no small task, and it's critical to use the very best tools and technology to deliver the production values fans expect," said Joe Kreiner, North American licensing manager, Epic Games. "Having grown up with Marvel's iconic heroes and villains, we're really honored to help Gazillion and Secret Identity achieve their creative vision and quality bar for the game."

Tripwire has released to the public the UEd executable for Red Orchestra 2. It has been available in limited form for a while now and the mod and mapping community is already busy creating custom content for the game.

Three of the featured mod currently underway are Rising Storm, In Country Vietnam (see teaser trailer below), and Iron Europe. More can be seen at the Tripwire Interactive forums

It's awesome to see official UEd support and hopefully more licensees follow suit.

UDK-powered Q.U.B.E. launches today on Steam and for a limited time is 15% off. Check out the gameplay below.

Yesterday Epic Games announced that the Infinity Blade franchise has amassed earnings of more than thirty million dollars. The original title pulled in more than twenty three million, while Infinity Blade II has already hit the five million mark in the month it has been on the market.

One of the most popular gaming franchises to be launched on the App Store, the award-winning series has also created significant licensing interest in the underlying Unreal Engine 3 technology from developers worldwide.

Further fueling franchise momentum is the recent release of Infinity Blade II, which has seen net earnings in excess of $5 million in just one month since release on Dec. 1, 2011, a mark which took the original title three months to achieve. Infinity Blade II is on pace to exceed the record success of the original Infinity Blade game, which has grossed more than $23 million to date. Additional franchise extensions include Infinity Blade: Awakening, a digital novella from best-selling author Brandon Sanderson, Infinity Blade: Original Soundtrack, which features original music from the games, and Infinity Blade FX, a big screen, coin-op version of Infinity Blade now featured in arcades nationwide.

Infinity Blade II was one of the most critically acclaimed games of 2011 and received dozens of accolades, including several perfect scores and Editors Choice awards. IGN scored the game a "Perfect 10" and named it their 2011 Mobile Game of the Year. USA Today awarded Infinity Blade II another perfect score, calling it "A Masterful Mobile Epic." Infinity Blade II was crowned Game of the Year by Slide to Play and Touch Gen, and named Mobile Game of the Year by GameSpot and G4TV, among others. Infinity Blade II was also named among E! Online's 'Top 10 Games of 2011,' one of the 'Best Apps of 2011' by Entertainment Weekly, and was cited by Mashable in its '5 Major Trends that Changed Digital Entertainment in 2011' feature.

"The success of the Infinity Blade franchise is testament to our talented team who is devoted to making games we want to play, all while using Unreal Engine technology to redefine what is expected from games on iOS devices," Epic Games President Dr. Michael Capps said. "We have so much more in store for players, and will continue to make great content for Apple's evolving platforms."

The UDK dual-stick shooter, Waves, has been garnering praise recently. Developer, Rob Hale, explains:

The game picked up a Golden Teabag at the #Indievisibility awards for "Best use of the Unreal Engine" which was lovely and as far as I'm concerned means Waves is better than Gears of War 3. It's had a series of 8/10 reviews including one from Eurogamer which by all logic means it must be at least as good as Uncharted 3 and as such I should be insulted by receiving such a terrible score. I'm not though. It was lovely.

It's also been the recipient of a recent upgrade, adding a new mode and achievements. Check out the gameplay video below. Once again, Mr. Hale:

Well now to top off the month the game has received a free update on Steam that includes a sixth completely new game mode imaginatively called "Chase" which I have dubbed "The Speed Metal of Shmups". There are also 28 new Achievements to whore many of which were suggested by the community and a few of which have been named in their honour (A new achievement for hitting the games score cap is called "I Am FPDrummond" who was the first player to reach it).

If you haven't picked it up already, you're in luck as it's currently part of the Steam Holiday Sale and is 25% off alone, or grab it in the Awesome Pack along with nine other really solid indie titles.

Rachel 'Angel Mapper' Cordone's UDK tome Unreal Development Kit Game Programming with UnrealScript: Beginner's Guide has been released and is available from Packt and Amazon in digital and paperback. Rachel has definitely made her mark in the world of Unreal Editing, winning multiple awards in various Make Something Unreal Contests and having worked on a number of professional projects, so no doubt she'll have a lot to say. Congrats on the release, Rachel!

Unreal Development Kit Game Programming with UnrealScript: Beginner's Guide is the definitive book for UDK users who are new to the UnrealScript programming language, as well as for programmers who wish to expand their skills to include UnrealScript. Instead of writing dry, boring code the book uses practical examples of the topics discussed to build and expand on an actual working example game!

The release date for RenegadeX: Black Dawn has been revealed in the latest trailer for the the free UDK game - 1.28.12. Check out the trailer below and then consider giving them your vote in IndieDB's Indie Game of the Year awards.

As promised, Epic Games unveiled its next big thing tonight on Spike's VGA show. I'd be willing to bet most people were thinking about the latest Unreal Engine showcase, Samaritan, they released a while back... they'd be wrong.

Fortnite, instead, looks to be something of a tower-defense game. Check out the trailer:

An article on Forbes goes into a little more detail and it mentions that now the trailer is out they will see what publishers show interest.

FORTnITE is unlike any game Epic has made to date. The stylized action game is actually hard to pin down to a single genre. It has various gameplay elements that vary by time of day. During daylight, the multiplayer experience will focus on building up a fortress through teamwork and sharing resources. This fortress becomes crucial when the sun goes down and the undead rise. It

Along with the release of the free Twisted Christmas update, Tripwire has arranged a free weekend of play for all on Steam. Just download and play until Monday at 10 AM PST. If you like it - and you should - you can pick it up for 75% off as well. Check out the new trailer:

We've been talking about the Unreal Engine 3 powered InMomentum and now might be an excellent time to give it a shot. The game is featured in the newest indie bundle to hit the 'net - the Indie Gala Bundle. Set your own price and split the cash among the developers, Save the Children and Child's Play charities, and the website hosts.

Included in the Bundle are InMomentum, Zombie Shooter 2, Hacker Evolution: Duality, Saira, and Your Doodles are Bugged! Those making the plunge in the first two days will receive the bonus Zombie Shooter (1) and Hacker Evolution: Untold games.

Did you ever wonder what Final Fantasy VII would look like in 3D? Well, no, I didn't either. But it is a damn fine game and the folks at Studio Paint from are busily reworking the game in Unreal Engine 3. This is a fan-made project, but I'm willing to bet that Squenix will be dropping a C&D in their laps sometime in the near future. In the meantime, check out the classic intro sequence:

Christmas is coming early this year for those of us who play Killing Floor, courtesy of Tripwire Interactive. The big reveal is a massive weapon pack, a new Christmas themed map, new Steam achievements, and the return of the great Christmas specimens from last year's event - all free for those who own the game, of course. For those who don't, you can enjoy a free weekend of playing via Steam December 8-11.

As usual, Tripwire is offering a paid pack of skins (Steampunk 2, this time around) that are completely optional. Buy them if, like me, you appreciate the support they've given this gem of a game. Check out the weapon details and pics below:

• The Sharpshooter gets a shiny .44 Magnum revolver - good for dual-wielding for even more stopping power.
• The Commando picks up a US Army surplus M-4 Carbine, with a nice, new red dot sight fitted.
• For Demolitions, we've removed the sight and added the under-slung M-203 single shot grenade launcher. Wonderful all-purpose weapon!
• Support Specialists can get their hands on a semi-automatic combat shotgun.
• Berserkers can go all Scottish, with a massive two-handed Claymore. Perfect for the holiday season...
• Following on from Horzine's earlier experiments with healing darts, they have now provided the Medic with an MP5 machine pistol, mounting a dart-firing device.
• Ripped from the arm of a dead Husk the Firebug gets his asbestos-covered hands on the fireball launching Huskgun!!! Charge this baby up and watch the zeds explode in a ball of flames!
  
  
  
  
  

Tune into Spike Video Game Awards on Saturday 10th for the big unveil of Epic Games' next big IP.

Killing Floor will soon enjoy a free weekend on Steam (starting on Thursday, 8 December 2011 and running through to Sunday, 11 December) and they are also teasing a little bonus update. The picture to the right shows a tile missing for each day that they've been showing the puzzle.

What could it be? Looks like quite a few guns, at least, to me. Keep your eye on the Killing Floor Steam Group page for more updates!

Epic Games announces the release of the November Unreal Development Kit build. As usual, they've got a nice list of added features, most of which center around the Scaleform 4 upgrade and new Unreal Landscape and Foliage goodies that should make level building a little nicer.

This month's showcase is of the recently released UDK title, Waves, on Steam. They've got a little Q&A with Squid In A Box CEO, Robert Hale.

"Unreal Cascade has been invaluable while developing Waves because the game is very particle-heavy. It's so easy to experiment inside Cascade and see the results immediately that it's let me concentrate on being creative rather than worrying about technical constraints."

"Unreal Kismet has also been a great tool for balancing the game," he said. "All of the high-level gameplay with spawning waves of enemies is handled in Kismet, and it's allowed much faster iteration and rapid prototyping than having to code everything in script."

"UnrealScript itself is a very easy language to learn, in my opinion, and takes away a lot of worries about platform compatibility. It's good to know that if I do ever want to port Waves to consoles then all of the code I've written in UDK will still work", said Hale.

Having dipped their toes in the Unreal Engine waters with The Last Remnant, SquEnix has now taken the plunge by licensing the engine for multiple unannounced games.

Epic Games, Inc. today announced an agreement with Square Enix Co., Ltd. granting Square Enix a license to develop multiple games with Epic's award-winning Unreal Engine 3 technology. Epic Games Japan, which supports the company's licensees locally, worked directly with Square Enix on the new license.

"It is a pleasure to provide Square Enix with an exceptional game engine that will help them bring thrilling new experiences to legions of fans all over the world," said Taka Kawasaki, territory manager of Epic Games Japan. "Many Western games have achieved great success with the Unreal Engine, and this milestone reflects the Japanese development community's trust in our technical prowess. We can't wait to see how Square Enix fuses the power of Unreal Engine 3 with its beautiful characters, enthralling storylines and fantastic gameplay."

Details about the games using the Unreal Engine under this license agreement will be revealed by Square Enix.

The holiday season is upon us, and what a time it is to be a gamer. I can't recall a year with so many amazing games. My gaming backlog is growing rapidly. Recently I've added a few Unreal Engine games to my playlist and am trying to get in enough time with each of them to write up a review. For now though, I thought a quick recap of each would be in order.

Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad wound up on my desktop in beta form and, frankly, I found it hard to keep up with the many updates due to constant business travel. As a result, I really only spent meaningful time in the game upon release and it was definitely going through some growing pains. A myriad of troublesome bugs and network issues were being ironed out and Tripwire, to its credit, released quite a few additional patches and eventually ended up resetting stats and progress tracking. So, finally, with a little help from their generous double XP period, I once again reach the levels I'd obtained previously and began to really get the game. Red Orchestra developed a follwing around more realistic gameplay touches and there are many concessions to more mainstream military shooters this time around. Just understand that, going in, you are getting neither a military fps sim, nor a pure action game, and also that despite being set up for 64 player servers, woefully few can actually handle such a load. The maps themselves are mostly riveting and the selection of weapons is impressive. There's work to be done to polish this title to a shine and Tripwire Interactive has shown with the level of support they've given previous title that they can do just that.

The Haunted: Hell's Reach was definitely a game on my radar just because action games that showcase killing things evil or undead are right up my alley, but also because it won the last Make Something Unreal Contest as a modification. I was very curious to see what they could do with it. Four player co-op is another strong selling point but I have yet to venture outside of singleplayer mode. With its lovely and varied levels I can see why it made such a strong showing in the MSUC, but what I wasn't prepared for was the level of melee combat that The Haunted would offer. It looked to me like a survival mode for Resident Evil 5 and playing it purely as a shooter I found myself making an early exit from the round. It wasn't until I dug into it a bit and actually watched a few gameplay videos I realized how important it was to keep your rotting foes at bay with your formidable melee moves. One nice touch is that if you don't reach random objectives in time, each level is equipped with a natural disaster that will make your life even more of a living hell. You think fending off the evil spawn isn't work enough? Try doing it in a thich fog or with meteors dropping all around you. This game has a lot of potential for action fans looking for a change of pace in their quest to rid the earth of the undead, especially those that enjoy co-op.

InMomentum was recently released on Steam and on first impression I figured it to be a very slick trials-type of game. On second impression I realized my first one was correct. This game is a parkour fan's dream come true. If navigating the levels in Mirror's Edge gave you a woody then listen up: you've found your second-coming. It doesn't look like Mirror's Edge, other than the clean - some may say sparse - levels and you don't have any of that head bobbing motion that made everyone get sick. Nor do you shoot anything other than switches to doors that block your way. Imagine a complex series of platforms and your sole objective was to use your leaping and wall-jumping ability to make it from point A to point B as quickly as possible, then you get the gist. It's certainly well done in most respects and there appears to be a fair amount of content. Leaderboards and Steam achievements round up the fun.