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#unreal Here's a look at the history of the Unreal Engine, put together by Kotaku video editor Chris Person. More »

Never heard of Pitbull Studio? Neither had we. Apparently the English studio specializes in hired gun work and is lead by ex-Midway Newcastle's Robert Troughton (Wheelman, etc.). While unknown, the three-year-old studio is working on two things for Epic Games: Unreal Engine 4, and a game built in said engine. Not too bad for a group of guys no one's heard of, eh?

Job listings for positions at Pitbull reveal the studio is "working on Unreal Engine 4 with Epic Games," but also, "games derived from that and Unreal Engine 3." Positions range from environment artists to engine programmers, with a variety of other roles in between. Epic confirmed the work with Joystiq this afternoon, and offered a prepared statement from director of engineering, Daniel Vogel. "Epic has a great history working with Pitbull Studio. We can count on them to provide reliable engineering resources, and they're helping us prepare for the next generation of games."

We'll see more from Epic's next-gen engine this June.

Never heard of Pitbull Studios? Neither had we. Apparently the English studio specializes in hired gun work and is lead by ex-Midway Newcastle's Robert Troughton (Wheelman, etc.). While unknown, the three-year-old studio is working on two things for Epic Games: Unreal Engine 4, and a game built in said engine. Not too bad for a group of guys no one's heard of, eh?

Job listings for positions at Pitbull reveal the studio is "working on Unreal Engine 4 with Epic Games," but also, "games derived from that and Unreal Engine 3." Positions range from environment artists to engine programmers, with a variety of other roles in between. Epic confirmed the work with Joystiq this afternoon, and offered a prepared statement from director of engineering, Daniel Vogel. "Epic has a great history working with Pitbull Studio. We can count on them to provide reliable engineering resources, and they're helping us prepare for the next generation of games."

We'll see more from Epic's next-gen engine this June.

What better way to understand the capabilities of Unreal Engine 4 than to look at this creepy knight guy in various stages of rendering? Glowing eyes that evil need the next generation of rendering technology.

Just around 30 lucky GDC attendees saw Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4 demo. And one such person was Wired's Stu Horvath, who describes the two minute demonstration as "breathtakingly photo-realistic" in an exclusive reveal. The demo apparently follows the demon knight seen above, as he wakes from a frozen sleep ... only to set everything on fire. That scamp!

The demo runs on Nvidia's Kepler GTX 680 - a graphics card often described as "next-gen" - and it follows the armored demon dude as he shows off his fancy, graphics-heavy castle. Just 14 Epic employees put together the demo, which apparently runs in real-time within the Unreal Engine 4 environment (a feat for modern game engines, including UE3). Don't be surprised if we see this demo show up in a future Epic game - the company's past demos for Unreal Engine lead to some of Epic's biggest games.

Lighting is also improved, according to the piece, with "dynamic lighting" within the engine rather than being individually implemented after the fact. "The number of man-years that required was astounding," Epic design director Cliff Bleszinski said. But with all the additions, Epic's new engine requires much more horsepower; horsepower for which Epic is pushing the likes of Microsoft and Sony. Whether Epic (and us gamers) will get that horsepower, however, remains to be seen.

#science Chris Albeluhn's out of work, like all too many Americans. But instead of wasting time on Facebook or sleeping until 3 p.m. like I used to do when between jobs, Albeluhn made an interactive 3D map of the universe using the popular Unreal Engine. The out-of-work developer started raising funds on IndieGoGo and currently has enough money to hit a planned PC release for his space exploration program. More »

As much as I'd like to feel sorry for the decimation of Cybertron, home of my childhood heroes, developer High Moon studios left me craving even more destruction with Transformers: Fall of Cybertron.

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron takes place during the final hours of a civil war that eventually destroys the planet. The Decepticons have won, driving the Autobots to seek a new home somewhere amongst the stars. As Optimus Prime and his Autobot buddies race to find a way off the planet, Megatron and his dastardly Decepticons seek to rid the universe of all Autobot life. They're big old meanies like that.

Epic's Mark Rein did some hit-and-run teasing at DICE last week, telling G4 that "people are going to be shocked later this year when they see Unreal Engine 4 and how much more profound an effect it will have." We've heard before that Epic is working hard on Unreal Engine 4, and while Epic doesn't expect to see games running on the engine until 2014, it makes a lot of sense that Rein would want to show it off, especially if we also see some next-gen console reveals later on this year.

As for what it'll look like, we can only say (and sorry for all of the technical jargon on this one) that it will probably look "very good." How do we know? Because 4 is higher than 3, silly. You probably wouldn't understand.

#batmanarkhamcity It looks like the iPhone is getting its own version of Batman: Arkham City and in it you'll get a chance to beat the other eye out of Slade "Deathstroke" Wilson. More »

#epoch Getting a sharp, polished shooter experience on iOS still remains something of a holy grail for both developers and device owners. There've been a few valiant efforts over the last year, with ShadowGun and Rage: Mutant Bash TV probably foremost amongst them. Now, you'll be able to add one more to your apps list today with the launch of Epoch. More »

#unrealengine What is one of the world's most popular 3D engines, the same one used to power many of the most popular console games in the world, also ran in your web browser? That would be pretty interesting, right? More »

#thedarkmeadow Combining the slingshot controls of Angry Birds, the swordplay of Fruit Ninja, the gorgeous Unreal Engine-powered graphics of Infinity Blade, and the dark fairytale them of the film Pan's Labyrinth, The Dark Meadow is the sort of iOS game nightmares are made of. More »

#mario This is the decidedly 8-bit World 1-1 from Super Mario Bros. rendered using the Unreal Engine, most commonly seen in games like Gears of War. More »

This isn't the first, second, or even third time that Mario's iconic Mushroom Kingdom has been translated into first person, but it is the first time anyone has ever associated the words "killing spree" and "goomba."

#crime Gears of War and Unreal Engine developer Epic Games now has something in common with Sony and Codemasters—the company was recently the target of hackers who may have stolen its customers' personal data. More »

LucasArts has entered into a multi-year licensing agreement with Epic Games to develop with Unreal Engine 3, the studios announced today. The deal will encompass "multiple projects" and looks to provide a shortcut for LucasArts "between inspiration and execution on a wide variety of gaming platforms," according to Zak Phelps, the company's director of technology.

Epic VP Mark Rein echoed that sentiment when he trumpeted "Unreal Engine 3's ability to scale across platforms, from mobile, through PC and console all the way up to the next generation of games." Epic's recent tech demo of the latest UE3 updates certainly looked incredible, but we didn't notice any new features promising to render a deeper Star Wars experience. Then again, we'd probably pay a buck just to see the Force unleashed on our iPhone, inspired or not.

Previously, LucasArts licensed Unreal Engine 2 for 2005's Star Wars: Republic Commando (pictured).

Man, are you guys ready to get meta? Epic Games founder (and Unreal Engine mastermind) Tim Sweeney was recently the subject of an Unreal Tournament 3 skin crafted by artist Gary Storkamp. Apparently, the guy is crazy about Burger King. And about hitting dudes with his keyboard.

The features of the latest edition of Unreal Engine are publicly revealed! Shadowed point light reflections, bokeh depth of field and more!

#firstlook You've seen the sexed up trailer showing what games based on Epic's Unreal Engine will look like in the coming generation. Now join Kotaku and Gizmodo for the world's first peek at the tools and technology that will be used to create some of the biggest games on every platform from PC to iOS in coming years. More »

Mark Rein's like an old-school tonic salesman with his Unreal Engine lately. You want it running on iOS devices including the new iPad 2? You've got it, friend! You want it on Android devices, including the Xperia Play and the Motorola Xoom? Say no more, chum! And you want it on next-gen devices that haven't even been announced yet? Yes, Mr. Rein's Unreal Engine elixir is just the thing to cure those ills that ail you. Try it today!

OK well, Rein doesn't get quite that archaic in his recent interview with Develop, but he's bombastic about the rendering technology, promising that it will run great on any device you can throw at it, far into the future. Rein says Epic does want to "raise the bar on mobiles" as it did with Infinity Blade, but that the recent DirectX 11 demo is targeted squarely at would-be new console developers. Rein wants the demo to be "the big leap that we think justifies that new piece of hardware you're going to build," whether that be the Xbox 720, the PlayStation 4, or whatever else hardware manufacturers dream up.

Also, that nasty back pain you've been dealing with? Rein doesn't actually say the Unreal Engine will get rid of it, but it's worth a try, right friend?

#nextgen Fresh off the surreptitiously filmed, embargo-breaking train, it's the video footage of the engine that we previously showed you only in stills. This is the engine Epic describes as beyond what modern consoles can do. It's just one of many signs that a new crop of consoles are coming 'round the bend. [VentureBeat] More »

We've established that the Sony's upcoming portable wonder-machine, the NGP, isn't quite as powerful as a PlayStation 3. Further clarifying how much this thing can bench press, Epic's Mark Rein tells us that the device, which can run his company's Unreal graphics engine (think Gears of War, Mass Effect, Infinity Blade, etc), has four times the power of any other portable device Unreal's been running on, including the iPad 1.(iPad 2 not factored into this claim, he said!) More »

Will Unreal Engine be able to take over the Android sales charts, much as it has on iOS with Infinity Blade? Trendy Entertainment hopes so, as it plans on bringing the first Unreal Engine-powered game to Android phones next week, on December 23rd. Dungeon Defenders: First Wave is a tower defense-RPG hybrid that our own Mike Schramm described as "fast-paced, complex and, at times, utterly overwhelming."

Dungeon Defenders is already available on iOS for $2.99, and we're assuming the Android version won't differ significantly. If you're wondering if the game will work on your Android device, check out the system requirements after the break.

#tips I'm a big fan of swordplay iPhone and iPad game Infinity Blade, but despite the hours I've spent playing the game I didn't know everything presented in this little developer guide to the title. More »

Those of you asking about the iPhone, iPad Dungeon Defenders coming to the Android. Here are your details. It hits Dec. 23 as part of the Unreal Engine adding Android device support. The game will cost $2.99. More »

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