Epic Games has a long history in game development. The company has a wide variety of games on a host of platforms. Starting with PC and moving into consoles and iOS, Epic Games has been on the front of development tools with its Unreal Engine and illustrating the ability of fostering talented developers.
Since Epic Games is a development studio with games and also creates game development tools, they have had impressive insight about how to make games for a variety of hardware.
Celebrating their 20 year anniversary, Epic Games released a free soundtrack with music from their games over that span of time. Jazz Jackrabbit 2 (1998) illustrates the company’s beginnings while Infinity Blade II (2011) really shows how far Epic Games has come, as well as their open mind to new possibilities.
You can download the free soundtrack here.
Games you should play
Unreal Tournament 3
The multiplayer action of Unreal Tournament 3 still exists today. It continues to be a popular multiplayer game available with lots of community mod support. When it released in 2007 with the then-new Unreal Engine 3, it showed that PC gaming still had the power for amazing graphics and gameplay. Unreal Tournament 3 still has a very dedicated base of players who are using mods to keep the game fresh while decimating each other. Even when many players moved to console for their multiplayer experiences, Unreal Tournament 3 is still one of the best on its PC platform.
Even though Unreal Tournament 3 isn’t as widely played anymore, there is still an active community who keep fresh content alive. One mod that impressed me was the Nyan Cat mod, turning a rocket launcher into a Nyan Cat launcher.
Infinity Blade and Infinity Blade II
Using the Unreal Engine 3, Chair Entertainment showed that the iPad could produce amazing visuals with Infinity Blade. While the cost was a shorter battery life, the careful development behind the game showed off close-to-console graphics on a portable device. The swipe gesture controls focused the action and allowed for a directed gameplay experience, leaving the distracting on-screen control scheme that other developers used.
Chair Entertainment only improved with Infinity Blade II. They were able to push more graphic power through the iPad 2, while still allowing iPad users to have a similar experience. There hasn’t been a game that has truly met the amazing visual style of Infinity Blade II, although other developers using the Unreal Engine 3 are getting closer. Unfortunately, Infinity Blade II also proved to eat battery life at the expense of impressive graphics.
Epic Games has branched out with their games and the soundtrack plays an impressive history. The company made an impact on PC with Unreal Tournament, created a brand with the Gears of War series on Xbox 360, and showed that a mobile device could produce amazing visuals with Infinity Blade.
Epic Games’ 20 year anniversary is well deserved, and they are sure to impress in the future.
