14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that Epic Games is shifting its attention to the Unreal franchise soon and the official website of the developer, which has long created some of the most successful shooter series on both the PC and the various gaming consoles, is now displaying the image that is attached to this very article and the ingenious tag line “It's Unreal. And it's almost here.” Of course, something truly unreal will never exist, but the choice of words in the teaser might mean that Epic Games is set to announce another entry in the long-running Unreal game series.
It would be very interesting to see the Unreal franchise rebooted and maybe even brought back to its single-player roots. After all, Epic has delivered some interesting mechanics and expositions in its other series, Gears of War, but that is so Xbox 360-centric that it can never allow the company to truly experiment and try out new concepts. Unreal, with its smaller footprint and PC origins, can be a platform for Epic to innovate.
Unreal was one of the shooters that revolutionized the PC gaming scene when it was released with its stunning looks and with the complex combat mechanics it introduced. The atmosphere was tense, the enemies were rather intelligent and gamers also had a strong multiplayer component to play around with. The series has since then evolved to emphasize versus gaming and the latest installment, Unreal Tournament 3, has not seen the success enjoyed by other entries, like Unreal Tournament 2004, despite some quick price cuts, added content and numerous free-to-play weekends powered by Steam.
Of course, Epic could only be getting ready to announce the Unreal Engine 4, given that Crytek just announced the CryEngine 3. But that is unlikely, given the fact that Mike Capps, Epic president, hinted that it was years away and conditioned by the announcement of new hardware from console makers.