[UPDATE 1--8/09/07 Epic has counter-sued Silicon Knights for various reasons including the potential theft and miuse of Epic's "Unreal Engine 3" technology. Read about it here:

Link to GS news story

Just an attempt by Epic to muck up the water in this case or does Epic have actual evidence to support their claims? It's a little early for any kind of a judgement right now.] First off, I've decided to change the name of this weekly blog from "The Thinking Gamer" to "Finding the Key." The reason for this is because of a conversation I had with JudasFire about why he hates RPGs. I think his feelings about RPGs relates to a lot of themes in the gaming environment. I'll get started with this blog in a second, but I imagine, however, that you're dying to know what was said. By the way, I'm quoting him word for word. Him: "I hate RPG's." Me: "Yeah, why is that?" Him: "They take too long to do anything." Me: "What do you mean?" Him: "It takes three days to find the door you need to go through; three more days to find the key you need to unlock the door; three more days to backtrack to the door to unlock it with the key it took you three days to find." Good stuff. This blog, for those who didn't read the primer from last week, is all about an average gamer's response to the goings-on the gaming world. If you have your own definition of what an average gamer is, check out my collection and now playing list and compare it to your own beliefs. I usually get about three hours of gaming in per day. This time is usually spent rotating between various platforms. For example, I just finished Final Fantasy VIII a couple of nights ago (finally; after about a seven year hiatus), I'm currently playing Quake 4 for the 360, Texas Hold 'em and UNO on XBLA, Twilight Princess on the Wii, Final Fantasy XII on the PS2, Metroid Prime for the GC, Psychonauts for the Xbox, and Final Fantasy V Advance on the GBA. Take what you want from that. but enough about me; let's get this started. I won't concentrate on specific games unless it's significant (i.e.: the "Hot Coffee Mod" in GTA: SA). However, for this week, I will talk about Too Human and Gears of War, both for the 360. If you haven't heard, Epic (creator of Gears of War and Unreal Tournament) has gotten themselves into some hot water with other developers over problems stemming from Epic's "Unreal Engine 3." In this particular instance, Silicon Knights, creators of Too Human, is suing Epic Games. You can read the whole Gamespot news article here:

Link to GS news story

If anyone can remember way back to May of 2006, Silicon Knights provided E3 attendees with a glimpse of Too Human. If you can also remember, Too Human didn't exactly receive any E3 "Best of..." awards. What was shown wasn't much, and what wasn't shown was a polished game that was due to ship just a few months later in fall of 2006. It's now August of 2007, and Too Human may not make the holiday calendar for this year either. Silicon Knights says Epic's to blame. The main tidbit that stands out in the suit is the timeframe that Epic had to deliver a complete engine to Silicon Knights. In the contract signed between the two companies, Epic was to deliver the engine within six months of the release of the final development kits for the 360 and PS3. This meant Epic needed to have a working engine ready for use for the 360 by March of 2006. Here's where this story gets interesting. In the suit, Silicon Knights claims that Epic sent them a working engine one year after the Xbox 360 was commercially released to the masses in November of 2005. This means Silicon Knights received the engine sometime in the fall of 2006. I did a little research on this, and I found a discrepancy on this time frame. At E3 of 2006 (in May), Silicon Knights made it widely known to the media that stopped by its Too Human booth that game was running on a "heavily modified Unreal Engine." I can't find anything that specifically says which Unreal engine the game was running on, but after taking a look at the Too Human videos from E3 2006, I have to imagine that they were using Unreal Engine 3, albeit an engine in an almost rudimentary form. If this was the case, Silicon Knights would have had their hands on the engine in question sometime around the end of the timeframe that Epic was supposed to have sent it to them. If that is indeed the case, then Silicon Knights might be SOL on this portion of the suit. I'm not entirely sure though as I haven't found what specific Unreal engine was used though. Maybe someone can find out and post it in the comments. Another portion of this suit involves Epic's lack of "customer service" for its Unreal Engine 3. The suit says instead of supporting its licensing partners, Epic has used its fees to develop its own competing products "while simultaneously sabotaging efforts by Silicon Knights and others to develop their own video games." This essentially means Epic was too busy making Gears of War to assist other developers that were trying to make games using its engine. Silicon Knights might have a red-hot jealous temper due to the fact that Gears of War practically has a 1:1 ratio for games sold to systems owned in North America. What Silicon Knights is trying to say is that while they were struggling to make Too Human, Epic was spending the money they made from the Silicon Knights contract to make Gears of War. Another sore spot is that gamers can easily take screenshots from Gears of War and compare them to screenshots from Too Human and laugh at the fact that the two games look nothing alike even thought they use identical engines. At the time of the release of Gears of War, Too Human graphically paled in comparison. That can be very embarrassing; not to mention the fact that Too Human has been delayed so many times that most gaming websites now post a release date of TBA. Obviously, there's a problem here. Silicon Knights has been making games for years. I highly doubt that all of a sudden, their developers forgot how to make games. After reading the suit, doing a little research, and seeing the many responses from the gaming media, I've come to this assumption: Epic didn't provide proper support for its engine. Look at other games that are using the Unreal Engine 3 that have been delayed: Mass Effect (original release date: Holidays 2006.) Bioshock (original release date: spring 2007.) Turok (original release date: fall 2007. Now scheduled for spring 2008.) These are just a few of many others. Some games have even been completely scrapped. Now, I know, games get delayed all of the time. This could just be coincidence, right? Maybe, but with this lawsuit, I wouldn't be surprised if we see a few misguided forum posts or slip-of-the-tongue comments from other developers talking about what a pain in the rear using the Unreal Engine 3 is. There is one part of this lawsuit that is a little out-of-hand. As part of the penalty, Silicon Knights wants Epic to surrender all profits from the sale of Gears of War. That's a little extreme. I highly doubt that will stick. If anything, the judge will have Epic pay proper compensation to Silicon Knights for time and money lost developing the game, assuming that Epic failed to deliver a working engine by March of 2006. Currently, it looks like Silicon Knights is creating Too human off its own in-house engine. However, no one really knows what the current status of the game is as Silicon Knights did not present Too Human at last month's E3. For me, and I would imagine for you, I just want to play good games. Too Human sounds like an interesting game. It's a shame it's not on store shelves already. However, I would rather see a polished, bug-free game than something that was rushed out to meet the holiday demand. So hopefully Silicon Knights can produce a high-quality game, and if Epic is at fault, get due compensation to help them make such a game. I just hope that the battle to come doesn't get too ugly. What do you think is going to happen? Will Epic have to surrender profits from Gears of War sales? Is this lawsuit without merit? Will Epic buy Silicon Knights (it's a long shot, but this is a business, and you never know)? As always, comments are very much appreciated, and I will respond to you. I post this blog every Sunday night/Monday morning. If you have a topic you're interested in and want to discuss, drop me a message. If the topic is used in the blog, I will give you proper credit in the blog either by user name or real name or both (your choice). If you have a well-rounded profile, I will mention a particular blog post, video post, etc. that other readers should check out on your page. For example, the next blog post will be next weekend. Please submit any of your topics or ideas by this Friday evening, 9pm PST for consideration for that week's post. My ultimate goal for the blog is to provide a thoughtful, intelligent response to whatever the topics of the week are, and to hopefully inspire you to come up with your own response to the topic. Again, your comments are appreciated. For next week: It's getting close to election time, and as always, a politician (or two...or more) looking for the fear vote feels that games are killing children, turning people into zombies, etc. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney says "I've proposed that we enforce our obscenity laws again and that we get serious against those retailers that sell adult video games that are filled with violence, (and) that we go after those retailers." Get ready to be shocked: I completely agree with him. Find out why next week.