Here's some good news for those who want to hone their chops on professional-level game development tools. Epic Games is offering a free version of the Unreal Engine 3 devkit for non-commercial purposes.

We've already seen various example of successful shooters that integrated RPG elements into the gameplay such as BioShock (PS3, Xbox 360, PC). Cliff Bleszinski thinks this isn't just a passing thing. He believes that RPGs are the future of first-person shooters.

Would you like to play Unreal Tournament 3 Black for free? Then May 28th is the date for you as Epic Games and Steam are offering a Free to Play weekend starting on that day. Black is Steam's version of the game, which consists of both the original title and the Titan Pack expansion.

With the E3 2009 just literally around the corner, we've got publishers and developers alike scrambling to put the finishing touches on their presentations lined up for the event. Epic Games is no different, and has now revealed their plans for the said event. Full plan list after the jump.

Tick-tocking like cogs in a gear, the Gears of War movie is moving along smoothly. The film hasn't been casted yet, much less the production started on, however, we do get some promising updates at the very least. Screenwriter Chris Morgan give us a status update on New Line Cinema and Epic Games' joint project. They're already talking about budget and how potentially epic this feature length movie can get. "All the stuff you want to see, we put that in there and then we blow it out a little more, even," says he.

Epic Games has got another patch for all you Unreal Tournament 3 players out there. This would be the fifth, in all. It's quite a list, so you might as well start poring over them. Just click on the full article to get the full list.

Video gaming minds from the East and the West have recently joined forces to deliver to us some interesting action titles in the near future. Electronic Arts signed a partnership with Grasshopper Manufacture and Epic Games during its Bay Area showcase event, revealing a few new projects in the works for the new studio, EA Partners. Find out more in our full article.

AMD isn't done serving the little market they managed to carve out of an idea brought about by Epic Games' Mark Rein. While folks new to the scene are probably still getting down and dirty with their AMD 780-based boards, the Germany-based company decided it was time to hike the bar a bit higher with the 790GX. Details come at you at the full story.

Ignition Entertainment's Florida studio is stepping into the next-gen arena and it has a "ground-breaking FPS" inbound. To make the development process as smooth as possible, they licensed Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3 for the effort. More details after the jump.

Capcom has announced that it has once again licensed Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3 for another to-be-announced title. Further details regarding this news are available in the full article.