While Unreal Tournament 3 didn't manage to sell as well as expected, its graphics engine is a big hit, without any doubt. A lot of games are already using it already, and today, Dragonfly also announced that it has licensed it from Epic Games, Inc., those that created Unreal Tournament 3 and, of course, the Unreal Engine 3...

Unfortunately, there's no big news, for now, other than that. If Dragonfly doesn't sound familiar, then maybe "Karma Online" or "Special Force" may refresh your memory, because these are two online FPS games created by this Korean company.

According to Park Cheol Seung, Dragonfly's vice president, Unreal Engine 3 is the right choice for them. "While we have developed much of our own technology over the years, Unreal Engine 3 clearly provides the cutting edge framework we need to ensure the highest development standards in our project.", he said.

At last, all I can do is promise that I'll keep my eyes on Dragonfly from now on, because I am really curious about what are they going to use Unreal Engine 3 for, and despite the fact that "another shooter" may be the answer, there's nothing sure about it, at least for now...

The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, shortly known as LOTRO, is a MMORPG for Windows with its action set in a universe based upon J. R. R. Tolkien's writings, during the time period of The Lord of the Rings. Released in 2007, LOTRO got 3 free updates, so far - Shores of Evendim, The City of the Kings, and Defenders of Eriador. Today, a new free expansion pack has been announced, and its name is The Ashen Wastes.



Jim Crowley, president and CEO of Turbine, said "The Lord of the Rings Online has taken the world by storm, winning multiple awards and continuing to expand with compelling content updates such as Book 12.", and it seems it doesn't end here. The secret in keeping MMORPGs alive, bringing more new people in and keeping old players interested, is to provide regular updates and new chapters/maps, and it seems Turbine and Codemasters Online are doing exactly what they should...

"We are dedicated to our continued delivery of the best persistent online experience available and we look forward to sharing our plans for the future of this franchise in the coming months.”, concluded Crowley.

This latest update comes with a completely new outfit customisation system, over 100 new quests, housing system improvements, as well as a new dungeon that implements 12-player raid mechanics in a PvP environment. More details can be found on the official page, here.

The Witcher is a role-playing game released back in October 2007, and only available for the PC. Basically, it's all about Geralt, the character impersonated by the player, which is one of the few remaining "witchers". A witcher is a monster hunter with supernatural powers, available to work as a "freelancer", but you will find out more about the whole deal once you get to play the game. This is not a review, but a report on this game's excellent sales in the last months, so let's see how good they were...



Regarding this game's sales, Adam Kicinski, CD Projekt RED Joint CEO, said the following:"We are very happy with The Witcher's performance to date. Our goal was - and still is - to reach one million copies sold during the first year. 600,000 games sold in just three months brings us much closer to this ambitious goal. It's a great success for us, made all the more impressive by the fact that The Witcher was created by a completely new team and it is our debut both as a game developer and in bringing our products to a global audience. The task was not easy, as The Witcher brand was completely unknown in many markets, and it was released in a busy season alongside franchises that have been on the market for many years. Yet, I can confidently say that we've passed this trial victoriously. Actually, only now - as we've conquered many of the initial barriers - can we spread our wings, which, of course, we intend to do. Such success wouldn't be possible without our publishers' support - Atari, Noviy Disk and the publishing branch of CD Projekt. They all put a lot of work into the game's promotion in individual markets."

This fact wouldn't be such big news, but considering the fact that The Witcher got a "Mature" rating in most countries, and its availability only for the PC platform, the number of sold units looks simply amazing!

At last, I should confess something - I didn't manage to spare the time required to play this game, but I think I'll do my best to succeed in this quest. If only a day would have 48 hours...

While a lot of racing games keep popping up, only a tiny fraction of them are worth playing, and when it comes to off-road racing, there aren't that many titles belonging to this category anyway... but those from Disney Interactive Studios set their minds on changing the off-road racing games landscape in the near future, with their upcoming title, entitled "Pure".

The screenshots available so far look great, but we'll have to wait and see if this game has that feeling and that "something" required to keep you in front of the Xbox, PS3 or PC for as long as possible, and make you always want more. Let's see what reasons may offer this game for those into racing...

"Black Rock Studio has established itself as a leading developer of racing video games and we expect to continue that heritage with the creation of Pure. [..]Pure combines the best features of both extreme sports and racing to produce an extraordinary and unique experience.", said Jason Avent, Black Rock Studio's game director.

Who can say he's not right? well, not me, at least not as long as I don't get to play a demo of this game, currently under development, an expected to launch later this year, for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, with support for up to 16-player multiplayer (this is a pretty solid reason to keep our eyes on it, apart from the screenshot at the beginning of the article...).

The Unreal 3 graphics engine is an amazing one, if used well. While games like Blacksite: Area 51 don't do much to help this excellent engine become more popular (at least for me, Blacksite: Area 51 was somehow disappointing, especially because they didn't optimize the graphics properly, and the overall "unfinished" feeling of the game), Lost Odyssey is an excellent title that uses the Unreal Engine 3.0, and today, it just got released in Northern America...

Currently, Lost Odyssey is only available for the Xbox 360, being already released back in early December 2007 in Japan, and on the 8th of February, in Australia. Unfortunately, Europe will have to wait until the end of this month, because the European release is scheduled for the 29th of February.The story of this RPG game is spinning around the many generations that are influenced by Kaim, the user-controlled character, a man who was condemned to live for 1,000 years (I wouldn't mind too much getting such a sentence!). It's a story of love, hate, peace and war, all taking place in a world getting close to a "mystical industrial revolution".

Today, we just got a message from Game Invasion's Jeff Palumbo, informing us about the latest exclusive video from Lost Odyssey, so we would like to thank him A LOT, and also share this with you. Just go here and enjoy it!

I really hope they are going to make this available for PCs as soon as possible, because otherwise I'll be forced to buy a game console... Lost Odyssey is a damn good reason to justify expenses on a game console, even if you are only gaming a few hours per week!