If you prefer first person MMORPG types that set in open worlds, then you should probably check out Star Vault's newly announced Mortal Online. It may be scheduled for a Summer 2009 launch but even at this early stage, the game is showing a lot of potential. Know more after the jump!

More video game development companies are beginning to adopt Unreal Engine.">Epic Games' Unreal Engine technology, such as the most recent licensee of the Unreal Engine 3 known only as Bluehole Studio. The Korea-based developer is now set to build its flagship title which promises to take the Korean MMORPG scene to knew heights. Details are at the full article.

NCSoft is sending word that it's got two to-be-named MMO games in the works. What makes this announcement interesting is that both titles will be powered by the Unreal Engine 3 - the same engine used in high-profile titles like Gears of War. More details are available in the full article.

With everyone talking about the dismal state of PC gaming nowadays, SOE President John Smedley decided to share his own opinion regarding the matter. He went against the grain and expressed his two cents about the positive state that the unconventional gaming platform is currently in. More about what Smedley said in our full article.

The GC Developers Conference (GCDC) added a few more names to its confirmed speakers list. With an already impressive line-up of speakers and a call for more, Frank Sliwka, Director of the GCDC states that with the addition of more top development, programming, business, and scientific lectures and panels, this year's GCDC in Leipzig (August 20 to 22) is one that shouldn't be missed. With big names coming from some of the most successful companies in the industry, he may very well be telling the truth.

Added to the roster are the following speakers:

• Michael Capps, President Epic Games
• Mark Rein, Vice-President Epic Games
• Mark Morris, Introversion Software
• Ken Ralston, Big Huge Games
• Cathy Campos, Panache
• Doug Whatley, Break Away
• John Smedley, Sony Online Entertainment
• Ute Palmer-Horn, Koch Media
• George Bain

More speakers will be announced in the coming weeks. With a growing exhibition base and speaker line-up, we'll keep you updated as the names come.

This week it's another new stretch for the World Series of Video Games tour, as the WSVG 2007 hits Dallas, Texas for another round up for Counter-Strike, World of Warcraft, Guitar Hero II, Call of Duty 2, Gears of War, Quake 4 and Fight Night Round 3 competitive players.

Prizes totalling up to US$ 90,000 will be given away at the event, starting July 5, Thursday up to July 8, Sunday. The highlight of Dallas is the inclusion of Xbox 360 titles Gears of War from Epic Games and Guitar Hero II from Red Octane, so the event might be worth checking out for the Xbox 360 gamer.

And if you can shrug off the US$ 10 admission fee, you might want to pick up a few tips from James ‘2GD’ Harding on dominating with your trusty Quake 4 railgun. Listen carefully, and see tips being put to practice on the grand arena floors.

Cheer for your select team or players and get your face plastered all over CBS Sports news, while demoing some of the industry's latest games and winning some free swag. But first things first: you'd have to figure out how to get to the Gaylord Texan Resort on time.

CMP Technology, the organizers behind GDC China, has unveiled a few more details about the upcoming developers conference. The event is set to take place in Shanghai this August and will focus on topics such as online gaming, outsourcing, recruitment and mobile gaming. A short list of speakers who have already signed up for GDC China include the following:

• David Coleman (EA Canada)
• Tom Leonard (Valve)
• Mark Ollia (Nokia)
• David Perry (Gameconsultants.com)
• Gordon Walton (Bioware)

According to GamesIndustry.biz, GDC China is being jointly produced with IDG and will be overseen by an advisory board that includes a number of Chinese developers from companies such as Epic Games China, Shanda and JDL International. GDC China will take place at the Shanghai International Convention Center on August 27 to 29.

In this day and age of "next generation" gaming, it has become the driving factor of the giants in the game industry to push out as many gorgeous games as their money would allow. Only the really innovative games come from the those who grew up in the meager beginnings of the computer video game or from the independent game developer, who has nothing but creativity to slap into their new games.

Is it a matter of opinion or should games actually sport some sort of creativity, no matter what the excuse? In this blogger's book, game concepts and design should always entail something out of the ordinary - something new, something fresh and not just a visual upgrade that requires more muscle to achieve.

Let's take this into another perspective: if games continue on improving in the path of realism, once they have achieved absolute realism, what else is there to improve on? It doesn't take a double-digit IQ to tell that the path to realism already has one big dead end. Why pursue a race that's bound to end when creativity, thanks to the human mind, is boundless and never really meets a creativity road block?

Although it may be arguable that the game industry already hit rock bottom in their barrel of creativity apples and just can't think of anything new anymore, one could also attribute the direction of the game development aimed at a new type of gamer.

If you haven't noticed already, you might be able to identify a growing core of hardcore gamers who no longer cares about what games were like before and just want the best visuals to blow them away. And it might just be that you have become one of them, yourself!

Take for instance, Epic Games' Gears of War. It has defied any and all odds against creativity, and serves as a testament to all that there are a core of gamers out there that could care less about a story if the gameplay sets the game right. It was often the target of scrutiny with most game developers, one iconic moment entailed it being slapped with a "zero-innovation" concept label.

Many other games fit in this same category and there's hardly an innovative game that has rocked the industry like those in the old days. How many game designers do you know? How many of them have managed to develop a style and place it out there for people to relate with? For many gamers who have evolved to retro-gamers, we think you know what we're trying to point out here.

So we'd just like to ask, "Does creativity matter to you?" No, we mean, really...does it?

Remember Epic Games' Integrated Partners Program (IPP)? It's actually a formal business relationship where other companies integrate their own engines to Unreal Engine to produce cross-platform technologies. Early signatories include SpeedTreeRT, Kynogon and Digimask, and Fonix.

Anyway, Epic was able to enlist another company that will bring light and joy to UE 3 in more ways than one. UK-based Geomerics is set to incorporate its engine Enlighten with that of Epic's.

According to the technology development maker, Enlighten will alter the way lighting is handled in games by allowing more dynamic lighting effects to be computed during run time.

Epic Games VP Mark Rein is quite excited as he mentioned, "It is great to have Geomerics on board for the Integrated Partners Program. We look forward to seeing how their customers take advantage of the integration between their lighting technology and Unreal Engine 3."

Members of IPP receive complete source code access as well as full technical support from Epic Games.

Down over at Hall 1 of the Taipei World Trade Center, the 2007 Taipei Game Show is currently on going (every 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. from February 8-12, 2007). It's here that Microsoft put on quite a show, featuring its next-generation console the Xbox 360.

Going all out shine all stage lights on their flagship gaming console, it's strange that no other console was present to steal the limelight. With a large white and green stage and a demo gaming floor chock full of BenQ LCD TVs and consoles, gamers will be able experience games first-hand, and in high-definition, on the 360.

Interested gamers can also avail of an Xbox 360 Core package and a BenQ HD LCD TV (32-inch or 42-inch) for NT$ 49,900 (US$ 1,514) or NT$ 69,900 (US$ 2,121), exclusively from the Taipei Game Show. Microsoft is also offering an Xbox 360 package which includes the console, a hard drive, two controllers, a headset and a copy of IAA Game of the Year, Epic Games' Gears of War, for NT$ 13,980 (US$ 425).

Also present at the show was Blizzard's World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade promotion, in preparation for the launching of Burning Crusade in Taiwan. Hellgate: London also managed to put up a frightening display of life-size monsters and demo stations, signalling the its arrival this summer in Taiwan.