This week I've interspersed news from last week's Game Developer's Conference with the latest industry scuttlebutt:

Unreal: The Next Generation
Last week at the Game Developers' Conference I had a chance to sit down with Tim Sweeney and Brandon 'Greenmarine' Reinhart to preview some additions to the Unreal engine.  Epic was mum about plans for its next game, but the company did demonstrate an impressive new outdoor terrain module for Unreal, suggesting that the next game will take place on huge landscapes, both indoors and outdoors.  Reinhart demonstrated a seamless transition between an indoor level and an outdoor location, which was populated by impressive-looking trees and rolling hills.  The demonstration included a level similar in scope to StarSiege: Tribes, but much more detailed.   Epic plans to unveil some additional new technology at this year's E3 show – only two months away – but I'm impressed that the company has taken the route of adding new functionality to the Unreal engine as opposed to starting from scratch.

It should also be noted that Epic was showing an early version of the Unreal engine running on the PlayStation 2 hardware complete with working sound and weapon code.   After two months in development the engine is still markedly slow, but was already showing signs that a PlayStation 2 version of Unreal Tournament is possible.

Smell Technology
When Al Lowe created Smell-o-Vision cards for Leisure Suit Larry Six, I thought he was doing it in jest.  Apparently not.  GDC saw the debut of two companies, AromaJet and DigiScents, who are both vying to bring Smell-o-Vision into the mainstream.  AromaJet had the more impressive display at the show, allowing onlookers to actually click images on a screen, put their nose in a strange contraption (see the accompanying image), and smell anything from a burnt match to a Martini.  The AromaJet technology uses chemical cartridges that hold up to 120 bursts of a certain smell.  As much as I see smell technology as an interesting idea – especially in the future when smells could be made on the fly by mixing chemicals -- its current incarnation isn't going to work. 

Tell me this: Who is going to buy a racing game with a cartridge of 120 burnt rubber smells and not get sick of the scent after a few whiffs?  The novelty will quickly wear off.   Although smell jet technology is a unique concept, I can't see any serious gamer actually putting down money on such a technology.  Nevertheless, in six months we will probably see a new edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire where you can "actually smell $1,000,000 with the enclosed cartridge."  Just watch!

  Next, find out about Shiny's new game, Sega's Modem controversy, and more >>>

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