With the Games Conference underway, there are lots of previews, movies, and screenshots of Unreal Engine games floating about the 'net. Here are a few:

• Previews
• This is Vegas - Gamespot
• Mirror's Edge - IGN
• MK vs. DC Universe - Gamespot

• Screenshots and Movies
• Mirror's Edge - gameplay movie, display booth photos - wow!
• MK vs. DC Universe - trailer 3
• TNA iMPACT! - trailer
• Tom Clancy's End War - screenshots, movie

Midway has announced additions to the Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe roster including Raiden and Kano from MK plus Wonder Woman and the villainous Deathstoke from DC.

In response to the charges leveled at Epic Games by Silicon Knights in their lawsuit, American McGee had this to say to Gamasutra:

"Having used UE3 to build Grimm and spent considerable time in the past working with Id’s tools, I’ve followed this story with amazement," says McGee. "To expect a licensed engine, fresh out of the box, would require no modification or improvements to achieve development goals on a new title is ludicrous."

Continues McGee, "But to build an entirely new engine as an alternative to improving an existing one - sounds a bit unreasonable. And to build that new engine inside 1 year, then ship a title with it? Now things are starting to sound surreal."

Looking forward to seeing how things play out, McGee concludes, "My guess is that there’s more than a little UE3 still in Too Human."

Seven new TNA iMPACT! screenshots and a trailer from Midway this morning, as things heat up in Leipzig.

In anticipation of its showing later today at the Leipzig Games Conference, Midway has released nine new screenshots of its Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe title. Included are the first-ever shots of Green Lantern and the Joker.

Gamespot details a report presented by the PC Gaming Alliance that shows PC gaming revenues in 2007 reached $10.7 Billion. Of that, $4.8 Billion comes from online activity (MMO subscription, for example) and $2 Billion from digital distribution.

Previous reports included only retail boxed sales and suggested that the PC market was on the decline. NPD reported U.S. PC game sales as $911 million out of a total $19 Billion.

2K Games has published a BioShock PS3 ship date of October 21 in North America ($59.99) and October 24 in the UK and Europe. Working on this version are 2K Marin, 2K Australia, 2K Boston, and Digital Extremes.

Acclaim announces that it will be bringing The Chronicles of Spellborn to North America. Along with that announcement, it is revealed that North American players will be able to play a single area for free and subscribers will be able to explore the entire world. The press release has all of the details.

Personally, David Perry is very excited about ‚TCoS’. “My poor old gaming PC is literally peppered with games in every conceivable language, and I’ve just kept playing, patiently waiting for that WHOA! moment. We’re tracking over 400 MMO’s around the world but the game that finally got us there is Spellborn. When we saw it running, our jaws literally dropped to the floor. This MMO is absolutely stunning, using the graphics engine from my friends over at Epic. We have millions of gamers that will be anxious to experience this amazing new game for free” comments David Perry, the USA Director for Spellborn on the successful deal.

"Mike Capps Week" continues at Gamasutra as they talk about the challenge of designing Gears 2 and living up to player expectations.

To apply the company's "New, Better, More," philosophy to Gears of War 2, Capps says Epic broke the first game down into 16 different gameplay systems and analyzed each to see what needed improving on. "So everybody liked cover," he says, "so how do we do more of it, improve it, or make new stuff like it, while keeping true to the Gears franchise so we weren't suddenly adding laser rifles that were all like 'pew-pew'?"

The team started with a "design cabal," Capps says, where groups brainstormed gameplay ideas, sorted them into "New, Better, More," and, "removed the impossible, leaving the improbable," shared lists amongst themselves and ultimately chose the top five ideas for each area.

"Then we just argued like crazy," he adds.

Gamasutra is featuring a pair of brief interviews with Epic Games' Mike Capps. The first interview delves into the strategy behind the many studio acquisitions they've been involved in lately: Epic Games China, People Can Fly, and Chair Entertainment.

Capps said that while the situation is new for People Can Fly, the studio appreciates the freedom it allows. "I think what they're enjoying that's different is having all the time and money they need to make a game -- because this is a studio that's been scraping by," he pointed out. "Being told, 'Just spend three months coming up with ideas,' then saying, 'Take six months to get a playable up,' gives them time to get it right, and they're loving it."

The second interview is much shorter and centers around the difficulty in meeting expectations in the follow up to a highly successful title like Gears of War.

Still, Capps says he's a bit worried that Gears of War 2 might suffer in reviews and reception from the high expectations set by its predecessor.

"Players expect more than before - 'the game is already half done, right?' but most sequels have less development time, and indeed we didn't get much pre-production time. It's really hard to eke out pre-production time for a sequel. The lesson is to compete in novelty, not size."

Some shaky cam footage of Gears of War 2, taken at the Leipzig Games Conference.

Mike Capps is a very busy man, apparently, and was on-hand in Leipzig today to head a panel to discuss Gears of War 2 - which was not shown officially at the event thanks to the German violence laws. G4 has a brief recount of the discussion.

Discusses gameplay improvements. Chainsaw duels, dynamic cover, including using hostages as cover (which Capps affectionately refers to as 'meatbag.') Using rock worms as moving cover, stealing boomers' shields and planting them for cover as well. Gears of War 2 will include lots and lots of tweaks to the cover system. Better things to do when you're wounded, but not dead, including planting grenades under your body so you'll explode when discovered. More bosses and mini-bosses throughout. More awesome finishing moves...and ladders all over the place.

Seeing as how everyone moans about the Martyrdom perk in COD4, I can only guess the "grenade planting" will be disabled quickly in living rooms across the globe once Gears 2 ships.

Gamespy is the latest to catch up with Epic Games' Pres, Mike Capps, to talk about the EA deal to publish the new game for their subsidiary studio, People Can Fly. In addition to acknowledging that the game will have a multiplayer component (shocking!), he confirms that the game will ship three platforms simultaneously.

Mike Capps: It's the kind of game you'd expect. I mean, Painkiller was the game that was chosen to be the main competition game for the CPL. It's Fatality's favorite game to play for competition. That's the stuff they do really well, the multiplayer deathmatch type of stuff. We'd be kind of stupid to throw away their expertise in that area...

... I think we'll ship them all [PS3, PC, Xbox 360] at the same time. Our tech is pretty mature now, so it's safe to say that all versions will be on the same timeline. The did an Xbox port of Painkiller at one point, so they've made a console game before and with the Gears PC stuff, they were working on the Xbox 360 a lot, so we're pretty confident about it. The PS3 is the only platform they haven't shipped on, but we've got a lot of expertise there so it shouldn't be a problem. Luckily, the problem now is making cool games, not worrying about the tech anymore. We're past that stage in the generation.

SouthPeak has released seven new screenshots of Monster Madness: Grave Danger for the PS3. This round features shots from a few of the twenty-five mini games such as one that will allow you to torch dreaded zombie cats. The game is slated to hit the PS3 in UK during Q3.

Tactical Assault checks in with a rather large update showcasing the many models they've completed for their UT3 modification. As you can see, almost all of the models are lacking textures. If you guessed that they are currently seeking a Texture Artist, you'd be correct. They are also looking for Modelers, Effects Engineers, PR, and other general help.

A press release from Realtime Worlds indicates that their upcoming UE3-powered MMO APB will make use of NVIDIA PhysX technology. The press release has more details.

... Realtime Worlds’ upcoming massively multiplayer online game, APB, will take advantage of NVIDIA® GeForce® GPUs and PhysX™ technology to enhance the game’s free-form combat and real-time driving environments.

APB will bring players into a living, breathing city where cash is king and territory equals respect. Scheduled for release in 2009, APB is one of many titles to take advantage of NVIDIA PhysX technology, the world’s most pervasive development platform for physics acceleration in interactive entertainment.

Virtually on the eve of launch of their new title, Too Human, Silicon Knights chief Dennis Dyack returns to throwing barbs at Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3. Talking to Develop, he responds to an inquiry on the status of the lawsuit.

Well the trial is proceeding, we feel really good about our claims, and we’re hopeful that justice will be done. We all feel really strongly that they have defrauded us, and a major portion of the industry.

Meanwhile, CVG, lofts up part one of a promised two part interview. Asked if they will be able to overcome their engine trouble, Dyack states that they are happy with "their new engine"... the engine that they now say is all theirs. Look for part two later in the week for more Unreal Engine 3 commentary.

We had to re-write the engine... it's something we didn't want to do, it's something we're pretty unhappy with actually. But you know what, at the end of the day the end results speak for themselves and through the sheer determination of the team we feel that we've overcome all these obstacles.

In related news, 1up dishes out a C- score to the new game, citing that it is neither a good role-playing or action game.