As almost everyone in the MMO gaming industry is probably aware, today was the release of the World of Warcraft Cataclysm Opening Cinematic. A new commercial appeared during Sunday afternoon’s football game and immediately the web was abuzz with the pure awesomeness that is Deathwing. If you haven’t seen it already, be sure to take a gander at the new opening movie that will play the very first time you log into World of Warcraft Cataclysm sometime after December 7th.

I put together this montage video for IGN Entertainment’s WoW Vault that shows all of the areas that were rendered in the opening cinematic. Players of the largest MMO will be able to visit all of these locations that Deathwing traveled on his very first flight of freedom.

Who hasn’t heard of Unreal, the trilogy of shooters from Epic Games that took the world by storm back in the late 90’s and finally gave ID Software, then leader and front-runner of the still maturing shooter genre, something to be worried about? Since then, Epic Games has gone to release two additional Unreal games, and the underlining game engine has been licensed to a dozen top-tier gaming companies.

In fact, these days, Epic is perhaps better known for the wide success of its Unreal game engines, which includes a full suite of graphic rendering, gaming physics, and sound processing. By licensing an Unreal engine, developers can then focus on gaming content rather than the underlining functions that make a first-person or even a third-person game function. The Unreal Engine 3 has gone on to be the most widely licensed engine of the three and is used in both Epic’s own games, such as Gears of War, as well as other blockbuster hits. Perhaps you didn’t know it, but Mass Effect, Borderlands, All Points Bulletin, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Mirror’s Edge, and a number of the Tom Clancy games all license and use Epic’s gaming engine.
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