Vicious Engine 2 Announced, To Debut In Matt Hazard

Developer Vicious Cycle Software will premiere its Vicious Engine 2 (Ve2), a new game development engine, with parent company D3Publisher's upcoming third-person shooter Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard. Due for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in the first quarter of 2009, Eat Lead is designed to take advantage of the new engine's rendering an animation systems, including its lighting and shader technology, audio, AI, physics, and path finding features. The recently-announced title, a parody of the games biz, follows Matt Hazard, an action game star with a revered catalog of fictional titles under his belt, as he looks to prove himself as the king of shooters. Marathon Megasoft, a mega game publisher, gives Hazard that chance with a comeback role pitting him against foes from his previous adventures. D3P purchased Vicious Cycle Software in 2007 after working closely together on Flushed Away, Dead Head Fred, and the PSP version of Infinite Interactive's Puzzle Quest. Ve2 will be available to developers later this year, but the company is currently looking for early adopters who would be interested in evaluating the engine. "Thanks to the vastly improved facilities of today’s consoles, games must step up and use the power that is available to them," says Vicious Cycle Software VP and CTO Wayne Harvey. "With Ve2, we analyzed every aspect of our product, and as a result, we have developed an engine that takes advantage of these platforms’ incredible capabilities."