No Late Night Consoling tonight so I figure I would mention that Microsoft Games & Epic today announced Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict, an Xbox action game which will be released later this year. Not just a simple port of Unreal Tournament 2004 or anything like that, this a brand new game featuring melee combat among other things.

Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict will revolutionize the shooter genre with its high intensity melee combat system, optional third-person perspective and unique character combos. No longer solely bound to the first-person perspective, players can switch to third-person mode for lethal melee attacks and defensive combos; including the devastating reflect move, which sends an incoming attack back to the sender with interest.
Characters in the game will also be more mobile and agile. Each Unreal character will use their own personalized arsenal of jumping, flipping and spinning moves to help players make full use of the new environments. Unique Adrenaline combo-powers supercharge the strength and deadliness of character attacks and defenses, while cranking up character speed and mobility to superhuman levels.

The official site has launched already, and you can find a gameplay trailer on FileShack. Previews with hands-on impressions are available at GameSpot, GameSpy, Planet Unreal, Beyond Unreal and HomeLAN Fed.

The Epic Games website has been updated with Unreal Engine News. Mark Rein talks about how build 829 of the engine has been released to licensees and what this new build has feature wise. The engine now comes with a visual debugger, a more efficient animation art path, the Karma physics engine, an advanced texturing capability and camera system improvements. Improved multiplayer network code is also part of the new engine build.

Computer And Video Games has posted a 10mb showing ingame footage from Unreal Championship, the upcoming Xbox multiplayer shooter. It runs for about 42 seconds. Ok supposedly this is old but hey if you hadn't seen it before, check it out.

Though dated October 18, the weekly Unreal Championship update is up at the Digital Extremes website. Pancho mentions work on lighting, weapon tweaking and work on a map called Tomb Of Rassul. Pancho also mentions new screenshots of this XBox Unreal Tournament sequel should be released soon.

There's a new Unreal Championship developer update on the Digital Extremes website, with Pancho Eekels going over the latest changes. There's talk about a Domination2 map, character skins, network progress, particles and music.

There's a new Unreal Championship developers update on the Digital Extremes website. Pancho Eekels talks about work on the game's interface, AI and the level LavaGiant2.

PlanetXbox has a first look at the upcoming Unreal Championship port for the Microsoft XBox. Although it's a bit brief it's also pretty informative stuff if you're interested in the new console and game.

The Digital Extremes website has been updated with another Unreal Championship update. It's rather brief, but mentions the layout for all the levels has been finalized and the characters have been finished as well and are now finding their way into the game.

The Digital Extremes interviews continue on Rust as they have interviewed level designer Bastiaan Frank. Digital Extremes are the guys behind the upcoming Unreal Championship, and of course the original Unreal and UT.

Rust Gamedesign has posted an interview with Mike Bastien, one of the level designers at Digital Extremes. This is the first in a series of interviews with the people who worked on Unreal, Unreal Tournament and are working on Unreal Championship and Dark Sector.

There's a new Unreal Championship update up at the Digital Extremes website. DE's Pancho Eekels talks about skeleton animation system optimization, work on UnrealEd importing geometry from Lightwave and work on the AI system. Pancho also reveils he's started work on LavaGiant2 ("I had to do it"). Unreal Championship is the upcoming Xbox Unreal Tournament followup.

Fileplanet has a new movie showing off footage from the Xbox game Unreal Championship. Its too bad this is on the Xbox instead of the PC. Voodoo Extreme has more shots.

Voodoo Extreme has posted five new screenshots from the Xbox Unreal Tournament sequel, Unreal Championship. Unreal/UT co-developers Digital Extremes are working on this.

The oddly named 123 Xbox has posted an interview with Steve Sinclair of Digital Extremes, asking him questions about the upcoming Unreal Championship game that they are working on for the XBox. Thanks VE.

The Digital Extremes website has been updated with their weekly Unreal Championship development update. Topics include the HUD, sounds, air bikes, and the addition of a lightning gun.