Free standalone Unreal 3 engine released
 

Just seen this over at euro gamer and thought I would share - as I think there will be many interested in this

http://www.udk.com/

A free, standalone version of Unreal Engine 3 has been released by Epic Games, giving aspiring developers and professionals alike the chance to use Epic's 3D engine technology for free. The Unreal Development Kit can be downloaded by anyone and gives users access to the game engine technology, Unreal Editor, Unreal Content Browser, UnrealScript and other tools (a full feature-set is listed on the website). The software will be free for non-commercial and educational users, although terms will apply to developers making games commercially. "I'm excited about the possibilities the Unreal Development Kit opens to those who are looking to get into the game business but don't otherwise have the means to acquire world-class technology and tools like ours," said Mark Rein, VP of Epic. "UDK is Unreal Engine 3, which has been used to create games in a wide range of genres, as well as military simulations, 3D architectural walkthroughs, animated movies and more. Users are only limited by their imaginations." Epic will support the software with regular upgraded builds. While the kit is initially only for use on PC, the company says console support is under consideration.

Yeah, I saw that too. Looks really cool. Or.... unreal...

Cool i'm going to download it ... From Torque to unreal ...

Downloaded it, played with it, crashed it. Woo! :D

Unity is now free too for the standard version, amazing dev tool, with built in maya support. way fun to play with!
www.unity3d.com

I have a younger brother who's interested in game creation. Any opinions on whether unity or udk would be more user friendly and easy to get going with little programming experience?

from everything I've seen Unity is the way to go, Its insanely easy and incredibly powerful. i haven't really used udk much but from what i've heard, its not very stable. lots of crashes.

UDK is the exact same as the full UE3 engine.

I also have unity, but it requires scripting, which, depending on the age of your brother, that may be a problem. The free version of Unity is a cut down version as well. One of the problems being that it doesn't have shadows :/

If your brother has no programming experience, get him to try game maker. http://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker/

Thanks guys. I'll look in Unity and the UDK myself when I have more time and maybe we can collaberate. (I have some programming background). He's 16, and has been trying to learn a bit of programming, but it's not a simple thing to learn.

yeah, it's something i couldn't teach myself, had to go to uni to have it explained to me

but once you've learnt one language you can pretty much take on the world