Epic in talks with Nintendo

Epic Games may be hard at work on Xbox 360 title Gears of War right now, but that doesn't mean they're not considering developing games for other next-gen consoles.

In an interview with Joystiq, lead designer Cliff Bleszinski said: "We're currently talking with Nintendo... You know what, Nintendo is zigging while everyone else is zagging and they'll be just for it. I give them props for doing something different."

He issued a warning for anyone thinking of developing an first-person shooter for the Wii, however: "Even though you have a new way to control and make a new FPS you still need a cool, compelling FPS underneath that. [Control] is only one of five things that you need. Give us a Half-Life 2 with those controls and I'll be first in line to buy it."

As for Sony's next-gen console, Bleszinski said he spent more time playing God of War 2 than anything on the PS3 at E3, but added: "Sony's in a position where they have what I think will be a great system... I like the whole tilt controller. I think we could do some cool stuff there. Possibly do some integration with the PSP."

When asked whether the PS3 packs more graphical power than the Xbox 360, Bleszinski replied: "I have what I call the 'mom test'. Take a game that's on 360 and on PS3, can your mom tell the difference in graphic quality? If she can't, is there that much of a difference?"

Gears of War was undoubtedly a star of the show at E3 - and though it's far too early for confirmation of a sequel, Bleszinski did say that it wouldn't take Epic too long to knock one up.

"I think once we ship Gears, if we wanted to ship Gears 2 in a year and a half we could, absolutely. That's why Unreal Tournament came together so quickly... Once you have that base for everything, painting over it with a new coat of paint and putting in new stuff is so much easier than starting from scratch."