Week in review: Epic Games shows off amazing graphics

Here’s our roundup of the week’s tech business news. First, the most popular stories VentureBeat published in the last seven days:

Epic Games shows jaw-dropping graphics for next-generation consoles (video) — One of the best technology demos at the Game Developers Conference came from Epic Games, which created an incredible-looking futuristic fight scene that pushed the boundaries of 3D graphics.

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RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook tablet demo shows off multitasking with games (video) — Research in Motion is launching its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet soon and our close-up demo of the device shows that it’s a pretty good game, video, and multimedia machine.

iPad 2 reviews proclaim it king of the tablets, but not an essential upgrade — When it comes to iPad 2 reviews, there aren’t many surprises.

One lone dude awaits iPad 2 at Apple’s SXSW store — Apple probably expected a bigger crowd forming at its South by Southwest 2011 popup store in downtown Austin yesterday.

The best place to set up your startup — Venture capitalist John Backus asks: Do you have to be in Silicon Valley to get the contacts, staff, and VC attention you need to build a venture-backed company?

And here are five more stories we think are important, thought-provoking, fun, or all of the above:

How the Angry Birds deal could lead to mobile gaming nirvana — The $42 million investment in Angry Birds creator Rovio could be a watershed event for mobile games.

Not so pretty: Layoffs at e-commerce darling ModCloth — Hot e-commerce startup ModCloth laid off just over a dozen of its 248 employees.

Charlie Sheen seeks social media intern — will he pay in tiger blood? — Fresh off one of the most legendary media meltdowns of all time, actor Charlie Sheen is now seeking a social media intern to manage his online shenanigans.

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Worst idea ever: Sprint in talks to buy T-Mobile — Deutsche Telekom is apparently in talks with Sprint to sell its T-Mobile USA division.

Do AOL’s layoffs spell doom for quality journalism? — AOL eliminated approximately 900 jobs this week.

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