Recently there have been quite a few excellent games, some of which include: Bioshock, Gears of War (PC/360), Mass Effect, and Medal of Honor Airborne, with more to come like Too Human, Borderlands, and UT3.

By now if you haven't figured out their commonality, its the UNREAL ENGINE. This thing is everywhere! Its seen in plenty, like the aforementioned ones, but have we seen it in a game that has yet to be horrible? Something like Pac Man on the Unreal Engine!? (Actually I would like to see that) With the Unreal engine in so many games, is it reducing the quality of the games? Or improving the quality? Perhaps you're getting bored with the design?


Maybe it is a bit overused, but if the games running the Unreal Engine stay as good as they are, I say keep 'em coming.


'Let 'er rip!

Having a lot of projects using the same engine seems to yield some great results, people just get better and better with squeezing new tricks out of it. It is kind of like the last year a console is in production, it gets the last ounce of wow squeezed out of it. This is the same thing, only not at the end of it's serviceable life.

This is nothing new, look at how many games used the quake 2 engine, for example.

The whole reason that people license the engine is so that they do not have to spend the time/money on that aspect of the game. Instead, they can spend more time on the story as well as any other little features and larger modifications that give that game its uniqueness.

I'd rather see games built around a solid engine, instead of games built around a shoddy one, quickly produced because of time/money constraints.

I don't blame developers for using the U3 engine. It looks SO good on all sorts of hardware. What I'm worried about, however, is that other developers might think "why bother" and we'll barely have any new engines. All these U3 games are great, but variety is the spice of life. Although we've already seen and will see a lot of variety in U3 releases, I think we'll find a very small common graphic and gameplay feel once we've played a ton

I think of it in terms of evolution...

We (humanoids) used to have to walk everywhere, until we learned to use pack animals like camels, elephants, and horses, then carriages...then cars...

Pentiums, Athlons, C2Ds...

Pong, Pac-Man, etc, etc...

There may be quite a few games yet to be released that will make use of the Unreal engine, but I would seriously doubt that somewhere down the line someone won't think to themselves,

"Gee, the Unreal engine is good, but I can make something better, MUCH better..."

I think it's just a matter of time... How much time, your guess is as good as mine...

A lot of games were also based on the UT2k3 engine as well. The unreal 3 engine will have some competition though as id's Rage engine will also be out there for licensing. As an OpenGL engine, they're saying that they will be able to port it over to anything, including the Wii

OpenGL, is sadly a dying breed. Linux and VMware are adopting OpenGL, and many mainstream games are leaving it behind. OpenGL is a drawing engine, its not the same as the unreal engine.

There were more, and many before but these are highlighted engines.

The quake 2 Engine,

The first Unreal Engine,

the Source Engine,

The UT2xxx Engine
(which was a improved unreal engine, they didn't do a complete makeover till U3),

The ID Rage Engine,

And now the U3 engine.

Unreal first had a lifespan and a half, I'm sure this one will too, the source engine that HL2 was made on is going to bloom soon though, its physics capability's are far superior when used with appropriate physics chips(when they finally get here). I haven't read of the physics on U3, but i'm sure they are good. Source got a perfect time in the market, in between engines, and they made it so well, that you'll see it around for a long time.

Unreal tournament still shows beauty of what people who make engine, that also make games, can really do.

s1ug, you're forgetting a lot of notable engines,

Quake 2 used id tech 2.
Monolith made the lithtech engines.
Dark engine was used for the Thief games and of course System Shock 2.
id kept on with the tech engines and are now up to 4 IIRC.
Then there's CryEngine which FarCry used.

Check here, First-person shooter engine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia , for more, but obviously those are only FPS based engines.

And then of course one of my favorite engines, SCUMM

Quote: Originally Posted by 4x0n s1ug, you're forgetting a lot of notable engines, Quake 2 used id tech 2. Monolith made the lithtech engines. Dark engine was used for the Thief games and of course System Shock 2. id kept on with the tech engines and are now up to 4 IIRC. Then there's CryEngine which FarCry used. Check here, First-person shooter engine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia , for more, but obviously those are only FPS based engines. And then of course one of my favorite engines, SCUMM

I knew farcry had its own, couldn't think of it. Monolith, I though f.e.a.r was based on the source engine, but I guess not, thats kewl, I always liked shogo....

That's interesting stuff on wiki, I didn't relize MaxPayne had there own engine, maybe thats why that game rocked so much, man i need to reinstall that....

Thanks for the heads up, and linky 4x0n

Quote: Originally Posted by s1ugh34d I knew farcry had its own, couldn't think of it. Monolith, I though f.e.a.r was based on the source engine, but I guess not, thats kewl, I always liked shogo.... That's interesting stuff on wiki, I didn't relize MaxPayne had there own engine, maybe thats why that game rocked so much, man i need to reinstall that.... Thanks for the heads up, and linky 4x0n

Always surprised that nobody raved about MP2's engine. It was beautiful, ran really well, and though it seemed kinda silly after HL2 it had a physics engine that made the game a lot of fun.

Quote: Originally Posted by s1ugh34d Thanks for the heads up, and linky 4x0n

You're welcome

Quote: Originally Posted by _Sexy_Pants_ Always surprised that nobody raved about MP2's engine. It was beautiful, ran really well, and though it seemed kinda silly after HL2 it had a physics engine that made the game a lot of fun.

That game was amazing, i wish my disc's never got so scratched, both sets......

The physics in that game were utterly amazing.