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EA adopts Epic's Unreal Engine for select next-gen titles [update 1]

by Blake Snow on Aug 21st 2006 1:25PM

Epic Games and EA announced late Friday that the latter will license the Unreal Engine 3 for use in several next-gen titles that are currently in development. Notable games already using the technology include the obvious Unreal Tournament, Mass Effect, and the upcoming Gears of War for Xbox 360.

"What's the Unreal Engine 3?" the laymen asks? From the press release: "The Unreal Engine has been designed to ease content creation and programming, with the goal of putting as much power as possible in the hands of artists with minimal programmer assistance; and to give programmers a highly modular and extensive framework for building, testing, and shipping games in a wide range of genres."

What's a modular framework? You're on your own.

[Update 1: corrected game titles using Unreal Engine 3]

Source

Reader Comments (20)

Actually Doom 3 and Quake use the Doom 3 engine. The unreal engine is totally unrelated to these games and is capable of producing visuals that don't actually suck.

Doom 3 and Quake 4 using the Unreal Engine?!? That is a new one, I thought they used the Doom 3 Engine? Yes?

Uhhh.... correct me if I'm wrong, but don't Doom 3 and Quake 4 use the, you know... Doom 3 engine?

Haha, Doom 3 in the Unreal 3 engine?

Someone at Joystiq knows shit all about games.

#1 is correct, Doom 3 and Quake 4 do not use the Unreal Engine. Examples of UE3 games include: UT2K7, Gears of War, Huxley, etc.

And modular framework = abstracted APIs between different subsystems of an engine, so you could rewrite an entire subsystem without breaking any compatibility with the others.

ex: A modularized physics engine, where physics interaction is abstracted and not package-specific, so you can conceivably plug in PhysX, Havok, ODE, etc without screwing things up too badly.

@ sbcale

I was thinking the same thing, but then again what do I know?

Yeah...might wanna do a little fact checking on that statement. 2 out of 4 ain't bad, though. :)

hahah true enough said... They were pretty quick to edit that out eh. Thats just what happens when good sites go bad... cough... AOL Buyout.. cough... remeber IGN before the changes... cough..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_3_engine

Doom 3

yea yea bloggers dont do fact checks...

The terms modular and framework are terms we often hear of in the world of object-oriented programming. Essentially it means that building something is easier because basic toolsets exist which one can build from. Modular simply means that one can transfer a certain design to be incorporated into other objects. For example, if a basic face design was created, it is modular in the sense that it can be used on a different character, but more superficial features can be changed, like skin tone, eye color, etc., whilst retaining the basic polygonal elements which construct the skull, cheeks, chin, etc. All it means is that a programmer doesn't have to build each and every object from scratch.

The Unreal 3 Engine can even correct game titles? Wicked!

Guess that means we won't be seeing anything like "Revengers of Vengeance" in the Unreal 3 Engine.

It's not fact checking - it's basic common sense. Why would ID - who pride themselves on writing game engines - licence a competitor's engine?

They wouldn't, that's why!

Great, now all games released on the PS3 and 360 will have large alpha-male types with 100lb space armor and dead-eyes, and will be coated in plastic. They will all be running through gray and brown corridors and firing at many planetary threats using weapons that are futuristic and large. Colour me unimpressed, "next gen" is looking crappier by the day... not to mention plastic-coated.

response to #13:

Have you SEEN any of these games??? They are not all generic kill em alls. Bioshock (Unreal Engine 3) is going to be one of the creepiest, most atmospheric games ever. Mass Effect is going to be like KOTOR, but o-so-much better. Unreal Tournament may KIND of fit your description, but the UT series has always had some of the best gameplay to ever grace a shooter. Its only going to get better. Gears of War, again, great graphics, great gameplay, great story. These games aren't all plastic (some 360 launch games were :( ). They are going to feature some of the most realistic character modeling, facial expressions, environments, weapons, lighting, ETC ever to grace a tv or computer monitor.

Get your facts straight.

Oh, so rootincarnate... I'm guessing you've played all these games? I haven't had the chance to finish Gears of War yet, so what would you say IGN and Gamespot's ratings for the title are? Or your personal ratings? I can see the graphics shaping up quite nicely, but I wasn't sure how great the entirety of the story and gameplay are, so please enlighten us.

And just to clarify...
Mass Effect:
http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/718/718963/img_3584686.html

Bioshock:
http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/793/793105/img_3604030.html

Unreal Tournament 2007:
http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/746/746631/img_2773860.html

Gears of War:
http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/747/747891/img_3584539.html

You're right, these Unreal 3 based games don't appear to be generic or related in any way. Right?

As you can see, they don't fit my description AT ALL. Please accept my apology. (This site needs an edit function).

*shakes head* how can I forget... one of my fave Canadian developers is making "Too Human" - that's using the Unreal 3 engine as well... of course, it, too, looks completely different.

http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/748/748783/img_3584734.html

And how could I forget Huxley?
http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/738/738457/img_3598989.html

Silly me, where has my mind gone today?

so now that ea is going to use epic's engine what about renderware they went all out to buy it and now not make any new middleware they could make more money if they did that ea makes no sense

They fucked renderware.

They bought criterion for Burnout & Black - yes, they're that transparent.

For #'s 1-9 You guys are a bunch of Idiots cause for one who give's two craps about a Doom3 engine or anything with Quake And Two whether or not anybody said anything about doom3 or quake No one really cares after all it's not a big deal so stop crying ... Oh yea and # 19 You are as much a Moron as the other people... "Oh they skrewed renderware"... And what the fudge is burnout and black something you leave in your pants every day...psch
Sorry... to get back to the subject. This Unreal 3 engine is apparently pretty amazing if it made games like Gears of war. Whatever they decide will workout.

Breaking News

EA adopts Epic's Unreal Engine for select next-gen titles [update 1]

Reader Comments (20)

Posted: Aug 21st 2006 1:32PM anemico said

Posted: Aug 21st 2006 1:33PM sbcale said

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