Now people might think me as an avid gamer on the outside, but only a few would suspect that ever since E3 2005, that have trained myself as a Game Engine Buff as well. Delving into the technical side such as graphics, gameplay, and other nerdy things.
This blog is my views and/or opinions on the plethora of game engines that have graced(or plagued) the gaming market, especially for shooters.
UDK/UE3: While this engine made some huge promises during E3 2005, and the initial showed promise for the engine....that promise slowly but surely died around the year 2010. Tim Sweeney is a great speaker and CEO, but the rest of his company slows his massive campaigns down as most of Epic Games own software is either controlled be EA or Microsoft, leading to biased publishing when it comes to platforms. That and while the engine bestows a good "graphics vs launch" approach, you can never shake the fact that all UE3/UDK games look the same, no matter what product.
This is further wound salting when while the engine is advertised to be multi-genre, the process is painstaking and to which even RPGs fall short of looking unique after massive and heartbreaking reverse-engineering. Key examples would be Too Human, Star Ocean 4, and Lost Odyssey. That said while 6 years behind the grill, Epic Games has finally taken the iniative to massively upgrade their bubonic workings to DX11 with version 3.971, goodness only knows if it will be another curse or the redeeming of the gaming market.
Id Tech(3+): While this engine has been around for years with the behemoth-of-a-programmer John Carmack, he does built them to last for generations. Even now it is said that franchises like COD(bleh) are still using libraries or source code from the Quake/Id Tech 3 engine. That and Id Tech 4 has survived two gens with Doom 3 back in the early 2000s up to Brink that comes out next month. Also while this is all going on, the graphical god-like nature of Id Tech 5 bestowed upon RAGE and Prey 2, you can probably name at least 10 other shooter or action games that can significantly benefit from such an open-like FPS engine. That and with RAGE, you can Preeetty much say that Id Tech 5 is the "CryEngine 3 of non-realism FPSing"
I wouldn't mind winding up at Id Software for my pending gaming career. That and John Carmack is planning on releasing Id Tech 4 open-source when RAGE hits(for those who dont know what open-source is, that's when you get the engine completely free and any respectful programmer can recode and make the engine their own)
CE2/CE3: One of the most realistic graphical benchmarks(engines) around, and a early-partron of the amazing power of DX10, this engine duo still impresses me with it's detail-splattering appearal and now newly-obtained cross-platform ability, that and the announced companionship of a "UDK-like" alternative, who couldn't be more happier?(Besides UDK/UE3 licensees?)
MT Framework: Capcom's proprietory(in other words in-house only) engine has served as a benchmark, not really for graphics but how streamlined and cross-platform-crazy the engine is. While the engine shines it's best on PC(with fabulous DX10 and DX11 support, I mean you RE5 and LP2), the engine is so versatile that Capcom was able to get the engine up and running on the 3DS and NGP in a matter of weeks, and the graphics are practically identical save for textures.
Not only that but it's in my opinion the ONLY TRUE Multi-genre engine with Shooters like RE/LP, Fighters like MVSC, and Action/RPGs like Monster Hunter. If Capcom allowed licensing of MT Framework they would probably have at least third the licensee market sitting on their door in about 5 minutes.
Frosbite(1+) This engine is one of my favorites since it was born and breed in my favorite shooter franchise, Battlefield. As such it's an FPS-only and non-licensable engine, but it's graphics-flexing and gameplay-benching techniques practically make the key-essential Military combat-shooter software on the market. The graphics, physics, and gameplay is nothing short of fluid, with it's only plague being networking with low pings and sometimes eye-tearing lag.
That said Battlefield 1943 many people believe(and I think so too) is my most played PS3 game. That and with the new graphical king BF3 on the horizon, nothing short of awesomeness comes from the new-born Frostbite 2.
Crystal Tools: I have a love/hate relationship with this engine as it is the engine used for Squenix's RPGs. The engine first announced with the jaw-dropping, 1080p-blessing Final Fantasy XIII, and even more daunting with Versus XIII, has definitely shown is expansive-less flaws with Final Fantasy XIV. An engine made to do RPGs and MMOs, it just goes to show when a gaming company can be WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too ambitious. Final Fantasy XIVs buggy, laggy, broken-yet beautiful graphics and gameplay has plagued and belittled those fans of FF11, who were either expecting more optimization, or failed to comprehend the necessisity of being "a new rig".
That said with my disappointments with XIII gameplay and XIV, I still look to give XIII-2 and Versus XIII a first(for me second) chance. That and hearing they're working on Crystal Tools 2.0(or whatever) just shows how some engineers at Squenix are doubtful of even their own created frankenstein.
Source engine: This engine is a given, you can pretty much say this engine is somewhat a crossover of how MT Framework and Id Tech 3+ functions. While having somewhat more genre-versatility than UE3/UDK, and the generation-proof acknowledgement of Id Tech 3+, this engine's graphics capability have given gamers good graphics on underpowered hardware unlike other engines(CryEngine 3 cough). That and this is due to Valve's explicit knowledge of upgrading the graphics were it counts, little knooks and crannies here and there. If you know my friends we have practically dubbed the Source engine the "Cheat-code" engine due to how multi-rig friendly the engine is. And that's saying alot.
That pretty much wraps it up for me. If you have any opinions or missed "facts" on this subject, do tell.
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