rafichamp on 12 July 2009
The heart is the body's engine, responsible for pumping life-sustaining blood via really, really long vessels. The organ works ceaselessly and tirelessly at all times. It's an amazing part of our anatomy and is really the sole reason we are kept alive and well - In this article I'll be listing the top 5 'hearts' of gaming, what are the best game engines currently pumping all that sustaining tech into our games?
This articles is taking into consideration past, present and future versions of the engines and their work.
#5: The Unreal Engine
Powering games such as the Gears of War series, and many others, this is an extremely versatile engine, clicking harmoniously with the Xbox 360 and reasonably so with the PS3 architecture, this has become the go-to engine of this console generation. With incredible ease of use and quite an extensive range of functions and features the Unreal Engine delivers.
Some people might detest the Unreal Engine because they feel it's overused, and as people like to say "makes every game look shiny as hell" - we need to remember it's not necessarily the engines fault but the developers, sure some games look like they have been dipped in oil and glossy paint and then dipped again for good measure, but witnessing the beautiful, artistic brilliance that is Mirrors Edge proves it's not the engines fault.
#4: Frostbite Engine
Created by EA Digital Illusions, this engine was used to create the hugely underrated Battlefield: Bad Company for the PS3 and Xbox 360, it's also been used to create Battlefield 1943, and is being used to create the much anticipated sequel, Battlefield: Bad Company 2.
The Frostbite engine allows for multiple instances on screen at once, loads of explosions while at the same time calculating on the fly insane environmental destructionon both a large and small scale, for example whole buildings can be leveled to the ground, while bits of cover can be chipped away from small arms fire. With a similarly named editing software known as FrostED, this engine provides for a great deal of customisation and moddability.
#3: Chrome Engine
Developed by Techland, and used in their latest game, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood this is an incredibly powerful engine. Now in it's 4th iteration the engine boasts more features than ever before, 64bit HDR rendering, motion blur, depth of field, skeletal animation system, dynamic lighting and much much more, so much more I'd take too long on this one enginealone, safe to say this engine is packing the goods and hitting all the right notes, lets see what the future holds for this engine - one thing is certain however, and that is this engine produces incredible visuals and maintains a solid frame rate at all times.
#2: The Killzone 2 engine
That's not it's name, I'm well aware the guys at Guerrilla Games have probably given this engine a codename of sorts, but that's not the point, the point is this engine comes in 2nd place simply because of the magic that is Killzone 2.
Featuring 3D particles, parallax occlusion mapping, vector calculated lens flare, hundreds of dynamic lights, real-time ray tracing on bullet holes, in short it boasts more features than you can shake a stick at. We even know that there were technologies that couldn't make it into Killzone 2 that have already been added to this engine.
32 players online, loads of explosions, post processing effects creating some of the best graphics ever seen on consoles all crammed together without much frame rate loss, I guess it's safe to say this is one heck of a front runner when it comes to game engines of today.
#1: Naughty Dog Game Engine
And in the top spot, the Naughty Dog Game Engine, now in it's 2nd iteration, this is by far one of the most impressive game engines on the planet if not the most impressive. After an outstanding showing in the first Uncharted, it looks like the engine has been taken forquite a few spins and is back bigger and better than ever, boasting even more brain throbbing technologies than ever before, Uncharted 2 looks better than anything on any other console, and it's all thanks to this incredible engine(which is of course, really thanks to the hard work put in by the Devs over at Naughty Dog).
There are games which can arise dispute over this and that, but that is not so with Uncharted 2, it's simply the most impressive graphics on consoles by quite a distance, I don't even need to go into detail as to why I chose this engine as my number 1, simply head over to any game site featuring videos and feast your eyes on the gift that is Uncharted 2, nuff said.
Original Article: http://www.badassgamerblog.com/2009/07/top-5-best-game-engines.html
Tell me what you guys think. Dont agree? Post your top 5 then.
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