geekosystem

Square Enix has been in something of a rut as of late. The reception for their last couple of flagship video game titles has been mixed leaning toward negative. While both Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII-2 seem to be hovering around an 8.0 on Metacritic, Final Fantasy XIV is sitting at a ridiculously low 4.9. Game reviews tend to skew towards the higher end of things, so an 8.0 isn't exactly stellar either. Maybe that's all set to change, though. It's just been publicly confirmed that Square Enix has licensed Unreal Engine 4 from Epic Games, making them the first to do so officially.

It's getting to be that time again, folks: Out with the old Unreal Engine and in with the new. E3 2012 was host to a trailer of the new Unreal Engine 4, and it doesn't look half bad. That other half, though? Give it a watch and you decide. I can't tell if I'm just expecting great graphics in 2012, or if this just isn't as much of an improvement over current gen PC graphics. If you want a deeper look at the engine, with a bunch of developer explanation, head on past the break and check out the much more informative and in-depth look at the engine. Remember, though, graphics never look as impressive as they do at the beginning of a cycle than they toward the end.

Unreal Engine 3 is getting old. After six years of supporting games like the entire Mass Effect and Gears of War franchises, the engine is beginning to show its age a little bit. Soon, however, we'll have a glorious new Unreal Engine to drool over. Epic's new iteration promises to deliver a definitely next-gen-feeling experience, including features like particle physics that can handle millions of particles on screen at the same time. In short, it's going to be very pretty.