IGN reports their experience watching the Unreal Engine 3.0 demo at yesterday's Game Developers Conference.
The first part of the demo was actually something new and a bit of a surprise. To show off the power of this new engine, as well as demonstrate that this engine can in fact be used to make games, Epic played a game, real-time, right in front of the crowd's eyes. Stunning is a good word to use here. Breathtaking would be another. Booyakasha might be something some folks might say. It rocked. Textures were unbelievably crisp. Animation was excellent. Lighting was ridiculous. Architecture was well designed. The gameplay focused around a soldier ambushed by some aliens from within an abandoned structure. The level was played from the 3rd perspective, giving an awesome view at the back of this superb model. Light effects from enemy weapons simply looked dangerous. The character dived behind cover, bumped up against it, peeked out and fired from around it with an over the shoulder view while firing. I really wish I had screens to share with you, but I don't. The rumor, heard from a little birdie after I had left the event, is that this is a game being developed in-house for the PC and next-gen consoles due out in Q1 2006.