Is Unreal (tech) really that good?

The website or the game engine?

The book or the company it keeps?

I'd say it's dahm good, but I'm biased.
The Unreal engine is good for a number of reasons, chiefly having at its core an Object Oriented Proram structure (Uscript). This Inheritance profile makes the code easily modifyable. Other big pluses is the use of the latest graphic drivers (with current releases). UT2003 and 2004 use directX8, allowing for DDS texture format (shaders) and optimizing rendering through use of static meshes and rigidized vehicles. Even UT99 was spectacular when viewed with 3dfx video cards, top grade for the time.
The fact that the Unreal Engine continues to evolve and embrace new tech (like physics) is a boon to gamers everywhere. With sites like UDN and Unreal Wiki it is well supported and has a large community backing development. See NaliCity LINKS for even more.
The fact Epic Games promotes the use of the Unreal Engine does not make it good, it is because Epic concerns itself with keeping the Engine at the cutting edge and predicting what new features will be required keeps it one of the most desirable Engines for third party development for new games on a variety of platforms.
This is not to say other Engines are not as good/better, however the Unreal Engine is proven and continues to be improved daily. I for one look forward to the next public release, especially the next Editor and the possibilities it will bring to adding even more realism through higher poly counts, normal mapping and refined physics.

hell just about every company is getting unreal engine, take a look at that ut2007 page, even microsoft, a lot of em tell ya.

The current Engine(2.5) certainly lacks DirectX 9 features that most other newer Engines use, so it's not the most current. It is a good Engine though, but currently not the best.

You'll only need $1million(is that the price?) if you want to make a Game from the Engine that will be Marketed for sale. You get some more inside info on how to use the Engine when you pay for a license, but you don't need to pay a license fee if you just want to make Free Mods and other content.

What's really good about the Unreal Engine is the ease of use and the large amount of Tutorials/Info on the Net about it. If you want to Learn how to create Games or Game content for Free(other than the purchase of the game) it's hard to find a better way to do it other than the Unreal Engine.

I would say it is the best, even just unreal1 was good. It might not be the best of everything, but it is well known, and it does evrything.

It has it's own "windows" menu system,networking,sound and graphics,user modify code, and is very user friendly.
The editor , more or less, but still an awesome invention for allmost everthing a computer is used for to make stuff for maps.

So above all the user friendlyness,and easy to modify it has staying power above all other engines, notice the US Army picked that too,? for sims.

I dun't know but they did a hell of a job all round, in making that game.

The fact UE2 was released before DX9 may have something to do with the lack of using new features