Game Engines (week Seventeen)

Game engines today are more complex than games engines 5 years ago, i can easily say that. However today's game engines are excellent in the fact of modding etc etc. Since the dawn of the Half-Life engine the amount of mods and games made using this engine was incredible and the same goes today for the Unreal Engines, Half-Life 2 engine and the newest and most stunning, the Cry engine.

Game engines are of course what makes the game and gives it the WOW/OMG/WTFBBQBRINGTHEBEAR factor. Using the first Half-life engine as an example, looking back at it, its not very pretty, but the things that were made possible using the engine and modding it were fantastic. If it wasn't for the HL engine and Counter-Strike i wouldn't be writing this sh!t blog :D.

Also the availability of today's game engines gives game developers the choice of whether they want their game on a certain engine to look a certain way or not. They can try and test the engines before buying which makes their efforts extremely easily to get a foothold in the game industry. However some of the key issues for next-gen game engine developers is "when will it stop?". Most likely answer is never, how real are the games engines going to get before humankind is satisfied.