No One Should Care What Engine A Game Uses

NowGamer: "Today, I’ve decided to come at you about game engines. Before I start, in the interests of full disclosure, I’d like to point out that I have nothing against game engines. I have no problem with how – for the most part, at least – developers talk about them. I give them a big fat thumbs up because after all, without them I’d also be without games, and that would upset me enough to cry my entire immortal soul into an old sock..."

[Godmars290]

No one should care, but because there are differences between PS3 and 360 versions of a game, gamers do care.

[tacosRcool]

Engines help create the worlds the game writers want to create so yea its important. Plus I don't want to use a crappy game engine when there are plenty of awesome ones out there

[HolyOrangeCows]

The PS3 version of Mass Effect 2 gets the better engine, Nowgamer declares that the engine doesn't matter.

Shocker.
/s

[Godmars290]

Bu that's not the argument here.

Heck, this is about a different game engine being used on a newer version of a game, and a faction of gamers either complaining about, or goading another faction about the older version. Rather pointlessly.

Though since the question has been raised I would like to see if there's any difference between the PC and PS3 versions.

[HappyGaming]

No one should care unless its a Fallout game...

That engine is more unstable than any BETA I have ever been on.

[Mystogan]

Uhmm yes we should,

We don't want Gears of war or Uncharted to run on Farmville engine.

But Like "TheBossMan" said "it seems like somebody is angry that ME2 is upgraded for the PS3 rather than e shitty port"

[UltimateIdiot911]

Butthurt, the author is. I wonder if he cares about what kind of foundation his house is build on because that's pretty damn important.

Weak foundation can lead to the whole house falling apart just like a weak engine could ruin a whole game.

[Philoctetes]

I see people are still butthurt that ME2 is coming to the PS3.

[TheDivine]

Nobody cares, in fact im glad everyone can play this, def best series of the gen although ul miss part one. Hopefully they do a great job informing players as to what happened as part one was all story and 2 was filler. I dont get why people hate unreal engine so much then brag when they get a game on it, i thought it sucked? Its not the engine as much as the dev who uses it. Any engine can be optimized/pushed and run well.

[Biggest]

Mass Effect is not the best series of this generation. The Uncharted series is the best new series of this generation.

[milohighclub]

TheDivine
who even mentioned the unreal engine???? its an awesome engine??

[UCMEandICU]

that's rubbish. ofcourse you should care, you're a core gamer not some soccer mom or 7yr old that has no care for the industry past cooking mama

It's like some in the gaming media just want all gamers to be ignorant and stupid so they can have an easier time of manipulating them.

How can you call yourself a gamer and say crap like that?

[Christopher]

No one should care when it comes to gameplay, but why shouldn't I care for the sake of wanting to keep up with industry standards and technologies?

I don't think people who care about gaming technology should be lumped into those who use it to claim some sort of virtual victory over others.

[JetLyfe420]

Can't wait to play the SUPERIOR version of ME2 on PS3... This just goes to show if devs had some goddamn BALLS they would maximize ALL multiplatform games for each platform...

Multiplatform games are being held back by the xbox 360. The fact that its the less powerful console utilizing last generations storage medium (DVD's? really?) we end up with games having to be made on a this piece of shit system and then badly ported over to PS3.

Something as simple as using higher resolution textures and utilizing the TON of extra space on a blu ray disc would make a world of a difference...

Its reasons like this that im glad i own ps3... I dont even have time to play all the AAA PS3 Exclusives that are constantly coming out!! What you got to look forward to?! playing some more halo reach? Not even bungie wants to devlop on the shitty xbox.

[madmanden]

Honestly neither the 360 or the PS3 has the memory to handle really high resolution textures.

[palaeomerus]

The PS3 version is just using the next version of the Mass Effect Engine (which is an Unreal 3 engine derivative) that will be used in both versions of ME3.

The PS3 isn't doing anything special hardware wise to make the game look better. It looks better because the multi-platform engine is now a year more advanced than it was when the 360 version launched.

Guess which version of the engine the 360 version AND PS3 version of ME3 will be using when it launches late next year? Yep. It's the very same engine used for ME2 on the PS3.

[JetLyfe420]

Even so, look at the exclusives. Name a 360 exclusive that looks even close to say... Killzone 2, Uncharted, or GT5...

PS3 is lightyears ahead of the 360. MS' next generation system will just be catching up to the PS3.... Then PS4 will come out and set the standard ONCE again for the 4th generation in a row.

[DigitalAnalog]

Here is the last paragraph of the article:

"In fact, let’s not blame anyone. Let’s play games and stop blathering on about tech that we haven’t the faintest chance of understanding."

**Looks at title and article.

I can point out the finer details of the hypocrisy from this author. But reading the article in itself, I can only speculate he is getting sick and tired of seeing the PS3's exclusives dominating visuals and tech. He tries to play the midddle-ground (aka the unbiased gamer) by trying to undermine the subject by revealing the core aspects of the engine, since "technically" every engine in general is not that much different from each other. And then, to cover his tracks, he proceeds by feigning ignorance to what a game engine is, even though he has provided supported evidence DESCRIBING said subject.

Here where the irony lies, by fulfilling his role as a journalist (supporting evidence) he at the same time destroys all credibility by ignoring said evidence at hand. On top of that, he writes article about a subject to which said subject shouldn't be discussed about in the first place.

All I can say is, the gaming journalism these days really has no context for coherency nor fulfilling it's role for being a viable source for news and updates. I know I'm one to promote reading the articles before flamebait titles, but in this case I really wish I hadn't.

-End of Line

[trounbyfire]

YEAH WE SHOULD
look at halo and KZ3...do i have to say it

we have seen that studios that make there own engine produce games with less problem and better graphics

could anyone imagine KZ3 running on UR engine <<<<ewwww!!!!

[TheBossMan]

I don't think the guy writing the article understands that certain engines allow more things to be done by the developers. For example, you could maximize the hell out of an older engine as a dev, but with a better engine you could put in less work and still have a far better looking game that runs smoother.

Side note: It seems like someone is angry that ME2 is upgraded for the PS3 rather than a shitty port.

[trounbyfire]

LOL times are changing.
this is way bigger than FF on the 360 this is a game with a 96 meta and your right some can't handle it

[vickers500]

I want to see an FPS used on the Uncharted engine.

[Sea_Man]

Yep! we all should care!

[CobraKai]

I care. I don't want all games looking like they run on UE3. Even if you change the art style, UE3 games tend to look distinctly UE3.

[madmanden]

You can make it look just like you want on UE3. The reason that many UE3 games look alike is that many developers think the same effects and methods look good. Take a look at borderlands, thats an UE3 game that have a very distinct art style and look to it that no other UE3 games have.

[CobraKai]

That is true. I forgot about Borderlands

[Flashwave_UK]

just a butt hurt xbot fan boy who grew up with halo and me1

[MysticStrummer]

Of course people should care.

[Gamer112]

I want a game that runs on steam engine!.

[Theoneneo81]

Portal 2 :)

[kaveti6616]

source engine.

[madmanden]

You mean source, check out a MOD for Half-Life 2 called Dear Esther. It looks insane. :D you can find it on moddb

[Shok]

No one should care what engine a game uses...........?

Ugh, you do realize that the engines can determine the graphical presentation of a game and sometimes how the gameplay even feels, right?

That's like saying we shouldn't care if our foundations under our houses are fucked-up.

[djfullshred]

I don't care. I only evaluate the end result when it comes to games. Older software components don't automatically make for bad games. Newer engines don't necessarily mean fantastic dramatic improvements.

[madjedi]

I do care because if it didn't matter every game would use the u3 engine, and that is a horrible scenario, and not always but the u3 engine games have a bad tendency of looking alot like each other.

Every gamer regardless of a ps3 or a 360 owner should care, they should want the games they play to be developed on the newest version of engine possible. More likely to get better results out of system leading to a better in some way game.

[djfullshred]

To each his own as they say. Not all of us judge how good a game is by whether it is cutting edge or not. I play a wide variety of video games. What matters to me regardless how new or old the engine is:

Addictive fun
Runs smooth
Looks good

[Biggest]

That's cool, djfullshred. Now take what matters to you, and make it better. See how awesome that is? That is the power of updated/new engines.

[Silver_Faux]

wtf? pointless article. this is the sort of thinking that made fallout goty on ps3 glitch fest

[djfullshred]

But that is only poitned out in hindsight after having a lot of glitches.

What about games that are really fun, run great, and nobody even trips on the fact that it may be on a software engine that has been around for while? Would gamers avoid buying such a game, because of the date stamp on some of the code?

[yewles1]

ROFLMFAO!!! Out of the WOODWORK here. XD

[dead_eye]

What a pissy pants cry baby article this is.

[Kran]

Doing a college course in games design and being a gamer,

I DO FRIGGIN CARE.

The more I know about video game engines, the better.

[KillingAllFanboys]

I say some gamers do care, but when a gamer is just playing the game for fun on any system they probably wouldn't care? Just saying

[soundslike]

the engine doesn't matter, because all games are optimized to use cpu's and gpu's the same way...

but they aren't.

some engines seem to allow better efficiency in cpu/gpu use or at least allow the developers to achieve the efficiency easier than others.

I have a hard time believing that S.T.A.L.K.E.R's performance would not be improved if built using a different engine that they purchased licensing to. It always seemed like the game used two times more power than it should have needed to achieve similar results as another tool set. Or, again, a tool set that allowed for easier, less time consuming, and minimal trade-offs, optimization.

[Bathyj]

Jelly Jail?

He gave himself the Clap?

Architects dont use hammers.

And as for caring about the engine, well, engines are like anything, lets say, a garbageman.
We dont care, WHEN THEY'RE DOING THEIR JOB CORRECTLY.
Its when they start, spilling rubbish, banging cans at 3am or loading textures in late that they bother us.

That and the fact we're all a little bit sick of UE3.0

[Chaos23]

Its obvious people should care fellow..... and you wrote this maybe cause of ME2 on ps3 with the ME3 engine =)

[R_aVe_N]

That is the stupidest statement ever... You don't want an outdated engine used on games when there is clearly a better one out there. If an engine clearly does not preform well on one system why would you use it when an updated version handles the hardware much better.

[Ingram]

Well I wouldn't care if Unreal Engine 3(3.5 whatever) had non gelatinous low res textures in 7th gen consoles, there has been a lot going on in the SPU's and tesselation, deferred shading... lots of stuff, you know?

How can't I care about the game engine? is like saying you don't care what film quality is a nice movie filmed in.

[tubers]

If Buggy games are results from Game Engines that have some difficulty polishing bugs then it matters.

Look at Bethesda. Or is that just some lack of effort?

[saumer]

We should care because some engines are known to be shitty. Not that any of the Mass Effect engines have been shitty.

[Sackbot]

Is the author on crack?

[Armsgraph]

hey dont tell me what to care about!

[Jeebus]

That made me chuckle

[Vesemir]

The day I become a game engine fanboy just let me know.
It will be time to quit playing.

[pwneddemocrat]

wtf is a game's engine

[Ponurasky]

I care because games on UE3 are ugly as hell.

[jimmins]

The worst thing is, none of you are even aware of just how dim you are.

[Enigma_2099]

If the end result is a good game, no one WILL care...