Once or twice a decade we get one of my favorite treats: a new game engine tech demo. These are not actual games. They’re better: They’re promises of what games could be, pure spectacle showcases for the majesty of a million more polygons on screen and bumpy tessellated surfaces and lifelike ray-traced lighting. Tech demos are raw power and unhinged artistry mashed together, gleefully disregarding pesky problems like ‘writing’ and ‘design’ that have to go into proper videogames.
Maybe the best of them was 2011’s Unreal Engine 3 Samaritan demo, a three minute slice of gritty sci-fi(still more evocative today than playing Cyberpunk 2077 in 2021 turned out to be). In 2005 Square Enix created a tech demo of Final Fantasy VII for the PlayStation 3 that ended up haunting the company for years until it finally bowed to inevitability and announced the Final Fantasy VII Remake. Then there was 2020’s ridiculously pretty Unreal Engine 5 unveiling, which was all the more impressive because it included developers talking about how it all works. Using UE5’s new “virtualized geometry” technology “artists wouldn’t have to be concerned over polycounts, draw calls, or memory”, Epic technical director of graphics Brian Karis said in the demo. “They could directly use film-quality assets and bring them into the engine.”
UNREAL WORLD
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Special Report- Stacked Deck - Monster Train, a deckbuilding roguelike that firmly entrenched itself as the crown prince to the kingly Slay the Spire back in 2020, was the kind of smash success you might call Champagne Big.
Monster Train, a deckbuilding roguelike that firmly entrenched itself as the crown prince to the kingly Slay the Spire back in 2020, was the kind of smash success you might call Champagne Big. Four years later, its successor Inkbound’s launch from Early Access was looking more like Sandwich Big.I’m not just saying that because of the mountain of lamb and eggplants I ate while meeting with developer Shiny Shoe over lunch, to feel out what the aftermath of releasing a game looks like in 2024. I mean, have I thought about that sandwich every day since? Yes. But also, the indie team talked frankly about the struggle of luring Monster Train’s audience on board for its next game.
SCREENBOUND
How a 5D platformer went viral two months into development
OLED GAMING MONITORS
A fresh wave of OLED panels brings fresh options, greater resolutions and makes for even more impressive gaming monitors
CRYSIS 2
A cinematic FPS with tour de force visuals.
PLOD OF WAR
SENUA’S SAGA: HELLBLADE 2 fails to find a new path for its hero
GALAXY QUEST
HOMEWORLD 3 is a flashy, ambitious RTS, but some of the original magic is missing
FAR REACHING
Twenty years ago, FAR CRY changed the landscape of PC gaming forever.
THY KINGDOM COME
SHADOW OF THE ERDTREE is the culmination of decades of FromSoftware RPGs, and a gargantuan finale for ELDEN RING
KILLING FLOOR 3
Tripwire Interactive's creature feature is back
IMPERFECTLY BALANCED
Arrowhead says HELLDIVERS 2 balancing patches have 'gone too far'
