This is pretty great to look at, but remember: it’s ONLY a tech demo and under the right hands, I’m betting things can only go up from there. But at what cost? For me, a game engine is only as good as the programmers and artists who end up using it. There have been a number of games created with older and current versions of the Unreal engine that do an amazing job of NOT looking as if they were made using it (which is really cool in my book). This leads me to believe that while we will indeed see plenty of games that make us all say “Oh…THAT’S Unreal 4?”… we’re going to be sitting through a lot of games before that, sighing “Oh, that’s Unreal 4…”

Anyway, all kidding aside, it will be a ton of fun to see what’s coming from Epic first, then other developers as they get the hang of U4 and think outside the usual beefy box of (well lit) burly guys in (well lit) armored suits running around (well lit) apocalyptic chunky rubble shooting each other in their (well lit) faces. As for system requirements. Welcome to the enthusiast’s dream and the core consumer nightmare, I guess. Sure, if you’re already a big PC gamer and don’t go near consoles, you’re already rubbing your hands together and thinking about sextuple cores and another two video cards for your soon to be UNIVAC-sized rig. I’d also imagine that some of you harder-core users won’t accept streaming game services as a way to go because they take the graphics tweaking you love to do out of your hands in favor of making sure each user has the same “smooth” gameplay. Which, by the way isn’t so CONSISTENTLY smooth even under the best circumstances, but is getting better, I hear.

As for the average Joe or Jane on a budget (or for those who really don’t care), unless there’s an off the shelf mass market PC solution that can run these new games, it’s another console cycle for the masses. And no, that’s not a bad thing at all… provided Sony and Microsoft realize that it’s not just graphics that make a great game experience (and every system they ship needs to have a decent-sized HDD). As I’ve said before, PC ports or console only exclusives don’t exist to piss you guys off at all. They’re here so more people who don’t care or want to tweak settings can play the former and in the case of exclusives, they exist to show what developers working solely on those consoles can do with the hardware. And there’s nothing wrong with that at all, especially if the games are really good.

Memo to the constant console haters out there: stop it, already and maybe go play a game to cool off. Did you NOT grow up with a NES or other game console in the house, or ever play a game you liked BEFORE you became obsessed with every map being bumped and overclocking a game until it ran too fast to play?  Sure, you have every right to puff out your gut and brag about your great self-constructed systems made for playing Crytek’s latest super-game (that’s going to make you buy a new card even though you bought one last year), but that’s about it. Some people don’t give a hoot about spending car payment of rent money on upgrading a PC and hell, there are plenty of great games on consoles as well as PC that are worth playing that don’t require any tinkering with a system at all.

Until this current generation of console games needing patches (sometimes to actually run properly), the simplicity of plug and play made for a purer experience for millions of gamers who don’t care about higher resolutions, mods,  and all that good stuff. That said, we’re not ALL competitive gamers, so we’re not trying to compete with you in terms of how much we blow on an upgrade or whether or not a game controller is better for a shooter than a keyboard and mouse (it’s not, but that’s a moot point if you’re not playing shooters)  Not everyone wants to bother with fussing with a gaming PC (or can afford one, as it’s never a one and done purchase like a console starts off as), so it’s also important for proprietary engines to get this same sort of attention once the new generation of consoles hits. All signs point to next year for this, but I’m predicting that yet again, we’re going to see some of the same old games in the same old genres with some of the same old technical problems no matter which platform they appear on.

Of course, in time we’ll be getting used to every new game running at 60fps, every movie and TV shows shot for super HD resolutions and maybe even seeing 3D (ugh) make a comeback (despite it being lousy for long-term viewing). None of this will keep me from my older games and consoles, as I know that at the end of the day, it’s the experience that matters more than the visuals. Still, to some consumers who keep seeking out the “best” entertainment choices, the road to “perfection” will never be completed. The push for games (and movies) that look even better than real life that move faster than the eye and brain can visualize as truly lifelike seems a bit silly when you think about it, but that’s one side of technology. That said, thanks to so many developers willing to experiment with artistic stylization rather than just churn out the same otherwise solid “realistic” looking games over and over, I’m looking forward to what’s coming just to see who can bring the most unique visions to life…