I have to admit it, I have a bit of a crush on the new Unreal4 engine. Epic Games’ latest generation of gaming software has come a long way from the days of the original Unreal and Unreal Tournament. Without it, I wouldn’t have grown to love PC gaming as I do today. The other reason I favor this engine over others is just how well its made, the options it provides and just how amazing the graphics can look on it.
Here’s a list of great games that utilize this engine in various ways. If you know of any others that should be noted, please let us know!
Unreal Tournament (2014)
I’m one of those old guys screaming like a preteen girl at the news that Epic Games is making a new [/i]Unreal Tournament[/i]. What makes me especially excited is how they’re going back to the old days of how gaming worked and making the new Unreal Tournament just like the one I grew up with. The game itself is gorgeous and very fast paced, as one would expect. The best thing is, instead of trying to nickel and dime you with crappy DLC (looking at you, Activision), members of the community will have a toolkit that allows them to make mutators (game setting alterations) and their own maps to play on and share with others. Just as it was in 1999, so it shall be in 2016. I also found out just how much I suck at the game now.
Rocket League
Take soccer and cars and throw them together and out comes Rocket League. With local multiplayer using splitscreen (take note, Steamlink users!) and an assortment of game options to either make the game into a simple soccer style match up to a crazy explode-o-rama, Rocket League is a beautiful little sporty type of game that lets you see your defeated opponents face up close and personal, instead of merely hearing their roar of frustration as they lost again.
Warhammer 40,000 Eternal Crusade
If I can fit a Warhammer game on a list, I’m going to. Play as one of four factions, Space Marines, Chaos Marines, Eldar and Orks in the neverending war of the distant and gloomy future. Warhammer 40,000 Eternal Crusade is a tactical shooter that is more about team based combat and less about being a solo hero.
Arc: Combat Evolved
Take Minecraft and add some Dinosaurs in a beautifully detailed landscape of different climates you must adapt to while building a new home for yourself (and friends in multiplayer). Only this time, you can train Dinos to help do some of that grunt work of gathering supplies. Arc: Combat Evolved will make your GPU work overtime keeping everything looking gorgeous. Don’t expect to run this on Ultra unless you have a lot of video ram.
Street Fighter V
The Street Fighter franchise will be 30 years old in August of 2017 and only made it to the fourth sequel. Why? Well, Capcom was the king of hating the number “3” long before Valve and had a multitude of different versions of Street Fighter II before finally creating the third in its series. In any case, Street Fighter V is their latest and best looking fighter in the series and instead of being pure console, actually has a PC version released at the same time as their counterparts, instead of being crappily ported later.
Final Fantasy VII (2015 Remake)
Final Fantasy VII is arguably one of the best Final Fantasy titles in the series and has been re-released, remastered and any other form of recreation possible since its original creation both by Sony and by the most hardcore of fans of the game. The remake promises to be bigger than before and with the help of the Unreal4 engine, be absolutely gorgeous.
Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8
Another remake being developed and a fan favorite is Kingdom Hearts, this one was mistaken to be the anticipated Kingdom Hearts III. Instead, they went back to remaster the titles using a new engine for the new consoles and PC. In the tradition of Japanese titles, it doesn’t stick with whole numbers when creating the names for the game titles.
The Culling
You’ve entered a game show about survive ability, but instead of being put on an island that people already inhabit, showing just how arrogant our first world system is when looking at smaller island nations, you’re instead given 20 minutes to explore, craft weapons and traps and stalk the other 15 contestants play the game you are in the hopes of surviving the contest and becoming the winner.
Honorable Mention: Mars 2030
Even NASA is taking advantage of the Unreal4 engine and using it to create a VR world of Mars so everyone with access to a VR headset can experience as close of a feeling to actually being on the red planet as possible. NASA has contributed actual shots of the planet itself from their archives and helped with the development team in creating a, literally, photo-realistic environment for you to explore. It won’t have any aliens to kill or structures to build, it’s really meant for space fans who wish they were able to make the journey when the time came.
