How come? I thought Unreal Engine 3 was the best out there. Factor 5 President Julian Eggebrecht poked the topic in an interview with San Jose Mercury News about the upcoming PS3 action, flight, and combat title, Lair:

The question: "Is there a big difference you can see between this (Lair's Engine) and Gears of War?"

The answer: "In Gears of War there is no way you could actually go above the city and then basically go seamlessly from air to ground. Unreal Engine in the end just provides for corridor and corridor being more a metaphor here in terms of design. Our engine is always designed in a huge world bubble and that can be 32 kilometers by 32 kilometers. You can go anywhere at extreme speeds. Unreal Engine is dependent on the fact that you go relatively slowly through your world. With us, you can go through the world fast or slowly. If you are in night mode, or you are on the ground, you get all of the detail that Unreal Engine provides. But there is no way you can get the macro," said Julian Eggebrecht.

OK, first of all, we're talking about two totally different games here. Second, Lair is an action game, where flight and combat are combined as the player must ride a dragon and fight both in air and land. The game uses the SIXAXIS controller's tilt functions. Gears of War is a tactical third-person shooter Using the Unreal Engine 3. the Unreal Engine (1, 2, 3) was used in the development of games like Unreal Tournament, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield and Red Steel. All Shooters. Here's the deal:

Epic didn't develop the Unreal Engine for shooters only. They also sell it, you know? The thing is, shooter developers were mostly interested in using the Engine, that's all. Who says UE 3 can't render big maps? Lair, on the other hand, has to use a very powerful engine that can render big environments. A flying dragon needs a lot of space. Two different technologies for two different games. Chances are, Unreal Engine 3 is better, otherwise nobody would choose to work with it.