14 DAY TRIAL // Just so Epic's Mark Rein would finally prove to the world that Unreal Engine 3 can do so much more than just shooters, Epic's team of developers spent a whole day transforming Gears into a golf game, using the game's grenade throwing mechanics to aim and swing, featuring Marcus Fenix as the man behind the clubs, as Joystiq reports.
You didn't really think that Rein just wanted to prove to the world that UE 3 could make a golf game, did you? The developer's real reason is that of making casual games teaming up with a Korean publisher, Games Radar reports:
"We were talking to a Korean publisher about using [Unreal Engine 3] to make casual games," Epic's Rein explains in the latest issue of Edge magazine. "So we got an animator to make a golf swing for Marcus Fenix, and then a programmer took one of the Gears levels and added some mounds and stuff to make a course."
Remember Rein saying something about making a Barbie game using the UE 3? Well, implementing the swinging of a stick using the already available launching mechanics for the grenades sounds like a piece of cake compared to horse jumping, wouldn't you say?
Basically, UE 3 is good for making objects fall, slide, roll etc. much like in real life. The only thing developers have to worry about is a good subject for those features. So whether it's golf, tennis or football, as long as there are objects that need moving around with pinpoint precision, UE 3 is the tool to use. Quite frankly, it was merely a matter of time before the Engine was used in different purposes, other than making things blow up.
Oh, you can't play the game if that's what you were wondering. Golf was just a test for the Korean publisher.