14 DAY TRIAL // What do you know, Unreal Engine 3 could be used to make a Barbie Horse and Ride game? Or at least that's what Epic's Mark Rein says in an interview with GameIndustry.biz: "The industry thinks, 'Well, if I'm going to make a shooter, I've got to use Unreal.' That's a good start, we like that! Now, we want them to think Unreal if they're making a sports game, a driving game..." And then they popped the big question: A Barbie Horse and Ride game, perhaps? "That would be perfect! A perfect kind of game for Unreal."
Last time we checked, Cliff Bleszinski was quite upset about under estimating the Engine's power as well, and definitely wanted a change: "...it frustrates the s**t out of me man. It's possible to do anything with this technology; it's very flexible technology. Because of the fact that we at Epic happen to love shooters and happen to be very good at shooters those are the games we make. You can do some amazing things with it. Developers need to get their heads together and figure out what kind of interesting things you can do with it."
Let's think about it a little. Other than Rein's joke with the Barbie game, this isn't in fact a real piece of interesting news. Everyone knows more or less about Epic's Engine, but most gamers know that it has tremendous capabilities, so yeah: if it can handle making things blow up or catch fire in a realistic manner in Unreal Tournament, why wouldn't the same technology work just fine with white unicorns running by the seashore?
Rein also said that the Engine's features would do a great job with puzzle titles too: "A puzzle game is simply about moving a camera around and moving objects around - clearly our engine's very capable of doing that. You can pretty much make any kind of game with this technology." Well, there you have it, straight from the man's mouth: "...any kind of game..." Any more questions anyone? Like "can the Engine be used for card games, or music sequencers?"