Yesterday, BioWare announced an October 7th, 2014 release date for Dragon Age: Inquisition. In-game footage looks stunning and I, for one, am awaiting further news of the collector's edition before pre-ordering. Moving from BioWare's Eclipse (aka Lycium) to Frostbite 3 (EA's proprietary engine showcased in the Battlefield series), developers have yet to confirm the return of modding capability; nevertheless, I remain skeptical of the possibility. Given the exponential leap in both aesthetics and mechanics from DA:O, I began to wonder what choices had been made by other creators of AAA content.
UNREAL 4
Supporting several platforms, it is no wonder Epic Games' Unreal engine, now in its 4th incarnation, has been the engine of choice for console, PC, and mobile game developers. Behind numerous impressive titles, such as BioWare's Mass Effect series (Unreal 3), Eido's Deus Ex series (Unreal 1), 2K's BioShock and XCOM series (Unreal 2), Gearbox's Borderlands series (Unreal 3), Lionhead's Fable series (Unreal 3), and NetherRealm's Mortal Kombat series (Unreal 3), it also offers a package for independent game developers via UDK to take advantage of the same technology previously only available to AAA titles.
SOURCE
This year's release of Respawn's Titanfall further solidified the versatility of Valve's Source engine. Also able to support several platforms, Source was the engine for Valve's Half-Life and Portal series. Unfortunately, at this time, the SDK appears to be limited to modding, with no defined package for independent developers.
CRYENGINE 4
CryEngine 4, released by German company CryTek, supports PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Wii U. Games using CryEngine include, but certainly are not limited to, the Far Cry series (CryEngine 1), the Crysis series (CryEngine 3), State of Decay (CryEngine 3), and Ryse: Son of Rome (CryEngine 4). While limited in the number of platforms it supports, its free SDK package for Windows PC makes it attractive to neophyte independent game developers.
But what about the other medieval RPGs to which DA:I will inevitably be compared? Bethesda's open world Skyrim (2011), which chiefly differs from DA:I in its non-linear narrative and absence of meaningful interactions with non-playable characters, employs their in-house Creation engine. On offer to the modding community is the Creation Kit. Poland's CD Projekt RED has used its REDengine since enhancing The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (2012). The highly-anticipated sequel, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, will unveil the capabilities of REDengine 3 and its associated modding REDkit in February 2015.
But what about the other medieval RPGs to which DA:I will inevitably be compared? Bethesda's open world Skyrim (2011), which chiefly differs from DA:I in its non-linear narrative and absence of meaningful interactions with non-playable characters, employs their in-house Creation engine. On offer to the modding community is the Creation Kit. Poland's CD Projekt RED has used its REDengine since enhancing The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (2012). The highly-anticipated sequel, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, will unveil the capabilities of REDengine 3 and its associated modding REDkit in February 2015.
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