As this issue goes to press, Epic has just released The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience, an interactive showcase for its industryleading graphics technology. It’s the sort of demo Sony and Microsoft might have paid handsomely to have on PS5 and Xbox Series at launch, providing visuals that earn the label “next generation” and evoke the kind of awe you felt when you saw the likes of Ridge Racer running for the first time. But its impact isn’t dimmed by its arrival in late 2021, and in making a tangible delivery on the promises made by the team at Epic in E347’s cover story, it really gets the blood pumping as we look forward to a new year of games. As one seasoned developer put it to us: “It’s the biggest wow moment for me since seeing Super Mario 64 for the first time. A lot of game teams will be thinking: ‘Wow’. And then: ‘Oh, shit…’”
The problem with making a videogame environment look this good, of course, is that it invites nitpicking on another level, and we barely had the opportunity to let the code settle on our SSDs before seeing it emerge. “Well, the car collision physics aren’t very realistic.” “The framerate tanks when it gets busy.” “It’s not a proper game. Also my wife left me.” If you follow videogame discourse on the Internet, you knew what to expect. And we forgive you if your reaction was: look, just shut up a minute and enjoy this thing you didn’t even know existed a week ago that looks better than anything else on your console and was just given to you literally for free.