I needed to choose something in the field of computer
science to review, and I thought why not a video game? A review of something
interesting would be much more captivating and fun to write than say, a review
of a compiler or a new programing language IDE. And best of all, you
obviously don’t have to be in the field of computer science to enjoy this
product!
I’m a computer science major and as you might guess I play a
lot of video games. (Heck I write another blog about video games.) I’m
very interested in not only playing games but learning about what goes in to
making them.
Video games fit well into the realm of the field of computer
science. They are as much a feat of programing and computing prowess as they
are artistic and creative.
On the surface of a game we see the work of the artists,
hear the work of the composer, and live the work of the writers, but beneath
all of that is the work of the programmers, the designers, and the developers.
Thousands upon thousands of lines of code go into making a
modern video game run well.
Today I’m going to review Gears of War 3, a
video game that came out last November.
There are plenty of websites out there with their own
reviews of Gears of War 3 so I’m not going to run through things like the story
or the multiplayer, but rather I’m going to focus on more technical elements of
the game. I’m also not going to offer too much opinion or conjecture, because
that’s something I do over on my other blog.
Gears of War 3 is a fantastic game. It runs on the now
industry standard Unreal Engine, a physics/graphics engine that powers the game
and dictates how different objects interact with each other and behave in the
game world.
The Unreal Engine is such a popular engine for developers
for a reason. It’s one of the best out there, and it absolutely shines in Gears
of War 3, developed by Epic Games, the same company that produces the Unreal
Engine.
 |
| Getting the lighting right before finishing the models. |
Gears of War 3 touts some of the most impressive lighting I’ve
seen in a game to date. Lighting is something you might take for granted while
playing a game; the way the light filters through particles in the air, the way
shadows are cast, and the way explosions affect the light.
Many games struggle to get the lighting just right, but the
lighting in Gears 3 is very impressive and something to admire when you play
it.
The physics in Gears of War 3 are superb. The characters in
the world have a real sense of weight when they slam into cover and run across
the battlefield. They way bodies and chunks fly apart and react to the
environment is also very well done. More impressive than the body physics is
the water physics. Gears of War 3 has some very natural water that reacts how
you would expect it to when something passes through it or splashes into it
rather than just a pre-determined splash animation.
Physics are a hard thing to nail down in games, but Gears 3’s
physics are spot on.
Graphics! “Are the graphics good Joe? I like good graphics!”
Though graphics are not what make or break a game, they are
an important part of the experience. Gears of War 3 has some of the most
impressive graphics on the current generation. The lines are crisp and the
environment has just the right level of realism without edging too near to the
uncanny valley.
You’ll have nothing to complain about when it comes to
graphics in Gears 3.
One last thing that a lot of people overlook is the
graphical user interface, or GUI. Essentially it’s the menus in the game.
Gears 3 has a very simple front end GUI
that gets you where you need to be fast.
The only thing I found to be a bit odd was that the
multiplayer options were buried within a few other menus, but not too deep to
be a real bother.
When it comes to technical achievement Gears of War 3 does
not fall short in a single area. I give Gears 3 a 5/5 in the technical aspects
of the game. And if you were wondering I give it a 5/5 in the areas of story,
gameplay, and multiplayer as well.
