I can tell you now: the next generation of games are going to go all out on gloopy liquid effects. The Unreal 4 engine demo is full of crusty, molten rock, glooping its way through the throne room of some demi-lord . An elemental that comes to life in a throne room bathed in head from the lava flow that shows off the lighting, physics, and undefinable charms of Epic’s next engine.
Behold. play it on 720p.
Things to take note of: that is some sexy lava, flowing through channels slowly. The particle effects are much improved, too: the glowing, embers in the air that the Elemental’s boiling hammer leave behind are rather neat. The crumbly rock physics are lovely: I like a good collapse. It’s not all heat-related updates, though: outside there’s some interesting snowy flurries… tell me to slow down with the technical jargon if it’s getting too much.
Actually, there’s a full ten-minute developer talkthrough of the aspects of the engine if you’d rather have someone competent not drooling at the shiny, shiny graphics.
It’s not an inspiring game design, so I’m not sure that epic would ever translate this into a full thing, but if they don’t they should at least license it out to a death metal band looking for an album cover: it has all the elements.