Yesterday I posted a video showcasing Square Enix's Luminous Studio Engine, which will be used in developing Playstation 4 and next generation Xbox games. It was a little underwhelming and didnt appear much more than what we've already seen with rendered cutscenes in games like Diablo 3. But the Unreal 4 Engine demo video seen below is something to get excited about. Why? Hit the jump to find out more.

This is the Unreal Engine 4 Elemental Demo (via G4), which shows some sort of badass demon-ey dude with a big hammer being awoken from a long slumber by the cold weather. These graphics are just the tip of the iceberg as far as what we will see on the next generation of video games. Can't. Wait.

So, maybe you haven't heard of the Unreal Engine, or maybe you did, but don't know where from. Well, if you've been playing video games the past ten or so years, chances are you've seen this logo pop up during the intro to one of your favorites:

This Unreal Engine was originally developed by Epic Games for use in the game Unreal, a first person shooter, released in 1999. The first time I used it was at my good buddy Gabe's house, he had the game Unreal Tournament set up on his PC, which at the time made other fps look like they were crawling in dirty molasses. It was my first experience with multi-player, which up to that point seemed pretty dull. But not this. It was frantically paced but it had a control to it that was unmatched at the time.

Over the years Epic Games made the extremely wise move to let other companies use their Unreal technology to develop not only video games, but other projects including training simulations, driving simulations, movie storyboards and more. But I'm here to talk about that simulator you used to take driving tests (as awesome as that is), I'm here to talk video games. And here are my favorite notables (doesn't mean I've necessarily played them) from each generation of the Unreal Engine.

Unreal Engine 1 (1999-2003)

Unreal Tournament

Deus Ex

That's about it...........

Unreal Engine 2 (2001-Present) 

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon

Brothers in Arms

Redneck Kentucky and the Next Generation Chickens (never actually heard of this one, but had to put it here)

Bioshock

Unreal Engine 3 (2006 - Present) - This beast is used in many of the best games we are seeing today. You can see the versatility of the engine by just looking at these games and the type of graphics they are showing off.

Gears of War

Lost Odyssey

Mass Effect 1 and 2

Army of Two

Rise of the Argonauts

Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City

Borderlands

Shadow Complex

Infinity Blade

Transformers: War for Cybertron

Bulletstorm

Dishonored

Lollipop Chainsaw

Aliens: Colonial Marines

Bioshock Infinite

Star Wars 1313