Euphoria engine has already been displayed in Grand Theft Auto 4, so for those who played it should be familiar with it, or at least witness to what it is.

In many games, when you injure, kill, etc… an enemy their resulting push back from it (From an explosion or throw lets say) is animated through the use of ragdolls. Ragdoll physics consists of rigid-structures for the death animations. The problem with ragdolls are the fact that they are limited. Their rigid structures prevent some of the more realistic movements that may be associated with, let’s say, being thrown back by an explosion. Ragdolls are essentially premade, so all death animations are relatively similar due to that fact, there is a limited pool of ragdoll bodies to choose from.

In contrast to that the Euphoria Engine does everything in real-time. It analyzes the situation and appropriately animates the model to react to it’s environment. It consists of a virtual skeleton, muscle, and motor system which allows for a lot more realistic movement of the model, so much so that even if you were to try and recreate a death-scene the same exact way, there is no guarantee it would result in the same animation; this is because of all the environmental variables that are taken into consideration, they may not be the same every time.

Take a look at this video, a Force Unleashed Euphoria Engine Tech Demo.

As you can see in the video, the storm troopers react to what’s happening to them. The AI realizes it can try and hang onto the wooden beam to try and preserve themselves, and they even try to help each other stay alive, and in this case you can also see the wooden beam splinter due to their presence, thus changing the variables for the next stormtrooper that is unfortunately thrown into it.

There are quite a few games out there which have been given bad (or at least somewhat bad) ratings by some of the more prominent game sites out there. With some of the lower ratings some titles never even reach the ears of some gamers.

But low ratings isn’t the only reason for some games being overlooked, some games are merely overlooked because they’re not by some of the larger game developers.

One such overlooked game was one I played last year; Penumbra Overture. At the most basic level the game is an adventure game, where it really shines is through its puzzles. Many of the puzzles are physics based which, coupled with the games physics engine, really helps to immerse you into the game.

Penumbra Overture is a more traditional adventure game in the sense that it doesn’t push fighting too much, rather it pushes using your brain to get around situations. While there are certain ‘enemies’ that will hinder your progress you don’t always have to beat them down to progress (Although you can if you want…) This is a welcome change if, like me, you’ve tend to stick to violent games.

The story, in a nutshell, is about a man who receives a letter from his dead father instructing him not to find him, but the main character decides to anyway. He finds a hatch in the middle of a frozen tundra and ventures inside… (And then strange crap starts happening…Oh and it’s dark, always so damn dark)

The game itself is described as a psychological horror, which it definitely is, If you’re the type who get’s freaked out by games that is…

For more information, as well as trailers, check out the official game site: http://www.penumbra-overture.com/