Epic, the developers of the Unreal Engine 4, have unveiled their creation ahead of its public release at E3 in June, showcasing a 153 second video to a select few non-disclosure-agreement signers behind closed doors. A few screenshots have made it out however, showing part of the sequence, which features a heavily armored demon night in a mountaintop fortress.

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The sequence itself was designed to show off how the new engine responds to lens flare, distortion and destruction, as well as a first look at "dynamic lighting", which behaves according to its own properties, rather than it being up to the designer using the engine.

"There is a huge responsibility on the shoulders of our engine team and our studio to drag this industry into the next generation," said Gears of War design director Cliff Bleszinski.

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Please click to enlarge

This apparently goes as far as Epic having seen the specs of the PS4 and next Xbox and is "actively lobbying" for them to be more powerful. "It needs to be a quantum leap. They need to damn near render Avatar in real time, because I want it and gamers want it - even if they don't know they want it."

Too right Cliff.

So until E3...