Codies unveils new engine

By Robert Purchese Published 6 December, 2007

Neon gives way to EGO.

Codemasters has told everyone its new in-house engine is called EGO. Still raining, here.

It is an evolution of the Neon engine under the hood of Colin McRae: DiRT, and has been developed by the Central Technology Unit for three long years - doesn't Jack Bauer work for them?

The news is that not everyone licenses Unreal Engine 3 or Source, we suppose, and this project has apparently taken a good chunk of the GBP 40.5 million Codemasters invested in boosting design and technology - 150 per cent more than last year.

While we're not entirely sure what EGO Engine does, we were given two impressive screenshots for flagship titles Race Driver: GRID and Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising. Both look suitably snazzy, but are to be taken with a pinch of salt this early on.

Race Driver: GRID was unveiled recently and is due out on PC, PS3 and 360 in the middle of 2008.

Meanwhile Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising is due sometime next year, probably the latter half, and is also for PC, PS3 and 360.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 4 years ago

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  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #1 4 years ago

    Incidentally the new Flashpoint shot is the one right at the end - two chaps in a field and a helicopter. The Race Driver ones all look great but the newest is the one with some cars in front of a cathedral.

  • speedjack #2 4 years ago

    Pretty.

  • Triggerhappytel #3 4 years ago

    I really hope Dragon Rising is good (shit name BTW). I enjoyed it on the Xbox, but was it was pig ugly. This looks purdy.

  • Beano #4 4 years ago

    Well... I guess EGO sounds less jaggy than LEGO ?

  • lambtron #5 4 years ago

    "The news is that not everyone licenses Unreal Engine 3 or Source"

    Umm, as far as I am aware there really aren't that many devs (who are not Valve) using Source.

  • sharpfish #6 4 years ago

    Cool... Central Tech took over the office space where I used to work as a lowly QA guy @codies, glad they made something useful out of the move while we had to sit in 'the warehouse' with dodgy aircon sweating over hot gamepads ;P

  • stoopidgreg #7 4 years ago

    the engine looks good, the new flashpoint 2 shots are lovely

  • stoopidgreg #8 4 years ago

    some screens from yesterday http://ww w.pcgames.de/aid,623204/Operati...

  • McLovin85 #9 4 years ago

    haven't played operation flashpoint since it was on PC all those years ago. will be nice to see what they can do on consoles. engine looks great though.
    i'm still always amazed they can use the same engine to create a 3rd person shooter and a racing game. guess i've always been too lazy to find out.

  • YoJimbo #10 4 years ago

    Aaah Sharpfish...i'd forgotten all about that sodding warehouse ;)

    They certainly seem to like everything IN CAPITALS atm

  • GamerAddict #11 4 years ago

    £40.5 MILLION LMAO

    /capitals

    Ahhhh the warehouse! Better or worse than being penned in like battery hens at Marlborough House?!?!?

  • YoJimbo #12 4 years ago

    Lol, oh god Marly House .....Aaaaaaaaaaargh!!!

    As bad as the Warehouse was, nothing was worse than the ol Marly ;) Or the all night long shifts we had to do there :(

    GRID....put DIRT backwards, replace the T with a G...and hey presto, a new game. I wish i had the imagination to come up with these belting, names :p

  • sam_spade #13 4 years ago

    Opflash looks amazing, can't wait to get back to those heady nights of [EG] action.

  • ruttyboy #14 4 years ago

    Screens look really nice. Only trouble is you can make the best engine in the world and it won't matter if you ruin your game by filling it with stupid, annoying, American non-celebrities named after processed meat products with no option to mute them.

  • BBIAJ #15 4 years ago

    @ Bertie:

    Are you sure? I'm pretty certain that screenie went up the same time as all the others... *confused face*

  • sharpfish #16 4 years ago

    aha Marlborough House - FTL!

    I escaped that by the skin of my teeth and moved to the warehouse instead (I think it was on the tail end of Race Driver 2 QA). Would have been handy for the pubs though.

    Glad to see some other codies (and ex ones and blitzers no doubt) On here, I've seen a few others previously too (lets be honest, they do go through staff a lot esp in QA).

    Edited by 1 at 06/12/07 @ 16:00

  • agparrot #17 4 years ago

    @ruttyboy
    Screens look really nice. Only trouble is you can make the best engine in the world and it won't matter if you ruin your game by filling it with stupid, annoying, American non-celebrities named after processed meat products with no option to mute them.

    There is a game with a character called Spam in it? ;)

    Imagine if codemasters actually had made an engine, you know, that could really power stuff, rather than just a set of computer programs to make pretty pictures. I bet it would need like, 6 exhaust pipes and stuff.

  • Freelancepolice #18 4 years ago

    Has everyone here worked at codies at some point ?

  • YoJimbo #19 4 years ago

    lol probably

  • Moz #20 4 years ago

    Looks promising. More devs freeing us from UE3 bordom

  • Brassnads #21 4 years ago

    Codies have always used their own engines for inhouse games - why does putting a name on it and telling us how much they spent make it any better than the engine they used for toca? Ok its 2007 not 1997.. so they have normal maps.. and stuff. Yay.

    So why is this news? Oh codies marketing dept issued a press release.. yawn. Please excuse my utter indifference. :-)
    Edited by 1 at 06/12/07 @ 21:11

  • bdc #22 4 years ago

    Yay, alternatives to UE3. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who sees that UE3 is actually pretty poor - the texture streaming issues get right on my tits.

  • posh_geordie #23 4 years ago

    Post deleted at 18:45:04 02-01-2012

  • cyber_nicco #24 4 years ago

    "Lol, oh god Marly House .....Aaaaaaaaaaargh!!!

    As bad as the Warehouse was, nothing was worse than the ol Marly ;) Or the all night long shifts we had to do there :( "

    San Quentin State Prison is worse. Much worse.