The amount of rampant ignorance in this thread is funny. Unreal3 is not so amazing.. its just the logical extension of dx9 hardware. Most effects in those shots are generateed by shaders. Using shaders is not 'band aiding'.. its how these things are done. Essentially all the engine needs to do anymore is simply give you matrix information and vectors..everything else can be done via shaders. Bascially conitec just needs to provide more vectors and more flexibility. Yes there are some things that need to be implemented in the engine such as shadow mapping and z-fail shadow volumes. Once this is done .. and the new lighting system which will provide needed vector data, you can easily create at least Doom3 quality worlds. after that most effects are simply extensions of the existing techniques.. a lot of what makes certain games look impressive is the artwork and tweaking involved, not the core technology.