Let's say you're a game developer. Congratulations on finally finding a job!

Sadly, with all the responsibility of playing Mario Kart on your breaks and commenting on Cute Overload, odds are you don't have time to build a brand new graphics rendering system every few years. Luckily for you firms like Epic Games (Unreal, Gears of War), Crytek (Far Cry, Crysis) and id Software (DOOM, Quake) are there to build stunning game engines and offer lucrative licensing deals to anyone with the cash to afford them.

Normally I wouldn't get this deep into the tech side of gaming here on Blogtown, but since there's a pretty solid possibility that the majority of the games released over the next decade will be bolted on top of tech built by one of those three firms, I thought you guys should know what's in store.

I'll let id Software's id Tech 5 Engine go first, if only to prevent Carmack from launching a rocket at the Mercury offices. The following is a trailer for id's upcoming Quake-meets-Fallout shooter Rage.

Pretty, no? Hit the jump to see Epic and Crytek make with the shinies.

It should be noted that while the following two videos are only demo reels and the looks and feel of games built on each engine depend primarily on the skill of the developer, both clips were officially released very recently and represent the pinnacle of each firm's ability to generate sparkly, reflective shit with complex mathematics.

Unreal Engine 3:

CryEngine 3:

Thoughts? Preferences? Angry vows to ditch modern gaming entirely in favor of, like, books or quite self-reflection?