If you doubt the relevance of the Unreal Engine, keep in mind that the new Splinter Cell:Blacklist game is using the same engine as the original version of this game released in 2004.  That is not to say it has not been tweaked, physics engines and tessellation were not options available at that time but have since been added to this extremely popular game engine.  [H]ard|OCP takes you through the various technologies that make this game look good, from new DX11 Phong Tessellation techniques to the wide variety of anti-aliasing choices available.  Even with all these new features, the textures are below the level of quality [H] would expect in 2013.  Hopefully there will be an HD patch made at some point like was done in Skyrim and other titles using aged engines.

"Splinter Cell: Blacklist is out, and we dive into this game and pay close attention to image quality and detail. NVIDIA and Ubisoft have implemented some first-time features ever seen in the Splinter Cell series, with DX11 Tessellation, HBAO+, and TXAA. We look at each of these technologies and see if it helps boost the quality of this game on the PC."

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