The ghost of Cliff Bleszinski talks up Unreal Engine 4, Mark Rein shows off Kismet system

As we noted yesterday, Epic veteran Cliff Bleszinski has left Epic , but you don't last that long in this business without learning to psychically project yourself into several places at once. Even as Cliff walked into the sunset with a bundle of Lancer Assault rifles slung over his shoulder, his ghost was over in the Game Informer offices talking up Unreal Engine 4.

"When you ask me what next generation is, it's really the sum of all its parts," says ghost Bleszinski, lounging on the couch like psychic projection ain't no thing. Advanced particle effects, destructibility, light refraction and shinier shininess will bring the next generation closer to visual realism, but Bleszinski highlights Unreal Engine 4's Kismet system as an especially big step forward for developers.

Kismet lets developers code game behaviours without having to write scripts. Logic sequences are displayed as a series of linked boxes that let devs quickly combine sounds, animations and particle effects to quickly build a working set of rules. A lot of the footage below comes from the Unreal Engine 4 tech demo that Epic put out earlier this year, but it looks like there are some additional Kismet bits in there, and watching those glowing particles whoosh around doesn't really get old.

And here's Mark Rein demonstrating some games he's built with the new Kismet system.