Unreal Engine $49.99

You can almost smell the flowers, hear the waves and feel the stones under your feet. Across its 16 sq. km of craggy hills and coves, the rocky but lush territory of Northern Island feels like it is waiting for you to do something… anything. It is your plaything, literally - and for less than $50! Of course, we are in a dreamworld. This is one of the latest additions to the FreshCaned Studio ready-to-wear collection of virtual worlds, created within and for Epic Games’ powerful Unreal Engine is now increasingly touted as a transformative tool for more than just games developers, so we may expect these environments to become surprisingly ubiquitous. How long before the paths and peaks of this island lurk within advertising, marketing, architecture and design modelling? Already it is difficult to watch an ad break without some confusion as to where the real and the engineered cross paths.

With sophisticated tools at this price, the future is set to be ever more unreal. Or real. We can’t tell the difference.