Fracture, A Groundbreaking Project For PS3 An...

Fracture, A Groundbreaking Project For PS3 And Xbox 360

Not as much a conceptually-groundbreaking game, though, as a literally-groundbreaking one. Fracture is the latest next-gen project announced by LucasArts, as an original new IP currently in development at Day 1 Studios - makers of the MechAssault series, the Xbox 360 port of F.E.A.R. and, most recently, its PS3 version. Shortly put, Fracture will be a futuristic shooter that will allow players to freely deform the battlefields, through the use of seismic weapons alongside other sci-fi gadgetry.

Of course, that brief description doesn't do the game justice, so here's a little bit more about it. Fracture takes place in 2161, on an American soil split in half not only by war, but also by ecological and seismological disasters. The Western states are called the Republic of Pacifica and having allied with Asia, resort to solving their problems at the genetic level, effectively restructuring the DNA of its inhabitants (hence its genetically enhanced soldiers) - a morally unacceptable method for the Atlantic Alliance that was formed between the Eastern American states and Europe. It's this Atlantic Alliance that you'll be fighting for in the game, as a demolitions expert named Mason Briggs, who fully benefits from his faction's superiority in the field of cybernetics.

Using an arsenal of futuristic weaponry to strategically reshape his surroundings on the fly, Briggs will be able to dynamically reshape the earth (thanks to the game's next-gen technology known as Terrain Deformation). To better illustrate this idea, LucasArts provided the following gameplay examples:

"When Briggs throws a tectonic grenade on a level battlefield, the ground blasts upward to provide access to an otherwise unreachable area. Moving on, when he comes across what appears to be an impenetrable structure, Briggs utilizes the alt-fire functionality on his rocket launcher to create enormous craters to burrow underneath the wall. Surrounded on all sides by enemies, Briggs heaves a vortex grenade, creating a swirling tornado-like mass of boulder, dirt and debris to dispatch his foes."

They also provided some screenshots, but to really understand what this game is capable of, you'd better watch the trailer linked from the official website. Fracture is planned for release in Summer 2008, on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)