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New Fracture details, co-op confirmed!

If you missed the strangely entertaining (and musically epic) trailer for the upcoming LucasArts title Fracture (or if you're like me, Psi-Ops with land-altering grenades minus the psychic abilities), please go back and watch it. It just hit the right chords for me -- a guy who generally doesn't find entertainment in first- and third-person shooters. PSU scored an interview with LucasArts producer David Perkinson and we're going to summarize it. It's pretty cool, so go ahead and read the entire thing if you're particularly interested.

  • The game takes place in America and addresses many "hot button" issues like stem cell research, genetic engineering and global warming. Using American landforms or man-made icons like the Golden Gate Bridge will give players a feeling familiarity and emotional stake in the game's story. Hopefully.

  • Moral and ethical shades of gray permeate the story -- right and wrong aren't clearly defined and what you see ain't what you get. So to speak.

  • Terrain deformation is integral to gameplay: solving puzzles, creating advantageous battlegrounds, and destruction are just as important as the generic aim + shoot formula in most similar titles.

  • Weapons are unique, too -- machine guns will eat away at the ground and a subterranean missile launcher allows you to detonate the missile at will. More details to come on weaponry.

  • An "augmentation" system will be put into play later on -- think status-up boosts in sports game, classic RPGs, or games like KOTOR.

  • There will be both split-screen Co-Op and online play available from day one.

  • LucasArts claims to take advantage of each system's specialties (PS3 and 360), but they're vague on purpose. We expect an interesting announcement in the coming months.

  • As far as resolution and framerate goes, they're vague again but from the comment "We plan to optimize the game to achieve a high frame-rate, while maintaining the level of gameplay desired" we translate that as 720p/60fps. Agreed?


That's it for now. Don't know why, but this game might just turn into a sleeper hit or a very, very far miss. Odds are higher on a sleeper hit, though, since it seems to share a few design similarities with the aforementioned Psi-Ops. We'll keep you updated on this one.
[Thanks, Justin!]