destructible
Latest
Joystiq hands-on: Red Faction: Guerrilla (360/PC/PS3)
At a recent THQ game event, another writer asked me about the original Red Faction. I told him it was one of the first games to use destructible environments. And then as I kept talking, I added qualifiers and backed off from that statement. Eventually, I rambled on to say it was also the first not-fully-successful game to do that in a long line of unsuccessful games. It was still cool -- smashing through a window was impressive -- but it didn't give the destroy-anything sense that the developers pushed.Due late this year, Red Faction: Guerrilla could finally deliver on that promise, although it has caveats of its own. Still on Mars, this time you play almost the entire game above ground. I had fun smashing holes into buildings and even destroying them with a sledgehammer. But I missed the underground, mining elements of the original. If everything is supposed to be destructible, why not the ground, too?On a technical and design level, it makes sense that a destructible ground would be a lot to ask. But it sure would be satisfying. Even without that option, Red Faction: Guerrilla could be a great game%Gallery-19834%
Joystiq impressions: Fracture (PS3/360)
LucasArts and Day 1 Studios unveiled Fracture last night at a San Francisco media event. The Presideo campus headquarters of LucasFilm, LucasArts, and ILM (as seen on Conan O'Brien) housed us for several game videos, a demo, and question-and-answer time.We weren't allowed to play Fracture, but I got a better sense of the title beyond the initial announcement. Fracture, which will rely on players reshaping the game's terrain in real-time, has a lot of potential. A few parts of the game concerned me -- like how the terrain weapons don't affect buildings and if changing the landscape will be fun in the middle of a fight -- but the basic ability to ripple and distort the land was impressive. Hopefully, Fracture will live up to its potential; we've already seen destructible games fall short of their hype.%Gallery-2929%
Destructible game, Fracture, announced for 2008
Fracture is the new collaboration between publisher, LucasArts, and developer Day 1 Studios. To be released in mid-2008 for the PS3 and 360, the third-person shooter will rely on destructible environments as a key component of the gameplay. We've heard that promise before, but like a bass noticing a Shad Rap, the game's potential is high enough for us to follow this lure to the boat.It's the year 2161, and the United States has been divided by its flooded Mississippi River. The East is full of cybernetically enhanced humans, while the West is populated with powerful mutants aided by genetic engineering. The freaks can't get along, and this premise -- which hopefully plays out better than it sounds -- incites a world war based in America. (We look forward to the "K" broadcasters finally settling their feud with the "W" stations.)[Update: Be sure to check out our impressions of the title as well.]%Gallery-2929%
