You can generally tell how much a company is pushing a game at a trade show by the amount of assets they make available for it. Having said that, here are three screenshots of Fracture, a game that was briefly presented by LucasArts between The Clone Wars and Force Unleashed, as if to say here...you're going to have to watch this if you want to get to the good stuff. There wasn't much new information on Fracture. It's still a global conflict that pits two forces against each other using terrain restructuring weaponry, a feature that set last year's E3 on fire but this year was just sort of there. I guess I'm just not all that excited about the title as it stands, especially when they sandwich it between two hefty doses of Star Wars, as if it were an intermission or something. Anyway, here is Fracture.

Update: Missed in my rather lackluster view of the game, LucasArts did reveal the all-new DC environment in the preview, frosted with snow. It's lovely, sure, but doesn't take away from my overall meh feeling. Perhaps the letdown from TimeShift - another shooter with an innovative mechanic - just has me wary.

New Fracture Trailer: Terradeforming in Action

LucasArts and Day 1 Studios is getting ready to release their terraforming shooter Fracture this fall, and they're rolled out the newly updated website for the game to help get the hype train started right! Along with the standard videos, screenshots, and developer blogs, the site is launching a brand new community-oriented Wiki site that will allow fans to interact and access exclusive content meant just for those who care enough to hang about and their friends in the gaming press.

You can visit the newly updated site at http://www.fracturegame.com, and be sure to tune into GameTrailers TV tonight on Spike for the premier of the new Fracture trailer. Hype machine away!

Why Don't Next-Gen Games Give Us Next-Gen Gameplay?

While a lot of games are pushing the limits of what can be done visually in games, we also wanted to push gameplay to levels that literally could not be done on the previous generation of hardware.

Fracture

LucasArts' terrain rearranging shooter Fracture's main protagonist, Jet Brody, has obviously had a visit from the Extreme Makeover team. Gone is the short bushel of hair atop his head that brought back fond memories of House Party movies past, replaced with a more conservative closely-shaved number. He's also lost his attention-magnet yellow and white ensemble for an equally battlefield impractical red number, which makes him look like he's ready for a round of Unreal Tournament III once all this silly civil war business is sorted out. Definitely a marked improvement!

Fracture Terrain Deformation Dev Diary

Man they love saying "Terrain Deformation" don't they? I tried counting but lost count about two minutes in. I gotta say, despite all of the loose talk about terrain deformation, the video is worth a watch if only to watch a retired military officer running around an office with a Nerf gun. Classy.

E3 Schwag: Total Disclosure

Fracture: Testicular Shock Wave and Impressions

A tipster sends word on some Lucas Arts announcements they say will be hitting during E3. First, the tipster says that a trailer for Force Unleashed will be released on Thursday about halfway through E3. The trailer will also be showing up on Entertainment Tonight, the tipster goes on to say.

There will also be a LEGO Indiana Jones game announced during the show and finally, Fracture, Lucas Arts earth warping video game, will get a July 2008 release date. The game, the tipster says, will take place in the middle of a second civil war, West Coast mutants against the East Coast cybers. The game will feature maps based in San Francisco (where global warming has dried up the bay), a desert in middle America, and Washington D.C. The gameplay will have defined mission objectives, and not sandbox play. The terrain deformation will affect buildings, which will be powered by the Havok physics engine.

Keep in mind these are only rumors. I'd say they sound likely, because of the rumblings of a new Star Wars game and the upcoming Indie film, but I'm still 50/50 on them.

Clip: Fracture Terrain Trailer

LucasArts Reveals Fracture