All military gaming fans stand to attention. Fracture, a brand new release from LucasArts is set to land on October 10th and promises groundbreaking next-generation gameplay.

The game advances players to the year 2161, where an epic war is being fought on American soil. The cybernetically enhanced Atlantic Alliance is pitted against genetically enhanced soldiers of the Pacific army and players in a revolutionary experience of 22nd century warfare.

The core gameplay mechanic is a destructive next-generation technology known as Terrain Deformation, players are equipped with an arsenal of futuristic weaponry to strategically reshape their surroundings on the fly. Every action they perform dynamically reshapes the earth in ways no videogame has ever seen.

We are hosting a live webchat with executive producer of the game Shara Miller and military expert Ian Dray. With titles such as Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction under her belt, Miller is certainly setting the standard for combat videogames. If you want to find out how the intriguing story and compelling characters were created or simply wondered what goes on behind the scenes of a brand new videogame then join us for this webchat on Friday 3rd October.

For more information visit www.fracturegame.co.uk

H: Host, Sara B

S: Shara Miller, Executive Producer, Fracture

I: Ian Dray, Military expert

H: Hello and welcome to the Entertainment Show, I'm Sara B. Now then, all military gaming fans stand to attention because Fracture, a brand new release from LucasArts is about to hit the shelves and promises groundbreaking next-generation gameplay. Joining me here today in the studio to talk through the game is executive producer Shara Miller and Military advisor, Ian Dray.  Guys, welcome to the show.

S: Thank you

H: Now remember we are live today, so if you want to get your questions answered, type them into the little box that's on your screen, click send and we will do our best to get through as many as possible. But before we get talking, let's take a look at what Fracture is all about

Game Footage

"In the 22^nd century the human race finally had to pay the bill for our neglect of the environment. Thousands died, and those that lived were forced to adapt. The human race chose two different paths in order to survive, and the definition of what it meant to be human was put to the test. In the western US the Pacificans started messing around with DNA creating what their leader, General Sheridan called the Superior Race. That's when things got way out of control. In the eastern US, the Atlantic alliance chose not to play God. We developed Cybernetics for a better way of life. They're the ones who saved my life, taught me how to fight. Now I fight to stop the Pacifican army from destroying mankind.

 

Go go go

 

A sneak attack by Pacifican forces in San Francisco is declared an act of war. Now we go live to the White House.

 

My fellow Americans, today's shocking attack in San Francisco has left me no choice but to declare war. At this very moment, alliance troops armed with advanced terrain-deforming weaponry, are being deployed to defeat General Sheridan and then his renegade Pacifican army. The risks are high, but the stakes have never been higher, we are fighting for our country, our freedom, and the very survival of humanity. The only acceptable outcome is victory.

 

Let's show them what we've got

 

Go go - get down and cover

 

We need back-up

 

What the hell…?

 

H: Well, I don't know about you, but that looks pretty cool to me. Now obviously we saw a bit - the story behind it there, so global warming is basically the - 150 years in the future and there's - the level of sea water's risen, the US has now split in two. Tell me a bit more?

S: Yes, so actually this is based on sort of something that scientists are working on right now, and people are thinking about what's going to happen if the oceans do rise as predicted, and so they're now working on the project of how do you deform the terrain and make it rise, so we took this concept and took it into a video game and said yes, so what if that did happen, and so when this fictional, you know setting, we decided that in the US what they probably would do is try to figure out a way to protect the big centres of economy and agriculture, and that would be sort of on the two coasts - economy on the east coast. Agriculture on the west coast. And so of course that comes with a cost and the cost is that the whole middle of the US is basically become an ocean, so you know we've sort of created, and in the fiction, the ocean has departed at this point but we've basically created a physical rift, which has led to a big, ideological rift, so that's how you start off with the game

H: So I mean this game really is all about terrain and you're environment and we'll get to that obviously in a minute, but Ian, obviously you're now a military advisor, you were in the army - what impact does the environment and your terrain actually have on military strategy?

I: Strategy in the army is based around environment, I mean where the enemy is, where you are, how you get to that enemy, the best way you can get there, preferably without being killed, to kill the enemy, is what it's about. If you have a hill you have to go over a hill, if you have to go around a hill, if you have to go under a tunnel, under a bridge - what this game gives you with the entrenching tool is a way of changing your environment. Strategically you can make the strategy work for you, you can change that strategy to get to your enemy the best way possible

H: Well it is certainly very cool, and before we start talking about all the, the next generation technology and game play, can you also tell me about the characters, because obviously they're split in two but you've got very much a specific bad guy in this, so tell me about him?

S: Yes so I'll tell you about the bad guy, but first I want to tell you about who you play -

H: I want to talk about the good guy as well, he's the main guy

S: I want to start with the good guy, he plays Jet Brodie and he is on the side of the Atlantic alliance, and they're basically considered the peace keepers and so the Atlantic side has outlawed genetic modification, and there are very good reasons for this, you know as far as people just, sort of taking the concept of genetic modification just too far, and that's basically what the enemy has done. His name is General Nathan Sheridan and he kind of has a very interesting motivation for why he has gone this far, so he has like a personal motivation, but basically he's taken a personal vendetta and decided to use it to wage a war, and so he really believes that you can create like a stronger human race. Now the big, ethical question is well are these people still human, and I think as you play through the game you kind of come to the realisation that they're just, they really lost their humanity, so that's a big cornerstone of the story

H: And is - that's something that we actually find out as we get further and further into the game don't we, so it's kind of like an aim there, so you can find out exactly you know, what his motives are

S: Yes so you do find out what his motives are, and you are the whole way, as you go through, you have an advisor talking to you, his name is Colonel Lawrence and he's basically your father figure, both in the back story and also throughout the game, he's going to go through and give you the lay of the land and help you figure out what some good tactics might be. I mean he's basically the person looking out for you and giving you your missions. Now Lawrence and Sheridan also kind of have a little bit of a back story together, and then you'll find that out as you play through the story also

H: So we don't want to give the story away

S: No

H: People actually have to go and play the game yourselves

S: Shocking

H: I mean obviously the main thing that we want to talk about is the next generation technology, can you tell me exactly, basically, what is different about Fracture?

S: Well this is absolutely a next gen game. There's just no way you could have done this with the prior console cycle, it just wasn't possible., you - the fact that you have created a game where players literally have complete control over shifting their terrain like this, and changing, you know the dynamics of the battlefield, it's just literally something that could not have been done before. It was developed by Day 1 Studios in Chicago, and they created an engine just from the ground up, like no pun intended, you know to deal with this terrain formation stuff, and you know - AIs have to be smart enough to figure out how to change their, their tactics, when the ground changes, and just you know the fact that there are constantly going to be objects in the world that are shifting around, it takes a lot of processing power, you know and a lot of memory for the game to handle that kind of stress, so it's really something totally unique to this generation, and I think it really revolutionises what people are going to expect out of shooters in the future

H: Ok but obviously the weaponry is especially very cool

S: Yes

H: What - I mean, as you said like grenades, I saw stuff about the Black Widow - tell me about the weaponry, what can you actually like choose and use, like - what have we got in choice?

S: Well there's all kinds of amazing choices, and it was interesting, Ian and I were talking earlier and I got to hear a lot of kind of his perspective on how weapons have changed over time, and as far as how that's gone into Fracture, what we really tried to do is think about what people love in their weapons set, they love to have control, you know and everyone loves explosives and so we've kind of broken it down into a few different categories, but we've taken - things people love today, and projected out - well where would they go in the future, so the Black Widow, as you mentioned, is a great example, you know, it takes concepts people love already, people love sticky grenades, they love grenades in general, they love explosive weapons, and then they love control.  So you've got something where you can launch up to 6 sticky grenades at a time, and then detonate them at will, which is really cool. So we've got detonate at will weapons, another great example of that is the Torpedo gun, and if you play the demo it's up on PSN and X-Box Live right now, you can get your hands on some of these but you know the Torpedo launcher is another great one because you can actually launch it underneath the ground, and you can maintain your cover, and it will literally go underneath that cover, and go and attack your enemies, and again it's one of those detonate at will things, so the player has all the control in the world. So we've got that, we've got direct fire weapons

H: Yes

S: We've got sort of your stock standard grenades, but unlike any other military combat games these ones also create huge effects on the terrain ,which is really cool. We've also got some super special ones like the vortex grenade. It just - it just sucks everything into a big, giant vortex and whirls it around, and you know just destroys everything in its wake.  It's amazing. 

H: Well, I'm getting very excited already, but - obviously talking about weaponry, how important it is in the military, I mean you've seen a lot of technological advances, like we spoke about. I mean, do you think that a lot of this stuff is really going to be available in the future or -

I: I'll tell you what, I hope so

H: Yes

I: I tell you what looks great, that Black Widow is something I'd love to get my hands on.  Strategically as well as just the fun of blowing the hell out of everything, strategically you can bring people into where you need them, and then kill them good!

S: And the cool thing about that too is, one of the things you can do with terrain deformation is you can corral people, so you can build little hills and you can funnel people to an area

I: You bring them in and kill them

S: Yes exactly

H: I mean it does, it makes it so different, because I remember when I got the chance to play the game, just the fact that you're able to use all this different technology, it's not like other games, because it's - it's not just like, shoot at them, you've got so many different strategies, and you know -

S: Yes.  Well you know, besides - I mean just the idea that you can funnel players like that, you know in multi-player, it's hilarious and very exciting, but you know you can also use this terrain deformation to lure an enemy underneath like an overhang, and then crush them -

H: Very cool

S: You can actually use the ground-moving to, you know, pop them up in the air, and literally the force of that ground moving can launch, you know, your enemies up in the air. You can also figure out a way to harness that, to launch yourself up in the air, and that's a great evasive manoeuvre

H: Yes

S: It's great for moving quickly across the terrain, you know in addition to your sprint, so, so that's really cool too

H: It is, and we'll talk about multi-play in a minute as well, but remember this is a live webchat, so remember keep getting your questions in, and they're all coming through to me now. I've got one from Antonius, says "this looks mental, loving the explosions, but also I think, you know the sound effects and the soundtrack are incredibly important."  I mean, what do you have to say about that?

S: I mean it's, it's absolutely true and I think kind of a - something we all recognise in the video game industry and in the movie businesses, you know sound is like half the experience, and when you take that away it's really quite one-dimensional. And so our soundtrack was created by Michael Giacchino, who - he does, he works on Pixar movies like the Incredibles, he's also done TV like Lost and Alias, were two of his shows, so - just to have his involvement in this, and the moodiness that he brings into environments has been great for us. And you know, oh my gosh the sound effects, I just, I can't say enough about Zack who did a lot of the sounds and he works at Day One, he's an amazing - he's just an amazing person, and just the energy that he put in to creating these soundscapes, you know spooky in some places and you know, very militaristic and exciting and upbeat in other places. He just - his work is just amazing

H: And obviously, you know sound effects and the soundtrack creates a whole mood of the game, I mean do you think it really brings a - like - you know, it makes it seem so much more realistic?

I: Anything that can add to the realism of a game is always going to be a bonus, because obviously a game is played on a screen, whereas usually you're in a 3D environment, so - the way the sound can add tension or add suspense to the way you're moving through an environment, it's a bonus and this is done to a way that you're going to love it. You can't lose

H: It's very cool

S: Yes.  Authenticity was really important

I: Yes

H: Well I was going to say, we've still got questions in because people are getting very excited about it. We did talk about, you know the inspiration vaguely, but I mean, is it really just because you wanted to bring a kind of realism to it, you know, when did you actually come up with the idea?

S: Well so it's been a little over two years since we developed the idea and again, Day One studios in Chicago was really, it was really their brainchild and then we really worked on, you know pulling out kind of the, kind of the bigger concept of the terrain deformation with them, but this was their idea, and it's kind of that rip from the headlines feel, you've got, you know sort of this idea that's really hot right now, stem cell research and just DNA manipulation is kind of a hot topic in general, and then you know of course the global warming is a huge topic that everyone's aware of, and so they really wanted to sort of set the stage to create a very tension-filled futuristic environment based on things that, almost to - things that we're afraid about today, sort of, do the what if scenario. What if all these things went horribly wrong, so - that was the goal

H: But how long does it actually take from start to finish on a game like this? We actually had a question in from Sean from Wembley, so thanks for sending in your question

S: Yes it takes - this particular title was in development a little over two years, and at Day One you know they really started with building the engine itself, the despair engine, and it's their proprietary technology and they built it very particularly to be great for shooters and to be great for this kind of terrain manipulation and having smart enemies who can really respond to this, you know in dynamic ways. So - and first comes the engine building and then of course creating these levels and building up the levels and building up the world, so you know it's a big-time labour of love, takes a lot

H: Sounds like a pretty cool job as well

S: Yes

H: now as I said we've got so many questions coming in, the thing everyone wants to know is also about the multi-player function. It's pretty good on this game. Do you want to tell us more about that?

S: This game is going to take multi-player to heights that you've never seen.  Literally there's nothing like this in multi-player. The amount of destruction that you can rain onto the environment is totally unprecedented, there 8 maps and 8 modes, the host is going to have a tonne of options, they really have a lot of control over the components of what goes into each game and so they're going to love hosting this game. You know we've got of course scaling so you can have smaller games.  People are even saying that, you know, the smaller games are really exceeding expectations like 6 players or less, so you can get really big and crazy with, you know tonnes of people or you can go a little bit smaller and have a more intimate experience

H: Well speaking of multi-play, let's hear a clip from Seth Benton who is the multi-player lead at LucasArts

Footage

 

"So here we are in multi-player, I can play up to12 people online, you can play as both the Alliance and the Pacificans. And here we've just got you know people throwing out grenades using their entrenchers to rip apart the battlefield a little bit. This is free-for-all, basically kill everybody. T he train-jumping is one of the most important skills to master. This guy's really good at it, you know jumps right up there in one try, grabs the shield, he's ready to go, he's throwing grenades down there.  Here's the Vortex grenade and it's basically a big grenade and it sucks everybody and everything into it, and ends in a pretty dramatic explosion. And that's a good way to get a bunch of kills, is getting people trapped in that.  Here's a Spy Grenade, it's good for you know navigating the battlefield, and just getting a view of what's going on.  He sees this guy, he jumps down and lets him have it with a shotgun. Here's the Torpedo gun, basically he gets some folks hiding behind there, he just fires it off and it bores underneath the spike, underneath that Smint Tower and blasts them

 

H: Ok well again the multi-player is incredibly cool on this game - you can have 12 players in total

S: Yes

H: Yes I think I'm going to get very excited about this. It's really like the effects I think that you really notice, and also like how real the actual characters are. In terms of like with the you know the terrain technology, do you think that's what really makes this game stand out?

S: Absolutely, I mean the proof is in the pudding, because once you get your hands on this game and you get the feel of using the entrencher, when you go back into your other shooters, it's the first thing that we miss, you know so what we're kind of hoping is that a lot of other games take the lead with Fracture.  I mean this is really something innovative - it really, truly is

H: And especially, obviously we're always going to bring it back to how realistic the game actually is. I mean do you think this is going to be something that we'll be looking at in the future Ian?

I: I'd like to

H: Yes?

I: I mean you know we read about technology now in America where they're using heads-up displays, they're using multi-camouflaging armour and stuff like that. It's all out there, it's just a matter of how long it will take to bring it out. I think it's, you know, if this is the way forward then that's what it will be

H: I've got another question here, this is a really good one for you Shara - Patsy Landon, thank you for sending that in says "this sounds like a great idea for a movie. Any secret Lucas film plans to make it into a film?"

S: Oh you know well we always - when we develop new IP, LucasArts is a huge supporter of getting new stories out into the world, and so we're always thinking about what could make a good story, what could make good books, comics, you know, so I wouldn't rule it out. There are no plans right now, but you know we certainly did create the story, you know with the idea that this could become just about any medium

H: Did Mr Lucas actually have much play in this?

S: He's always involved. I mean it's great to have him involved, he really challenges us. He has great ideas and you know it's - he's the master story teller so he's the guy you want, you know, in your corner - for sure

H: Ok.  So you know, just very quickly to sum it all up - why is this different, is this game different from any other?

S: Well the big thing in Fracture, it really comes back to the combination of terrain deformation and these outlandish explosive, amazing weapons - it's a great weapon set, combined with freedom like the players have never seen before, so this is really what makes Fracture different and totally stand out from other experiences, and especially in the multi-player arena

H: Well that's great. That's all we have time for today guys, but thank you so much for joining us, and thank you for watching. Check out more info on the game at the Fracture website - fracturegame.co.uk, it's out on PS3 and X-Box 360 now, so make sure you guys get a copy, I certainly will. Thanks for watching, see you next time

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