Lucasarts will let Players Mold the Earth however they want in The Fracture

Lucasarts and their development partner, Day 1 Studios, recently sent out a press release to unveil their new project, Fracture. Drifting away from the usual Star Wars and occasional Indian Jones fare, Fracture will take place in an entirely new universe, where the United States has been split into two factions after the melting of the polar ice caps. Think of it as a futuristic East Coast vs. West Coat thing, but without Biggie or Tupac. Players will take on the persona of Mason Briggs, a cybernetically-enhanced demolitions expert in the year 2161, who fights on the side of the Atlantic Alliance. On the opposing side – meaning, the guys you shoot/blow up – are the genetically-enhanced soldiers of the Pacifican army.

But the main ground-breaking (literally) feature of the game will be a new terrain deformation system, where players can use different weapons to morph and reshape the terrain almost like a ball of Play-Doh:

“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.”

A trailer for the game also shows these different weapons in action, and it definitely looks like something PS3 and X-Box owners can get excited about, when the game ships in Summer 2008.