TWiG 2008-10-06: LucasArts Branches Out

It seems so long ago that LucasArts was known for anything other than their Star Wars games. Once upon a time, it may actually have been known more for its classic point ‘n click adventure games than the prize license it wields. Maniac Mansion, its sequel Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max Hit the Road…these are games that LucasArts built its non-Star Wars reputation on. Lately, it’s been…well, pretty much nothing. Nothing, that is, until tomorrow.

Now, we have Fracture, LucasArts’ foray into the world of new-IP first-person shooting. As with any new IP in this genre that’s not exactly hurting for games, there’s a hook: namely, that one of your guns can raise and lower the surrounding terrain. Look, this is like playing Populous as one of the people on the ground. Potentially, this could be (pardon my gushing) AWESOME. Raise the ground to provide yourself with some cover, reach previously unreachable platforms, really confuse some poor sap who happens to be standing on a hill…the possibilities are tremendous. This is the sort of mechanic that tends to only reach its potential when the sequel (or the sequel to the sequel) hits, but the idea of this one sounds great.

If you can defeat your enemies by creating impromptu ponds underneath them and drowning them, I’m so there.

I talked last week about having a hard time letting go of my old devotion to Sonic the Hedgehog, and this week features another of my old standbys that I have a hard time letting go of: Crash Bandicoot. Granted, the last couple of Crash games have been just fine, honestly, but they’re not as absorbing and certainly not as novel as the original PlayStation versions of the games. Part of that might have something to do with the fact that Crash, as a character, was designed with the limits of the PlayStation in mind; a large part of Crash’s character design was around creating a character using polygons that looked like he was actually made up of a bunch of polygons. Crash has always looked a little awkward, but it was perfectly natural on the PlayStation. The current generation of systems hasn’t quite figured out how to render the bandicoot such that he looks natural in HD. Maybe Mind Over Mutant can figure out the secret.

This year’s editions of EA and 2K’s competing NBA franchises come out this week too, and hey! There’s an Etch-a-Sketch game of some sort coming out for the PC, too. Who wants to bet they get sued because someone shakes the microprocessor clean out of their laptop just trying to clean the screen?

What are you looking at this week? What did I miss? Scope out the full release list and a trailer for Fracture after the jump!

DS:

Bleach: Dark Souls (7 October)

Crash Bandicoot: Mind Over Mutant (7 October)

Imagine Babysitters (7 October)

Imagine Fashion Designer New York (7 October)

Kage Densetsu: The Legend of Kage 2 (7 October)

Prey the Stars (7 October)

Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals (7 October)

PS3:

Disney Sing It (7 October)

Fracture (7 October)

NBA 09 The Inside (7 October)

NBA 2K9 (7 October)

NBA Live 09 (7 October)

Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle Cars (9 October)

PSP:

CID The Dummy (6 October)

Midnight Club: LA Remix (7 October)

My Spanish Coach (7 October)

NBA 09 The Inside (7 October)

NBA Live 09 (7 October)

Cake Mania: Baker’s Challenge (10 October)

Xbox 360:

Crash Bandicoot: Mind Over Mutant (7 October)

Disney Sing It (7 October)

Fracture (7 October)

Guilty Gear 2: Overture (7 October)

NBA 2K9 (7 October)

NBA Live 09 (7 October)

MLB Stickball (8 October)

Wii:

CID The Dummy (6 October)

Game Party 2 (6 October)

Line Rider 2: Unbound (6 October)

Army Men: Soldiers of Misfortune (7 October)

Crash Bandicoot: Mind Over Mutant (7 October)

NBA Live 09 All-Play (7 October)

Ten Pin Alley 2 (7 October)

PS2:

CID The Dummy (6 October)

Crash Bandicoot: Mind Over Mutant (7 October)

NBA 09 The Inside (7 October)

NBA 2K9 (7 October)

NBA Live 09 (7 October)

Onimusha: The Essentials (7 October)

Six Flags Fun Park (7 October)

Cake Mania: Baker’s Challenge (10 October)

PC:

CID The Dummy (6 October)

Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy (6 October)

Agatha Christie: Death on the Nile (7 October)

Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway (7 October)

Can You See What I See (7 October)

Dark Horizon (7 October)

Disney Sing It (7 October)

Etch A Sketch (7 October)

Everlight (7 October)

Exodus from the Earth (7 October)

SAS: Secure Tomorrow (7 October)

Six Flags Fun Park (7 October)

Sniper: Art of Victory (7 October)

The Guild 2: Venice (7 October)