Game On

Vanity Fair will publish its first ever video game feature in next month's issue.

In it, Frank Di Giacomo visits Lucas Arts and details the supposed innovation Star Wars: The Force Unleashed will bring to gamers.

Two points of interest:

...But the real pièce de résistance of the demonstration is when the stormtrooper is placed on an unsteady surface and actually begins to shift his weight and pedal his feet in order to maintain his equilibrium. “That’s not animated at all,” says Steve Dykes, the LucasArts senior engineer running the presentation. “That is actually a character trying to maintain his balance, physically simulated.”

and

Another demonstration begins—for a technology called Digital Molecular Matter (D.M.M.), developed by a Switzerland-based company called Pixelux Entertainment. D.M.M. makes it possible to assign the molecular properties of virtually any substance to any virtual object. In other words, doors can be made to splinter like oak, bend like soft steel, or shatter like glass with a remarkable level of realism.

If any of this interests you, check out Vanity Fair.com. Then, get a life.