Star Wars: The Force Unleashed [X360]

"We've developed Euphoria in collaboration with our partners Natural Motion from Oxford, England. It infuses our characters with a central nervous system, not just a brain," Blackman enthuses. "They have a sense of self-preservation, reflex, muscle. In the game, it allows us to do things like Force Push a character and have him try to protect himself from the fall or the impact."

He continues, "If I throw a stormtrooper up into some rafters, he'll try to grab on, because he knows otherwise he's going to fall to his death. They also maintain their balance through procedural AI, so if you're using the Force to grab a walkway or gantry and shake it and there's a bunch of stormtroopers on it, they'll stumble around and hold onto one another. It gives a different pay-off every time you do anything in the environment."

How about Digital Molecular Matter? Developed in conjunction with Switzerland-based Pixelux Entertainment, it creates "Glass that shatters like glass, wood that splinters like wood, and metal that dents like metal," as Blackman puts it. "If I slam a stormtrooper into a plate-glass window, it'll shatter differently depending on the force and angle of the impact, the size of the enemy, the distance we are from the window. It's uncharted territory for games." Both Euphoria and Digital Molecular Matter will also feature in Lucas Arts' upcoming Indiana Jones game.

The technologies also tie closely into the game's creative use of well-known Force powers. "We take a power like Force Push, which in the past might have just knocked somebody over," Blackman begins. "Now we can make Force Push hit somebody with the force of a cannonball, send them flying backwards and go shattering through walls or columns, or smashing into metal walls and denting them, or whatever else might be in their path."

Blackman's team has made coming up with creative combinations of classic Jedi abilities a priority, too. "We have a deep combo system that will allow players to string together lightsaber attacks with Force powers, and Force powers with other Force powers. So you can do a saber attack and follow it up with a bolt of lightning, and it does a brand new effect - not just visually, but also gameplay-wise."

He goes on to get a little more specific. "We've got a great new power where you can grip an enemy, lift him up in the air, supercharge him with lightning and slam him into the ground where he'll explode in a fury of Force energy and destroy everything around him. It's like having a bomb constantly at your disposal," he continues, enthusiastically. "It's been really exciting to see all the various ways we might combine a handful of powers to create cool new effects."