Friday 28 April 2006
LucasArts has announced that its new, still unnamed, Indiana Jones title - slated for release on next-generation consoles - will use fancy-pants artificial intelligence technology that will allow the game's interactive characters - including the daring Dr Jones himself - to act more like "actual human beings without the limitations of traditional animation".

What does this mean exactly? Well, LucasArts is claiming that the 'euphoria behavioural-simulation engine' (ooooh) will allow the action to be simulated rather than scripted, meaning that even when replaying scenarios gamers will never have the same experience twice. LucasArts offered the following example of how this might work in practice:

"Imagine a swaying rope bridge. With euphoria in action, characters visibly attempt to balance themselves, their feet stumbling, their arms flailing, and their hands reaching for security as the unpredictable movements of the bridge threaten to send them plummeting to their doom. Perhaps they all survive. Perhaps they all fall. The use of euphoria means the action isn't scripted - it's simulated - so you'll never be able to predict exactly what will happen." 

Sounds pretty neat, huh? LucasArts will be showing off the super smart euphoria engine when it debuts its Indiana Jones game at E3 next month and you can count on us to be there to excavate all the info.