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        <h1><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><i><a href="../../index.html">loonygames</a><br>
          <font size="1">a <a href="http://www.bluesnews.com">blue's news</a> 
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<p>&nbsp;</p>Vol. 
                2, Issue 12<br>
                February 15, 2000</b>
              <b> 
                </b>
              
                <b><i>Pixel 
                  Obscura:</i></b></p>

                <b><i> 
                  Fantasizing</i></b></p>
                by 
                  Josh Vasquez</p>
              
              <p>
                

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              <i>Sword 
                and sorcery in the computer age.</i></p>
              Writing 
                about <b>Wheel of Time</b> in a 
                past article, I mentioned the difficulty of working in the 
                Fantasy genre, it being a form that even bypasses science fiction 
                with its obsessive hermeticism. Unlike sci-fi, however, Fantasy 
                is far less a mainstream past time. It doesn&#146;t seem to have 
                an across the board kind of appeal, relying instead on a select 
                although fiercely loyal audience. While science fiction certainly 
                has its devoted fan base explaining the bulk of its success, one 
                can imagine &#147;the common man&#148; going to see a sci-fi film 
                or reading a sci-fi book (just look at Michael Crichton&#146;s 
                career) long before they would go to see the new <i>Beastmaster</i> 
                flick or grab &#147;Devil Dwarfs of Mordar&#148; off the rack. 
                There are people who treasure <i>Aliens</i> and<i> X-Files</i> 
                and books like <i>Dune</i> that will tell you that they don&#146;t 
                even like sci-fi. Now, a rebuttal to this can be offered in the 
                form of the remarkable success of shows like <i>Hercules</i> and, 
                even more so, <i>Xena</i>. </p>
              But these 
                programs rely on heavy doses of camp humor to draw in as relatively 
                diverse an audience as they do, a mix of self-awareness and seriousness 
                that more often than not slides towards the laughs. One tentacle 
                of the entertainment beast, however, where straight forward Fantasy 
                seems to have less difficulty in winning over people who otherwise 
                show no particular dedication to the genre is the video game market. 
                </p>
              </p>
              Players 
                are prepared to run with anything provided it makes a good game. 
                </p>
              </p>
              Aliens 
                or dragons, race cars or damsels in distress, zombies or...zombies, 
                as along as the action is there and the story is worth while, 
                then game players will have at least a passing interest. For me 
                <b>Wheel of Time</b>, while an admirable attempt, was really rather 
                boring. It&#146;s possible to convey the Fantasy&#146;s genre 
                uniquely convoluted back stories without being ponderous, and 
                the cinematics of <b>Ultima IX: Ascension</b>, a new game developed 
                by Origin, do just that. </p>
              </p>
              The shadow 
                of a dragon glides across the desert floor. We see a small plateau 
                atop a spindly tower of rock from which sprout cracked pillars. 
                A shaft of light pierces the center of the ruins, and a man appears 
                frozen in the beam. After a second it deposits him and, looking 
                dazed and baffled, the knight finds himself face to face with 
                a rather crispy end. Dragon and rider fly up before him, and he 
                barely has time to raise his arms before being engulfed by flames, 
                courtesy of old scaly. Cut to a dark throne room where a man and 
                his rather demonic looking lord watch the proceedings on a large 
                mirror type gizmo. </p>
              </p>
              The piece 
                is a fairly simple one and yet quite charming. The overall tone 
                is similar to one of the better Saturday morning offerings from 
                a decade ago, like the fantastic <i>Dungeons and Dragons </i>animated 
                series or the legendary &#147;Legion of Doom vs. the Super Heroes&#148; 
                cartoons that you just cannot find on anymore (I wish that Cartoon 
                Network would shelve some of those duds they produce and get their 
                priorities straight...but pardon the rant). What united these 
                cartoons was their faith in their own colorful melodramas, a seriousness 
                of purpose matched with a wonderful air of childhood excitement. 
                <b>Ultima IX</b> is not so in depth a work that I can rave on 
                and on about the creator&#146;s intentionality, but the feeling 
                is there. </p>
              </p>
              The music 
                is just great, demonstrating an unusual attention to detail. The 
                heroic theme, heard when the man appears at the ruins, is ever 
                so slightly off kilter, a tonal uncertainty that perhaps parallels 
                the disoriented state of the hero. When we see the evil castle 
                in the distance, swarming with dragons, the music becomes appropriately 
                menacing but knowingly so, the kind of deliberate use of cliche 
                that you would miss if it wasn&#146;t there. Overall the music 
                is pretty standard fare for a film soundtrack but, like <b>Nocturne&#146;s</b> 
                score, is unusually well produced for a video game, sounding somewhat 
                reminiscent of composer James Bernard&#146;s work for many of 
                the Hammer films from the fifties and sixties. The animation that 
                accompanies this orchestration is pleasantly expressive in itself. 
                </p>
              </p>
              The features 
                of the characters are nicely detailed. Of particular note is one 
                sequence in which the deposited knight, faced with the dragon 
                and its rider, reaches for his sword and, finding nothing there, 
                slowly raises his head and stares apprehensively, eyes wide and 
                mouth slightly open, into the face of his executioner. In turn 
                his &#147;enemy&#148; grins back with a smile that is both childish 
                and evil, a brain damaged kind of glee. </p>
              </p>
              Later 
                in the castle, the wizardish looking man, apparently called Blackthorn, 
                replete with evil looking goatee (oh man that means trouble) and 
                a voice humorously similar to William Daniels&#146;, begins letting 
                us in on just what the heck is happening. Through his banter with 
                a brickish looking demon sitting on a throne, we learn that the 
                man we just saw burned is the &#147;avatar&#148; and that he poses 
                quite a threat to their plans to rule &#147;Britannia.&#148; The 
                basic plot is laid down here, but rather than being tediously 
                unwrapped like a stale old blanket, it is conveyed smoothly and 
                with elegant simplicity, its vagueness making the game all the 
                more tantalizing (and any piece that has a character use the word 
                &#147;lackey&#148; is okay in my book). The creators again demonstrate 
                their subtle building of character by having Blackthorn, turning 
                to leave after being dismissed by the demon, roll his eyes and 
                grimace slightly, mugging to the &#147;camera&#148; with a very 
                Alan Rickman kind of &#147;oh god I&#146;m sick of this&#148; 
                look to let us know how fed up he is with this &#147;lord.&#148; 
                And when the demon sits back in his chair with a look of smug 
                self-satisfaction, you know that you&#146;re just going to have 
                to wait and see how this is all going to turn out, but that the 
                ride may just be an enjoyable one. </p>
              </p>
              <b>Ultima 
                IX: Ascension </b>is 
                a fun little bit of cinematics. The creators have fashioned more 
                than an effective set-up to the game. If nothing else, the piece 
                deserves some credit for successfully bypassing Fantasy&#146;s 
                generic pitfalls, relying on subtle touches and a smooth delivery 
                to avoid what could have been just the same old sword and sorcery 
                bit.</p>
              
              <i>- 
                Joshua Vasquez is the resident film critic here at loonygames. 
                He also writes for the Internet film site Matinee 
                Magazine</i></p>
              </p>
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<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Print CGI is 
  &copy; 2000 <a href="http://www.square8.com">Square Eight</a>. Used with permission. 
  Article is &copy; 2000 its original author. All other content is &copy; 2000 
  loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited. You got that??</font></i></p>
 