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      <h5><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">//<a href="../../../index.html"><font color="#7C420E">loonygames</font></a>://<a href="../index.html"><font color="#7C420E">issue 
        2.9</font></a>://<a href="index.html"><font color="#7C420E">pixel obscura</font></a>://1, 
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          <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="100%"> <font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> 
            <!--#exec
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<p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><a href="../../../index.html" target=""><b><font color="#00025E">New!!!</font></b></a><br></b>
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  Obscura </font></b></a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><br>
  Josh Vasquez on <b>Omikron: The Nomad Soul</b>.</font></p>
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              <h5 align="right"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#00025E"><img src="../../images/icons/pixel_final.jpg" width="193" height="245" align="left"><loonystart>Vol. 
                2, Issue 9<br>
                January 24, 2000</font></b></h5>
              <h5 align="right"><font color="#00025E"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> 
                </font></b></font></h5>
              <div align="center">
                <p align="center"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i><font color="#904C10" size="3">Pixel 

                  Obscura:</font></i></font></b></p>
                <p align="center"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i><font color="#904C10" size="6"> 
                  Sudden Histories</font></i></font></b></p>
                <p align="right"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">by 
                  <a href="mailto:citizen21@hotmail.com">Josh Vasquez</a></font></p>
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              <p>&nbsp; </p>
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              <p align="left"><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Shot 
                out of a cannon into the past</font></i></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><img src="../../images/letters_new/v.jpg" width="23" height="39" align="left">ideo 
                game opening cinematics don&#146;t exactly allow for three-hour 
                epics. </font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Their 
                main function is to brief the player for the game to come in a 
                hopefully interesting way, whether that be a montage of action, 
                a little slice of narrative or a simple introductory piece like 
                a character display (for an example of the latter see the intro 
                to Namco&#146;s<b> Soul Calibur</b>). There are games, however, 
                which because of either sheer scope or stylistic concerns require 
                a different approach, a radical compacting of story, theme and 
                character into a hysterically operatic few minutes of viewer concentration 
                that generate in the player the sensation that he or she is descending 
                into a folkloric miasma, a tidal wave of legend. </font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Greeting 
                players with phrases like &#147;in the dark times&#148; or &#147;and 
                so it came to pass,&#148; these games catapult you backwards into 
                their own foundational history, and then quickly escort you, pointing 
                out the odd bit of local color, through a winding narrational 
                hallway that terminates in front of a door leading to the game 
                itself. Two recent GT Interactive releases provide a glimpse into 
                how this technique can succeed and backfire. </font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Unreal 
                Tournament </font></b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">(developed 
                by Epic Games) and <b>The Wheel of Time </b>(developed by Legend 
                Entertainment) both open with an informational hymn to a phantom 
                &#147;first part,&#148; a telling of events which the player has 
                never before seen that feels strangely more like a recapping. 
                There are two basic forms the &#147;history pill&#148; technique 
                can take, background filler as in <b>Unreal Tournament</b> and 
                force-fed need-to-know plot as crammed by <b>WoT</b>. Background 
                bits serve to add a little color to otherwise formulaic designs 
                and thereby presumably allow the player a more rewarding experience, 
                a context by which to dramatize the shooting and maiming. <b>UT</b>, 
                a combat game, seeks just such a &#147;fleshing out.&#148;</font></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br>
                <i>&#147;...to crush your enemies, to win the tournament&#148;</i></font></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br>
                Beginning in the ruined underground of a subway and making its 
                way up and across the sky, weaving between hunched, diseased looking 
                buildings, <b>Unreal Tournament&#146;s</b> &#147;camera&#148; 
                glides past the various architectures of the city before entering 
                the black and cancerous Tournament arena itself. A woman&#146;s 
                voice, echoing the mid-Atlantic deadness of the characters populating 
                2001, chronicles the formation of the Tournament. <b>Unreal Tournament 
                </b>started as a tool for quieting rebellious miners and over 
                the past fifty years has developed into an obscenely profitable 
                money making scheme, attracting the most dangerous wretches from 
                across the universe. The Tournament started as one form of control 
                and grew into another, violence channeled into entertainment, 
                aggression into currency. There is no moralizing here, however, 
                just a back-story designed to give the player something to chew 
                on, a broader picture in which to wreak havoc. But is there a 
                hint of desperation in the narrator&#146;s otherwise controlled 
                voice? A symbol lurking in the fact that the first thing we see 
                is the rotting foundation of the city&#146;s underground, a darkness 
                that is, perhaps, leaking to the surface, infecting both machines 
                and man? </font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Well, 
                maybe not. As so many are bound to point out, it&#146;s just a 
                fighting game after all... </font></p>
              <p></p>
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              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"></loonystart></font></p>
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<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Illustration 
  &copy; 2000 Dan Zalkus. Pixel Obscura is &copy; 2000 Josh Vasequez. All other 
  content is &copy; 2000 loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited, 
  you cartoonish villian, you.</font></i></p>
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