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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>://<a href="index.php"><font color="#7C420E">1</font></a>, 
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            <!--#exec
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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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                      <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i><font color="#904C10" size="2">Pixel 
                        Obscura: </font><font color="#904C10" size="4"><br>
                        <font size="3">Sudden Histories</font></font></i></font></b><br>
                      
                      <div align="right"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">By 

                        <a href="mailto:citizen21@hotmail.com">Josh Vasquez</a></font></div>
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                  <td width="45%" align="right" valign="top"> 
                    <h5 align="right"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#00025E">Vol. 
                      2, Issue 9&nbsp; <br>
                      January 24, 2000&nbsp; </font></b></h5>
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              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><loonystart></font></p>
                            <p align="right"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">What is 
                very clear is that in <b>Unreal Tournament</b> the instructive 
                back-story is first and foremost meant to be evocative, a laying 
                on of atmosphere. To make this work is no easy task; such a technique 
                could easily become melodramatic to the point of being silly or 
                flashy, insubstantial, pseudo dark poetry crap geared to get points 
                on the &#147;hip&#148; scale. The bit works in <b>UT </b>because 
                it&#146;s kept simple and direct, the rapid yet steady delivery 
                matched to an equally brisk, controlled visual pace. The unfolding 
                narration even manages to maintain an ever so slightly creepy 
                edge, like listening to a distant radio broadcast in a dream where 
                every little thing seems to be a clue to some unfathomable mystery.</font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">&#147;...what 
                was, what will be and what is may yet fall under the shadow&#148;</font></i></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <b>The 
                Wheel of Time</b> takes a necessarily different approach. Having 
                been adapted from a series of books and being a game based around 
                an epic storyline as opposed to <b>Unreal Tournament&#146;s</b> 
                local color, <b>Wheel of Time&#146;s</b> history lesson covers 
                far more narrative ground. The piece opens with a working out 
                of the equation of history, myth and legend, a kind of cosmic 
                &#147;let&#146;s get this straight&#148; before proceeding. It 
                seems that long ago the world experienced an age of legend, a 
                time when humanity attained a dazzling level of harmony and metaphysical 
                control. Certain people developed the ability to channel a kind 
                of primal energy and before long one woman misused her powers, 
                unleashing a great evil on the world. Although in time subdued, 
                this fiendish presence left a parting gift in the form of a curse 
                that drove the male channelers insane and nearly destroyed everything. 
                We open sometime later during a period of general unrest. Now, 
                I&#146;m leaving out a lot of details because it would be silly 
                to dawdle but also because my point is that there are indeed so 
                many details. </font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The opening 
                is bogged down by the weight of the game&#146;s own history, giving 
                the whole thing an almost comic air of self-importance. Fantasy-esque 
                games are always in danger of this sin, caught between wanting 
                to take their own convoluted plots seriously and having to because 
                if they didn&#146;t everyone would be rolling in the aisles. I 
                don&#146;t mean that as a cheap shot as much as a recognition 
                of just how difficult juggling sword and sorcery stuff can be 
                (all that Magmus, son of Flogmarr, keeper of the keys of Pentoozler 
                jazz has a dangerously high scoff factor). The problem is that 
                <b>WoT </b>seems to be struggling with the material, combining 
                weak animation and standard fantasy images with a hard to follow 
                recap that even the gorgeously measured tones of Discovery Channel 
                regular Ed Green can&#146;t bring to life. Considering the fact 
                that they&#146;re compacting an entire series of books into a 
                few minutes, they do an admirable job of streamlining, but that 
                doesn&#146;t keep <b>WoT</b> from suffocating under its own ponderous 
                narrational shadow. </font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">These 
                sudden histories, while pretty popular in video game cinematics, 
                are no easy tool to master. An instant back-story, inflated with 
                all the time it takes to moistly grow one of those shrunken sponge 
                dinosaurs, can give a piece a self-assured ratta-tat-tat that 
                sweeps the viewer along in its narrative folds, never letting 
                go before depositing you, breathless, in front of the game. It 
                can also, however, prove be a crippling mistake, burying an opening 
                beneath a retarding layer of informative blubber. </font></p>
              <p align="left"></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Actually, 
                the funny thing is that even when done well sudden back-stories 
                feel rushed and a little empty. Perhaps it&#146;s time we had 
                that three-hour epic, that unselfconscious (and unashamed) challenging 
                and embracing of the medium on its own terms, a video game vision 
                of art cinema. We can only hope. </font></p>
              <div align="center">
                <p align="right"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><i><font size="2">- 
                  Joshua Vasquez is the resident film critic here at loonygames. 
                  He also writes for the Internet film site <a href="http://www.matineemag.com/">Matinee 
                  Magazine</a>.</font></i></font></p>
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                <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"></loonystart></font></p>
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              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="index.php"><font color="#7C420E"><b><font size="+1">&lt;&lt;Prev</font></b></font></a></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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