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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>URL: <a href="../2.14/pixel/index.html">http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.14/pixel/</a><br>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>Vol. 
                2, Issue 14<br>
                February 29, 2000</b>
              <b> 
                </b>
              
                <b><i>Pixel 
                  Obscura:</i></b></p>
                <b><i> 
                  &quot;Think Hard...Think Real Hard, You Poor Dope&quot;</i></b></p>
                by 
                  Josh Vasquez</p>
              
              <p>
                

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              <i>...or 
                the attack of the square jawed he-men.</i></p>
              Cutter 
                Slade, star and alpha male of <b>Outcast</b>, is another in that 
                prestigious long line of wisecracking, tough talking, hairy knuckle 
                type action heroes.  And what a bunch they are, the kind of guys 
                who open beer bottles with their teeth and tell people annoying 
                them to “skip it.”  These thick necked types are the life blood 
                of the adventure genre, from megaplex blockbusters to comic books 
                and to video games, which is not surprising when you consider 
                that most storylines go for sensation rather than sincerity.  
                </p>
              This is 
                not to say that “roguish charm” doesn’t have its place or that 
                watching some hardbody’s smirking antics can’t be good escapist 
                fun.  Even when clumsily handled, the monosyllabic cynicism of 
                tough guys and their snorting contempt for “the rules” amounts 
                to at least a few laughs for the audience, if only derisive ones 
                themselves.</p>
              Cutter 
                Slade, all around professional gruff talker, is <b>Outcast’s</b> 
                resident bad boy, a smart-alecky military type who can be relied 
                on to “do the job.”  </p>
              The game’s 
                cinematics are broken into two sections, the prologue or the “so 
                what’s this all about” material, and the introduction to the game 
                play proper.  It’s all centered around Slade, our hero and surrogate 
                body during the adventure.  When we first see him, he is lounging 
                in a darkened, sleazy looking bar and is at least sober enough 
                to make a few grumbling quips to the officer who comes to collect 
                him (which is a shame if only because I would love to have seen 
                him stumble around drunkenly while trying to be so hard bitten).  
                The problem is that, with their ‘round the clock five o’clock 
                shadows and form fitting t-shirts, the goon squad of strong arm 
                action heroes are, while often fun, also painfully ever present, 
                especially in the video game world.  The type is so clichéd that 
                the portrayal of Slade’s character is the most distractingly annoying 
                thing about <b>Outcast’s</b> cinematics.</p>
              The piece 
                opens with the sound of a radio news broadcast recapping the recent 
                discovery of the existence of other dimensions and that travel 
                between them may well be possible.  We watch a series of equations 
                and spinning chains of molecules receding before us within a shimmering 
                blue field.  The voices overlap excitedly and are even interwoven 
                with the high pitched warble of AM radio interference, a wonderful 
                touch.  We keep pulling back until it’s revealed that all the 
                molecules are in fact the inner world of ice cubes resting in 
                a glass full of Slade’s booze.  The commander is “asked” to come 
                along and the top brass let’s him know that a probe sent into 
                another dimension was destroyed by something on the other side, 
                starting a chain reaction that threatens to destroy the Earth.  
                Cutter and three others are sent across to find the probe and 
                repair it, hopefully repairing the dimensional tear as well.</p>
              Although 
                pretty standard fair, a few things make this opening stand out.  
                </p>
              The animation 
                is very nicely done, “life-like” without being cloyingly so.  
                </p>
              The movements 
                of the characters are conservative and realistic, having an almost 
                rotoscoped smoothness.  The voice characterizations come across 
                as pleasantly grounded in their respective animated bodies, sounding 
                surprisingly comfortable and informal as if these really were 
                people acting in front of you.  The designs of the dimensional 
                rip is also nicely imagined, sensational without being over the 
                top.  The actual process of dimension jumping is refreshingly 
                involved yet also B-movie vague, making a nice change from the 
                simplified magical zippo-bang science of the average game.  As 
                Slade gets into a machine that fills an entire room, we watch 
                a multi-step process unfold that feels both satisfyingly complicated 
                and comic bookishly exciting.  We watch our hero pulled off into 
                the universe and then he’s gone.</p>
              The second 
                section begins with Slade awaking to alien faces in a strange 
                land.  Separated from his fellow earthlings, Slade is informed 
                by his camel looking host that he is the “Ulukai” (forgive the 
                phonetic spelling), the savior who the aliens have been waiting 
                for; Slade is predictably unimpressed.  This intro proper is heavy 
                on the information as, indeed, it must be.  Yet the creators take 
                steps to not let the need for story set up bog the whole thing 
                down.  Slade and “Alien” spend much of the piece looking at each 
                other and talking, something the average film watcher is inclined 
                to deride as “box office poison,” but the possibility of stagnation 
                is circumvented by the use of subtle “camera” movements during 
                the conversation.  The “camera” occasionally tracks toward and 
                away from the two figures, even moving around them in arcs, all 
                just enough that it feels deliberate but not intrusive.</p>
              What is 
                intrusive is Slade.  The character is clichéd, but especially 
                annoyingly so.  The vocal performance is quite good, not too flamboyantly 
                husky, but the dialogue is rather tired.  It’s just the same old 
                bit but for some reason in <b>Outcast</b> it really weighs everything 
                else down.  This may be because the rest of the cinematics are 
                so unobtrusively well crafted that to see something so cliché 
                is to watch the illusion crumble.</p>
              Whatever 
                the defects of the Slade character, the rest of the piece is quite 
                good, particularly the prologue.  Solid design and animation coupled 
                with a subtle touch makes for a quiet success.</p>

              <i>- 
                Joshua Vasquez is the resident film critic here at loonygames. 
                He also writes for the Internet film site Matinee 
                Magazine</i></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>
 