16A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 9, 1999 Square releases new 'Fantasy Findl Fantasy VIII Square Sony Pfaystation After a two-year break, the design team at Square has launched another hard-hitting servo against free time, G.P.A.s, and social activity with the highly anticipated release of Final Fantasy VIII. Now all of us video game AIdicts have yet another fix destinedto-shutdown our lives for a week. . It's Very hard not to state the obvi- ous when I say that the game is beyond excellent - in fact, that might be an understatement. It's even harder to try to convey the level that this game is on in such a small amounioT fete.without revealing too much of the story.t The storyline pits a youg group of mercenaries known - as SeeDs against a the government of Galbadia, a country bent on world domination. You are Squall Leonhart, the main character, and a promising SeeD candidate. At least that's how things begin. In typical Squaresoft fashion, romance sneaks in, and the story soon becomes twist- ed and more and more complex as it progresses. Mysterious elements are thrown in such a warrior by the name of Laguna of whom nothing more is really known, yet is strangely linked to Squall and his comrades through dreams. As a result of this complexi- ty, there is quite a bit of dialogue in the game, but the storyline is certain- ly strong enough to keep things interesting. The game itself is a work of art from the gameplay to the graphics. Square;,has revamped many of FFVII's, already supreme elements and added several new ones, such as a highly addicting side-game of cards called Triple Triad (similar to 'Twin Falls' investigates phenomenons of twins By Erin Podoisky Daily Arts Writer I've always been kind of fascinated by Siamese twins. In my eighth grade science class - or maybe it was sex ed, I can never keep it straight - my teacher called them "conjoined." She reveled in the word, worked her mouth around it like it was a swirl of cotton candy from the county fair, like it was the political correctness of the word and not the twisted pair of bodies it represented that mattered to her. I was more con- cerned with the double dose of pained existence enclosed in the many names for the same malady. Two sides of the same body, two hearts and one set of legs, or four legs and one heart. What would it be like to literally be a part of another person? I was mesmerized by the pos- sibilities. In "Twin Falls Idaho,"the movies get their first serious look at the genetic Twin Falls phenomenon of conjoined twins Idaho thanks to identical twin collaborators Michael and Mark Polish. The. Polish brothers, who aren't joined at the hip At Michigan Theater outside of the world of the film, wrote and directed this story that is clearly very close to their hearts. They play Francis and Blake Falls, two individu- als joined as one who have lived a soli- tary life in unison. Francis is weak, easily given to illness, while Blake is strong. Thrown together by circum- stance, the brothers yin and yang between codependency and hatred, umbilical cord-strength emotional attachment and antagonism. They fight with each other in their quiet, whis- pery way. When Francis won't take his medicine, Blake takes it for him, caring for his brother not because he has no choice, but because they're irrevocably intertwined both through the body and the soul. And as in so many relationships, or part- ner needs the other more than the other needs him. Hired by Francis as a birthday present, a prostitutetamed Penny (Michele Hicks) wanders into their one-step-u-from- being-condemned motel room and is at first repukld then intrigued by them. She leaves and returns, struggles ith her own disgust that eventually gives way to fascinatic and, at some point, love. She tries to understand them as oe and as two, as men and as entity. It's easy to see that's a pri'lege that few have granted Francis and Blake. Hicks plays Penny as a slightly more grown-o Winona Ryder in "Beetlejuice," vamping innocently andaking the broken, barely breathing twins under her wing, itroducing them to experiences and emotions neither has evr felt. The Polish brothers are more than up to the task; she ahost is, but not quite. Penny is dark and vulnerable as thtwins are translucently strong and fragile, each in his ownvay. That's the beauty of "Twin Falls Idaho," the idea that outf two bod- ies so hopelessly merged could grow two distinctndividuals with tragic hopes and dreams that can never be fuilled. They can hate each other but never live apart; they canove others but never be with them as they can be with each ther. The Polish brothers, at times, deliver the messge of dou- bles a bit too strongly and don't trust their audien, to, excuse the pun, put two and two together without a little xtra boost. A line is repeated here, a visual joke is made thre. But for the most part their effort is straight and true, an this small movie has a heart twice as big as its competitoryIt offers a point of view we don't often see, especially withct pointing and laughing at circus freaks, but there's nothig freakish about Francis and Blake. All of those peopkthat they encounter in their daily life who don't know how> live with both themselves and with others are the freaks. tancis and Blake have mastered the art of better living throup symbio- sis and individuality. They're the normal ones. sorceress is one of the characters in "Final Fantasy VII." Magic: The Gathering). The graphics have been brought up a notch since FFVII, with emphasis placed on making the characters look more real than cartoony. No longer will you find outrageously spiky hairdos, gun-hands or strangely shaped char- acters. Even the backgrounds during bat- tles are well done and varied, con- taining many layers and moving items.-Most match the surrounding terrain down to minute details such as signs on buildings and hatches on floors. And as if the graphics weren't already a confirmation of a good investment, the dolby surround sound and beautiful soundtrack will make you completely forget about the outside world. The CG sequences are breathtak- ingly realistic and highly detailed. Motion-capture photography was used to give these scenes an authen- tic look. In fact, it might be a safe wager to say that they are the best CG scenes to grace a Playstation screen thus far. Aside from just their overall look, the manner in which they are intertwined with the game play give the game the feel of an interactive movie more than a game. It's extremely tempting to just put the controller down and watch. FFVIII's battle engine is highly complex, which will turn off some gamers, but is very rewarding once learned. In a truly innovative rpg twist, characters no longer depend on magic points to cast spells. Instead they rely either on drawing spells from enemies and stocking them. or from Guardian Forces. Guardian Forces are living beings that give your team members the ability to summon or cast spells. They can be called upon virtually without limit, but have their own hit point total and thus can be killed/knocked-out of commission. One aspect of the game that could have used a little refining is the bat- tle difficulty. Don't expect to see the "game over" screen too often as the minor monsters aren't too good at what they do. Don't misunderstand, the battles will get your adrenaline flowing and heart jumping, but a lit- tle practice with spells and items will keep you alive for a long time. The bosses, though are a slightly differ- ent story... The team at Square deserves all the accolades that will be coming to them. They have managed to greatly improve upon legend, instead of just copying and re-releasing it. Final Fantasy 'VIII will be a true classic, but I think you already knew that. (Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to disc 3...gotta get this done before classes get bad!) - Deveron Q. Sanders TV special tells show 22 CA house AMERAS 24 HOURS/DAY 42 Thinking of writing for the Daily? Want to learn more? Look for us at Festifall! The Washington Post No one ever had grasped that unique- ly American promise, "the pursuit of happiness," quite the way Phineas Taylor Barnum did. Barnum, born in 1810, saw that by mid-century American workers for the first time had free time and money and were willing to spend them on being entertained. And entertain them is exactly what he set out to do. Whether he was a born salesman, a brilliant entrepreneur or just an enthusi- astic huckster, Barnum understood his clientele - from the growing contin- gent of immigrants who couldn't yet speak English to the elite of New York City who were eager to fork over big bucks to hear arias from a singer he called the Swedish Nightingale. Even if he engaged in a form of exag- geration that sometimes bordered on scam, Barnum was true to his goal: He wanted to give the people their money's worth, and to keep them coming back to his museum, and later his circus, to see other extravaganzas he promoted. But the colorful showman may never have uttered the condescending remark widely attributed to him: "There's a sucker born every minute." As much as Barnum loved razzle-dazzle, that remark, believes screenwriter Lionel Chetwynd, would have been entirely out of character. Entettaining, informative and largely sympathetic, A&E's "PT. Barnum," air- ing Sunday and Monday at 8, drama- tizes his personal life and his lively career. And as it turned out, barnum's 81 years weren't entirely full of parades and cotton candy, Swedish Nightingales, Tom Thumbs, Jumbo the elephants and "Feejee mermaids." As Beau Bridges plays him in the cable service's miniseries, Barnum was an energetic man who was devoted to his wife, Charity, and their four daugh- ters and determined to make good in a culture still heavily weighted toward the well-to-do and the aristocratic. Upbeat and extroverted as he was, he nevertheless faced tragedy as well: the deaths of his parents, of one of his beloved daughters, of a grandchild and finally of the wife who had shared his dreams and secret motto ("now or never") and reluctantly tolerated his long absences. Barnum suffered disas- trous business reversals and was snubbed by the New York elite. The elaborate Connecticut estate he called Iranistan burned down just as he and his family were preparing to move in. Yet somehow there was always another deal to buoy his entrepreneurial spirit, another trip, another fortune to be made. "In Australia, we would call Barnum a lovable scallywag," said director Simon Wincer. "PT. Barnum," filmed last winter in Montreal and Vancouver, is the first miniseries Wincer has directed since he made "Lonesome Dove" a decade back. "Barnum was an extremely impor- tant person in 19th-century America, an enormous influence in contemporary America," said Wincer. "People don't realize the impact that he's had on peo- ple's lives. The way he advertised, the way he sold, the way he would exagger- ate - he really created the world of advertising as we know it today. He really introduced glitz into our busi- ness, and Americans are good at that. And he was an honorable man. Even though he pulled off a couple of scams, the people always got their money's worth" , Wincer is fascinated by 19th-century America, a period when the society shifted from rural to urban life. "When Barnum was a kid, (the pop- ulation of) New, York was 100,000; when he died, Manhattan was a metropolis," said Wincer. "The U.S. was being flooded with immigrants, becoming a multicultural society. Barnum's followers were very much the sort of lower classes, the working classes. That's where he realized this great untapped market. He provided entertainment for them for the week- ends because they had money to spend. With Jenny Lind, he intro- duced opera to the masses." Barnum discovered Lind, whom he called the Swedish Nightingale, in Europe, and brought her to the United States. In New York, interest in her was so intense that Barnum auctioned off orchestra seats for her first concert, at Castle Garden, to the city's elite, selling some for bids of several hundred dollars - a sort of one-upmanship over tycoons who had not accepted him socially. He went on to promote Lind's .tour of 95 concerts before they parted company. Among his many endeavors, not all of which are dramatized in this minis- eries, was Barnum's early decision to buy the failing Scudder's museum in nan) s stcry New York City and rechristen iwith his own name. He exhibited odd ies he'd found during his world-widt travels, including what he called the"Feejee mermaid," which turned out 6 be the upper body of a female Monkey attached to the lower half of a lrge fish. But the museum patrons didn't seem to care that they'd been bamioozled, and Barnum learned that "a bi hook" would get people inside. But he also knew they wouldn't return unliss they were offered an interesting sho. And return they did, hoping to see tle other exhibits, wild animals, perfomances and lectures - "500,000 natual and artificial curiosities from everytorner of the globe," according to Ba-num's advertisements. In 1842, he signed up tiny Giarles Stratton, naming him Gen. Tom Thumb and taking him to Lonton to meet Queen Victoria. Strattob and Barnum became life-long friends,and Stratton once made a tour especially to help bail 'Barnum out of financial difficulties. The impresario's innovative circus parades gave spectators a taste of what they'd find under the big top if they'd buy a ticket. Under the Barnum & Bailey tent, they would find something new - "the Greatest Show on Earth, he promised: a ringmaster presidin over three rings, not one, with acts pe forming simultaneously in all of ther (In 1907, after Barnum's death in 189 Ringling Brothers purchased the c- cus.) Later, Barnum took up politics n Bridgeport, Conn., serving first as ps- ident of the Fairfield Coty Agricultural Society, then as mayor.nd three terms as a Connecticut state is- lator. He was also a trustee of efts College, a founder and first presidet of a bank in Bridgeport and a land del- oper. But except for a few referees, "P.T. Barnum" leaves the politicaside of his life to other filmmakers. In fact, even though this portral is four hours long, it doesn't includdll of Barnum's wide-ranging travel and endeavors as he made and lost veral fortunes. But it does point out that afr his first wife, Charity, objected ) his drinking alcohol, Barnum bedne a devotee of temperance. He alsaspoke publicly in 1865 in favor of "fran- chising Negroes" and is picture argu- ing against the pro-Confederatesenti- ments of his son-in-law. 0 0 om01 "TRULY A NEW CYBER-EXPERIENCE, THAT, BORN IN THE INFORMATION AGE, TRANSCENDS THE CEINTURIESOLD NOTION OF THE SCRIPTED EVENT..." 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