ARTS The Michigan Daily - Monday, September 27, 2004 - 9A CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE 'FABLE' GRANTS GAMERS RPG FREEDOM By Trevor Campbell and Forest Casey Daily Arts Writers The year was 2001; the hype was deafen- ing. On March 28, British developer Lion- head Studios, lead by visionary producer Peter Molyneux, was set to release "Black & White," a largely conceptual game based on morality. For the first time, players could assume the role of a lowly god, with the free decision to be benevolent or vengeful. Sadly, the public largely rejected "Black & White," not for- giving its much-delayed Fable Xbox Microsoft daily life is presented in a series of seeming- ly unimportant tasks. Even in the course of getting his sister a birthday present, the main character (who is referred to only as "hero") must make fundamental moral decisions. Should he rummage through desks and dress- ers to find the gold coins necessary to buy the present or should he earn them through good deeds? These same types of moral questions are posed through the entire game. Whether it be a choice between protecting local trad- ers by fending off bandits or by enlisting in their ranks or by doing something immensely evil (offering the traders protection and then slaughtering both them and the bandits to get the goods yourself) - "Fable" shows itself to be astonishingly open-ended. Just as the hero is beginning to grow older and stronger, a pack of bandits sack the town, kill his father and capture his mother and sis- ter. With nothing left to live for, the hero joins a guild and begins training for his ultimate revenge. Certainly this story path has been trod to death, but the way it is presented (with animated cutscenes telling the story through austere paintings) is something totally new - Lionhead's welcome take on the classic story of revenge. Despite the fantastical plot of heroism that the game follows, "Fable" is full of the things that make up much of life. Heroes can wed, divorce, have sex and even consume a few alcoholic beverages here and there. To help heroes keep track of their exploits, an exten- sive page of statistics keeps track of all of the player's personal exploits ranging from the farthest the hero has ever kicked a chicken to his drinking tolerance level. The sharp atten- tion to even the most minute detail pushes the idea that "Fable" is more centered on the indi- vidual story rather than the overblown soap opera that is the standard for so many other role playing games. While most other videogame scores drown amid the virtual sea of computer-synthe- sized, lackluster attempts to provide noth- ing more than mood music, "Fable" clearly sets itself apart. Movie music mogul Danny Elfman composed the melodious creativity enclosed within this tale by using the game as fuel for his art. As "Fable" progresses, the gamer chooses their side of morality and the music changes accordingly. Should the hero's path be laden with slaughter and thievery, the composition becomes frightening and eerie, but should he abide by town laws, and help out citizens, the score is full of cheery flutes and songs of sparrows in the distance. One of the stand-out features of this game are its fight sequences. Beasts like the were- wolf-like Balverines are quick and require an extremely high frame-rate to create their fluid movements. Astonishingly, their agile CoUrtesy o1 fMcrosoft I need you to be totally honest with me. Do you like my Fu Manchu? release date and lofty concepts that didn't make it into the final release. Thankfully for their devotees, Molyneux and Lionhead simply focused the missed opportunities of "Black & White" on a new, much more ambitious game. "Fable" has had three different names in the course of its development. Its gestation started long before that of the Xbox, and, in many ways, the hype surrounding its release has been more inflated than that of its predecessor. And yet, "Fable" still tackles many of the moral issues that made its predecessor so unique. As "Fable" opens, the main character's motions have little to no shakiness, and more impressive, there is rarely any lag for the gaming engine to catch up with the player's controls. Unlike other RPGs, "Fable" is more like an action game in sheep's clothing - the combat is all real-time and mapped to the buttons. Every new graphics-related advance- ment seems to have been incorporated into "Fable." Luminosity radiates off of the weapons and the magic, normal mapping covers the land of Albion in breathtaking forest, whimsical knolls and haunting dun- geons. The entire game carries a theme of lighthearted fantasy that is lacking in many of today's serious RPGs. If only the game wasn't 10 hours long (the 30-hour estimates must factor in a replay with the opposite morality); if only the load times weren't so frequent; if only it was more challenging, "Fable" would have been Game of the Year instead of Game of the Last Few Months. "Fable" is epic without being over-the-top. It is massive without being crowded, and it just happens to be the best action game released as an RPG this year. Believe the hype - go play "Fable." I I I Paper-thin plot, characters sink Holmes' comeback Wood art displayed at University Museum By Marshall W. Lee For the Daily In the spring of 2004, after the con- trived and convoluted Mandy Moore dud "Chasing Liberty" was slammed by critics and, ignored by audiences, 20th Century Fox and producer Jeffrey Downer decided to delay the release of their similarly themed "First Daugh- ter" until the fall. If only they had pushed it back a bit further, perhaps 30 years or so, maybe this schmaltzy, lumbering snooze- fest would have had stood a chance First Daughter Goodrich Quality 16 Twentieth Century Fox superb films as Jim Jarmusch's samu- rai-gangster flick "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai" and David Fincher's "Panic Room." Unfortunately, in recent years Whitaker appears to have found a comfortable niche directing heavy- handed romantic duds like "Waiting to Exhale" and "Hope Floats." Katie Holmes, who proved to be a lovely and charming actress in 2000's "Wonder Boys" and last year's indie hit "Pieces of April", stars as Samantha Mackenzie, an 18-year-old beauty who has spent her entire life as a good, sweet, devoted daughter, smiling loyally at the side of her parents (Michael Keaton and Margaret Colin) as they campaign for public office. Now it is time for Saman- tha to go off to school and she enrolls at the University of Redmond, 3,000 miles from the nation's capital, in hopes of experiencing college life as "just a nor- mal girl." Surprise; surprise, things don't work out quite as expected and miserable Samantha begins to rebel against the watchful eye of her secret service detail, sneaking about campus with her fun- loving, handsome resident advisor (Blu- cas). Holmes and Blucas fall madly in love over the course of what appears to be a single afternoon, and their roman- tic misadventures entail a mind-numb- ing procession of staged "spontaneous" collegiate moments. One example: At James's insistent urging, Samantha reluctantly agrees to eat popcorn and cour tes fzutI I ,en tury VA So what are 'you gonna do now that your film career Is over? as a midnight movie, with drunken rowdy cross-dressers clad in blue biki- nis screaming obscenities at a smirking Katie Holmes. Hollywood, however, lacks this kind of prescience. The movie, which stars Holmes as a precocious and dutiful teenage first daughter leaving the White House behind for a fictional California col- lege, is all heart and no head, making its points slowly and laboriously as Holmes and co-star Marc Blucas (TV's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") plod through 100 minutes of predictable romantic comedy. The movie is directed by Forest Whita- ker, the once-inspired actor of such chocolate candies together, at the same time. "It's disgusting; I like it!" she enthuses. The film's surprise twist, which won't surprise anyone (even those who didn't see the exact same device used in "Chasing Liberty"), leads to a formu- laic third act in which Samantha must become depressed, resolute and then depressed again before she can finally find herself. Even worse, the movie ends on a muted, melancholy note, leaving Samantha alone and the audience unset- tled; after dolling out nearly two hours of hackneyed cliches, the film denies its audience that final upbeat cliche which they have earned. In the lead, Holmes blithely grins her way through the film, underlying each unconvincing moment with wide- eyed enthusiasm. The script (penned by comedic actor Jerry O'Connell and unknown Jessica Bendinger) is espe- cially poor, and the supporting cast of cut-and-paste characters - Blucas, Keaton and newcomer Amerie Rog- ers as the bitchy, man-hungry roomie with a "you go girl!" tenacity -often seem adrift in a world of two-dimen- sionality. This film is a disastrous assertion of Hollywood's willingness to ignore and repeat its own mistakes, and one can only hope that the lovely Katie Hol- mes will escape the film unscathed and return to more intelligent adult fare. By Natalia lacobelli For the Daily Carved wood art is an old but power- ful tradition. The University of Michigan Museum of Art's wood art collection, "Nature Transformed: Wood Art from the Bohlen Collection," is an exhibit that dem- onstrates the developments of wood art by revealing a contemporary twist to tradi- tional pieces. The exhibit is divided into three sections: "The Vessel Unleashed," "Sculptural Ten- dencies" and "Allusions to Nature." Each section is graced with an abundance of art whose radical colors and unconventional N shapes will inevita- Nature bly please the naked Transformed eye. The pieces Runningthr h maintain a tradition- Octoer r al and native look,F but are virtually Free intended for simple UM Museum of Art house decorations. "The Vessel Unleashed" holds works of art that epitomize the contemporary artist's escape from the traditional ves- sel. The displayed entities exist as objects rather than containers. The very first ves- sel that one sees in the exhibit, "Untitled," is made of Norfolk Island pine, mahogany and oxidized copper tacks. The simple list of resources used, make the artifact con- vey the extremity of the piece. Normally, a vessel is intended to be held and interacted with. This one. however, transmits the opposite invitation. The hundreds of bright turquoise tacks projecting out of the ves- sel present a rather witty juxtaposition (or down right contradiction). "Sculptural Tendencies" displays art- work that moves away from the previ- ous vessels and becomes unpredictable wooden sculptures. "Prairie Avenue," made from butternut and oil paint, is a three-dimensional canvas that illustrates urban scenery. Here, a flat piece of wood has been transformed into a meticulously textured 3D relief. The piece focuses on a house on Prairie Avenue in Chicago whose front steps and front door almost strangely invite the viewer to continue observation. Although the trees surrounding the house are not physically present, their cleverly painted shadows contribute a greater sense of space to the piece. "Eruption Shield #3," made of jarrah burl, acrylic paint and gold leaf, is a cap- tivating circular piece that seems to have three distinct layers. With a wooden center that looks like a broken, enlarged nut shell and shiny, almost glittery gold and bronze paint along the border, the viewer's eyes are constantly moving to take it in as a whole. "Allusions to Nature," the final display of the exhibit, makes the often neglected connection between material and our natu- ral surroundings. The precise earth-tone color scheme of this display truly ties the viewer to nature. Counesy o Pot. Alexander fails again as 'Listen' falls on deaf ears By Kevin Hollifield Daily Arts Writer Don't look now, but the "Seinfeld" curse may be continuing. With the abysmal "Bob Patterson" a distant memory, Jason Alexander returns with the predictable family comedy "Listen Up." Based on the life of Washington Post colum- nist and TV personality Tony Kornheiser (ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption"), "Listen Up" Listen Up features Alexander as Tony Mondays at Kleinman (squint and they look 8:30 p.m. alike), a newspaper columnist CBS and co-host of a sports talk show, also called "Listen Up." Think "Dave's World" meets "King of Queens," starring a married George Costanza. Kleinman gets no respect from his family. His children pay him no attention; his son Mickey (Will Rothhaar) is a golf prodigy aloof to his father and Kleinman's daughter Megan (Daniella Monet) shows only disdain for him. In addition, his wife Dana (Wendy Makkena) does not watch his show and is more concerned with her chari- table zoo work. In the pilot, after making the transition from sports-writing to the living section of the news- paper, Kleinman makes random observations in his column about his family while facing writer's block. This becomes an issue with his daughter, who bans him from her soccer games. The overzeal- ous Kleinman tries to win her approval using false advice from his co-host, former football player Ber- nie Widmer (Malcolm-Jamal Warner). Hilarity then ensues, the kind Kleinman can use in his columns. The show has a cookie-cutter sitcom approach, regardless of the source. There is the paranoid dad with a straight-man sidekick, the caring wife and the teenage children who feel misunderstood and tied down by their parents. The cast is solid, but nothing here is revolutionary. With its cushy position before the hit series "Everybody Loves Raymond," there is no doubt that DOES ANYONE HAVE A COPY OF GLAMOUR MAGAZINE? PLEASE BRING rr To DAILY ARTS. WE'LL PUT YOUR MOM IN THE HOSPITAL. One's balding, the other's a Belding. people will watch. "Listen Up" is a benign family comedy in the grand tradition of inoffensive sit- coms. Given the source material, though, it could have been so much more. Instead of a comical look into the world of sports talk, the show is no more than an amalgam of every other show on the CBS Monday lineup. PENNSTATE PENN STATE I 1~ ~ " .' 1-6 Career Cept- I§~iv5 io 4 5t~e 7. LAniversitqO LAW , c r r unon SCHOOL of LAW OFFICE OF ADMISSIONS Meet the Dickinson recruiter LAW DAY .... I I L .