A big thanks to Cody “Ceearrbee” Baxter for bringing this to my attention via Twitter.

I remember a friend telling me, just before the first Narnia movie came out, that Narnia was his fantasy world as a kid; he had often dreamed of walking the shores of that fantastic land, of having his breath stolen at seeing Cair Paravel’s beauty, of speaking with Aslan^[1].

For Dan Griliopoulos, at Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Ultima Underworld 2 is much the same thing. And his essay on both the incredible game (for its time and in general) that Underworld 2 was and how he turned Lord British’s castle into his own personal method of loci — in which he stored every memory of past good times and lost loves — is…simply awesome.

Seriously, read the whole thing. I defy you to remain unmoved.

[1] For me, Britannia circa Ultima 6 filled this role. Hell, I used to set up “my” house in every playthrough of the game…usually in Minoc, for some reason.