Arx Fatalis - The Making Of @ Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Kieron Gillen has reposted an older article at Rock, Paper, Shotgun titled Making of: Arx Fatalis, with input from Arkane's lead sound guy, Cristophe Carrier:

It was a simple aim… but the most complicated of simple aims. “What we wanted to do was Ultima Underworld 3,” Christophe explains simply. It’s quite the aim. While it was the game which invented the modern-first-person revolution, pre-empting Doom considerably, it was far from a simple game. It was all about complicated simulations in a role-playing environment. It was also the first game of the team who were then known as Blue-Sky Software, before swiftly transmuting into the venerable legends Looking Glass (R.I.P.). In fact, they /literally/ wanted to do Underworld 3. “We talked to Paul Neurath [Looking Glass Big Cheese – Ed] to work with us on it,” Chrisophe notes. It couldn’t be done, however, so they set off with their own setting… but with Ultima as a solid blueprint.