SUMMER BALL 2007 - Seren - Bangor University

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12 Seren - End of Year Issue 2007GamesS.T.A.L.K.E.R.:Shadow of ChernobylSTALKER is THQ’s newestPC first person shooter (FPS)on the block.The game is set in 2012, six years aftera second explosion in Chernobyl andtwenty-six years after the original in1986. Known simply as ‘Stalker’, a genericname used for all those living within theirradiated zone, you arrive in the game inthe back of a truck, carrying the dead outof the centre of Chernobyl. You are the onlysurvivor to come from one of the so-called“death cars”, but you have no recollection ofwhat you were doing there, or even who youare. The only thing you know is you wereon a mission to find a man named Strelok.You are delivered to a trader, someone whoprofits by buying and selling items found in‘The Zone’. He gives you your first missionand instructions for getting around, as wellas some basic plot information.The first thing you notice when you enterthe world, as you stand in the office of thetrader, is how graphically stunning the gameis. When you throw in the dark, moody areaof the game with high graphical settings, thegame is beautiful with detailed shadows andrealistic lighting effects that really bring thegame to life and set the mood. One problemhowever, is that after only several minutes inthe game I was clicking around the advancedgraphics options menu working out how toactually get a decent performance on thegame without sacrificing too much ingraphical quality. Despite turning most ofthe graphical features down, I still foundthe game to be sluggish in places, withdistracting drops in the frames per second.I found some of the lighting to be buggy asI went through the game, with areas oftenbecoming simply too dark to see anythingin, even with the Stalker’s torch turned on.Stumbling around outside in the middle oftwo battling factions in virtually pitch black,wondering where the road is and avoidingtrees and various other unseen obstaclesisn’t a lot of fun. It had me straining at mymonitor trying to see what to do.The game’s missions are pretty linear,but you don’t feel cramped as you haveplenty of space to roam free and scores ofoptional extra missions you can take toimprove your standing with the variousfactions of the game. Factions build up animportant part of the game, with certainmissions increasing your reputation withcertain groups, and others decreasing yourreputation, determining whether you areallied or hostile with these groups. As wellas that, STALKER is an open ended game,with a number of possible endings thatcould take place, depending on the path youchoose to take through the game. Will greedget the better of you as you profit from TheZone, or will you seek to leave The Zone andmove on? However, I felt detached from mycharacter and the factions because I didn’tfeel any connection as such and thus, didn’tcare much about what happened to them.The only reason I felt compelled to keepplaying the single player mode was to seewhat the next stunning area would looklike.The audio of the game really helps to adddepth to the areas in the game, with silenceaccompanied by only the quiet cracklingof your Geiger counter, often being just aseerie as hearing distant rumbling from whatit is that lies ahead of you. The music canbecome a bit repetitive with only one trackactually working, but at the time of writingthere’s a mode to unlock music that wasnever used for some unknown reason.The online mode sadly only hasthree game-play modes. Your standardDeathmatch, Team Deathmatch and anew mode named ‘Artifact Hunt’ in whichyou play as either The Stalkers or theMercenaries and seek to control the artifactsthat are spawned on the map and returnthem to your base before the other teamcan. Surprisingly, the one class you’d expectto see, your standard ‘capture the flag’, ismissing. There’s a decent choice of mapsto choose from, ranging from train yardsto abandoned military bases. Whether themaps are enough to keep players entertainedfor long remains to be seen however. I didn’ttry multiplayer out too much, as the clunky,heavy game-play controls were only made tofeel worse online. It’s more spray and prayrather than many other titles where goodaiming and planting that headshot would beall important and it didn’t appeal to me.Hopefully as time goes on, the usercommunity will generate new content forthe multiplayer mode to advance it, asthere’s a huge amount of possibility withthe game. A number of mods have alreadysurfaced, mainly unlocking features thatwere never implemented such as vehiclesand graphical/audio modifications.If your PC hasn’t got a strong heart, don’twaste your time with this title, so be sureto check what the minimum specificationsare, then make sure your machine surpassesthem by a fair amount to actually get adecent experience. The game is definitelyworth a play, but it might be a good ideato hold on for a couple of patches to let thegame mature slightly. One major problemwas that the first patch invalidated allprevious saved games, thus resetting yourprogress in the game.The game can feel unrefined in places,but it’s still a strong title worthy of a lookinto if the sound of an atmospheric shooterappeals to you.Alex TrebulWith the release of twonew Halo games soon, Serentakes a quick look back at theseries so far and looks aheadto the future to see what wecan expect from these eagerlyanticipated titles.Halo began development in 1996 byBungie Studios as an RTS title forthe Mac platform. Several years onMicrosoft on the verge of releasing the Xboxconsole, snapped up the outfit and the rightsto the game. Work began on building thegame for the Xbox and had, by this point,evolved into an FPS.In 2001, Halo was complete and ready toship with the Xbox as the main launch titlefor the system. It featured graphics neverseen before on any console platform, solidgame-play and a strong storyline. While thegame was not overly innovative, it got highratings across the board and helped boostsales of the Xbox.After a couple of years in waiting, in2003, PC gamers got a slice of the Halopie. The PC version ported by developmentstudio Gearbox Software featured manyimprovements over the original Xbox title,namely, an online multiplayer mode whichcame with several new maps, a new weapon,use of the Banshee and a new Warthog.After having to wait several years forthe ageing game to be brought to the PCplatform, PC gamers found the game wasfar from perfect. It lacked support for usercreated content, something which had beenpretty much standard in PC games sincethe dawn of the FPS genre without hideoushacks and workarounds. It also sufferedfrom a number of multiplayer problems.Initially, there was no dedicated serversoftware available and because the onlinecode had been poorly developed for 56kusers at the request of Microsoft, the onlinemode suffered from severe latency problemswhich were never corrected in the variouspatches that were released.Roughly a year after the release of thePC title, Gearbox released a standalonemultiplayer only version of the game tosupport multiplayer maps named HaloCustom Edition. Along with the game, theyreleased an editing kit to help with thecreation process for those seeking to maketheir own maps. Since this update wasreleased as a separate program, it servedto split the already small community intwo, resulting in a swift death for the HaloCustom Edition version of the game.At the E3 trade show in 2004 the worldbegan to get glimpses of what Halo 2 hadto offer. Stunning graphics, radical changesto the game-play and a promising storyline.After many delays, the game came out inNovember once again on the Xbox platform.It became a record breaking game, beatingtop-seller GTA in sales and raking in $125million on the first day of release alone.However, what gamers saw at E3 andwhat they got in game were quite different.The storyline turned out to be lacklustre andmany of the anticipated features had beenremoved without warning from the game.The biggest disappointment of all turnedout to be the ending of the game which wasHalo 2as abrupt as a car crash.In face ofa huge number of returns from disappointedfans, the saving grace of the game turned outto be online mode supported by the XboxLive service. The online mode saw tensof thousands of gamers logging millionsof hours played in total. That doesn’tmean to say the online side of the gamedidn’t have problems. Thanks to the lackof any dedicated server, cheating becamecommonplace in the game, which led toplayers’ ranks being reset, undermining thevery reason why many players continueto play the game - to increase their rank.Accompanied by what was generallyconsidered to be an immature player baseas well as a fleet of other problems, manygamers turned off from the game.Later this month we’ll be seeing therelease of Halo 2 for the PC after over twoyears of waiting. The game has already beendelayed at the last minute, but hopefully isnot a sign of things to come.Just as the original Halo was used topush sales of the Xbox, Halo 2 is beingused to push sales of the new WindowsVista operating system and their ‘Live forWindows’ service which essentially is theequivalent of Xbox Live for the PC. Opinionson the Live for Windows service have been amixed bag. On the one hand you can have afree account to play, but on the other handto make the most of the game you have topay a subscription fee, something many PCgamers are unhappy about.Halo 2 was developed by a small team inconjunction with Microsoft known as HiredGun. This time the game will feature a mapeditor and user created content straight outof the box. Details on the title have been a bitsketchy, but it looks to bring nothing muchnew to the table. It will lack the anticipatedco-op modes, support for rankings, fullmodel and textures changes for higherresolution modes and single player customcontent support. It will however support‘Gamer Achievements’, giving you points forcompleting certain tasks within the game.The game looks set to have little success dueto poor sales of the Windows Vista operatingsystem, and may drive away much of thehardcore FPS gaming crowd by the moveto support Xbox controllers and integratingauto-aiming into the game.Halo 3 is set to be released in the latermonths of this year. So far little has beengiven away about the storyline and thedetails on multiplayer mode are a bitunclear, though with an online beta testbeginning later this month, we’ll soon startto hear a lot more about the game.As for other games in the Halo franchisewe’re set to see two more games. Althoughone is completely under wraps for themoment, the second is being developed asan RTS named ‘Halo Wars’ by EnsembleStudios, however no details have beenrevealed for this title as of yet either. Planshad been rumoured for a movie adaptationwhich are reportedly still on hold due to theoriginal studio pulling out.Only time will tell what else is in storefor Halo, but the future looks bright withanother three titles on the way following therelease of Halo 2 this month.Ross ButlerBANGORLEAVERS2007Am gonna miss all you guys and ourTrash Wednesdays. Especially Baz’sferret-related ‘incident’. Good luckwith your exams John, Mark, Andrea, Jenand Andy.- Mark FieldingHey Candice, remember thechocolate sandwich we had?Ecstasy.- Pete SmithTo all the art crowd, Seren, hill walkers,Phil de la skill (but not so skill when itcomes to keeping tea vertical and publunchist), Liz (she likes the sound of cars ongravel and the smell of blown-out candlesdon’t you know) Catrin (known for herwhirlwind romances on the aisles of Tescos),Matt (Storm’s whiz-kid), Tim (frequenterof charity shops in search of pensionersclothes), Eilian (master of mysteries), Mark(mathematical mastermind and squire ofthe shire), Ruth (BA, LLC, QC, MC, PHD,MSC, DJ), Sam (sue-star superstar), CatrinC (lecturer extraordinaire), Adam and KJgood luck with your exams and have a greatsummer. Enjoy the festival season and havea good life. :-)- Ross ButlerBest wishes for the future to John,Ellie, Pete, Emma, Lexi, Chris andSean. For future reference Sean, whena barmaid asks how much head you’d like,that’s not what she means.- Jennifer KnottsGood byes to the geography thirdyears especially Elizabeth and herquality map reading skills on ourfield trip.- Tony HarrisStorm FM would like to thank third yearleavers and wish them lots of luck:Tom GiddingsMatt WoontonHailey WhittakerSean ClementsClaire StapletonDavid HoodAshley Fishman(and Spencer, but he’s staying!)SEREN would like to say goodbye to alltheir wonderful third years who haveinvested so much time into the paperand wish them all the best:Chris ThomsonClaire MannLuke WilsherLexi HindleyRoss ButlerTo all those who ran in the electionsand are now leaving, good luck.- Pete Banks
Spiderman 3 (12A) Seren - End of Year Issue 2007City of God (18 DVD) 13Bridge to Terabithia It’s time to get those spidey-sensestingling again and dust off that not-atallgay spandex for the latest instalmentin the Spiderman series. The first of thissummer’s four threequels, Spiderman 3 seesthe web-slinger battle with his inner demonsas well as those terrorising the streets of NewYork City. After finally feeling like he hasfound the balance between being your localneighbourhood Spiderman and spendingtime with the love of his life, Mary JaneWatson (Kirsten Dunst), Peter Parker (TobeyMaguire) is on top of the world. However, ashis self-confidence slowly turns to arrogancehe pushes Mary Jane into the arms of hisfriend-turned-foe Harry Osborn (JamesFranco), who is still mourning the death ofhis father at the hands of Spiderman. Duringa restless night’s sleep, Peter’s Spider-suitbecomes possessed by an alien parasiteknown as Venom that amplifies his newfound self assurance, heightening his powerswhilst also turning him into an insufferable,egotistical chauvinist.Meanwhile, escaped convict Flint Marko(Thomas Haden Church), on the run fromthe police, unwittingly stumbles into aforbidden testing site, resulting in Marko’sability to turn into and manipulate sand atwill. Attempting to rob a bank to pay forsurgery for his daughter, Marko, now theSandman, comes to blows with Spidermanand vows to get his revenge. However, Spideyisn’t the only one with his card marked, asPeter’s job at the Daily Bugle is under threatfrom new kid on the block Eddie Brock.With both Peter and Spiderman facing theirgreatest adversities yet, they must overcometheir own shortcomings in order to onceagain triumph over evil.As per usual the special effects areThe Grindhouse TravestyHad American Airlines not lost mybag at Chicago airport, there was avery good chance that I could haveseen Grindhouse whilst I was in Los Angeleslast month. Not only that, I could haveseen Grindhouse the way it was MEANTto be seen. Unfortunately, I doubt I’ll getthat proper chance for a very long time.Momentum Pictures who are distributingthe film in the UK have decided to pull thefilm from the 1 st June release date, and splitup the film, with Death Proof being releasedin September, whilst Planet Terror has nofixed release date.Why is this such a travesty? First off, itproves that distribution houses believe socallednegative buzz far too much, withoutallowing us to make up our own minds.The fact of the matter is that the film wasnothing short of stunning, in particular therendering of Sandman, something I’m surewill have given the SFX departments morethan a few headaches. Also, the long-awaitedrealisation of Venom is spectacular, if a littlebrief, although it is sure to be enough to puta smile on the faces of diehard Spidermanfans. In the previous two movies, directorSam Raimi has made a conscious effort tolimit the bad guy count to one. However,in Spiderman 3 it triples, leading the plot tobecome a little too busy and disjointed inplaces. That Venom’s screen time is minimalis an issue that really should have beenaddressed as he feels somewhat shoehornedinto the script, and could (and should) haveeasily had a film of his own. That thereis so much going on in the film means itfeels a little on the long side despite it onlyclocking in at around 2hrs 20mins, and thelack of character development from mostindividuals may leave fans feeling a littleshort-changed.However, this should not detract fromthe film as a whole, as there are someexcellent performances, namely from JamesFranco and the ever-brilliant J.K. Simmonsas ruthless newspaper tycoon J. JonahJameson. What the film does well, it doesvery well. The action sequences are the sameheart-pounding thrill rides we have come toexpect, and the love triangle of Parker/Dunst/Osborn really makes you feel for allinvolved. On the other hand, you do feel asif they have tried to do maybe a little toomuch with this film, and whilst by no meansis it a disaster of X-Men 3 proportions, youdo wonder whether it could have been somuch more.Chris Thomsoncritically well received in the States (it isstill tracking at 81% on Rotten Tomatoes atthe time of writing). But of course, criticalreaction does not always translate to BoxOffice Gold. That must mean that we areexactly the same as the Americans then! Wewill not go and see it either!Rubbish. We are a differentbreed of cinema goer, andwe are far more willingto see something that willchallenge us. To those whoare dismissing the runningtime as the major flaw, theyare only partially right.Whilst it may be that thefilm is a victim of its ownhubris (the individual filmswere meant to be just underan hour, rather than a good90 minutes each), Titanicand Return of the King have proven thataudiences can be seated for over three hoursand come back for more.Perhaps the main problem is thatTarantino and Rodriguez were attemptingsomething that just did not sit right withthe American public. The Grindhouseform has never been the most popular inAmerica, and for pundits, critics and moviemoguls alike to expect a massive summersmash, well, maybe they were just a bit tooambitious. This does not change the factWinner of Best Foreign LanguageFilm at the 2002 Oscar ceremony,City of God is a powerful andblistering look down the mean streetsof Brazil’s capital Rio de Janeiro whichfollows two individuals growing during thesixties. One, Li’l Dice who quickly shows hiscolours as a psychopath who grows up to bethe local kingpin of the drug industry, rapistand mass killer. The other, Rocket, grows upwith ambitions of being a photographerand hopes to escape his surroundingsfor a better life. The attention is focusedmore on Li’l Dice’s rise to power which isunflinchingly portrayed as he literally killshis way to the top from a very young ageof around nine or ten. His recruitment ofgangsters involves testing children’s abilityto kill other people (children if necessaryin one testing scene in which a kid underLi’l Dice’s wing has to choose betweentwo children which to kill). Despite thesemoments of uncomfortable tension, the filmis never less than gripping, entertaining andis hard to take your eyes of with its strikingvisuals, lavish cinematography and frenziedinventive editing. The performances are allfirst rate and add to the realism of the filmas many of the actors were non professionalswho were inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro’sslums. Dialogue was also improvised to addauthenticity to the proceedings.City of God is strongly reminiscent ofMartin Scorsese’s Goodfellas, with its useof voiceover narration from the film’scharacter Rocket and the storyline whichfollows in the same style as Goodfellas withaction taking place over three decades.There is also an underline of dark humour,again reminiscent of Goodfellas. Thecharacter of Li’l Dice is also comparable toGoodfellas’ Tommy played by Joe Pesci. Theperformance by Douglas Silva (Li’l Dice) isjust as good, if anything, more dangerousthan Joe Pesci’s in portraying the scary,menacing unpredictability of someonefuelled only by violence.Director Fernando Meirelles (TheConstant Gardner) has created a trulyexhilarating adrenaline rush of a film, fullof hyperkinetic action, a lightning fast paceand a riveting storyline. The film is a veryoriginal take on the gangster movie andfeels fresh despite previous gangster movieclassics such as Goodfellas, The Godfatherand Scarface. The realism and authenticityof the film’s visuals, performances andimportant messages about the state of lifeand the only way for children to survive inRio de Janeiro’s slums is resorting to crimeand violence makes City of God stand alonefrom the rest.The extras for the DVD aredisappointingly sparse, totalling withjust one documentary highlighting crimeculture in Brazil’s capital city. Apparentreports of a dangerous and difficult shootfor the director within the slums would havemade an interesting commentary or behindthe scenes documentary.Mark Varleythat we should be seeing the film as it wasintended. If you are at all annoyed by thisturn of events, write to Momentum, tellthem that you want to see Grindhouse in itsfull, uncut form. Other than that, rumoursare circulating that there might be a quickRegion 1 DVD release of the full feature,possibly by the end of the summer. Thechoice is yours.Ian DaviesWhen it was released in Americamany moviegoers weredisappointed with Bridge toTerabithia, largely due to misleading trailersthat make it appear that the film is anotherfilm like Narnia about children discoveringa real magical kingdom. The film actuallyhas considerably more to offer than Narniaor other similar films, in that it is actually avery realistic account of how two kids dealwith very real issues such as young love andcompanionship, bullying and loss. Producedby Walden Media who have previously madefilms like Charlotte’s Web and of courseNarnia, this film is definitely a rewardingexperience in many ways.The film’s protagonists are Jesse Aarons(Josh Hutcherson) and Leslie Burke (AnnaSophia Robb), two kids who are prettymuch outcasts at school. Jesse is a poorfarmer kid with a talent as an artist andLeslie is a well-off city girl with a giftedimagination. Despite being very differentthe two fast become friends. Leslie comesup with the idea of creating a place justfor them that no one else will know about,and this leads them to wander into thewoods where they find an old disused treehouse, and a tree so high that they view allthe land around for miles. Together theycreate the magical land of Terabithia, animaginary world in the woods that only theycan experience, and where they must facenumerous threats from the mystic creatures.And the only way there is a rope swing overa stream. Over time they live both their livesin the real world and their imaginary livesin Terabithia, gradually rebuilding the treehouse, creating somewhere that is trulytheirs. It isn’t long before they are usingideas from their fantasy world to deal withreal life problems such as the school bullyJanice Avery (Lauren Clinton), who actuallyturns out to be as much a victim as those shepicks on. Things are going well for Jesse andLeslie until one day when he is invited on aday trip with his favourite teacher (ZooeyDeschanel), leaving Leslie alone to go overto Terabithia, leading to a tragedy that willchange everything. Jesse’s grief and guilt fornot being there for her drives him to despairas his life comes crashing down around him.When his sister May Belle (Bailee Madison)wants to go to his magical world he is at firsthostile towards her but he sees a chance atredemption and builds the titular bridge sothat she can see it for herself.First off I will make it clear that Bridgeto Terabithia is not The Chronicles of Narnia.That film saw a group of kids discoveringa real magical world, but here the magicalkingdom is entirely imaginary, and a terrificrepresentation of the ability of a child toimagine beyond what is real and create awhole new world. Even though we do seethe magical kingdom of Terabithia as seenthrough the eyes of the young characters,and the visual effects are pretty good, it isn’tsimply for the sake of visual spectacle, it’spurpose instead being to show the creativityand talent of the two protagonists, and alsohow they deal with a world in which theyseem out of place. In addition, it shows howthey learn new ways and attain the courageto deal with real life problems, with theirreal lives being what the film is really about.Outside of Terabithia they have to deal witheveryday problems but all those disappearin their imaginations. All this is done in avery convincing manner thanks to a wellwrittenscript, brilliant direction by familyentertainment veteran Gabor Csupo (ofRugrats fame) and brilliant acting from theentire young cast, with Hutcherson, Robband Madison all standing out by a mile. Thegrown-up actors generally fail to stand outamongst all the talented kids, with RobertPatrick as Jesse’s father seeming particularlyunderused, but the highlight is the alwaysdelightful Zooey Deschanel.Overall, Bridge to Terabithia is anextremely well executed family movie that isvisually spectacular but never at the cost ofbeing a heart-warming, moving, meaningful,and sometimes quite said film. It is also asuperb example of why Walden Media arethe masters when it comes to producinghigh quality family entertainment. I highlyrecommend this film as it is an extremelyrewarding viewing experience.Robert MannThanks forreading this year,enjoy the Summerblockbusters,and see you inSeptember!Ian - Film Editor
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SUMMER BALL 2007 - Seren - Bangor University

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