Review: ICO (PlayStation 2)

Posted on April 29, 2013 by William Kee

Review by William Kee

Much like Shadow of the Colossus, ICO is built with the simpliest of interests at hand, but thanks to the mastermind of Fumido Ueda, you are transported seemingly into a world much more beautiful than our own, and we are left to bask at the very wonders of everything around us.

Shadow of the Colossus still remains one of my top 5 videogames of all time, and if you look at it from a critical standpoint, there isn’t a lot of game to it. It’s arguably more of a work of art, and is one of the games most frequently tossed in the middle of the debate of whether of not video games can be categorized as an art form. I think like movies and music, video games still deliver an experience like no other, and for many, like the recent BioShock Infinite, you are still left dreaming about it and fantasizing about returning to that world long after you’ve completed the game. I think many games that leave you thinking about it the longer you are away from it shows the reach and impact that video games have had on the human psyche over the years.

And ICO is surely one of those games I have been thinking about for the past week. In fact…no matter how much I loved and despised certain aspects of the game, it still had me wanting to return back to that world and play it through to the end.

ICO is set as a spiritiual successor to 2005′s Shadow of the Colossus, and follows Ico, a young boy born with horns, who has been cast out from his village because he is believed to be a bad omen. He is then locked away in an abandoned fortress, where darkness continues to loom and an evil Queen lurks from within. It is here where Ico escapes, and discovers Yorda, the princess and daughter of the Queen, who is also locked away in the castle for the Queen to eventually use as a shell to regain her own life in a younger body.

Along with some of the more challenging puzzles, you will find yourself battling swarms of darkness enemies in an attempt to keep Yorda safe.

The game follows a similar control scheme and feel to Shadow of the Colossus, as well as ambience. Ico must guide Yorda throughout the large castle in order to escape, while every door and passage you enter provides another new challenging puzzle for your characters. Fumido Ueda’s concept for Ico was through communication without words, and Ico and Yorda demonstrate that through holding hands, and although Ico can call out to Yorda to have her follow him, you will spend most of the game with one of your hands locked in hers. However, there is that feeling of resistance and hesitation from Yorda that shows a growth of trust between Ico and Yorda takes time to develop throughout the story, and also that Yorda is going against her mother’s (the Queen’s) demands.

That aspect of the game at many times proved to be quite an annoyance with me personally. I got very animated whenever I was trying to get Yorda to hurry up, because I’m an impatient bastard. I also felt that aspect of the game held up more like a “rag-doll simulator”, where as Ico is running and dragging Yorda about as if she were a stuffed toy, and her animation at times when being dragged around in different directions made my comments seem more clear.

As for the rest of the game, I really had no complaints. I was invested in the story from the start. It was a simple concept nonetheless, but for a 2001 title, this is truely impressive. And if you look at a lot of what was released around that time, this game is still held as a cult classic and one that is hard to find in most stores. It is seriously a beautifully, well-crafted game with a lot of heart put in to it. I was definitely able to jump in to the game after much experience mastering Shadow of the Colossus’ controls.

The protagonist Ico and his female companion, Yorda.

Although, I find myself comparing ICO to its successor, Shadow of the Colossus, which is not fair because ICO came first, and Shadow of the Colossus was definitely leaps and bounds above what they originally set out to achieve in ICO.

I still prefer the emotional response I got from Shadow of the Colossus, where it seemed to get everything right and still bring more to the table. In Shadow of the Colossus, you were defeating 16 colossal giants on land, air and sea, in hopes of bringing your dead love back to life, but where the game stood leaps and bounds above Ico in one aspect was in delivering an emotional connection with each of the bosses you kill. Through each cinematic post-boss cutscene, you were left to watch the energy drain out of each colossi as they fell to the ground in defeat, with sad, climactic music that made you feel for the enemies you just took time to kill. Never had I experienced such an emotional connection to what were supposed to be the enemies in a video game.

For a puzzle game, this was definitely one of the most challenging I’ve experienced in a long time. Maybe 80 percent of the puzzles I tried, I ended up having to search for help online. And upon searching, I did several face palms and felt like I total idiot for not seeing the obvious clues that were in front of me. I would’ve liked it if they provided for some puzzles, some form of a hint box, or taken the overworld voice of Dormin from SotC to provide at least a riddle that could help me solve some of the puzzles.

That, and making sure I kept Yorda by my side and not stolen away by the darkness enemies, were the only real challenges I faced in the game. My character never died, unless he accidentally threw himself off a cliff while trying to grab a hanging chain (which happens on several occasions). You start off with a wooden plank before eventually upgrading to a bad-ass sword. Some puzzles require extra items that can be located in the areas, including bombs, fire and square blocks for climbing and for opening plated doors.

An overview of the castle….looks pretty big

The only real glitch I had in the game was right near the beginning, when I was trying to go through a door with Yorda, and the game froze several times. But once I got through and saved, I was okay. Save points were very clever though at times out of place. If you found a rather uncomfortable looking glowing stone couch, Ico and Yorda could sit and rest on it and save the game. A lot of the menus and even the start-up screen reminded me of Shadow of the Colossus, but even so, you have to remember that ICO came up with it first.

The lighting and the visual aspects of the game are truly stunning, and for a game that is spent primarily within the compounds of a large, dark castle, the graphics and attention to detail is magnificent. Even the attention to details in the background truly show how huge the world around these two young characters must be, including how far they have to travel to escape. Every room is different, no two rooms are the same, and no two puzzles are similar. Team ICO did a fabulous job of breathing life and originality into every fiber of this game’s being.

Ico and Yorda traversing along the border of the castle towards an east-end tower.

So in the end, I have to now rate this game. And as much as I want to lower my rating because of how much Yorda drove me insane throughout the story, I have to judge based on lots of other factors.

ICO was an enchanting and wonderous journey. A journey of growth and about trust between two people from different walks of life. It can be deemed as a love story, as journeying through the perilous castle to allow Yorda to be free from the grasp of her Queen mother provided Ico with a reason to keep pushing forward. However, with that all in mind, I still prefer to return to the world of Shadow of the Colossus every time. Maybe someday I can return to ICO without having to refer to Let’s Plays to get past difficult puzzles.

Final Score: 8 out of 10

Review: Bioshock Infinite

Posted on April 1, 2013 by William Kee

Review by Brendan Luck

It’s been six years. Six years since Irrational Games first released their critically-acclaimed game, Bioshock.

Bioshock was a fantastic game due to its immersive environment, with the city of Rapture being the most original environment concept I have ever seen in a video game, as well as its slick first person-shooter gameplay, and plot.

Bioshock for me personally is the most original game to come out in recent memory. The plot took you into this expansive world, immersed you with its colourful cast of characters, from the blank slate of Jack to the enigmatic but diabolical Andrew Ryan, and gave you a twist that engaged me, as a gamer like no other.

How would Irrational ever deliver a game of Bioshock’s caliber? 2K Marin released Bioshock 2, and although it was a fantastic game, it didn’t personally excite me like Bioshock did. Marin polished up some gameplay aspects, let you play as a Big Daddy, and gave you a plot that was fine, but not as good as the original Bioshock.

Bioshock Infinite is heavily influenced by early American exceptionalism.

Then Bioshock Infinite was announced.

Initially, it felt kind of odd. A Bioshock game without Rapture? How will this work? To me, it was as if they tried to make a Jurassic Park movie without dinosaurs. The whole appeal of Bioshock was the city of Rapture. Rapture was the glue that kept the characters and the plot together. Without it, is the game even Bioshock?
After seeing more reveals and gameplay footages, I warmed up to the idea of the new city; Columbia. Bioshock Infinte was looking up to be a pretty solid game.

Bioshock Infinite puts you in the shoes of Booker DeWitt, a former Pinkerton Agent given the task by unknown forces to bring back a young woman named Elizabeth locked in a tower in the city of Columbia.
And this is where we get in to the new setting, the replacement for Rapture; Columbia. Columbia is a city in the sky, created on values of American exceptionalism, jingoism, and extreme xenophobia, and filled with citizens that invoke those beliefs. The city is a perfect setting for this game; it’s full of life, colour, and unique design.

The leader of Columbia is a man named Zachary Comstock, a religious fanatic and self-proclaimed prophet. Comstock has the mysterious ability to predict future events, and has flocks of devoted followers worshipping him as a deity.

Early in the game, you discover that Elizabeth has the ability to open “tears” or rifts to different realities. Elizabeth can use these powers to aid you in combat, bringing in different objects from other realities.
The gameplay of Bioshock Infinite is really refined, and is a huge improvement on the original Bioshock. The new plasmids, called “vigors”, are very accessible and easy to use. The large variety of vigors, 8 in total, ensure that you’ll always be toying around with different abilities to see what you like or not. The weapons in the game also provide a lot of variety, including your base weapons (the pistol, the shotgun, the machine gun, etc.) but also including some interesting weapons like the Vox Heater, a blunderbuss and the Crankgun, a gatling gun. Couple this with the fact that you can quickly alternate between two guns and two vigors, and you’ve got a smooth combat system that works well.

What was once plasmids in Bioshock 1 has been renamed “vigors”, with eight in total to unlock and use to your heart’s content.

Another welcome addition to the gameplay is the use of the Sky-Hook and Skylines. During combat, Booker can use his Sky-Hook to cling on to Skylines, moving around the area of combat quickly. I found this addition extremely useful, using to avoid death more times than I can count.

As far as the enemies go, while there isn’t an enemy quite as iconic as the Big Daddy, Infinite offers a colourful selection of adversaries to fight, from the gigantic and lumbering Handyman to the teleporting Zealots of the Lady.

As far as the setting goes, Columbia is a welcome addition to the Bioshock series. Heavily contrasting the dark colour palette of Rapture used in the first two games, Columbia is bright, vivid and colourful. Because the city is also based off of the American exceptionalism time period, it opened the door for the developers to explore a whole different art direction, allowing them to step away from the Art Deco style that Rapture evoked. While Columbia is very different, it works. The setting is absolutely breathtaking at times, with the art style Irrational went with really shining in this game.

Seriously breathtaking settings…

The plot in my opinion is the best aspect of this game. Going with the theme of previous Bioshock games, Bioshock Infinite is definitely a plot-driven game. The characters are likeable and feel natural. Even Elizabeth, the main female protagonist wasn’t the least bit annoying or overbearing. Comstock, the antagonist, is also an extremely interesting character, portraying the dark side of religious extremism and jingoistic values. The plot remains intricate and exciting throughout the game, only managing to lag a bit in the middle. The game is a wild ride most of the way through, leaving off with a thrilling and shocking ending that will leave gamers talking for years to come. I won’t spoil anything, but it’s a twist that I would never have guessed.

Overall, Bioshock Infinite is perhaps the lead contender for Game of the Year of 2013. Its gameplay is smooth, slick, and most importantly, fun. Its setting is rich and artistic, showing of the capabilities of the current gen consoles. The plot is one of the best I have ever experienced in a video game. The characters are all full of life, all interesting. Bioshock Infinite is an instant classic.

Final Score: 9.5 out of 10

Review: Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (PlayStation 2)

Posted on March 28, 2013 by William Kee

Review by William Kee

Sam Fisher is back with a whole whack of new missions and a brand new story to boot.

Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow is an Ubisoft developed and published game, and the second title in the franchise. The game starts off in the Spring of 2006, where the Darah Dan Doa, an islamist militant group led by Sudahi Sandono in East Timor, is receiving support from the United States in the form of training in their fight against Indonesian guerrilla militias. Sadano is CIA trained and considered a charismatic leader. The game starts off when you have to rescue your friend and ally Douglas Shetland. There is also a larger story in that an unknown drug known as ND133 makes a huge impact on the game’s story, and later becomes the focal point for the final chapter. The ND133 is a compact version of the smallpox virus, which of course if released, could spell deadly consequences.

You are once again put in the shoes of Sam Fisher (voiced by Michael Ironside) and assisted throughout the various missions in the game by Irving Lambert, Anna Grimsdottir, and a new character, Brunton.

Jungle missions? Hell yes

The game was developed by Ubisoft Shanghai, while the first game was originally developed by Ubisoft’s Montreal team. However, Ubisoft does a great job of staying true to the game’s dark atmosphere and pacing in its story mode.

There are a lot of new changes that made progressing with stealth a lot easier this time around. For instance, you can now perform a whistle with “LB”, which distracts the character and can help you get them away from any action. Health kits are now mounted on walls instead of spread around the levels as individual kits.

Your arsenal of gadgets and weapons stays pretty much the same, I didn’t notice any changes in that aspect. However, there were still some gadgets I found myself never getting around to using, including the Sticky Camera and the Ring Airfold Round, but that’s just me. Of course, my ever favorite Diversion Camera came back, and it helped me out of quite a few jams.

I really liked a lot of the missions this time around. I felt there was a lot more diverse locales that we were given the chance to explore, much like the first game, but this time, we got to head outdoors into the jungle for the first time, and act as stealthy as the cover art depicts.

The final level, however, was a bit irritating, and at times, it was never explained clear enough what to do in the mission and I found myself getting stuck multiple times and looking at playthroughs online. If you are as dull as a lightbulb like I am when it comes to stealth games, you’ll be pulling your hair.

Use stealth, remember? From the first game. I’ll let you finish now.

Regardless, I don’t think that detracts from the overall experience. However, as much as I enjoyed Pandora Tomorrow, I still have to lay all my chips down on the first Splinter Cell. I think to date, it’s done stealth action perfectly, and it was far more challenging than this game was. I admit, I was still faced with challenge in Pandora Tomorrow, but nothing to the level the first game put me through.

To add to my thought, with some of the changes put in place, some aspects of the game do become much easier. Those include the mounted wall health kits and the whistling. And in some cases, you will find yourself running into twice as much ammunition as you can carry. In every mission, I found ammo I didn’t even need, and even if I were to run out of my pistol, that wouldn’t matter as long as I could whistle for distraction, lure an enemy into darkness, and knock him out - rinse and repeat.

But first-time players, I’d definitely suggest starting with the original Splinter Cell before this one. Pandora Tomorrow is still worth the buy though, don’t get me wrong. Newcomers will find it a challenge because it’s not your typical run-and-gun scenario, there’s thinking involved. Are you sure you can handle that?

Final Score: 8 out of 10

Review: Tomb Raider (PC)

Posted on March 14, 2013 by William Kee

Review by Tony ‘Fear’ Greer

‘Tomb Raider’ launched on March 5th to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and the PC. As developers, Square Enix thought a reboot was the step forward, as the trend seems to be right now. Not that I’m fussed, most of the recent reboots seem to be doing very well as of late. ‘SimCity’, for instance. Tomb Raider, being a reboot of the series, follows Lara Croft’s first adventure on an archaeology ship, looking for a lost land. Of course, this being a Tomb Raider game, things don’t always go as planned…

Starting off, the graphics are incredible. From the cutscenes to the exploration in gameplay, this game is pretty amazing looking, but games are not all about the looks. The gameplay, I found, can be rather slow at times. A whole lot of it is just running around the wilderness with a marker telling you where to go. I don’t know about you, but I’m sort of an action fanatic. Mind you, when Lara gets into some fights they are pretty enjoyable. The bow, the first weapon Lara finds, is very satisfying to kill with, but if you don’t get consistent headshots, it’s mostly going to be a two-shot kill, ruining the suspense at some points. I’m not a huge fan of the combat, as a whole.

Like I said, the majority of what I played of the game, was running, climbing and jumping. I have heard people describing ‘Tomb Raider’ as a ‘Hitman’ and ‘Assassin’s Creed’ hybrid, and I don’t disagree. There are some aspects of stealth in the game, such as stealth takedowns, but in nowhere near the epic proportions as Agent 47 or Ezio. Puzzles have been a large part of the franchise since the beginning, but this game’s puzzles lack imagination or creativity. They are rather easy and very bland.

I have to give it to Square Enix though, the story is very well done and the voice acting, for the most part, was rather awesome. They definitely cast the right person for Lara and the main “bad guy”, Mathias. As a reboot, it tells the untold story of Lara’s youth and her first adventures with her mentor, Roth. Beware, ‘Tomb Raider’ contains a LOT of gory scenes, straight from the start. Within the first 10 minutes you’ve nearly died three times or so. I was not, however, a fan of the quicktime events. Playing on PC, the game didn’t make it very clear what buttons to mash and at what times, and I found myself going through the same gory death over and over.

As a whole, ‘Tomb Raider’ was nothing special. The only real part that blew me away were the graphics, which I couldn’t get enough of. I’m going to give Lara and her gory adventures a 7.5 out of 10. The graphics were outstanding, but the dull combat and far too easy puzzles that are key in ‘Tomb Raider’ games, held this game back.

Final Score: 7.5 out of 10

Review: Condemned: Criminal Origins (Xbox 360)

Posted on March 12, 2013 by William Kee

Here I go, thrusting my way back into the world of survival horror. This time, I’m going to take you guys back to 2005. A very important year which saw the transition from first to second generation Microsoft consoles. On November 16th, 2005, we got our hands on the Xbox 360 for the first time, and on the same day, this game also shipped across North America.

Developed by Monolith Productions and published by SEGA, Condemned: Criminal Origins is a single-player, FPS psychological horror game, the likes of which combines elements from films of the past, including Silence of the Lambs as well as Se7en. It does bare some similarity to another psychological horror FPS also unveiled around that time, F.E.A.R., also developed by Monolith, but its unlikely that it borrowed themes from that game since they were released a month apart on separate consoles.

Condemned takes you inside the world of Ethan Thomas, an SCU investigator who becomes the hunted after his gun is found to be the weapon that kills two of his fellow officers, and is ultimately framed for murders he did not commit. However, Thomas is hunting “Serial Killer X”, the main antagonist of the game who hunts other serial killers related to past cases Thomas has worked on, and was the one responsible for framing Thomas.

Condemned’s protagonist, Ethan Thomas

Thomas has a special gift – having an acute investigative ability as well as superhuman durability he has yet to realize. Thomas is assisted by a forensics investigator named Rosa, who aids Thomas throughout the game via cell phone, and in person. Another mysterious character, Malcolm Vanhorn, who is aware of what’s been going on throughout the course of the game, aids Thomas for purposes unknown, and of course, it all comes back full circle by the end of the game as Malcolm’s character plays a much bigger role than we expect.

Let’s talk about gameplay – being as I missed this game many years ago and am now playing it several years later, I can only relate this to a game that combines elements of F.E.A.R., Silent Hill and Dead Island all in one. Blunt melee objects are going to become your best friend as you journey through the many condemned locales throughout the game, including a shopping mall, apartment complex, library, and outdoor levels. Like Dead Island and even Dead Rising, games that came after it, you can pretty much use anything in your environment as a weapon, including lead pipes, shovels, axes and wooden planks. Firearms are also available and pack a mean punch, but ammo is scarce. You may only have enough ammo to kill an enemy or two, before swapping back to a melee weapon. And as I progressed, I could not find any source of ammunition, so I would be swapping firearms with other firearms that had more ammo. So it’s much better to stick with the melee combat.

AI enemies are some of the smartest and toughest I’ve faced in a while. They tend to mimick your movesets, and can carry firearms as well as blunt weapons. You do not want to get outnumbered in this game, as you will die more often than you can imagine. The combat was not one of my favorite points in this game, in my opinion. It was clunky, and quite difficult. Blocking is also something I loathe in video games, as I’m all for action rather than defence. However, as the game progressed and I got used to the controls, eventually I didn’t find it too bad at all. Regardless, it still took me a while to get used to the block and combat systems. When you beat an enemy close to death, sometimes they will fall to their knees, giving you the option of four different methods of disposal. These include neck snapping, face punching, headbutting, or slamming their heads into the floor.

Throughout the game, you will come across interactive cutscenes that have you investigating your surroundings for clues.

Being an SCU investigator also comes with tech perks. While on the run, you are still searching for clues to track down Serial Killer X, with the help of Rosa. Scanning environments, taking forensic photographs and samples to be able to trace and put the pieces together about the antagonist’s motives. I thought this was a really strong feature in the game, especially in one section of the game where you have to rely on your equipment to follow footprints and marks on the walls and ceiling of an abandoned home. However, the thing that made these moments sour was that you could only use the equipment during certain interactive sequences throughout the game, and you could not pull out equipment to scan other parts of the environment.

Many points in the game, Thomas would have flashes or glimpses into the outcome of the murder at hand. This was usually paired with the many investigative moments throughout the game that involved searching for clues with your equipment. I thought these were really well done, and added some context to what happened months, days, perhaps moments before you show up at the scene of a crime.

I didn’t find the game overall to be as scary as I thought it was going to be. So in that factor, I was a little let down. I was hoping it would live up to the expectations of great psychological horror franchises before it, including Silent Hill, but I feel that’s something that, in my opinion, this game seemed to fall short on.

Music and sound I don’t have any complaints about. I found there were even little hints of Silent Hill elements in the music, as well as possible inspirations for the noises you hear in Slender: The Eight Pages. It definitely added to the freakier environment, but it just didn’t feel like enough to satisfy my horror appetite.

Your flashlight in the game never runs out of juice, which felt unrealistic and was probably another huge reason the game didn’t feel as scary as it should. You could choose to flick it on or off, but there is really no point to it. Adding more moments where you could see your flashlight’s batteries start to fail and you have to rely more on your senses to survive would have been a nice addition. However a flashlight doesn’t automatically brighten an entire area, so I found myself progressing at my own pace and keeping my eyes peeled on the environment around me.

Combat is a tricky system to adjust to, but by the end of the game, you’ll get the hang of it.

Which brings me to my next point – collectibles in the levels. There are two main forms of hidden collectibles throughout the 10 levels you play – dead birds and metal pieces. The dead birds are much easier to spot, as they will either make a small cry before they kill over, or of course attract your hearing with the buzzing sound of flies feasting on its carcass. The metal pieces are trickier and sometimes require a little extra digging around. For example, certain pieces of furniture throughout the levels could be moved to reveal hidden metal pieces. There are also special Xbox 360 TV achievements which are really neat to uncover, and of course unique to the version of the game I purchased.

I found the game had a few glitch points that definitely screwed me over on several occasions, including the worst when I fought the final boss, and I somehow lost my weapon completely and had to restart from a previous checkpoint.

The graphics aren’t the greatest I’ve seen, but then again, this is a 2005 game, so not everything at that moment was up to par.

Enemy movement was quite impressive, especially for the fast-moving addict enemies that preferred to crawl across the floor. They were perhaps the creepiest enemies in the game, especially in the library levels as you progressed through several aisles of dirty, damaged shelves, unsure of when your enemy will pounce.

My final verdict for this game? I’d say it’s worth a try, however it is a fairly short game. Took maybe 4-5 hours to beat tops. Between this game and fellow psychological horror sibling, F.E.A.R., I would still put all my points on F.E.A.R., but I think that in the short time I played that game, I was more afraid than I ever was in this game. There is great potential in this game, and it did warrant a 2008 sequel, Condemned 2: Bloodshot, however, I don’t think I’ll be spending my money any time soon on this series. Any way you look at it, its a hit or miss. It’s not great, it’s not terrible, it just sits on the fence for me.

***************Final Score: 6 out of 10***************

Degrassi: Bitter Sweet Symphony is quite bittersweet

Posted on February 23, 2013 by William Kee

As many of you might have already known, or some of you found out in the last Stardust Drive Podcast, I’m a regular watcher of the MuchMusic show, Degrassi.

Bitter Sweet Symphony: Part Two saw the departure of regular character Campbell Saunders (played by Dylan Everett), who commits suicide

Now I’ve been tuning in to the show since 2010, around the time they started their 10th season, and transitioned from being “The Next Generation” into simply “Degrassi”, with their focus shifted towards a much younger, teen audience, as well as myself and Adam (sorry Adam, just had to bring you into this).

Originally airing on CTV, Degrassi: The Next Generation’s Seasons 1 to 9 were definitely classics among long-time fans that stayed and watched a core cast of characters grow, while introducing a new batch of characters every season to liven up the mix. What made a lot of these episodes great is that they took a lot of chances, and introduced a little shock value and drama in to the show.

Two of its most talked about episodes, Season 4′s Time Stands Still, which involved Aubrey Graham’s (a.k.a. Drake) character being shot and paralyzed from the waist down. As well in Season 6′s Rock This Town, when Ryan Cooley’s character J.T. Yorke, a class clown character who had been with the series since Day 1, was written off to get killed in a back-alley stabbing by a gang member from a rival school. These episodes are not only great to watch, but they provide shock value and tension to a series that seems to have lightened its dramatic tone in recent years.

Until last night…

Eli’s character (played by Munro Chambers) discovers the body of Campbell Saunders in the school’s greenhouse.

In the two-part episode Bitter Sweet Symphony, the Degrassi students return to a new semester and a Spirit Week rally, where we find character Campbell Saunders, a new character introduced at the start of Season 12 (portrayed by Dylan Everett) returns from his hometown of Kapuskasing to reunite with his girlfriend, Maya (portrayed by Olivia Scriven). Throughout the season, we’ve seen much of Cam’s character development and how he has a lot of problems that he’s finding hard to deal with. He’s been receiving a lot of pressure from his fellow hockey teammates on and off the ice, as a potential first-round pick for the NHL and he’s only a sophomore, he’s got relationship drama (like all of us do at times), as well he is portrayed as being quite socially awkward and is bullied on occasion.

This episode was meant to be Cam’s breaking point, as another character Zig (portrayed by Ricardo Hoyos), who also has a crush on Maya, urges Cam to get out of Maya’s life for good, and calls him a psycho.

And that’s exactly what he does…

Because in last night’s part two episode of Bitter Sweet Symphony, we discover that the growing fan favorite character Campbell Saunders, commits suicide at the school, and his body is discovered by another fan favorite Eli Goldsworthy (portrayed by Munro Chambers), who was introduced in Season 10 and has already seen his fair share of drama throughout his being on the program.

Mike Dallas (portrayed by Demetrius Joyette) displays anger and guilt towards the death of his fellow teammate.

Part two is an immensely powerful episode, because not only does it target the very touchy subject of suicide, a topic that has not been covered in Degrassi since Degrassi High back in the 1990s, but we get to really see a lot of character development in the characters left to grieve for Cam’s death. Plus the writers and producers behind the episode worked really hard in order to get this episode right.

According to behind-the-scenes footage, Campbell Saunders’ character was written from the get-go to go down this path, but of course, this was not revealed until after last night’s dramatic episode.

I have to give much praise and respect to Epitome Pictures and the show Degrassi because I feel they’ve done justice for the first time since their “Next Generation” years. I feel that for too long, the show had been playing it safe with a lot of their characters and their storylines, even appeasing the fans a little and giving them what they wanted to see.

Instead of giving the fans what they want to see, you should be giving them something they need to see. Degrassi has enough of a fan base that you are able to deliver a message of this caliber and have people stop and listen. And sometimes, not every episode can end with a happy ending, and that’s something that Degrassi has been able to showcase with Bitter Sweet Symphony. They could have easily dodged the bullet and made Cam’s character instead have attempted suicide and failed. Sure, you could’ve still given a message out afterwards like they did, through their “MuchTalks: Degrassi” special, but you’d miss the point entirely.

What this episode was trying to show was the different sides of how people deal with death in their life, and all of the reactions to Cam’s death were natural and realistics portrayals: Numbness (Maya), Sadness (Alli, Tristan), Comedy (Mo), Sympathy (Marisol, Fiona), Wondering (Jake), Helpfulness (Tori, Katie), Guilt (Zig, Dallas), Curiosity (Dave, Connor), Anger (Becky), and Denial (Eli).

Personally, I loved the character of Campbell Saunders. I found him to be very relatable with much potential to be the next Eli of the series.

The school joins together in a candlelight vigil for their departed classmate.

So of course like many climactic episodes of the past, including Time Stands Still and Rock This Town like I mentioned earlier, Bitter Sweet Symphony has already had a ripple effect that will last for the rest of this season, maybe even longer, as the weight of Cam’s death will shake the foundations of Degrassi and its characters in ways we haven’t seen in a while. I’m looking forward to seeing how the rest of the season will play out.

But this episode does deliver an important message that we should all take away, and this comes about two weeks after a national initiative. Bell Let’s Talk Day took place two weeks ago this coming Tuesday, and was an initiative that sought to raise money for mental health initiatives and depression. On February 12th, Canadians were asked to text or tweet with the hashtag #BellLetsTalk, and for every text or tweet, Bell would donate 5 cents to mental health initiatives. This episode is a prime example that if you or someone you know is struggling with depression or something to the extreme, that it’s important to reach out and get help. The MuchTalks: Degrassi special after the episode was a 30-minute special dedicated to discussing the impact of the episode, and to discuss the idea of opening up and sharing stories of depression and the impact that it has had on our lives.

We may all know or have known of someone who has battled depression, but sometimes these symptoms are not as obvious to spot, and its not until its too late that we grow to realize that we could’ve done so much more. That’s the example Bitter Sweet Symphony was trying to give.

Kids Help Phone is always available to answer and listen to your stories. You can reach out and give them a call anytime at 1-800-668-6868, or reach them online at kidshelpphone.ca.

Review: Syndicate (Xbox 360)

Posted on January 20, 2013 by William Kee

It’s been a while since I’ve done a review for the site, but tonight, I decided I’d pick up my review cap and talk about a game I’ve been looking forward to playing for about a year now.

It’s not one of my most anticipated titles of 2012, but its a game that didn’t receive a ton of hype, and was definitely lost behind all the other great titles that dropped last year.

Syndicate brings us something a little familiar, bearing similarity to Deus Ex: Human Revolution in terms of its sci-fi action shooter style, but it is also a reboot to a series of games from the early 90s, thus taking the tactical shooter that it was and so-to-say “modernizing” it for a newer audience. How so? Making it an FPS. Yeah, that’s something we’re all too familiar with now, as new, decent IPs are sometimes hard to come by in this day and age.

But let’s get down to business. Syndicate has a somewhat complex story, and as I am not familiar with the lore of its predecessors, I took the liberty of doing a little research.

Developed by Starbreeze Studios and published by EA, Syndicate takes place in the not-so-distant future spanning between the year 2017, signifying the birth of Eurocorp, a mega-corporation which specializes in building up and training syndicate soldiers to carry out missions like agents, and 2069, the current year the game takes place in. Syndicates implanted with a “DART chip” gain access to the dataverse and can render most electronic devices obsolete, having total control over the environment. With this kind of technology, the need for government is no longer an option, and so the agents with DART chips are given higher treatment over regular, unchipped citizens. All bio-engineered, chip-controlled soldiers carry out the interests and commands of their corporate masters, in this case, Eurocorp, for example.

We’re introduced to our main character, Miles Kilo, also known as DART-6, which is the latest chip he’s been implanted with created by senior Eurocorp engineer Lily Drawl (voiced by Rosario Dawson). Accompanied by mentor Agent Merit (voiced by Michael Wincott), the soldiers are order by Eurocorp CEO Jack Denham (voiced by Brian Cox) to assassinate Drawl’s counterpart at a rival corporation, in order to get a leg up on the competition. Throughout the game, you progress through the campaign’s 20 action-packed missions, and uncover more about yourself, while at the same time kicking some augmented butt.

The weapons in this game are probably my favorite weapons I’ve seen in a while for a first-person shooter, although like Shadows of the Damned as I mentioned in that review, ammunition is not scarce, and you will find yourself gaining the upper hand more times with an insane amount of ammunition to stock up on. You get weapons such as assault rifles, pistols, shotguns, sniper rifles, EMP grenades, and even some fun weapons like a gatling gun and flamethrower to give you that feeling of ruling with an iron fist over the weak lackeys. Utilizing your DART 6 chip, you can slow down time by pressing the RB button and kill unsuspecting, slower foes, or you can toggle through “breaching” abilities on the D-pad, which allow you to take control of an enemy and turn the tables during a battle.

This feature is quite unique to the first-person shooter franchise. With the “suicide” breach, you can engage the enemy to kill themselves and damage nearby foes. “Persuade” makes the enemy temporarily become the player’s ally and fire back at foes, before killing himself, and “Backfire” blows the enemy’s weapons up, stunning them for a short time. These types of features in the game allow for something fresh that I hadn’t experienced before, and although I found it quite disturbing to watch the enemy AI commit suicide right in front of me, in an eerie way, you start to forget about it the more you use it. Does that make me a little twisted? Perhaps.

The game also comes with a four-player co-operative online mode with its own separate campaign based on missions from the game. I have yet to try the campaign, so I will not include its merits within this review.

Despite containing several plot holes, story and character inconsistencies as well as a somewhat overly developed story which feels too big for such a short amount of game, the real experience you get is in the action. I’d hate to admit it, but I found more story out of playing both Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 1 and 2 than I did in Syndicate. Now I went into this game with lowered expectations given that I had seen extremely mixed reviews on this title, including low 3s and 4s up to mid 7s and 8s out of 10 for the game, but I’m somewhere in the middle, and I’m willing to give this game the benefit of the doubt.

From left to right: Lily Drawl, Agent Merit, and Jack Denham

You could tell Starbreeze Studios put a lot of time and effort into bringing Syndicate into the 21st century (even though its probably well into the 21st century in the game). Rebooting a series from the past is always a risky move for developers, because not only are they looking to gain a new fan base, but they’re hoping not to piss off the fan base the series has built up for years. To be honest, I’m not sure how big of a series Syndicate is, or was, but I’m sure it had its fan base.

As a middle-ground, modern-day gamer with no prior knowledge of the series, I thoroughly enjoyed Syndicate because it was just plain-old-shooting-baddies fun. You have awesome weapons with great trigger response, you’ve got deadly breaching perks which add for some incredibly addictive gameplay aesthetics, and you’ve got an atmosphere built on fantasy which looks ahead to a completely technological age where we, ourselves, have total control over the universe.

Of course, the music definitely sets the mood very well. I don’t mind a little Skrillex dubstepping during my first boss fight; that was absolutely awesome. Getting on to boss fights, I was a little confused as to the difficulty layout of the bosses. It seemed to spike at the top, slowly decline in difficulty, but spike back up just in time for the final fight. Now I can’t remember a game where the bosses felt as though they got progressively easier, but in the end, I still had a ton of fun with the game regardless.

Campaign length, story and character development are definitely its weak points, and it holds Syndicate back from getting a higher score in my opinion. And I’m sorry, but if I as a gamer can find more story and character development in a Modern Warfare game, then you know there’s a problem. Sadly I couldn’t invest myself in these characters. They are definitely not memorable. The story is all too easy to predict, but most of all, there’s just holes that I felt needed to be filled in some areas where I was left scratching my head. I wasn’t going to sit back and read all of the documents I picked up in the game, because that’s not fun. Give me some more engaging details within cutscenes or cinematics, something fresh in that aspect.

To conclude, I’d say this game deserves a try, but if you’re a fan of story and character-driven games, like myself, please leave that cap at the door, you may be disappointed.

FINAL SCORE: 6.5 out of 10

Review: Zineth (Mac and PC download)

Posted on October 14, 2012 by Darby

Sometimes, we just need a game that we can download in a couple of minutes and enjoy. Well, I came across a game that was released not too long ago, and I am hooked!

Zineth logo w/ background color

It’s called Zineth, and it’s free to download for both Mac and PC here: http://arcanekids.com/
This is a student made game created over a course of a few months to celebrate speed, movement, and twitter. Now, there isn’t a lot of facts on this game so far, so I’ll just give a basic rundown, and my opinion on it.

Surprisingly, for a game made by a bunch of students in a few months, it’s really good, and I mean really good. I instantly got hooked and started drawing fanart of it (in which I’ll post when I get to finishing it).

The game play is really smooth and fun. Exhilarating even. I guess you could say that this is a parkour-like game. You have the choice of doing the tutorial, in which it will tell you how to play, and when you’re finished, it’ll send you to the real game. You play as this little dude adorned in a cowboy hat, some goggles and some cowboy clothes. Let’s not forget his robot thing that pretty much lets him do all of this jumping and running stuff. The world is this vast desert land, and it simply put me in awe. In the distance, you can see two structures, a city and a canyon like place with buildings. It’s really hard to describe the setting, so you have to check it out yourself…or just the video I’m going to post at the bottom of this, haha.

There is a plot to this story though, as vague as it may seem. Well, maybe not vague, but kind of just…thrown out there. You are given some missions to complete from your “Zine” boss. I guess you could consider the zine boss as some sort of magazine brand owner or something. Your first mission is going around and collecting pieces of paper, and then delivering them to people called ‘trainers’ around the desert area. Then he sends you a message saying something similar to: “Hey, go to the moon. No time to explain, just go.” So now you have to get to the moon. Well how are you suppose to do that? That’s up to you to find out.

Other than the missions, the game is pretty much a free, open world. However, don’t go over the invisible boundary line of the world, or the golden hawk will get you. No really, this golden hawk just appears over your head and picks you up if you stay out in the off-limits zone, and then brings you to his nest. However, this hawk is really important to the game later on, so going out-of-bounds is actually vital.

This game also has some pretty cool features and games. You have a phone in the game, which has your options, Zine collection, messages, this mini-game that you play with the “trainers”, and twitter.
Yes, twitter.
If you have a twitter account, you can connect your account to Zineth, so you can check your twitter right from the game. I did it, so I can see what Andrew Hussie, the creator of Homestuck, is up to.
Oh, and this game is compatible with an Xbox USB controller. It’s actually preferred but that doesn’t mean that you can’t use the keyboard as an alternative. Just an FYI.

The world is designed so you can do some pretty neat tricks, and some tricks that you thought you could never do in the first place.

Background image on Arcane Kids’ site.

With speeds that can reach up to 400 MPH just by running through the desert land, and jumps that make you feel like you’re flying, it’ll give you a thrill. The soundtrack is truly amazing in my opinion. It sounds really relaxed, but at the same time electronic. It’s a wonderful piece of art.

However, every game has its flaws. That’s unfortunate, since this game is pretty much perfect in my opinion, but I have some ideas that the Arcane Kids should add. This game, I think, is capable of updating, so hopefully new content will be added. I would like to see some multiplayer setting, so that I can play with friends. The game feels barren and lonely without it. I might be wrong though, since I saw some pictures of multiplayer gameplay on Tumblr once. However, I don’t see any multiplayer button.
Maybe some new areas can be added for more exploration. Well, whatever the Arcane Kids do, I bet I’ll be okay with it.

So, let’s patch this up. I give this game a 9.5/10. 9.5 because it’s perfect, but things can be added to improve the game considerably.
I was surprised that this game was made in celebration of speed, movement, and twitter. Kind of an odd selection. I always thought that the message of the game was that “to find freedom, you have to work for it” or something like that in a philosophical sense.

So just…try this game out. It’s awesome and free. You can’t go wrong with that. You won’t regret it (hopefully).

Is PETA actually Team Plasma?

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Darby

Now, we’ve all heard the jokes about PETA being Team Plasma from Pokemon Black and White, but on October 8th, 2012, PETA launched a flash game called Pokemon Black and Blue. I first discovered this game when I was looking around Tumblr. Some screenshots of bloody trainers, abused Pokemon, and even anti-animal abuse videos were saved and uploaded. I won’t lie, but I was intrigued to try this game out. I went to the PETA website and there it was; the link to play Pokemon Black and Blue. Something interesting to note…on the side of the game, a picture of Pikachu can be seen with the sign “We support Team Plasma!” or something similar.

Wow that’s not disturbing at all

This is the starting page. It disturbed me quite a lot. From this, I bet everyone thought that PETA had the wrong impression on Pokemon, by far. Oshawott is skinned, Snivy has needle in his head and a tag in his tail, Tepig is probably the normal one out of the group, and Pikachu has a chain collar on.

The game starts out with some text explaining how the Pokemon decided to rebel against their trainers in an attempt to spread the word of Pokemon abuse and what not. As expected, Pikachu is your starting pokemon. Your opponent is none other than Cheren, who appears to be drunk. Drunk! You also have your normal moves like Thunderbolt and Quick Attack, but then you have moves like Petition and Protest. Pretty weird.

Anyways, you defeat Cheren, and he talks about how Pokemon should be used for violence and no one cares about them, or something similar. Pikachu spews some words about Pokemon equality, and then Tepig joins your team. I named my Tepig “Why”, because that was my reaction to the entire game.

Then you meet Nurse Joy, who is on your side. Seeing as how she’s technically a vet, PETA probably decided to make her a “good guy”. She gives you a treasure chest, and if you open it, it brings up another window with an animal abuse commercial. I stopped watching, since those types of videos make me tear up.

I continued on my way.

Then you meet Professor Juniper. She looks completely berserk, I tell ya. A knife in one hand and an injection in another. She’s missing a shoe and adorns a murderous look on her face. Then she mentions how Pokemon don’t deserve freedom and should be used for testing. That does not sound like the Juniper that we know. So, same old story. You beat her, she sees her faults and gives you Snivy. Then you move on to Ghetsis, who pretty much reveals a spoiler to the end of Pokemon Black and White. Gee, thanks Ghetsis. Anyways, Ghetsis is wearing a Pokemon skin coat along with a bloody pitchfork in his hands. Creepy. You beat him, he gives you Oshawott, and now it’s time to fight the final boss. Can you guess who it is?

It’s Ash! Wearing…a carnival suit…oh. He mentions that he never cared for Pikachu and all he cares about is money.
Um…ahem! Remember Pokemon, Episode 1, where you saved your Pikachu from a flock of Pidgeys? And you didn’t even know Pikachu that well!

Anyways. You beat the game, hooray! Now, what did that accomplish? Honestly, I didn’t learn anything, except that PETA needs to get their facts straight. I mean, PETA is okay and all, and I know they are trying to save animals, but come on! Isn’t this going a little too far?

PETA themselves said that,

“Much like animals in the real world, Pokémon are treated as unfeeling objects and used for such things as human entertainment and as subjects in experiments. The way that Pokémon are stuffed into pokéballs is similar to how circuses chain elephants inside railroad cars and let them out only to perform confusing and often painful tricks that were taught using sharp steel-tipped bullhooks and electric shock prods …if PETA existed in Unova, our motto would be: Pokémon are not ours to use or abuse. They exist for their own reasons. We believe that this is the message that should be sent to children.”

I don’t know about you PETA, but I loved my Pokemon dearly, to the point where I considered them family! Next time, try to find a better way to display the message of animal equality. This game was just too disturbing to accomplish that. They seem to be missing the point that Pokemon is just a game and not some plot to corrupt the minds of children into abusing animals. If anything, they are doing more harm than good, as rumors of a new type of bullying between children may arise because of this. It’s time to finally get your act straight, PETA, and do some real work against animal abuse.

Let the games begin! Batman The Dark Knight Rises

Posted on July 24, 2012 by victhevoice

The final segment of the Batman trilogy hit theatres Thursday at midnight, and for those lucky enough to grab tickets in time were also in for an eight-hour Batman marathon. The Dark Knight Rises

Just another day in the life of the Batman

brought in $161 million dollars in the box office, surpassing its 2008 counterpart ‘The Dark Knight’ .

The final film follows Bruce Wayne played by Christain Bale 8 years after Batman took the fall for Harvey ‘Two-Face’ Dent’s death, leaving Gotham City in a time of peace. Some new characters are introduced in this film including: Anne Hathaway as Catwoman and Tom Hardy as Bane. Though Bane’s face is new for this Batman trilogy, this isn’t his first appearance on the Hollywood’s big screen. If we bring our minds back to the 1997 ‘Batman and Robin’ Bane was featured as Poison Ivy’s silent sidekick, looking more like a Mexican wrestler then the Bane we see in 2012.

Bane’s personality, appearance, and overall presence couldn’t be more different, and as the main villain of The Dark Knight Rises I thought he had amazing presence and defiantly appeared to be a force to be reckoned with. Tom Hardy’s acting was spot on and perhaps everyone can agree Hardy’s voice was amazing as it was chilling on the almost masked Bane. However, due to the loud atmosphere of the movie it was sometimes difficult to hear Bane’s voice through his mouth piece. For the strong silent type Bane was given a lot of lines that worked well with his character and didn’t take away from his previously silent character.

I found this film dived into more of Batman’s angst then the previous films, and I have to admit I was a little frustrated by the amount of it at parts. In the end it was necessary to the plot and for the overall “pick-up yourself up” theme, so I had to deal with it. On the subject of angst, I can’t leave out the tradition of Catwoman and Batman’s unhealthy dangerous relationship they share both on screen and on paper. Catwoman or Selina Kyle, has always shared a sexually dangerous love story with Bruce Wayne, and it was only natural that it come out in this film.

I wasn’t a huge fan of this adaptation of Catwoman, as I felt there was way more emphasis put on Selina Kyle then her alter ego. Though I was skeptical at first at Anne Hathaway taking on this sexy role, I think she did a good job at capturing the sweet, sexy, and dangerous side of Catwoman and, of course, looked good in leather.

Overall, it was a great film that gave a worthy end to the trilogy we have all come to love. The effects were great, and the choice of villain was fitting for the type of edge the film was looking to take. Best of all it wasn’t in 3D and no one had to pay an extra five dollars for some glasses and a slightly protruding screen.

So take a night off, gather your fellow Batman fans, nerdy girlfriends and boyfriends, and go see this movie. As a must see for this summer, it’ll be almost impossible to stay away from the theatre.

Category Archives: Review