By: Michael Selkirk
For those players that love a good story, with smooth and dynamic combat, or even just something pretty to look at, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has something for everyone. The game has the player take control of Geralt, a mutated human with enhanced senses, metabolism, and physical capabilities. All of these mutations are necessary to be one of the monster hunters known as the Witchers. The story follows Geralt’s quest of searching for his adopted daughter Ciri, who has been missing for over five years, and is now being chased by an incorporeal army known as the Wild Hunt. It is Geralt’s mission to find out why the Wild Hunt is looking for her, where Ciri has gone, and how to help her through this difficult time in their lives. The Witcher 3 is a fantastic game with a world so immersive, it feels as if it could function without the player being there. In other words, the game world feels real, like everyone from the kings to the peasants and soldiers would be able to go about their lives even if the player never stumbles upon them. Just like how other real people will live their lives if you never interact with them. This provides the player with a space to occupy and influence, but it also provides for more intense feelings of uncertainty, and mystery as you play the game. Being a role-playing game, this only benefits the story and the experience of play, because each choice given to the player feels like it has extreme importance; and with multiple different endings, most of your choices will have some impact on which ending you get. To give The Witcher a score, I’d reward it a 9.5/10, as it is nearly perfect with minor or irrelevant bugs that do not take away from the play experience.
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By: Tim Heroux Professional wrestling nowadays isn’t nearly as talked about as it was in the 80s, 90s and even much of the 2000s. Yet, somehow it still manages to be one of the most watched pieces of media on television. With WWE’s Monday night Raw and Friday night SmackDown still drawing in close to, if not, more than two million viewers each, every week. I think a lot of the popularity has gone down mainly due to the fact that everyone knows it’s fake now since the illusion that is kayfabe, which is the act that is put on in wrestling to appear as if it is a real fight and the characters are real people, has become common knowledge. Yet, I think the main reason people watch it is for the stories that can be told.
Throughout a wrestler's career, there is time for them to develop a unique character and personality that fans can relate to or fall in love with. Some of the most popular wrestlers, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, The Undertaker, and CM Punk had all risen to popularity because of the unique persona they had. Each of these characters did what many consider to be the most important part of pro wrestling: they were able to capture the audience and the crowd. This is why so many people watch wrestling and why so many still do. The appeal of it all is finding someone to connect with and root for, just like in every other sport. This is why I urge you to go out there, tune in to any wrestling promotion, and find a character to connect with and root for. Only then, you’ll understand why so many still watch pro wrestling. By: Tim Heroux We Are Not Your Kind is the sixth studio album from metal band Slipknot. With this installment, Slipknot makes a comeback from their previous LP, .5 The Gray Chapter, which was panned by fans and critics alike. Due to the passing of one of their founding members and bassist Paul Gray in 2010, the band had struggled with more than one lineup change leading up to .5 The Gray Chapter, which ultimately hurt the quality of that record. Now that the band have cleaned up and dealt with their personal issues, they have made a triumphant return, proving that they can still be heavy and produce great lyrics.
The first song on the track Unsainted is in classic Slipknot style while also experimenting a little like with the church choir at the beginning of the song. The lyrical quality of their new album especially shows in this song as the lead singer, Corey Taylor, addresses his depression and how religion doesn’t seem to speak to him even though many have seemed to save themselves through it. Another great track on the album is Nero Forte which is just awesome to headbang to. With the main theme of the album being the fact that the band feel like outsiders, it especially shows in the closing song Solway Firth as Corey Taylor sings of being a scapegoat for certain issues in society today as well as being ostracized for it. He ends the track as well as the album with the haunting line, “You want a real smile? I haven’t smiled in years.” Despite how well done many of the songs are on the album, they feel interrupted by the few interludes on it which just throw in a few riffs before moving to the next song. They don’t really do much and are more of an annoyance than anything. Some of the weaker tracks include Spiders which, although it’s a bit more experimental it’s kind of goofy. Despite some small missteps, though, We Are Not Your Kind demonstrates that Slipknot can still produce great metal with heavy lyrics. Which is why I am going to award this album with an eight out of ten. |
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