An uncertain future

Our View

In the past few weeks, three violent shootings have occurred on college campuses, two of them very close to home. Within 36 hours of each other, a student at Mississippi State University was killed in a residence hall and a student at Jackson State University was slain at a party off campus. Not long after, a shooter at Oikos University in Oakland, Calif., killed seven people and wounded several others.

As university students, this obviously concerns us. Yet we aren’t sure where to focus that concern. The nature of these violent acts is shocking, heartbreaking, and above all confusing, even more so than it was when we were in middle school hearing horror stories from Columbine High School.

Once upon a time, not long after the tragic events in Littleton, Colo., we thought we could make sense of school shootings. The perpetrators were bad seeds, bullied and misunderstood high schoolers who didn’t know how to handle the complex emotions brought on by cruel treatment from others. Back then, teachers had warning signs they could decipher, and the jail-like public school system offered a semblance of security.

But now, things are different. Shootings are moving from high schools to university campuses. We thought we had left the danger zone, but it has followed us.

The recent tragedies at MSU, JSU and Oikos have left students everywhere shocked and uncertain of how to proceed. The reasons for why each shooter picks up a gun are so varied – psychological problems, revenge, power, copycatting – that we can’t even understand why they really happen. We are vulnerable because there is no hard and fast answer to the ever-present cry of “Why?” Students feel as though they should be afraid, but no one is sure what to be afraid of.

It is this uncertainty that frightens us the most. But there is no cure for confusion, and no way to predict such an event. The best we can do is hope that the most recent school shootings will be the last the world ever sees.

"Hunger Games" left me hungry for more

Lizzie Locker

Editor

The hype surrounding Lionsgate’s new film adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ “The Hunger Games” is getting ridiculous. The “Team Peeta vs. Team Gale” craze and the obnoxious merchandising of the stars’ faces (smeared across everything from lipstick tubes to pillowcases) have reduced a story about war, oppression, fear and survival to a “Twilight”-esque teen love triangle. It’s enough to make the truest fan of the books – an English major who sees so much depth to the story, if not the writing – want to boycott the theatres.

Of course, I totally went to the midnight premiere anyway.

But I walked out of the theatre with a big ball of confusion and disappointment in my chest. I really enjoyed the movie, and was very pleased with the actors and with the director’s vision in some aspects of the adaptation. However, I was not at all impressed with the film in general.

Granted, I speak as one who read the entire “Hunger Games” trilogy in the first 48 hours that she owned it, and as one who views the books as an almost ready-made screenplay. While I don’t consider myself a purist – I know books have to change in the transition from page to screen, and often I like the changes better – there were several changes to this one that I found to be useless and detrimental to the movie as a whole.

Now, for those of you who have somehow made it this long without knowing what the story is about despite the outrageous hype surrounding it, here’s a quick synopsis: In our distant future, North America has fallen. It is now divided into 12 Districts, all oppressed by the central government in the Capitol. Each year, every district must randomly select two tributes – a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 and 18 – to compete in a gladiatorial fight to the death called the Hunger Games. Twenty-four children enter the arena, which is plagued with traps and monsters. Only one comes out to be crowned the victor.

Our heroine, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), volunteers to replace her younger sister Primrose (Willow Shields) when Prim’s name is selected at the annual “reaping.” Along with her fellow tribute from District 12, Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), she is sent to the capitol to train for the showdown. Then they enter the arena and the games begin.

Let’s start with what I loved best about the movie: the actors. Whoever cast this movie is a genius. Lawrence, already nominated for the Best Actress Oscar last year for “Winter’s Bone,” is a true gem. She captures Katniss’s conflicted emotions perfectly, and somehow manages to make clear with a single facial expression feelings I thought would be impossible to discern without Katniss narrating, as in the book. Hutcherson also manages to hold his own with Lawrence. Even though I feared he would reduce Peeta to a stereotypical, hopeless lover, Hutcherson rises to the challenge that Peeta’s complex character offers, and somehow does him justice.

Then there are the minor characters – Lenny Kravitz lends gravity and power to Cinna’s reduced role in the story; Woody Harrelson blends the tragic mentor Haymitch Abernathy with his own comic style to produce a sad sort of strength which is lovely to watch; and Shields’ portrayal of Prim’s misery and horror at the knowledge that her sister and protector must leave for the Games is truly remarkable for such a young actress. But I think perhaps the best actor in the whole movie is one of the smallest roles: Dayo Okeniyi plays Thresh, the male tribute from District 8. He has only two short lines, but in those two lines Okeniyi convinces his audience of his character’s intense desperation, his brutality, his fear, and his inner nobility in a way that no other character in the arena could do. That is a sign of some true acting chops.

The design of the movie is also lovely. While the Capitol setting was a little more “Star Wars”-eque than I would have liked (to be honest, it looked like scenes of Naboo had been spliced in), it is both modern and ancient, lending to the idea of a futuristic society inspired by the Roman Empire. The costume design is also particularly nice, blending outrageous styles with decadent colors. The color palette is fascinating – one minute, the cheering crowds put one in mind of a candy store – the next, of rotting flesh or a new bruise. I can only congratulate the designer, Judianna Makovsky, on making visible the dichotomy between self indulgence and brutality that the Capitol embodies.

But then there are the things that I didn’t like, the things that I felt detracted from the whole story and made the transition from book to film less of a leap and more of a fall. First off, the whole storyline is rushed. I don’t mean that it is over quickly – the movie is almost three hours long. No, what I mean is that the filmmakers rushed through important scenes, scenes which developed characters or plot points. These sorts of scenes were sacrificed in the name of art and replaced with “artistic insertions” – elongated flashbacks, emotional gazes, or explanation of the unimportant details going on offstage. Somehow these additions and subtractions just dragged the movie out longer, and left the audience hungry for a lot more than was given.

Also, I was extremely irritated by the use of the shaky camera. I believe the point of using the shaky cam was to make the action seem more like reality television. However, it just succeeded in making everything blurry and difficult to discern. In several fight scenes, I didn’t know who was who, or which side to be rooting for, simply because I couldn’t see anything!

And speaking of fight scenes – did no one inform these kids that they are fighting to the death for their own survival? The level of brutality – which is so crucial to this story about how war and violence change people – was drastically reduced. I, who cry at the sight of a bruise, found the Hunger Games fight scenes and resultant deaths to be positively tame. I didn’t really believe that these kids were killing each other, or that they had real reason to fear death.

Overall, I was disappointed with “The Hunger Games.” That is not to say that I didn’t like it, or that I don’t recommend it, but I definitely expected better from one of the most highly anticipated movies of the year. I wanted more, and I didn’t get it. Hopefully Lionsgate will get the green light for the sequel, “Catching Fire,” and will rectify my dissatisfaction next year. 

The gamer's guide to new releases

Anthony Bonner

Copy Editor

The second quarter of 2012 is already here! That means that we gamers have seen our fair share of new releases. Some were bad, but most were good. 2012 has seen the return of both new and old franchises. We’re going to show you the highlights among these releases.

Soul Calibur V - PS3, Xbox 360 — Jan. 31, 2012 

The 6^th  main entry in the Soul Blade series is sure to please any fighting game enthusiasts during the opening months of spring. Taking place 17 years after Soul Calibur 4 left off, the game introduces 10 new characters, including Ezio Auditore da Firenze of the Assassin Creed series. The game also sees the return of 18 veteran characters, bringing the full roster of the game to a decent 28 characters. As expected of the Soul series, players can welcome the return of the popular Create-a-Character system and online multiplayer gameplay. The game has new amazing graphics, a new story mode and new ways to customize your characters. Soul Calibur V is clearly everything that a fan of Soul Calibur IV could ask for in a sequel.

Final Fantasy XIII-2- PS3, Xbox 360 — Jan. 31

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a great game for any RPG fan who is looking to relax with a meaty story and an intense turn-based battle system. Taking place three years after the events of Final Fantasy XIII, the players guide Serah Farron and Noel Kreiss through their journey on the planet of Gran Pulse. New to the game’s exploration is the addition of time traveling through the various regions of the game. As players progress through the game, they will be able to freely travel through time and perform multiple quests and events. The battle system is an active turn-based model similar to that found in Final Fantasy XIII. The player plays as three characters (Serah, Noel and a monster), with the third character, being the monster, found and captured through battle. The game allows the player to assign various roles to his or her AI-controlled allies, giving them much flexibility during battle. The game also added quick-time events to battles similar to those found in games such as God of War and Heavy Rain. These events are used to deal heavy damage to enemies and end certain battles. As expected from the Final Fantasy series, the game is an audio-visual masterpiece and is sure to awe any gamer who decides to play this.

Twisted Metal - PS3 - Feb. 14

The four-year wait for the next entry in the Twisted Metal series is finally over and comes in the form of the new, simply-named Twisted Metal for the Playstation 3. The game reflects the time that went into its development with amazing graphics, sound, new weapons and many other additions. With 15 cars, new weapons, and multiple tracks, there are many ways for the player to enjoy this game. The largest addition to this game is the addition of online multiplayer. With up to 16 players being able to battle it out at once in multiple game modes, including free-for-all and team deathmatch, the series introduces its largest multi-player field yet. Local four-player split-screen co-op is available for those who are looking to battle it out with their friends. The return of Twisted Metal is an explosive one and definitely worth checking out.

Lumines Electronic Symphony - PS Vita - Feb. 14

With the launch of the Playstation Vita still being fresh on the minds of most gamers, looking for new games to play has been hard for some. One game that should not be overlooked by gamers, though, is Lumines Electronic Symphony. This game is the third installment in this rhythmic puzzle series and is looking to awe players with its amazing visuals and sound. The goal of the game is to use falling 2x2 blocks to match four of the same color together in a square pattern in timing with a bar of light that is constantly moving to the right of the screen. The game ends if the stacks of blocks become taller than the bar of light. The trait that makes this puzzle game unique is the fact that it uses the colors and designs of the blocks and stages to challenge the player. The patterns of the blocks are all unique to each stage and are fairly unpredictable in design. The stages also run a background animation that is relative to the music track of the stage and can also present a visual challenge to the player. Unlike the first two games in the series, Electronic Symphony uses full 3-D blocks and stages instead of 2-D sprites. This creates a game that is breathtakingly beautiful on the Vita’s large, bright screen. The game also utilizes the Vita’s touch functionality while still retaining the button scheme from earlier installments of the series. The game features 37 stages with musical tracks by popular electronica and house musicians such as Kaskade and Bebel Gilberto. With tons of replay value in the form of multiple gameplay modes, visual flare and an amazing electro-house soundtrack, Electronic Symphony is sure to keep any player happy for hours.

Mario Party 9 - Nintendo Wii - March 11

The 9^th installment in the popular Mario Party series fails to disappoint players with its plethora of new mini-games and board rules. Be sure to grab your helmets to protect yourself from the stray wiimote that may “accidentally” fly in your direction during all the fun. The most interesting addition to the series that can be found in Mario Party 9 is that players now all move together during each turn and that the game length has been shortened to 45 minutes per board. Whether this is a positive or negative change is relative to the person playing the game. The game is still the Mario Party that we love with dozens of boards and mini-games. It is worth checking out for anyone who is looking for a fun and casual game to play with friends.

Playstation Vita packs powerful punch in a lonely ring

Danton J. Thompson

Managing Editor

I have been covering the development of the Playstation Vita since before Sony even knew what to call the thing. From the Playstation Portable 2, to the Next Generation Portable, I have been on Sony’s heels ready to purchase and review its next offering to the portable gaming market. Last Wednesday, that moment was thrust upon me when I received my Playstation Vita one week before its retail release date. Since its announcement, the Vita’s main selling point has been what it has, rather than what it can do. The Vita has a built in GPS, a SixAxis motion sensing system, a three-axis electronic compass, two 640 x 480 front- and rear-facing cameras, a 5-inch OLED multi-touch screen and a rear-facing multi-touch counterpart on back of the device. All those specifications sound great, but how well do they work together? Is the Vita worth its $250 price tag? Let’s unbox the pricey, powerful portable and find out.

Design

Everything from the box that was placed in my hand was elaborately thought out to be appealing to the buyer’s eyes. The beautiful, brilliant blue of the box was a stark contrast to deep black of the actual console that was hidden inside a little bag that was inside another box inside the initial box. Once you get past all the user manuals and instructions, you will find the prize you have been waiting for: there in all of its glitz, glam and glory is the Playstation Vita. I was honestly afraid to touch the expensive thing for fear that it might crumble to pieces in my inadequate hands. But after about 10 minutes of mulling it over, I finally decided to give the device a once over.

Though the Vita lacks the functions for output that the older PSP had, the Vita clearly has more slots for input. On the outside of the device, the Vita sports a PS Vita card slot, a memory card slot, a SIM card slot (only on the 3G versions), a headset jack, an accessory port and a multi-use port for its charger cable, nearly all of which are made specifically for this console.

Aside from all the ports and slots around the outside of the machine, the Vita is downright sexy. The Vita features what Sony calls, a “Super Oval Shape” design. Much like its predecessor, the PSP, the Vita draws inspiration from the cousin of the circle. But in this incarnation, it is on a much larger scale. Vita’s 5-inch OLED screen alone is larger than not a Nintendo 3DS screen, but larger than the entire console when closed.

The familiar face buttons on the Vita are all there: a D-Pad, L and R buttons, the PS Button, Start and Select keys and the traditional Triangle, Square, Circle and Cross buttons. Joining the portable party are the two full-fledged analog sticks poking somewhat awkwardly out of the device. The back of the Vita sports two little grooves for hand comfort and the much talked about rear multi-touch pad and rear facing camera.

All in all, the Vita couldn’t look more sleek and futuristic. The awkwardness of the analog nubs is completely made up for by the undeniable coolness of the rear touchpad, which is emblazoned with Sony’s trademark shape buttons. The whole system keeps a color scheme of black and silver and a font that demands to be taken seriously. Sony wasted no effort in making the Vita its most visually appealing console to date.

Features

If you could ever snatch yourself away from gazing at the sheer beauty of the Vita and turn it on, you will see that it is packed with unique. During the initial set up, you will notice that the traditional face buttons have absolutely no use in the latest iteration of Sony’s GUI, Live Area, which took the place of the PSP’s and PS3’s XMB (XrossMediaBar). Everything – and I mean every little aspect – is controlled by the touch screen, which was refreshing and new at first, but is now proving to be a bit of a nuisance. Setting up your date, time and account settings would be easy work with a few presses of the D-Pad and a few face buttons, but “No way” says the Vita, “we would rather you use the touch controls.” The touch controls on the Vita are far more responsive than those of my cell phone and 3DS put together. With that being said, I’m not sure that is necessarily a good thing. While I was putting in my information, I often accidentally pressed the wrong command, or ended up scrolling over too far. As refreshing and new as it is, the touch controls will take some getting used to, and boy does the Vita have just the thing for you to do so.

Before you go off and play your first game, the Vita urges you to play through what it calls “Welcome Park,” which is a suite of mini-games designed to get you used to working your Playstation Vita. “Welcome Park” is composed of five tutorials, each with their own focus. The first tutorial is designed to get you familiar with touching. The user must tap numbers on the screen in the correct ascending order to pass on to the next area. As fun as it is, “Digit Chase” is merely a tap-tap-tutorial, and once completed, the game goes on to the next part of the touching tutorial, dragging. The second tutorial of “Welcome Park” is “Skate Axis,” a game designed to show of the SixAxis motion controls of the Vita. The third tutorial, “Sound Loop,” is an odd microphone enhanced tutorial, designed to show off the microphone, but only ends up confusing the user. “Snap + Slide” uses the front and rear facing cameras to instantly create a puzzle of any captured picture for use in a fun puzzle sliding game. The last “Welcome Park” tutorial game is by far the most odd. In “Hello Face,” using the Vita’s cameras, the user is to find different scenes in real life that are shaped enough like the face displayed on the system and take a picture of it. If the “face” looks enough like the one on the Vita, the picture will come to life, thus showing off the Vita’s augmented reality features, much like those of the Nintendo 3DS.

Along with “Welcome Park,” the Vita comes preloaded with various Apps including ones for party chatting, downloading games, trophy support, web browsing, taking pictures, viewing video, listening to music, remote playing games from the PS3 and display maps. Though the fun of Welcome Park can be enjoyed anywhere, most features of the Vita are absolutely useless without a working connection to the Internet and to the Playstation Network. When connected to the Internet and Playstation Network, a user can download new games, sync their trophies with the Playstation Network, watch movies on Netflix and even use the GPS function. But without Internet and the amazing library of one game at this time, all the user can do is play Welcome Park and show off their sleek heavy paperweight. The Vita, much to the dismay of its fan base, has to be connected to the Internet to transfer one’s own music, pictures, and videos to the device. This strategy was surely implemented to stop tech-pirates from trying to hack the device, but it ended up only inconveniencing the people who have legitimately spent money on the Vita.

Sound

The sound of the Vita was only talked about once during pre-release. Sony stated that the system would have built-in stereo speakers instead of the two mono speakers present in the PSP. In theory, this should be a huge step up quality-wise, but after doing a sound test comparing the two models, the older PSP 3000 outclasses the Vita embarrassingly. When listening to the Vita through standard headphones, the sound is crisp, clear and welcoming, but the second you take out the headphones, the sound quality is diminished severely. The sound from the Vita is not only muffled, but also distorted; it sounds as if the music is being played too loudly for the speakers to handle it, despite only being on about half volume. No matter what setting the equalizer is set to, the music sounds exactly the same. From the standpoint of an amateur audiophile and an avid musician, this aspect of the Vita is devastating.

Games

The Playstation Vita, on many occasions, has been touted by Sony to have the power of a Playstation 3 when it comes to playing games. With all the power the device is supposed to have, why is it that it has no games? Buyers who purchased the pre-release version of the Vita like I did were treated to one free game. Little did we know, that would be the only game. The other “launch titles” will not be sold until Feb. 22, and even then the titles are a scattered mess of rushed releases that wouldn’t last 20 seconds in the disc drive of a real console. The game shipped with the Playstation Vita First Edition Bundle is “Little Deviants.” “Deviants” has been poised to be the new face of the Vita. Every aspect of the game tells the player that the cute little Deviants are meant to give the Vita a face and a mascot much like Sackboy from Little Big Planet for the Playstation 3. The game itself isn’t so bad. The collection of “Mario Party”-esque mini-game escapades is great and fun for about the minute and a half it takes to complete each one of them. But after about 15 minutes with the game, you’ll start to feel like you got cheated out of a real game with their “one free game” offer.

Along with about 25 “launch titles” including the only real game, “Uncharted: Golden Abyss,” the Vita will be about to support 275 “Legacy” PSP titles. Because the Vita lacks the needed UMD drive to play these games natively, the games have to be downloaded from the Playstation Network via the Vita or the PS3 and transferred to the speedy, yet highly expensive, memory card. Though 275 sounds like a sizeable number, this isn’t 10 percent of the PSP’s library. Also, once I reviewed the games on the list, the list had none of the PSP’s best selling games like “Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep” or any of the many “God of War” PSP tie-in games. The list is composed of much lesser known and very old PSP titles.

Overview

Aside from not being able to play much on it, I have been thoroughly impressed with the Playstation Vita. Though it has only one game, that one game is quite solid. I can almost smell the potential seeping out of every open slot of the Vita. The screen is astounding, the interface is promising and the list of upcoming games has me thoroughly excited. But after buying the expensive monster of a portable, I’m not sure if I will be able to buy another game. My advice to other gamers is even though the Vita is definitely worth its price tag, I would wait until more suitable games arrive for the console. It has tons of potential, but has yet to realize it. Buying a Vita right now would be like winning the lottery but only being able to spend your money at Dollar General.

Itz not spelt lyke thiss

Lizzie Locker

Editor

More and more lately I have been noticing a lack of writing skills in people with whom I have to communicate. I often receive emails from people – professional adults, not just college-age friends – who ignore the basic rules of grammar or spelling.

And it isn’t just the basics. In reading over formal essays written by students right here at the W, I have noticed major issues, such as the use of “text-talk” in educational and professional writing.

As an English major and a newspaper editor, this really upsets me. Ignore the upper-level literature and composition courses under my belt for just a moment: I have gone through the same basic classes that everyone else has, and I can tell you that they are perfectly adequate for teaching students how to write a proper essay. How, then, can it be possible that students can still write so badly?

In my opinion, it has a great deal to do with the current state of communications in the world. Technological messaging – text messages, emails, and social media messages – comprise a vast majority of our communication skills these days. Due to this, we are losing the ability to “properly” communicate with each other in writing and replacing it with a format more suited to the high-speed world we live in.

I don’t think this technology is necessarily a bad thing. I don’t have a problem with the evolution of language and communication either. However, I do not view this as language evolution. To me, it is a language devolution – a lowering of vocabulary, a lack of learning and a dearth of meaning behind words. It isn’t a failure of education, necessarily, but a failure of understanding the importance of writing in general.

I am a writer, so I understand that my opinion on this is a little biased. But writing is something which has shaped the course of human history, something which allows us to remember the past and look to the future. We need to remember the importance of writing, and to think about that every time we put our fingers on the keyboard.