The horror genre takes a terrifying new turn

Art By Mia Boutelle.

By Mia Boutelle

One of the most popular games the past couple of months has frozen many players with fear. Possibly one of the scariest survival horror games to come out this year has been Five Nights at Freddy’s.

The basic of the game is that you are a man named Mike Schmidt who has taken up a security guard position at the popular children’s pizza parlor, Freddy Fazbears Pizza. (Similar to how we have our Chuck E. Cheese’s) However, on your first night on the job, you are told that the animatronics that are in the place roam at night, and you have to be careful that they don’t show up where you happen to be watching them.

Five Nights at Freddy’s is a point and click game, of course meaning that all you do is point and click to actually accomplish. Being a survival horror game adds to the difficulty, which means that you can’t fight off anything that comes for you, instead the only thing you can possibly do is close the door if anything gets too close, but be cautious, any time you close the door, it takes up power. At first, it sounds quite simple, getting through the first six hours, but then you progress to the next night, then the next, and which each night you pass, it gets much harder.

Being a fan since it was released, I highly recommend it! Being recently released on Steam, Android and iOS devices, it can be played on almost any device, so you could bring horror on the go! The game is definitely challenging, and is great for anyone interested in the survival horror genre. So if you happen to be interested, the games demo can be downloaded for free on the website. This is a must have for anyone who loves horror!

Animal Crossing: New Leaf lives up to expectations

By Skyler Blessing

Animal Crossing: New Leaf was released in America in June 2013 for the Nintendo 3DS, and within the first week, over 600,000 copies were sold. The game had been announced much earlier than the release date, which was in 2010, and the wait drove Animal Crossing fans (such as myself) crazy. When the game was actually going to be released, I immediately pre-ordered it, and when I received my copy, I was extremely overjoyed. In this Animal Crossing game, the player is the mayor, so they finally get a little bit of authority in this one.

First off, I have to say, the graphics were amazing. The stars in the sky at night were actually worth just gazing at, and the double rainbows (sometimes even triple rainbows) were just as wonderful. The animal villagers actually look like they would actually be soft to the touch, and they have different heights now, too, unlike in previous Animal Crossing games. . My character was also taller, and in this game its possible change her pants/skirt/dress, shoes, and socks individually. In the previous Animal Crossing games, the only clothing item that was possible to change was the shirt (although in Animal Crossing: City Folk it was possible to change the player’s shoe color, but they were unable pick what color the shoes would be.)

A new feature added to this game was the ability to build “Public Works Projects,” which are basically just benches, light posts, decorations and more that you can build around your town. This aspect of the game is new, so of course it’s going to get bashed a little. Some issues with the public works projects is that they are usually pretty expensive to build, and it takes a while to get new projects available since the animal villagers have to request them. Not to mention the player’s secretary, Isabelle, is really picky about the where the player can build the projects. It’s kind of silly, since the mayor should be able to pick where to put everything, not the secretary.

Another good addition to this game is that the player can now upgrade their home to be a mansion. They can expand their house 18 times, which in total costs about 7,595,800 bells (bells are the in-game currency) to fully complete their home. And once the island is unlocked, money is incredibly easy to make, since there are tons of rare bugs and fish to catch around 6 p.m. and 4 a.m. there.

Playing with friends on this game is pretty much pointless, but it’s still fun to do for maybe 10 minutes at the most. There is now a “Best Friend Message Exchange Function”, which allows the player to send messages to people they have marked as “best friends” when they are online without having to travel to their town. It’s handy, but can be annoying at times.

Overall, New Leaf is a great game. I had trouble finding any cons with the game, and there were too many pros for me to fully cover in detail and not make this boring as heck. I highly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys taking it easy and doesn’t like addicting video games.

Review: Brotherly duo exceeds expectations

by Braden Schroeder

Many mixtapes and many months finally led up to the release of the, The Specktators’, debut album The . After many mixtapes, Packi, the group’s lyricist, and his brother Moe-T, the duo’s producer, were finally ready to tackle an album.

Originating in Lansing, Michigan, The Specktators moved out to Los Angeles, California, to chase their dream of succeeding. Since moving to California, they have released several singles and a debut album.

The Parlay did not disappoint, but really did surprise me because of how good it was. Music by The Specktators prior to The Parlay did not seem to have a meaning behind it. The album was very strong and flowed with hits such as “Time Will Tell,” “Jumpoff,” “Forever Feel,” and “Pacific Time.” All of the songs had awesome instrumentals that really supported the vocals.

A song that I really enjoyed was “Jumpoff.” The song starts with a funky tune but as the song progresses, it increases speed and then changes into a whole different tune that is much faster than the beginning. I am also a big fan of the meaning of the song. Packi is trying to say that he is much better than the other rappers and that he can do things unlike anyone else. Plus, I admire his confidence.

My favorite song on the whole album is “Pacific Time.” It is the longest song on the album running at 5:23. For the first 54 seconds of the song, it is just an electronic instrumental, which I believe builds emphasis on the first verse of the song. As the instrumental plays, it changes tune and speed. While listening to “Pacific Time” for the first time, I could not help but tap my foot as I got into the music. My favorite line in the song is, “ Girls I ain’t really talk to back home all wanna hit my phone right now tellin’ me that they miss me, beggin’ me to come home right now.” This line summarizes the whole meaning of the song, which is that people did not care for him when he was not famous, but now that he is famous, they want to care for him. He has become someone else now and is a whole different person that does not need those kind of people.

Something that goes unrecognized in music is the instrumentals. Moe-T did a great job on working with Packi in order to make the instrumentals relate to the vocals. As the lyrics tell a story, so do the instrumentals.

Every song has a perfect equalization of the intrumentals and the vocals. I can clearly hear every beat while listening to the vocals at the same time. It never seems to be overwhelming to the point that I get sick of the song and turn it off.

While I love the album, there is one thing that bothers me: the majority of the songs are about the same topics. An album should have songs about multiple topics. But despite this small aspect, the album seems flawless to me.

It was very hard to narrow down the three best elements about The Parlay. First, I liked the lyrics that contained great meaning. Other rappers rap about subjects that are not relevant and do not make sense. On the other hand, Packi raps about what is happening in his life and about how he is making it big.

Secondly, the instrumentals were phenomenal . Every song has awesome instrumentals that really help to support the vocals. Even in songs that have lyrics that are not very strong, the instrumental makes up for it.

Finally, Packi exhibits confidence in every song on the album that he talks about himself or The Specktators. He raps about his confidence that he will succeed. Remaining positive and confident can be difficult, because many others share the same dream and few the dream comes true.

The Parlay does not just show The Specktators true talent, but also provides a glimpse of what to expect in the future from the group. As long as they can get publicity and continue to make albums as great as The Parlay, in the near future we may see The Specktators at the top of the charts.

 

 

Review: Café 27’s quaint dining options impress

by Mikayla Rehor

It was 6:30 on a typical Friday night. My family and I walked into a quaint little building in downtown New Albany called Cafe 27. The first thing I noticed was the stamped tin ceiling, beautiful hard-wood floors, and the authentic brick wall. I also noticed that the café was a bit on the tight side, but they had an overflow room just beyond a rustic warehouse looking door. On the other side of the door was a small bar area.

The hostess and the servers at the café were inviting and attentive. The manager was extremely outgoing. He seemed to know everyone and spent time to talk to people and hugged others. I thought that all the workers acted like a family; if one person was really busy and another wasn’t then they would go help them out. It was refreshing to see them just go above and beyond what some chain restaurant servers would do.

After a brief 15-minute wait we were led to a little booth where our party of five could barely fit. We quickly ordered an appetizer of two types of hummus and warm pita bread to sooth our growling stomachs. Once it was time to order our main dish I decided to be adventurous and try the apple cider chicken sandwich. It was grilled chicken, marinated in apple cider on a sourdough bun. I was happily surprised at how good the sandwich taste. Another member of my party stuck with a classic burger called the cafe burger. The burger was a half-pound of tasty Angus burger on a pretzel bun with a few condiments. My dad chose a dish that is not very common to many local restaurants, Fish-n-chips. The fish-n-chips was cod that had been battered to perfection with Kentucky bourbon ale. My dad thought that it was very tasty but was unfortunately on the small side. All the other dishes were so good and big that we had to take them home. Amazingly the dishes were still delicious when we ate them later on in the week.

I would consider Café 27 as a type of place that you could go to for a date at the bar or even a place for the family. Though on the pricey side, the dishes and experience were worth the cost. Overall, this warm and cozy café is a keeper.

 

The Brick Wall Restaurant makes its Georgetown debut

By Delaney Smith, Melanie Parrish, and Emily Stock

When news of the new restaurant The Brick Wall came out we knew we just had to try it. The Brick Wall Restaurant (formerly known as Magadalena’s) is Georgetown’s latest addition to their food scene.

We walked in and the first thing we saw was a smiling face asking us, “How many do you have?” The first impression we got of The Brick Wall itself is that the decor is very modern and sophisticated. The tables are very well organized and we didn’t feel like we were sitting on top of each other, like in some of the chain restaurants that you go to today. It has a very small-town feel and is not overly crowded, so we didn’t feel rushed to give up your table while we ate.

The waiters are very friendly and on task. Our waiter was always refilling our drinks and he periodically made sure we didn’t need anything. He was very welcoming and never rushed us into choices of foods and dessert. When we had some trouble choosing our dessert, he we very informative and knew a lot about their food choices.

We ordered a variety of different foods from their menu. For an appetizer we had the spinach dip with bread and it was wonderful. The only bad thing was that it was served in a shallow dish so it got cold very quickly. It was also almost $9, so it was on the pricey side. As our entrees, we got a vegetarian vegetable soup and salad combo, Tuscan linguine with chicken, and a grilled chicken pesto wrap. The portions were fairly good for their prices and the food was very tasty, but the Tuscan Linguine was very small and very pricey for a lunch portion. My taste buds were delighted by the dessert but my critic mind was not. It was a slice of chocolate cheesecake. What was disappointing about it was that it was not made in-house. It was shipped in from the Cheesecake Factory, so of course it was beyond yummy, but still sort of a letdown.

Our overall experience though, was good. Our service was great and the food was delicious. Other than a few fallbacks on price and portions, everything was wonderful. I would recommend this to anyone who likes in the area or coming for a visit.

I would give The Brick Wall three out of five stars.

‘The Silver Linings Playbook’ has no silver lining

By Mikaela Click

Bradley Cooper…words escape me when I see him on the big screen. The man is gorgeous, and “The Silver Linings Playbook” did a fabulous job of showing him off. Between him working out and showing his softer side at therapy sessions, I really thought the movie was going to be a success. The sad thing is, it was a flop.

The story is about Pat Solitano after he moves back in with his parents after he was put in a state institution for attempting to kill the man his wife was having an affair with. Upon getting out of the institution, he starts working out and goes to therapy so his “wife,” Nikki, will take him back. In the process of getting back on his feet, he meets this woman Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence) who is also messed up just like Pat. All the while, Pat’s father is betting on the Eagles (pro football team) and he’s convinced that Pat is his good luck charm.

I have to say that I hated it. I mean, it’s the typical comedy/drama that we’ve all seen a thousand times. And there’s no meaningful story. Pat Solitano gets out of the institution, goes home and enters a dance competition with Tiffany, and he goes to a football game. The movie didn’t add any value to my life in the two hours that I spent watching it. I actually watched the movie on my laptop and had to split it between two days because it was that boring. I would be ticked off if I spent almost $10 to see this movie.

Now I won’t ruin the ending but it’s abrupt, I’ll put it that way. The movie doesn’t move anywhere so you literally will have to force yourself to finish it. The acting was great, but it doesn’t matter how awesome it was. If the script sucks, the script sucks. Plain and simple. Definitely not a movie that I will be watching again.

Dining in Italy for a night

by Allison McMaster

On a cold December afternoon, my friends and I chose to go eat at Olive Garden in Clarksville. We chose Olive Garden because we were in the mood for Italian and Olive Garden seemed like the place to go. I like Olive Garden, but the atmosphere consists of many elderly people and I’m not old enough to drink wine. It was cold outside so it felt really nice to walk into the warm restaurant.

My impression of the restaurant was started by the kind people who greeted me at the door. They asked how I was and told me they liked my shirt. You could smell the wonderful Italian smells as soon as you got out of your car in the parking lot.  It made me want to sit down and eat even more. We went in the afternoon so mainly elderly people were at all the tables. There weren’t very many people there and the room was really quiet except for the annoying elevator music.

The table was very clean. There were people all around us constantly cleaning. The cups and plates seemed clean as well. I used the restroom and the counter tops seemed well sanitized and the floors were super clean. The workers’ uniforms didn’t have stains or wrinkles. The restaurant was all in all very clean.

The service was great! We actually ended up having one of our friends as our server. He filled our drink up every time it got half way empty. He gave us the perfect amount of time to look at the menu and was very polite and answered all our questions. The manager came around in the middle of our meal and asked us how everything was and she was also very polite.

The presentation of our food was wonderful. It was prepared as if we were at a very fancy restaurant. It was brought out hot and perfect. Not to mention it tasted wonderful. I got the five-cheese penne, which I would recommend to everyone who likes pasta, and it was amazing. The noodles were cooked perfect and all the cheese was melted just how I like it.

The price was very good for the amount of food we got. The portion sizes were perfect and I felt like we paid just the right amount. Then again we went for lunch. I saw the dinner prices and for almost the same amount of food, the price was double.

I would definitely recommend Olive Garden to anyone who likes Italian food. The restaurant is family friendly with choice of kids meals. The service was great, the food was great, and I would go back.

‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ worth embarking on

 by: Isaac Mathewson

 It has been over ten years since Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy embraced the silver screen, bringing in huge box office numbers and pleasing fans and critics alike. The whole trilogy is among my favorite movies, and needless to say I was in high spirits to see this. While I don’t think it’s as good as the original trilogy, it is still a good start to what looks like a great trilogy.

The film takes place 60 years before the original trilogy. Bilbo Baggins, played by Martin Freeman, a hobbit living a peaceful life in the Shire, is called upon on an adventure by the wizard Gandalf, played again by Ian McKellen, to retake the lost Dwarf kingdom Erebor, which had been taken over long ago by the dragon Smaug. Along with a company of thirteen dwarves, led by Thorin Oakenshield, played by Richard Armitrage, they set out on the long journey ahead of them. Along the way, they encounter goblins, trolls, and other mythical creatures, both good and bad, all of which leads up to Bilbo’s encounter with the creature Gollum, played again by Andy Serkis, and the ring that will change Middle Earth forever.

 Just like the original trilogy, the film is filled with breathtaking visuals and art direction. It has good performances by McKellen and Freeman, and it was refreshing to see many of my favorite characters back on the big screen again. I thought that it was a good adaptation of the book, which I have read, and I was able to get past some of the differences. I thought that the screenplay was well written too, as it blended a good deal of drama, action, and humor, while still trying to tell a good story.

 I do have problems with the film that prevent it from being as good as the original trilogy. I thought that the film was too long, and there were a number of scenes that I felt were unnecessary. Also the idea to make it 42 frames per second was unnecessary, as well as making it in 3-D. I just thought that it made the movie too fast, and made it difficult to make out what was happening. I also thought that some of the action scenes were too fast, and they weren’t believable, and included a lot less tension than in the original trilogy. But probably the biggest problem I had was making it into three parts. I can understand why the original trilogy was a trilogy because the books were a trilogy. Maybe there is enough material to make it two parts like the last “Harry Potter” book, but certainly not three.

The film is undeniably flawed but there is still a great deal of material to treasure. It is a visually lush, well acted, and well paced film that brings back classic characters that I have grown to love ever since I was a child. I still don’t believe that it should be three parts, but I still look forward to what Jackson will give us in the next two years.

 Motion Picture Rating: PG-13

Extended sequences of intense fantasy violence and frightening images

My rating: A-

‘Zero Dark Thirty’ may take home best picture

 By: Isaac Mathewson

            It’s been a year-and-a-half since Osama bin Laden was found and executed. So some would say that it is a little too soon for a mainstream film about the hunt for him to be released. But when I heard that “Point Break” and “The Hurt Locker” (one of my favorite movies by the way) director Kathryn Bigelow was in the director’s chair, I started to get really excited to see this film. I must say, it lived up to my expectations.

 Jessica Chastain stars as Maya, a CIA officer who has spent a decade trying to find Osama bin Laden, the perpetrator of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Despite the best efforts of her partner Dan, played by Jason Clarke, they have a very difficult time finding him, which deeply frustrates their leader Joseph Bradley, played by Kyle Chandler. The film follows a ten year storyline from 9/11 to the final operation to kill bin Laden. During this time, it shows all of the struggles that the CIA went through as well as the dangers of their assignment.

 Jessica Chastain gives arguably the best performance of the year as a tough no nonsense person who will go out of her way to find the enemy. She reminded me of Jodie Foster in “The Silence of the Lambs,” in terms of how tough and determined she is and how she will go to extreme measures to accomplish her goal.

 The scenes are very beautifully filmed and they give us a sense about what the war in Afghanistan is like. The final act of the film where the Navy SEALS, led by Joel Edgerton in a small but key role, take out bin Laden is one of the best shot climaxes I have seen all year

I do want to point out some of the controversial issues involving the inaccurate way Bigelow told the story, as well as the now infamous torture scenes where the CIA agents torture prisoners for information. For the former, I want to make clear that this is a movie, and not a documentary. It adds fictional elements to illustrate true events so it can play like an edge-of-your seat thriller, kind of like “All the President’s Men,” or just recently “Argo.” For the latter, I want to point out that even though I never really studied the actual hunt for bin Laden, but I do know that the CIA does use torture on their prisoners if it is a last resort.

 Like “Argo,” it is not a fully, accurate retelling of true events. But just like “Argo,” this is a beautifully made film with terrific writing and excellent performances. True some may be disturbed by the torture scenes, but I can’t say that I blame Bigelow. After all, this is the woman who spent three years married to James Cameron.

 Motion Picture Rating: R

Strong violence, including brutal disturbing images, and language

My rating: A+

Time to meet the Harlem Globetrotters

By Darian Gilley

On Sunday Jan. 21, 2013, I went to see the Harlem Globetrotters in Louisville at the KFC Yum Center. The Harlem Globetrotters are an exhibition basketball team that combines theatre, comedy, and athleticism.

The Harlem Globetrotters were found in 1927. They combine laughable showmanship with exceptional athletic originality, using “trick” shots, spectacular ball handling, and exaggerated “staged” plays on the court. They intentionally slide, spin, and slip the basketball around and between the showmen. Their whole goal is to entertain the audience.

The opposing team they play is the Generals, it’s a tradition they have. When playing the Generals there are no restrictions on them making their shots, and in between the gag periods is a real basketball game. Although the Harlem Globetrotters play primarily exhibition games, they also have played competitively throughout the years.

I would recommend taking family and friends to see the them. They are so entertaining and obviously skilled at what they do. They interact with the audiences, making it more fun and memorable for those of all ages. There were magic tricks, gags, and of course amazing basketball stunts. It is obvious that the Globetrotters like and care about their fans and they go to high measures to show it. Everyone they interacted with was given gifts such as a free basketball.They took time to sign autographs and meet their fans.

To my surprise I enjoyed it and had a good time with my family. It was very entertaining and surprising. They played great music along with their act. Overall, I think that no matter what your age you should go and see the Harlem Globetrotters at least once in your life.