FTL: Faster Than Light

By: Robert Murphy

You know, sometimes I don't know how I stumble across these certain games but I'm always glad when I give them a chance and check them out. My latest find is a game called FTL or Faster Than Light and it allows you to take control of your very own ship and it's crew to explore the galaxy but things often come at a treacherous cost as space can be dangerous. This top-down strategy game has a pension for not wanting you to survive long enough to reach your destination with all manner of stress causing things to stop you such as pirate ships, aliens, imploding stars, meteor showers and much more. As a ship for the Federation you must survive though and get the vital information you have aboard before the rebel forces catch up to you. And despite it's never ending quest to kill you, Faster Than Light will have you hooked time and time again making you want to make it further than you did before.

Now when I first took my ship for a stroll I was a little daunted by all the different things that I needed to keep track of on my ship but somehow once you go through your tutorial it all becomes a breeze, that is until things start blowing up all at once but we'll get to that. Your ship is the Kestrel or you can name it something else if you wish and you can do the same with your crew if you want to as well. You look at your ship from a top down perspective where you see each room, many of which occupy various ship mechanics like shields and weapons. From here you set out trying to make it from one zone to the next by making it to relay points in each area, you will of course come under attack or have something unfortunate thing happen to you on your journey. As enemies attack you they will either damage your hull or cause the various mechanics of your ship to break and shut down, this is where your crew comes in. You must send your crew to fix anything that goes wrong on your ship or you'll end up dead that much faster, if your shields get damaged for instance they'll shut down and you'll be a sitting duck. But during battle you can do the very same thing to enemy ships, targeting vital functions like the oxygen systems or the ships engines preventing them from escaping your wrath.  

FTL is a game that really tests your compartmentalization skills with all the various things that you have to deal with and somehow it makes it incredibly fun even when it all comes crashing down around you. And even though the game wants you to die it seems, sometimes its your own fault for being the goodie goodie hero of the story. Sometimes you will come across innocent transport ships being attacked by pirates and you can either save them or risk getting hurt helping them. Trust me, I was one of those who wanted to help but I quickly became cynical and said "SCREW YOU" its just not worth the reward more often than not. There's also the supposedly harmless moments where you can check out an abandoned ship or area for resources like fuel or androids that you can sell for scrap and upgrade your ship. This can often lead you to lose your valuable crew members and you think losing one crew member wouldn't be a big deal right? well you will be wishing you had him back your next battle, I guarantee it. 

It's sometimes hard to explain why a game like FTL that offers never ending amounts of deaths will not cause you to smash your keyboard in two or make you want to stop playing all together, I've seen my ship explode more times than I can count but I shrug it off and try again. Death more or less feels like a learning opportunity when you're playing and helps you do better each time it happens. The better you do too allows you to unlock more ships, new weapons and new ways to play or more often than not die. The pulse pounding game play is what makes things so hopelessly addicting and if you can manage all the problems you'll face along the way then you're a much better player than myself. 

Good:

- Endless amounts of replay value

- Solid combat system

- Hectic but oh so enjoyable game play, balancing all you can and hoping not to lose another ship

- Each play through is unpredictable and fun

Bad:

- The endless deaths might not be for everyone and some of you might not want to start over and over again

Scully Rating: 9.0 out of 10 

One Piece

 (the straw hat pirates)

By: Robert Murphy

So since recently I posted a AMV that was cut to scenes of one of my favorite animes, “One Piece”,  I figured I would give you all review to go along with it, for those of you who haven’t seen the show and had no idea what the hell was going on in the video. “One Piece” starts around the tale of Gol D. Roger King of the Pirates, who is finally caught by the Marine forces in “One Piece” and publicly executed.  But before they ended his life he imparted a final word to any pirates or would be pirates who may have been watching, his final words were that he has hidden all of his massive wealth away and anyone may take it as their own, he has hidden it all in one piece. This sets in motion a new golden age of piracy, where everyone and anyone is out to claim the one piece and be the new king of the pirates and this includes or main character Monkey D. Luffy who we follow throughout the series as he makes his crew and sets out on his pirate adventure.

 Gol D Roger at his execution

So to begin with, some of you may be thinking this seems to be a pretty normal show right? Well what I neglected to mention in the previous chapter is that some of these pirates have some pretty incredible powers. In the show there are fruit known as the Devil Fruit, these give whoever eats one of them a super natural ability but at the cost of losing the ability to swim, which can be a problem for a pirate looking to sail the high seas. So essentially we have 17^th century pirates with super powers all sailing around which makes for quiet an interesting story to follow along with, for example our main protagonist, Luffy has eaten one of these fruits the Gum Gum Fruit, this has given his body a rubber quality that allows him to do things like deflect bullets and throw punches a mile away. This leads to some crazy and out of this world fights especially since there are millions of different Devil Fruit out there and plenty of pirates that Luffy and his crew come across in their journey. These fruit can allow you to do anything, some being quite silly and others can be devastating, it’s pretty much a grab bag of insanity. 

Now let’s move on to some of the characters that will be joining our rubber man of a leader on his quest to be King of the Pirates. Zolo, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, and Chomper are the core members of the initial Straw Hat Pirates and they all bring their own unique characteristics to the show.  Sanji is the cook who loves the ladies, Nami is the domineering navigator who loves money, Zoro is the samurai swordsman who wields three blades and sleeps all the time, Usopp is the sniper who tells outrageous lies- but that doesn't quite do them justice and Chomper is our residential reindeer doctor who is shy but quite a thrill for some of the attractive female characters. They all initially have their own interests as you can see but over the time they spend sailing together they develop and grow close to each other and become close friends which is a central theme throughout the show. And of course you can’t forget the enemies throughout the show, while some are a little silly (which silly/goofy is something you need to get use to in this show) others are more serious and quite frankly are a bunch of assholes who deserve to get their faces smashed in by one of Luffy’s gum gum punches.

 the straw hat pirate flag

“One Piece” is a very open ended show that has a story that makes for a good anime in the fact that there is so much that can be done while these characters search for the one piece and it shows through the entire series span. While the story may be winding down to its end, there are have been over four hundred fifty five episodes so that tells you what you are in for if you start watching the show, with just about five story arcs filled with pirate action. If a complaint could be made it would be that some of the worlds/islands that are visted are an idea out of Star Wars where there are areas made of one topographical element like snow or sand but this in itself is a minor flaw with the show.  And I’m only speculating on the end of the series here, it could go on for much much longer and I honestly hope it does, there is so much that the show has to enjoy with things like islands controlled by evil mermen, pirates with out of this world abilities and the incredible cast of characters to choose from, “One Piece” makes for a great anime.

Good:

-A great cast of characters

-Unique pirate/super power idea

-Vastly open story to follow and get into

Bad:

-The fact that some lands visited by the pirate crew feature only one topographical element

Scully rating: 9.5 out of 10  

Assassin's Creed 4 Trailer

(Article by Sean Dibble)

Last week we found out that Assassin’s Creed 4 was going to come out and we got a few details. Monday March 4, 2013 more information game out, one of this was confirming that Edward Kenway was going to be the main character for the game. This means that the game will do a first for the franchise and be set prior to a one of its games. The addition of piracy is a nice twist of things, but enough of me rambling on and on we all know you just want to see the trailer. So here you go watch enjoy and go out to pre-order this game which comes out October 29^th 2013 for all consoles including the next-gen ones that will be coming out in the future.