Friday, October 8, 2004
Playstation 2 scores
a birdie in golf game
Review by Jeff Smen
staff writer
Sony recently released its fourth installment of its popu
lar golf series known as “Hot Shots Golf.” But after so
many sequels, is “Hot Shots Golf Fore” really worth the
money?
Simply put, the answer is yes. This game has every
thing a realistic golf game needs and then some. Unlike
like most golf games, “Hot Shots” is known for its funny
animal-like characters and the fourth game in the series
holds true to its predecessors. The character roster has
been bumped up to 24 golfers and 10 caddies, though
you only start off with 4 golfers and 3 caddies. Sony even
included some of their more famous characters from vari
ous other series. Jak, from Jak and Daxter can be un
locked as well as Ratchet, from the Ratchet and Clank
series. Expect Jak 3 and Ratchet and Clank: Up Your
Arsenal out sometime late this fall.
There are now 12 courses in all to choose from with
five courses coming directly from “Hot Shots Golf Thre”.
A par three course is available and the return of mini golf
mode made its way back to the series.
“Hot Shots” isn’t terribly hard to play and most gamers
will be used to the controls after playing for no more
then an hour. Hot Shots uses the bar system where you
have start the bar, let the bar go up in order to get some
power, and stop the bar in order to hit the ball.
The graphics are about the same as they were in the
last game, but you can definitely tell the water and the
characters faces look more detailed this time around. The
shadowing looks realistic and the option to change the
seasons makes the course look more realistic with leaves
‘Shark Tale* lacks bite
Will Smith provides the voice of Oscar in Pixar’s film, “Shark Tale.”
Review by Daniel J. Stasiewski
editor in chief
"Shark Tale” may very well be the first computer
animated feature that doesn’t dazzle or delight. It’s
a whale of a disappointment that lacks the simple
emotional arch to retain anyone’s attention through
the entire film. Unless an audience gives in to the
simplicity of the humor and the placid narrative, the
undersea world of “Shark Tale” doesn’t have the color
or class to stand alongside “Finding Nemo” or
“Shrek.”
Will Smith provides the voice of Oscar, a fish that
dreams of making it to the top of the reef. The big
time (gold chains, hot female fish, penthouse apart
ment, etc.) will have to wait until he’s done scrub
bing whale tongues for money at the Whale Wash.
Oscar’s dreams, however, lead to a problem when
it comes to get-rich-quick schemes, and the fast talker
finds himself owing his puffer fish boss Sykes (Mar
tin Scorsese) $5OOO. That’s not a problem until Sykes
ticks of the underworld boss Don Lino (Robert
DeNiro) and has to start paying for shark protection.
Don Lino’s edginess is may be due to his pending
retirement. Lino wants to leave the business to his
sons Frankie and Lenny (Jack Black). But Lenny isn’t
shark enough to handle the job. (He’s a closet veg
etarian for goodness sake!) Lion puts Frankie in
charge of making a shark out of Lenny.
Quick note here. Lenny’s character and the paral
lels with a gay coming-out story are overt and un
sympathetic. The writers use the idea of a vegetarian
shark in sophomoric and often unfunny way to fur
ther a story that is already riddled with stereotypies.
African-Americans and Italian-Americans are por
trayed in ways that may have been acceptable de
cades ago, but not today. It’s unfair to call the movie
either racist or homophobic. Simple and stupid is
more accurate.
Lenny and Frankie eventually stumble upion Sykes
goons taking care of Oscar for the unpaid loans. That
makes Oscar easy prey for Lenny. Even tied up and
fiTUMNT ore
blowing, snow falling, etc.
The biggest option added to the series has to be online
play. Online play has two different modes, four-player
mode or fifty-player mode. With four-player mode, a
player can join up with three other players online. Fifty
player mode consist of a player going online and playing
forty-nine other player in a huge tournament, though you
can’t trash talk your opponents in this particular mode.
Of course if you don’t have online play for the
Playstation 2, it’s always fun to invite some friends over
and play in multi-player mode. “Hot Shots Golf’ games
always make great party games.
If single player is more of your style, there are four
modes available to play. Tournament mode is where you
play another twenty-nine people for a chance to win tro
phies and unlock new courses. Vs. mode has the player
choose a player and compete with the computer with an
character. Beat the computer and you unlock the charac
ter the computer used. The training mode is always use
ful if gamers are in need of some practice or they’ve never
played “Hot Shots.” Mini-game is where gamers can find
an assortment of smaller games to play with friends or
solo.
Hot Shots Golf Fore is definitely worth the money.
With lots of extra golfers, caddies, clubs and courses to
unlock, it may take the average gamer a while to beat the
whole game. If forty dollars seems too much, “Fore” is
at least worth a rental. If you’re one of those gamers look
ing for a realistic golf game with realistic golfers, going
with Tiger Woods might be a good idea. But if you’re a
gamer who wants to play a golf game with crazy charac
ters but realistic fun courses, pick up “Hot Shots Golf
Fore.”
gagged, Oscar isn’t an easy fish to swallow, espe
cially for a vegetarian. When Frankie tries to show
his bro how it’s done, an anchor falls from the sur
face killing the great white.
From that day on, Oscar is mistakenly called the
shark slayer and shoots to the top faster than a fart in
a swimming pool. But Lenny’s knowledge of the
actual events puts Oscar’s fame in jeopardy. With
Lenny looking for a way to escape the business, Os
car and the shark devise a plan to make Oscar a real
shark slay and Lenny a distant memory.
“Shark Tale” is a film that is, at its best, mindless
entertainment and, at its worst, tiresome and trite. I
say this only after already making note of the intel
lectual abandonment of the main characters. Oscar,
Lenny and the rest are one-dimensional and the story
is too familiar to be considered entertaining. It’s a
film about fish that doesn’t need to be about fish at
all. Worse, it’s a film that knows it doesn’t need fish
and still embraces the ridiculous premise.
True, “The Lion King” and “Finding Nemo” have
used animals with human emotions and conditions,
but those characters were animals first. In “Shark
Tale” the fish aren’t important because our contem
porary, human society influences the film so much.
The timeless mythology is replaced with pop culture
references for instant gratification, a sad step back
for the computer-animated films.
It’s no longer enough to astonish an audience with
the intricate CGI designs that made even films like
“Final Fantasy” worth a watch. A friend of mine
said the other day this first bad movie establishes a
genre of computer animation, and I couldn’t agree
more.
The lack of creativity and a sense of “going through
the motions” do make “Shark Tale” the first real film
made to sell the CGI alone. That’s why the humor
isn’t really clever and the story is based in the action
and not the characters. The days of every film turn
ing out like a Pixar feature or “Shrek” are over. I
guess it was good while it lasted.
PIXAR FILMS
Students follow TV to
get taste of real world
By Jo Napolitano
Chicago Tribune
(KRT)
CHICAGO - With neatly pressed shirts and pol
ished shoes, students enrolled in a rigorous North
ern Illinois University marketing class modeled
after Donald Trump's reality show "The Appren
tice" look less like college students and more like
anxious business executives.
They take their work almost as seriously as ex
ecutives. One student, after being eliminated
from the competition much in the way Trump's
would-be apprentices are fired from his NBC
program, walked out of the room in tears, shield
ing her face with a notebook to prevent a student
film crew from chronicling her reaction.
The students are assigned a task each week, and
their performance is videotaped for review. They
then attend a tense boardroom meeting where two
Trump stand-ins, NIU alumni who run their
own companies, decide who to cast out.
For assigned tasks, students have collected
$10,905 for the USO, created an advertisement for
the student insurance office and sold football tick
ets at prices greater than face value, raising cash
for an alumni and visitors’ center.
The course, the brainchild of university officials
who wanted to bring "real world" experience to the
classroom, has caught Trump's attention. He re
cently lauded the program on the radio, delighting
university officials who had notified him of the class
weeks ago and heard nothing in return.
"I want to hand it to Northern Illinois University’s
College of Business," Trump said. "They are just a
little bit ahead of the pack. If I were 20 years old
again, I'd be in that class."
Unlike the reality show, where contestants live
in a swanky New York apartment and have a chance
to land a job with "The Donald” himself, the win
ners each receive $l,OOO scholarships, an A in
the class and bragging rights. The next best team
also receives A's but with half the scholarship
money. Students fired after the first competition
get a C but can improve their grade by writing a
paper.
Others let go along the way get a B.
The class, which started with 16 students Aug.
23, will end Monday with a winning team of five
students.
Funding for the course, including the $7,500 in
scholarship money, came from companies and in
dividuals who made contributions specifically to
the "Marketing Apprentice" class.
Six students have been "fired" from class or, in
most cases, handed an old cowboy boot and asked
to leave the room. The much-loathed leather pink
slip, which rests in the middle of the boardroom
table, has become a dreaded part of each meeting.
One of the two Trump stand-ins decided to use the
boot to bring levity to a tense moment, fearing the
words "you're fired" may be too much for the
students.
But even in being booted, there can be hurt feel-
Robert Oaf, 21, a senior let go at the end of the
Campus strikes
up a bowling club
By Meghan Whitesel
staff writer
If you like spares and strikes, then the bowling club
is for you. Anybody can join, and there is fun lurking
around every pin.
The first meeting was held on Wednesday at 6:30
p.m. in Reed 112. Even with the first meeting past, the
club is still uiging students to join. TTiere are only about
20 members at this point, but the group hopes for a
large turnout.
Who is starting the bowling club and why? Luke
Pietroforte, EEBD 05, has been aspiring to the club’s
creation since his freshman year. Going bowling every
other Friday made Pietroforte and friends appear to be
an “unrecognized club.”
“We would go and bowl constantly,” he said. “Fi
nally, someone suggested that we start a club.”
Taking this advice, Pietroforte asked the Behrend ad
ministration for the approval of a bowling club. He
applied in Fall ‘O3, and the request was granted in Spring
‘O4. Although die effort was approved, it fell through.
“There was a lot of misinterpretation on behalf of the
parties,” he said. “It was just a breakdown in commu
nication. We were not sure if we had the approval, and
when we did know, it was too late. We did not meet the
budget deadline.”
Because of its just recent approval, the club will have
meetings for this semester; bowling will be limited and
The Behrend Beacon |
second class, had a difficult time accepting his dis-
missal
"I was a little angry," he said. "It was early in the
game, so it was a little embarrassing."
Once they are fired, students are required to have
a one-on-one meeting with a faculty adviser to make
sure they are all right. The debriefing also gives
them the chance to talk about their performance
and learn what worked and what did not.
Oaf, who said he came to appreciate the lessons
learned from the course, was still required to come
to class each Monday to follow his classmates'
progress. All students in the class are invited to
meet with faculty and staff at a local bar after each
boardroom meeting to network and unwind.
"I don't look at it as a class, but as a job,” said
Jonathan Van Plew, 25, who made it to the final
round. "You get to find out what you're good at. but
you also get to find out what you need to work
Although it has been difficult to acknowledge and
overcome his weaknesses. Van Plew said he is more
confident about heading into the real workforce.
Apprentice class can dwarf the amount of time
students spend on other courses.
"It's a tremendous amount of pressure," said Dave
Haas, 22, who made it to the final round. "This isn't
the only thing I have going on."
Haas, a resident assistant who works part time at
a restaurant and is a member of a fraternity, said he
spent 20 hours on the class one week.
But the work has started to pay off, he said. A
company that heard about his involvement with the
class approached him about a job.
In an effort to make the class as authentic as pos
sible, students from the school's communications
department have been documenting each task in a
tape that is shown to the "Trumps" so they may
determine who should get the ax.
After going to the tape, one of the Trumps, Dean
Deßiase, told one group it was "working way too
hard and not smart enough."
"You're learning the right lessons," he told the
group. "You're just forgetting some of them along
the way."
After the weekly critique, the students are given
the chance to make a plea for their jobs, telling
judges why they shouldn't be fired.
While the TV show often leads contestants to
verbally batter one another as they desperately try
to stay in the game, students in the class are more
discreet; they vote off team members by ballot.
Their suggestions are taken into consideration, but
the judges make the final calls.
Joe Cullinane, another of the Trumps, said he and
Deßiase worked to challenge the students.
Cullinane said the two merged the teams, split them
up, changed elements of their assigned tasks and
handed the group over to two new Trump stand-ins
to keep it interesting.
Each twist will help prepare the students for what
they will face during the course of their careers, he
said, and so far, all of them have handled the
changes with aplomb.
"I would hire any one of them." Cullinane said.
will pick up in Spring ‘O5. The members plan to bowl
at least once a month.
“We would like to go as often as we can, but for now
it is going to be difficult until the spring,” Pietroforte
said. “I hope people do not get upset because we have
to wait until next semester.”
There is no cost to join the club. However, the offic
ers are trying to have t-shirts made for the club. Mem
bers can purchase a team shirt if they desire.
“The cost of the shirt is unknown at this point. We
hope to have a price estimate when we have the meet
ings,” he said.
Pietroforte and other members have ideas to help
spark interest in the club. They plan to help with com
munity fundraisers and hold a Bowl-a-thon. The game
winners for that month will be presented with a travel
ing trophy that will be passed to the next month’s game
winners.
“We want people to have a good time, and we would
like to see the club continue in the future,” he said. “We
would like to see more officer elections and have the
interest grow.”
“You do not have to be a good bowler,” Pietroforte
said. “We just want people to come out and have fun.”
As a student working toward a degree, Pietroforte
understands the value of club membership. He feels
that “if one is in a club, it looks good on a resume. It
shows teamwork and involvement.”