HAAKON SULLIVAN

STAFF REPORTER

Four dignitaries for the Queendom of
Falena are on a ship heading back home
with the faces of shock and disbelief
due to an unforeseen image of Falena’s
dark past. One of these dignitaries is the
Prince, and in Suikoden V you will help
guide him on an epic journey which will
shake the foundations of Falena.

Suikoden V is a Role Playing Game
(RPG) for the PS2 which is largely
based on a Fantasy story filled with
many twists, mysteries, and characters
(so many, that going into the story any-
more will spoil the game). The story is
also based heavily on politics, making it
interesting to any who like political in-
trigue. The game also has multiple end-
ings which rely on the choices you make
throughout the story.

Most of the sixty playable characters
in Suikoden V have interesting and
dynamic characterization making the
characters in the game seem more like
actual people instead of pixels. This re-
sults in you cheering with each of the
character's victories and feeling down at
each of their defeats. The Prince's per-
sonality however, is up to you as you get
to choose his dialogue whenever he is
expected to speak, Unfortunately, this is

Review On A Paper
DANIEL YULE
CONTRIBUTER

Imagine you are a big
movie studio executive, and
someone is pitching you a
movie. They say, “OK, so
there are these snakes, right?
And then there is a plane,

OVER THE EDGE NEWSPAPER. SEPTEMBER 13, 2006

not yety often.

Gameplay in Suikoden V is not the
best I have seen in the genre, but it
does bring some interesting ideas into
it. Combat is split into three sections:
one where you fight duels one-on-one,
one where you fight skirmishes with a
six-character party and one where- you
fight campaigns with a grand army. The
duels are done in a rock-paper-scis-
sors style and hosts impressive combat
moves while being easy to pick up. The
normal six-party combat is interesting
as it contains unique rune magic and
co-operative attack systems. However,
the game uses the turn-based system in
a way which will sometimes frustrate
the player due to the fact that you have
to plan before the turn starts, letting a
lot go wrong during the turn. The grand
battle system is similar to a Real Time
Strategy (RTS) and has mini cut-scenes
of the fighting going on, getting the
player deeply involved in the combat.
The concept of strategy however, is non-
apparent in the first few battles,

‘The game is also partially cell-shaded
giving the game a mixed feeling of real-
ism and fantasy, making the game unique
in another perspective. A major problem
however, is that the game has a load time
between every few areas which would
make any impatient person squirm in
his or her seat. The music in this game
is excellent as it gives the feel of the loca-
tion you are in or shows the gravity of
the situation your party is in. The start-
ing movie before the title is also the best
I have ever seen, giving a good sense of
an adventure to come.

Suikoden V is a masterpiece by Kon-
ami which adds much to the series. I
would personally recommend this game
to any who enjoy a good story, but if you
centre only on fast paced gameplay, this
game may only be a chore to you. If it
does seem like a chore to you, let your-
self be immersed. in this beautiful and
deep world. I did, and now I can't put
the controller down in fear I'll miss a
smart quip from one of the unique char-
acters or a large piece of the puzzle in
the complex web of Falena's past.

right? And someone puts the
snakes ON the plane.” A sane
person would say, “That’s the
stupidest idea I’ve ever heard
for a movie. I hope you die
of syphilis.” Luckily for us,
movie executives are not sane
people.

Incredibly, director David
R. Ellis and writers John
Heffernan, Sebastian Gutierrez
and David Dalessandro have
managed to take the most
ridiculous concept for a movie
ever seen in Hollywood (and
that is saying something)
and turn it into an hour and
a half of intense fun. The
movie starts from the basic
assumption that its whole
premise is silly, so why not
have a bit of fun?

The movie spends a bit of
time setting up its motivation
(an angry mobster with a bat),

TYLER CLARKE
STAFF REPORTER

“Howel Knows Where the Cat Is”
TABATHA LUNDHOLM
STAFF WRITER

Gareth Howell is a newcomer to
the music scene who hails from Bur-
naby BC, working with the new Create

ARTS

fore listening to this CD, but after lis-
tening to it I found many of the songs
were recognizable. Specifically “It Looks
Like Love,’ and the instrumental “La
Costa Blanca.’ These two songs, back to
back as tracks 3 and 4, are the first high-
lights of the album. The other highlight
arrives with track 7's “Givin' It up.’
These 3 key tracks are the loudest,

“Both relaxing, and overall
quite happy, this makes for
a great summer CD’

most pop-orientated songs on the al-

bum. The rest of it somewhat lounge-

orientated, much like Feist's Let It Die,
Josh Rouse sounds kind of like a

Records in Calgary. His band, Skiirble
Frabnéss, just released they're first al-
bum, Exit from Insanity. This instru-
mental, but still impressively different
album features things like the ukulele
and small antique piano. To say that
this is unlike anything else would be an
insult. This band is so beyond the ped-
estrian and ordinary.

While one can't say that it's a lyric-
ally bursting album, the songs that do
include lyrics are either moving, or just
fit in well with the music. There are 15
tracks on the album, with 6 of them
having lyrics. With vocals by Joanna
Boctor, Howel combines the harmoni-
ous voice of Boctor with lyrics that
makes one wonder where the cat really
is. Also, the song One Calm Night tells
the listener that “reality is fading fast in
your head / Believe words you speak of
they will listen to your thoughts.’ Some
of the songs include very Pink Floyd-
esque lyric-less vocals; think The Great
Gig in the Sky, but with a groovier beat.

Josh Rouse isn’t a name I'd heard be-

13

wounded animal on some songs, and
more confident on others. The more
confident others make up the high-
lights, and the wounded animals make
up the filler. There aren't any bad songs
on this album; there are just mediocre
songs, and great songs. The mediocre
out-number the great, as is the case
with most albums, but Rouse's brand
of piano-guitar pop is, at certain places,
quite unique and ear-pleasing, which
boosts this album above-average.

Both relaxing, and overall quite happy,
this made for a great summer CD, Even
the song “Givin Ie Up,’ which is about
chronic depression, is quite upbeat, with
extremely hopeful lyrics. This CD will
make for a great winter CD, when you

need reminding about how much better
the summer was.

Or maybe Moby.

The album also contains a somewhat
sentimental vibe with the songs Kettle
Crooked, and Arlee's Romp (Arlee be-
ing Howel’s wife). Kettle Crooked, on
the other hand, is dedicated to Will
Pernitsky who drowned on New Year's
Eve in 2002 (this information can be

“This band is so beyond the

pedestrian and ordinary.’

found in the liner notes).

Songs to definitely listen to
wearing headphones on the bus would
be Poons the Warrior, Home Eternal,
and Dirty Non-Encounters Take 1,
which was written by Pat Earley.

This is a great album for an
intriguing newcomer. I look forward to
hearing more from them, Bravo.

but quickly moves on to the
introduction of a collection
of characters reminiscent of
the Zucker Brothers’ Airplane
movies. In fact, a lot of the
movie is very reminiscent

of Airplane, right down to
some of the lines. At times
it seems almost as if there are
two movies happening at the
same time: Airplane III and
Anaconda: Airborne. This is
probably because the movie
was shot in two sections.

The movie was shot, and
then significant parts were
re-shot in response to the
blogosphere’s fascination with
it.

The comedy is very well
done on the whole. This is
perhaps the funniest movie
to come out this summer.

The horror is cheesy, but
surprisingly well thought out.
They put a fair amount of
effort into making it believable

that a bunch of snakes on a
plane would a) be a reasonable
way to assassinate someone
and b) attack the passengers,
as opposed to laying around.
This is not to say it was
wholly well thought out.
Depressurizing the passenger
cabin to get rid of all the
snakes, for example, doesn’t
seem like the brightest of
plans. But the snakes are still
scary and they wreak good old
fashioned horror movie havoc.
Snakes on a Plane (or
SoaP, for the infatuated)
succeeds extremely well at
comedy and horror, but it
fails completely at any sort
of drama. There are several
relationships that are explored,
if you consider “explored” to
be a synonym for “attempted
with tediously awkward
dialog.” Complaining about
the lack of depth in a movie
like Snakes on a Plane might

seem pointless, but it kept
pretending to have some sort
of depth, and whenever that
happened, it took a nose dive.
SoaP is an incredibly
fun movie, as long as you
don’t take it seriously. If
you do take it seriously,
you need to have your head
examined, because the title
of the movie is Snakes on
a Plane. One does not
watch Snakes on a Plane for
intellectual stimulation. One
watches Snakes on a Plane
because it features Samuel
L. Jackson taking on snakes
with such weapons as tasers
and blowtorches. If hearing
Samuel L Jackson complain
about the motherf**king
snakes on the mother**king
plane doesn’t float your
boat, then avoid this movie.
Otherwise, you’re in for an
awesome movie.
6.8192 stars out of 7.3987