OVER THE EDGE NEWSPAPER. OCTOBER 27, 2006 HAAKON SULLIVAN STAFF WRITER - Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Ham- mets takes place in the Middle East in a country called Zekistan, The country was just went through a regime change thanks to a Western Coalition force and, as soldiers of the coalition, the main story of the game is to keep order in war-torn Zekistan. This game has real- ism as a main selling point, but this is not quite true and it really doesn't give the game much entertainment value. To start, in no way is this game simi- lar to other military games like Amer- ica's Army. This game is based on pure strategy with the only similarities with _first person shooters being the ability ello world: make! = « 4s that © need to borrow fifty. dollars. / -Fifty-doviars?! C29 2006 Ryan North I have the following announcements to the THIRD announcement to aim your grenades, tell your squad whete to fire, or to use a soldier's spe- cial function, The rest is taken care of by a small pointer which will mean life or death for your troops. Fail to bring the pointer to behind cover fast enough and your troops will become casualties quickly, The pointer is slow moving, and will sometimes not give the command to move or to take complete cover. Cover is the most important aspect in this game as the game has a‘one hit” and “three strikes” policy. It only takes one hit to make a soldier a casualty and if you take three or more casualties it’s game over. This makes the game very frustrating at first since this game us very different from others, but when you get used to going for cover and using other special commands, the frustration lessens a great deal. However, some aspects of this game will always be frustrating, Like a true battlefield, the situation is never really stable. If you clear out the enemy be- hind you, there is a possibility that an enemy will show up behind you. If you clear out the enemy in front of you and begin moving up, someone will pop up and shoot at you. Even if you destroy the enemy safe houses where they come out of, they still manage to sneak up on you. There are many strategies: you can develop to counter any deadly situation in this game but only after you have died multiple times and have learned from your mistakes. The first announcement 4s that Fr am awesome! YES; good sir! the money? perhaps? \ already Tike e wouldn't DANIEL YULE COLUMNIST Ryan North's webcomic “Dinosaur Comics” has been accused of hardly be- ing a comic at all, But it most definitely is one of the most clever to be found. The concept behind Dinosaur Com- ics is that the artwork never changes. The very first comic, the most recent comic and all the comics in beeween look exactly like the accompanying comic. The only thing that changes is the dialog. One might suppose that this who will Tend me Someone AWESOME, No, I won't lend you Fifty. dollars. owe me ghty! & Ps. you RATHER I and thirty dollars? ARTS A screen shot from Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers There are four different types of sol- diers in your squad: the team leader, the automatic rifleman, the grenadier, and the rifleman. You can also control other types of units in the third squad ranging from British snipers to the Bradley tank. Each of these units has a special func- tion. For example, the grenadier can fire his grenade launcher and the automatic rifleman has suppressive fire. All can throw smoke and frag grenades used to The second announcement vis that everyone within “ the sound of my voice i5 2 awesome! LATER: dol You doesn't leave very much room for varia- tion, but one might suppose wrong, ‘There are three “main” characters, called “main” because they are the only characters that actually appear in the comic. T-Rex is the comic strips main character, as he appears in every one of the strips. T-Rex will introduce the subject of the comic in the first panel, expand his idea in the second and third panel, and then the other dinosaurs around him will take his idea apart. In the third panel, Dromiceiomimus ap- Gods. give me fifty a fs! \ either conceal or destroy. Use of these special features is crucial for survival. The graphics in this game are a bit dated and the music plays in a fashion that presents the troops as heroes get- ting the job done. The characters in the _game are a bit stereotypical and have no problem yelling profanities whenever possible, making it a bit annoying after awhile. The lip-synching with the voice- overs of the characters also looks off. thanks, T~REext he | OPPOSITE OF HOW RELIGION WORKS Wale. GWant2 corn pears, and either supports T-Rex’ idea, or far more often, offers some mild criti- cism; In panel four, T-Rex tries to solve any probletns Dromiceiomimus brought up only to be taken apart by Utahraptor in panels four and five, Panel six is-a°T- Rex reaction shot.. In Dinosaur-land, all dinosaurs are named by their genus. Because of the never changing layout of the panels, each of the three main dinosaurs’ personalities are defined by their position in the strip. T-Rex is a sort of crack-pot academic, 23 7 iGN.COM This game is a unique experience, which centers on the strategy of urban warfare instead of the shoot-em-up fan- tasy current first person shooters display. The realism in this game may be a sell- ing point, but it also leads to its down- fall by making the game continuously frustrating. This game is good for those who enjoy heavy strategy, but those who enjoy first person shooters will find this game a major disappointment. whose ideas sound nice, but are actually crazy. Dromiceiomimus occasionally gets carried away with T-Rex's ideas, but is mostly uninterested. Utahraptor is a calm, reasonable thoughtful kind of -dinosaur who really likes T-Rex, despite always pointing out why he's wrong. Perhaps ‘the most brilliant addition to the comic was God. Only T-Rex can hear God, God often encourages T-Rex in his wacky ideas, and occasionally of- fers suggestions, which are usually even crazier than T-Rex's. God is, simply put, my favourite character in a webcomic ever. Also appearing is The Devil, who appears to have the mentality of a twelve year old boy. Other characters include a fly (named Morris) on T-Rex’s nose, the inhabitants of the house T-Rex stomps in panel 3, the raccoons and: cephalopods that live next door and occasional entire groups of people (such as the “Heterosexual chicks and totally gay dudes” from a re- cent comic about dating tips). Basically, Mr. North introduces what- ever character he likes so he can support whatever crazy idea it is hes talking about this week. As to what the comics are about, they are about pretty much anything and everything, From comics about forgotten homosexual affairs to a comic containing Mr. North's entire graduate thesis to comics about why Vitamin B12 is useful, dinosaur comics is almost impossible to surmise. Because of its inherent illogical nature ‘(talking dinosaurs!), we don’t know what to expect from it. Mr. North exploits this by simply making comics about any topic that strikes his fancy, The result is something spectacular.