OVER THE EDGE NEWSPAPER. NOVEMBER 8, 2006 ARTS & CULTURE One Man and His Guitar TABATHA LUNDHOLM ARTS EDITOR This past Thursday October 26 saw singer/songwriter Josh Laurin at the Kizmet Café performing songs off of his upcoming album. What can only be described as folk/indie/pop/acoustic/ singer-songwriter and sometimes ska, Josh Laurin is a Prince George musical mainstay. (and Harmonica) Giving the listeners peeks into his new album; what he called his “song in progress’ was very beautiful, and vio- lent. Other songs feature fantastic lyrics such as “Ba ba ba ba ba...” Don't get me wrong, this is a great song, but just a little too catchy. I had it stuck in my- head for days. A twist to the evening was a ska song about a woman named Ska, and what she's done for him, Not something I was ready for, since I had sat down for an acoustic show. It just goes to prove that anything's possible. The evening also featured local poets doing a brief reading, as well as some quick songs during what I can only call an intermission. For those of you who don’t know, the Kizmet offers free cake to all performers who have the balls to get up on stage and sing, dance, or read whatever it is that they have to share. The show was good; you've got to love that harmonica. And the stupid thing is that we really like him! These Games Need a Home HAAKON SULLIVAN STAFF WRITER Abandonia Reloaded is a website dedicated to hosting games created by people who enjoy creating games as a hobby. The site is host to many of these home made games, and most are of good quality. Also on the site are games which have had their copyright license expire so you can also expect to see some classic titles there. All games have an editor and public rating giving you some direction in what games you want to download, Hete are some games that are hosted on the site: Final Fighter is a freeware tank game created by Sebastian Volland which is simple, yet- strangely addictive, It in- volves a top down camera view, the basic W ASD keyboard control scheme, and a right click firing control. The game has four maps, and each can hold up to- ten bots. Multiplayer is another feature. If one computer hosts a game, another petson can just join in if he has your IP address. The Al is very difficult to beat, yet if you use landmines you can't lose as they seem to like running into them. All in all, this is a very simple game which is worth the download due to the all the fun you can have fragging other tanks. Enigma, by Daniel Heck, is a very unique puzzle game which combines the skills of memorization, dexterity, and intelligence. What you do is roll a ball around running into bricks, boxes, switches, etc, The ball can be frustrat- ing at times as it can have a mind of its own and run into “death bricks’. The puzzles are made of matching two simi- lar types of bricks hit to making bridges by knocking bricks into water. There are over seven hundred levels in this title-so it will keep you preoccupied for a good amount of time. GameBiz, by Osiris Games, is a game which simulates the running of your video game production company. You start in the golden year of 1984, and progress up to the days of the Playsta- tion 2 and Xbox. This game is mostly text based and is not that difficult to play compared to other tycoon style games. Keep on top of the news such as public opinion, economic’ conditions and new hardware plans and become the best game producer around, Watch out though; bugs, glitches, and better games created by your opponents can quickly drive your company out of business. Trilby'’s Notes, by Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw, is a sequel to 5 Days a Stran- ger and 7 Days a skeptic. This adventure game has a completely different way of play than the other two, as instead: of ‘being point and click its more like point and type. You click on the area that you want to move to, and you type how you want to interact with the area around you. This can be frustrating if you're not a good typist or do not know what to type. This game has an excellent story, and should be looked at if you have an interest in horror movies or the adven- ture game genre. These games are only a small portion of what you can find on Abandonia Re- loaded, and if you spend time at this site you can find hours of entertainment. The address is www.reloaded.org and if you love the old fashioned DOS and Commodore 64 games, you should visit its sister site www.abandonia.com. Just Cause Game Review COREY WINTEMUTE STAFF WRITER I'm noticing that this Che Guevara fellow is on every second t-shirt I see. There must be some way we can exploit him even further and get some quick cash in the process. “I know, lets make a video game about a fictional South American revolution thinly veiled as the one in Cuba. Don't worry about game- play or a believable storyline though, as long as the picture on the front looks slightly like this Che guy the teenagers won't be able to resist.” This is how I would imagine the people in charge of Avalanche Studios came up with the idea for their useless debut game, Just Cause. The game is about an operative named Rico Rodriguez try- ing to overthrow the government of the fictional South American island of San Esperito, There are over 250,000 acres of free roaming level to explore by any vehicle you can hijack, and all kinds of side and bonus missions to keep you oc- cupied. Now I can almost hear you sali- vating at the prospect of Grand Theft Auto: Che Guevara, and believe me this was my initial reaction, but do not get your hopes up. Everything about this game makes it seem like it was just whipped up in two weeks in order to get something on the shelf and cash out. The graphics in Just Cause are not horrible but there are more important things than looking pretty. The ‘gameplay and physics of this game are mind bogglingly terrible. You will definitely struggle with the vehicle aspect of the game because they are almost impossible to keep on the road. There is also the fact that any time your vehicle gets slightly bumped your character decides to enter “stunt mode’, where he leaps on to the roof of his moving vehicle in case he feels the need to do a flip off the top and release one of his infinite number of parachutes he seems to have. Not only annoying but possibly the most absurd thing I have ever seen, The missions are long and boring and. tend to not make any sense at all. There was no way I was going to let this game steal more than a few houts of my time so its possible the missions got more in- teresting and enjoyable further on, but I would highly doubt it. The least they could have done was write in some be- lievable storylines or dialogue, or at least hire a voice actor that doesn’t sound like he came from the high school drama club. Just Cause is easily one of the worst games I have ever played, not only be- cause it was poorly designed, but be- cause the premise behind the game ac- tually had a lot of potential. For eating up two boring ass hours of my life I give Just Cause -5/5. | AMBER L. RICHARDS. STAFF WRITER The the newest album from The Cliks is called “Snake House’ Their band consists of Lilia Silveira, Heidi Chan and Ezri Kaysen, The Cliks preform in- die based kind of music. Indie style of music is new to the world today and I think everybody should listen to it more often, I-had a listen to their new album school and “wow”. I found that the CD was interesting with the upbeat kind of style that you normally do not hear on the radio everyday. The Cliks brought that kind of music that is warm and in the sense that you can listen to it day in and day COREY WINTEMUTE STAFF WRITER Vancouver band Conrad has released their sophomore effort Never Would Have Guessed. We Were All Blessed, taking four years between this album and their debut. The album is not too bad but definitely gets a little better each time I listen to it. From the album art you would im- agine that Conrad is a cute little indie rock band along the lines of Apples in Stereo or Of Montreal. The music is actually less straight up pop and more intricately layered jangly guitar rock. I think its important to note that Conrad is a simple four piece band, proving that you do not need to have ten or more members in order to get a lush wall of sound, Broken Social Scene I'm looking in your direction. The first four tracks on the album this afternoon when I got home from ~ out. Though I must admit, there music style isn’t something I listen to everyday. Their songs are nice, upbeat and still re- laxing that you can still do your home- work to. For me, personally, I have never heard of them before I plugged in their album but now, I am thinking of buying their self-titled album, The Cliks third song on this CD is a cover song of Justin ‘Timberlake's “Cry Me a River.” I. prefer this version over Justins because The Cliks have a better rhythm. It makes me realize that all those wonderful mem- ories of Justin are gone now. Most cover music is better the second time and the Cliks brought that. In this album, they have explored that it is nice to have some relaxing songs as well as nice jam songs: I think that if the Cliks put more songs on their CD, we would have heard more from their style on music instead of just 10 songs. I be- lieve that they are a good band and do make good music but I stand for what I say and they should of made more music for this CD. After making a short deci- sion about a rating for this CD, I give this CD I give 4 out of 5. Conrad: Great For First 4 Tracks ate very strong, and I do mean very ~ strong. “Ending 1st” has the mumbly sing along feel of a Springsteen classic. The standout track of the entire album for me is the song “Airstrike.” It clocks in at a crisp and short 2:39 and brings the driving bass line and pop hooks that I so crave, Not only the strongest song on the album but definitely one that will get heavy playing time on my Ipod. Larry Lechner's vocals on the first half of the album remind me of Robert Pollard if he were a young man and full of energy. Sadly though, it is from here that the album starts to trail off and get a little repetitive. With such a strong first half I actually have a hard time being critical of the rest of the album. There is no avoiding it though, almost every song past track four is boring and lacks a hook. I even stop hearing Pollards voice in Lechner’s vocals and start to envision someone like David Usher, and we know that can never be a good thing. The final two tracks serve as a slight reminder that Conrad can still bring the goods rock wise, but it is not really enough to make up for the mediocrity of the five previ- ous songs, Never Would Have Guessed We Were All Blessed is not a spectacular album but nevertheless is impressive for Conrad's second album. The stronger points on the album give me hope that Conrad definitely has the potential to be a great band and I will give any furure releases a listen. 3/5.