If I Stay by Martha Pham
Modern Warfare 3 Review by Onur Zorteymur
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Matthew Albanese
AMC’s The Walking Dead: Season Two by Matthew Albanese
Assassin’s Creed Revelations by Christian Donnell
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Book: If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Review By: Martha Pham
Genre: Young Adult
Synopsis: Mia’s life was perfect – perfect family, perfect boyfriend, and perfect future. Then instantly, all that is stripped away from her. A part of her is detached from her physical body (now fatally wounded in a hospital), and she must either part with it and move on, or return with the wavering hopes of an unstable future. She is caught between the grips of life and death and this will be the most important decision she will ever make.
Review:
Gayle Forman’s new novel, If I Stay is a simple, bittersweet story. The story takes place over the course of one day and Mia helplessly listens to the people she loves begging her to stay. As each important visitor comes to see her physical, banged up body, they bring with them a memory they shared with her. The readers are then transported back to Mia’s past. With each visitor and each recollection, the main character slowly takes an unsteady hold of her final decision.
Forman’s characterization is strong and the characters were believable. Like the other elements in the story, they were clear and simple. Despite their simplicity, however, they each play a part in having Mia reach her final verdict. Her relationship with her parents contained no teenage angst (which is a plus – don’t you think that bit is overdone in YA as of late?). Mia’s relationship with her boyfriend and best friend was also nicely played out with love and care that was not dramatized. There was nothing overly elaborate within the relationships – which, overall, made the characters quite refreshing.
Occasionally, certain memories would drag on and certain parts of the writing seemed rather basic. Even if you don’t read it for the writing, at least read it for the plot! The story was perfectly suspenseful, and the bittersweet ending was, well, bittersweet. This is a book I would definitely recommend!
Rating: 4/5
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Artwork by Travis Joseph
Modern Warfare 3 Review
by Onur Zorteymur
It’s a yearly tradition for males of all ages nationwide. It’s a time when I stay up until 1:47 am finishing homework because I’ve spent my entire afternoon playing video games from the minute I arrived home.
Every year I pray that the video game crop will only improve on last years, and this year it seems that the video game gods have finally answered my prayers. I walked out of Wal-Mart with my copy of Modern Warfare 3 clenched in my hands as if it was some sort of valuable currency and I couldn’t contain my excitement for what wonders awaited me the moment I turned my Xbox on. Let me emphasize that Infinity Ward never ceases to amaze me. From the intense compelling single-player campaign mode, to the rage filled multiplayer, there is a little bit of something for everyone. Call of Duty fans will be pleased with the upgraded spec ops mode, with over 16 missions to keep the biggest “COD-junkies” satisfied.
The multiplayer aspect is the heart and soul of Modern Warfare 3. The maximum level you can achieve in the multiplayer is 80. Once you reach level 80, you have the option to apply “prestige”. Prestige mode unlocks new titles and emblems which can be used to customize your player-card. However, you lose all your weapons and unlocked equipment for the glory of a prestige player icon. You can prestige a maximum of 10 times in Modern Warfare 3 so there is plenty of replay value available for the die-hard fans.
The single player campaign is also a powerful aspect of the game. I must admit that it was without a doubt the best one in the entire franchise. The presentation is flawless. The action-packed missions will keep you on the edge of your seat. Most importantly, the story line itself is one like no other. It picks up where Modern Warfare 2 left off and ends the series with a bang.
Even though the multiplayer and campaign mode are the strong points, I was disappointed in the spec-ops mode. It feels as if it couldn’t deliver as well as previous Call of Duty games. Also, the survival game mode in spec-ops needs a lot of work. Surviving wave after wave of enemy combatants cooperatively with a friend is as cliche as it gets. I would rather have the return of Nazi-Zombies mode from previous games than spec-ops any day. For me, spec-ops just can’t pull it off.Most importantly, as much as spec-ops mode has been improved from Modern Warfare 2, Infinity Ward needs to find a replacement game mode for next year’s Call of Duty, it’s just not enjoyable to play anymore.
Overall, I’ll rate Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 a 9.5/10. The only thing I disliked in the entire game was spec-ops mode, other than that I highly recommend it to anyone and it’s worth every cent of the $59.99 price tag.
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Artwork by Jill Sergeff
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
by Matthew Albanese
It has been 10 years since the last major world power was declared “free from the living dead.” Max Brooks, an agent for the United Nations, is trekking around the world, compiling accounts from survivors of World War Z, or the Zombie War. Brooks takes us from the beginning of the outbreak in the People’s Republic of China to the International Space Station. The novel also ushers you, its reader, across the planet: one moment you are in Hope, New Mexico and then you are off to Hamburg, Germany. Brooks transitions smoothly, however, the plot flows well.
World War Z isn’t your standard zombie apocalypse tale. Characters are not hiding out in shopping malls or debating the existence of reanimated corpses that feast on human flesh. It is a tale of a conflict, told from the viewpoints of government officials, military members, and everyday people who fought and sacrificed so much. A vital element to the novel is humanity’s ability to endure and win the war.
The zombie outbreak begins in China, which the government covers up with a fabricated crisis with Taiwan. The overland smuggling of the black market organs precipitates a global outbreak. Israel is the only nation to fully anticipate the coming horrors and quarantines itself; the superpower nations do very little to prepare for the horrors ahead, which leads to a time called “The Great Panic.” Meanwhile, the U.S Army attempts a high-profile military campaign in order to restore morale to the public. Its failure is completely and utterly catastrophic. Panic sets in and major evacuations leave everything east of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains desolate. Countries around the world suffer similar effects and many civilians in the U.S flee north into Canada, where the zombies freeze in the cold. Because of their lack of preparation and their unfamiliarity of foreign environments, eleven million people die in the first few winters of the war. A tragic side effect of this mass exodus is the massive De-forestation across the Canadian wilderness. While the world is in desperation, a ex-apartheid government official, Paul Redeker, creates a controversial, but effective survival plan, which begins the twelve-year reclamation of planet Earth.
World War Z is not just a tale of zombies against humanity; it is a social commentary on the events affecting our generation. For instance, one of the reasons why the U.S government reacted ineffectually against the initial zombie outbreak was the recent endings of the “brush fire wars,” wars allegorically related to the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Central Intelligence Agency found itself in a manpower deficit because of its misguidance during those wars and could not focus on the growing outbreaks around the world. The novel also touches on survivalist and disaster-preparedness. The advice given to someone who was preparing his home for a zombie onslaught could easily apply to earthquakes, or hurricanes.
One reason why many Americans enjoy the zombie genre is because America is a nation of individuals. Those individuals believe that they can survive any situation, given the right “tools and talent,” a term used in the novel many times. During the war in the U.S, the survivors begin to flock to refuge centers on the West Coast, and the government begins re-educating people to do jobs that were needed. Movie producers were not needed anymore but farmers, custodians for munitions plants, and chimney sweeps were. The U.S. economy in the novel, as is the U.S. economy today, is a service-based economy and it took a major threat to humanity to force the nation to break away from that lifestyle to survive.
At the time of this writing I have read and re-read World War Z countless times, and each time I fall more and more in love. This novel adds intelligence to a genre that is overlooked and mocked, and sparked a new interest into the genre. You can see influence of World War Z in AMC’s The Walking Dead, a television adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s graphic novel. This series, which is in the middle of its second season, would not have emerged on a major television network ten years ago. In the past, zombie movies came into people’s minds around Halloween and then were soon forgotten. However, 2004’s release of a remake of George Romero’s Dawn of the Deadignited a new spark in the zombie culture. World War Z ushered in a wave of zombie themed remakes of classic novels, the latest being Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith, along with zombie content added to The War of the Worlds, Huckleberry Finn, The Wizard of Oz and others. The only place where zombies are more common now is in the video game industry and there are too many titles for me to discuss there.
I highly recommend World War Z to any and all readers. You will feel real emotions during your reading – if you don’t, then, well maybe you’re a mindless zombie after all.
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AMC’s The Walking Dead: Season Two
by Matthew Albanese
Author’s Note: I’ve chosen two of my favorite episodes of the second season of AMC’s The Walking Dead. Be warned there are spoilers in these reviews. I shall give the general plot of the episodes and then explain why I liked said episode so much. Again, there are spoilers ahead. Thank you and enjoy.
“What Lies Ahead”
AMC’s The Walking Dead began its second season right where the first season ended. The survivors have barely made it out of the C.D.C. (the Center for Disease Control), minus Jacqui who decided to end her life peacefully rather than at the hands of the zombies. The group now heads to Fort Benning, a self-sustaining military community, which in reality has over 120,000 army personnel at her disposal. While travling on the highway, they encounter the destruction and desertion of other cars and Dale’s not so trustworthy 1977 Winnibago breaks down, leaving the survivors temporarily stranded. While scavenging for supplies, the group encounters a “herd” of zombies, Rick orders everyone underneath the cars to hide themselves. After a tense hand to hand fight, Andrea (Laurie Holden) kills a zombie with only a screw-driver.All appeared to be clear, but Sofia (Madison Lintz) attempts to get out from underneath a car is chased by two walkers into the forest, with Rick (Andrew Lincoln) in hot pursuit. Rick manages to get to Sofia before the walkers, and he instructs her to hide until he detracts and derails the perusing zombies. Unfortunately, Sofia doesn’t run back to the freeway. Darn kids, they never follow instructions. The remainder of the episode is our group trying to locate Sofia, which leads to a moment where the survivors stumble upon a local church whose parishioners have already met the Almighty. Carol, Sofia’s mother (Melissa McBride) remains inside to pray. This leads to a poignant moment as Carol asks God to forgive her for the mistakes, namely wishing for her husband Ed to receive punishment (anyone who watched the first season will remember Ed got what was coming to him) and she begs God that Sophia be delivered back to her alive. Rick also has a moment to speak with God and he asks the statue of Christ for a sign that he is making the right decisions for the group, decisions he recently began to question. Rick receives a sign as he looks for Sofia in the woods; Rick’s son Carl (Chandler Riggs) admires the beauty of a deer and is struck by a bullet that kills the deer and leaves Carl wounded.
My overview: That’s the general overview for the season opener and it is a fitting opening episode because it gets you back into the world of The Walking Dead. Frank Darabont set the tone in the first season. His departure as show runner over the summer scared many fans of the show, including me. Thankfully, his successors share his views on how the show should run. Also, its good to see original The Walking Dead comic creator Robert Kirkman remains deeply attached to the show. The Walking Deadexplors the notions of humanity and survivability and the season opener throws both of those themes right at us. Shane (John Bernthal) slowly begins to abandon his humanity as he enters survival mode- a trait that I’ll talk about in my next episode review- and states in episode five “Chupacabra” that he’ll do just about anything to keep Lori (Sarah Wayne Callis) and Carl alive.
“Save the Last One”
I’m going to get this out there right now – this episode is the greatest episode of The Walking Dead. It features everything that this series offers overall in one 60 minute episode. The episode begins with Lori and Rick in the home of Hershal Greene (Scott Wilson), where he tells them that if Shane and Otis (Pruitt Taylor Vince) do not return from their expedition into town soon, then he’ll have to operate on Carl without the much needed equipment. Meanwhile, back at the RV, Carol’s sobbing over Sofia’s disappearance has driven fan favorite Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) to go out into the woods with Andrea to continue the search for the little girl. While searching, they stumble upon a zombifed camper who hung himself after being bit during the events of the apocalypse. Andrea, who is still debating whether she wants to continue living, looks upon this walker who wanted to end his pain with sympathy. This person wanted to die on his own terms, and in this new world that is one of the greatest gifts. Daryl asks her if she still wants to live and she answers by demanding that he kill the walker. Andrea still isn’t sure if she want’s to keep on living. Daryl kills the walker and responds, “Not much of an answer, waste of an arrow.”
Back at Hershel’s farm, Glenn (Steven Yeun) who has brought T-Dog (Irone Singleton) to get some medical attention and moral support for Rick and Lori, goes outside to make his first attempt at praying. He talks with Maggie (Lauren Cohan) who tells him “feel free to believe in God, but in the end you have to make it right.” As Glenn attempts to contact the Almighty, Carl momentarily regains consciousness and talks about how beautiful a sight that deer was in the woods. Sadly, he again loses consciousness and suffers a seizure. While Hershel prepares for surgery, Otis’s truck arrives in front of the house, Shane jumps out of the car – minus Otis- to deliver the equipment. Shane is clearly shaken and tells the group that Otis gave him the bags and told him to go on without him and that Otis has died. Through flashbacks we see that Shane and Otis were down to their last bullets and Shane, determined to save Carl, shoots Otis in the leg and manages to get the equipment while hundreds of walkers converge and devour Otis alive. Shane removes the only evidence of his struggle with Otis by shaving his head. The last images we see for this episode is what we saw in the beginning, Shane, now with a shaved head, staring into fogged bathroom mirror.
My’s overview: As I mentioned before, this is my favorite episode of The Walking Dead. With the twist at the end and the discussions about God, morality, and the reasons for living, it encompasses everything this show is about. Not to mention, there is plenty of zombie-killing awesomeness. There is a scene before Shane returns to the farm when Lori and Rick are outside. Lori says that “This world isn’t a place for children anymore” and feels that maybe it would be better if Carl were to die. Lori feels this way because she thinks of Jacqui, who ended her life in the C.D.C with Dr. Jenner (Noah Emmerich), and who now no longer has to be fearful of anything.Rick cannot think of a reason why its better for Carl to live in this new world until Carl tells Lori of the deer in the woods. “Not about how he got shot, or Sofia disspearing,” Rick says to Lori, “but something beautiful that he saw.” The world might be infested with walking carnivorous corpses, but there is still beauty in the world and Carl deserves to see that.
The Walking Dead isn’t just a zombie show. It’s a drama about people trying to survive, but not just physically. They are trying to maintain their humanity and the zombies are just obstacles in that quest. Other humans, like Shane, are becoming creatures of pure survival that are a threat to that quest. Rick is a man who is trying to keep his group alive but also retain their humanity. That’s why he hasn’t called off the search for Sofia, to write her off as dead would destroy him as a person. He’s going to do whatever he can to find her. However, Shane believes that she’s already dead and that they should stop wasting time and manpower on a “dead body” as he puts it.
The latest episodes of The Walking Dead have been using flashbacks that focus on the moments before the apocalypse or during the days of chaos and confusion, which are amazing to watch. Yes, we know where the characters are and some details about how they got there. But to see Lori discussing her marriage outside of Carl’s school while texting on her Blackberry, or seeing Sofia and Carl play checkers while Army helicopters fly over the congested freeway is excellent. Shane and Lori look on as the military begins firebombing Atlanta to contain the walkers and the scene is amazing to watch. Overall,the second season of The Walking Dead has been off to a great start. I look forward to the remaining episodes before the season takes a break until February. If you have not yet seen the first season, then you must go watch the first episodes. That season is on Blue-Ray and DVD, and you can find the episodes online. Every so often you can also catch them on AMC.
So tune in Sunday’s at 9p.m. for The Walking Dead !
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Assassin’s Creed Revelations
by Christian Donnell
Assassin’s Creed Revelations is the next chapter in the life of Desmond Miles who, as seen in Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, has just killed Lucie, one of his friends, after being forced to do so by the Apple of Eden. In story mode, you find out that you are in the Animus still and are on a beach. All of a sudden, you see Subject 16 appear, and he tells you how to get out of the Animus. You then become Ezio Auditore, and you are escaping from capture by the Templars. I don’t want to reveal too much of the story, so I’ll talk about the new and improved multiplayer experience.
The multiplayer mode has many new modes as well as old ones. The modes have four main categories: free-for-all, team objective, simple death match, and private. Free-for-all is aptly titled – it is a free-for-all massacre. Modes in free-for-all include: wanted, death match, corrupted, steal the artifact, and assassinate. Team objective is when you work with others to take out enemy teams. Modes in this category include: manhunt, escort, chest capture, and artifact assault. Simple death match is a category in which your character is the only one of its kind. You hunt others in a small area with no compass and no chases. Private is a category with all the game modes and it allows you to play with friends.
If you preordered the game, then you would have gotten a bonus mission, extra ammo capacity, and the Vlad the Imapler sword for story mode. You would also have gotten a downloadable soundtrack and movie. For multiplayer, you would have unlocked an exclusive multiplayer: the Ottoman Jester. If you are a Playstation 3 owner, then ere would be pre-downloaded content in the game: a copy of the full game of the original Assassin’s Creed.
This game has no drawbacks whatsoever. I give it an enthusiastic – 10/10.
