November 12

Wednesday | 10.29.2014 | MaceandCROWN.COM | Vol. 57, Issue 9

Artists raise money for local music at Artistree Festival

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Krendl brings illusion to ODU Antonisha Kelley Contributing Writer Paul Krendl, an illusionist, spun magic in the North Café on Oct. 25 as the headliner for Cirque du ODU. The room was dark, the stage set with lights and pop music echoed in the background as students enjoyed candy, pizza and candied apples.

Krendl, of the Magic of Krendl and Company, engaged the crowd with card tricks and audience involvement.

A female volunteer was chosen and told to pick a card. She picked a seven of hearts, labeled it and placed it back into the deck.

The crowd was amazed when Krendl pulled that same card out of his mouth.

Other illusions included sawing a woman in half, making his assistant disappear and making a $50 bill appear in a lemon.

He also called up a male volunteer from the crowd, whom he gave a black suit jacket to wear. Krendl’s assistant and volunteer tied Krendl’s torso in four knots at four points, as well as his wrists, neck, twice around arms and his back.

After he was tied, he and the volunteer stood in a shimmery cloaklike material facing the crowd. After few seconds in the cloak, both reappeared, but Krendl was wearing the black suit jacket still tied up. The crowed was in awe yet again.

For the finale he performed a dis

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Students gathered to rally against sexual assault and relationship violence on Oct. 24, 2014. Josh Caudell | Mace & Crown

Big Blue Take Back reminds ODU “It’s On Us”

Josh Whitener Staff Writer

Uniting together on Oct. 24, students formed a coalition pledging to end relationship violence and sexual assault at Old Dominion University’s Big Blue Take Back rally.

This was the first Big Blue Take Back event at ODU in five years. This

year, the students made up for that hiatus with a determined and motivated message to stop abuse, bullying, threats, stalking, harassment and relationship violence.

On a cool, clear night hundreds of students adorned blue garments and “It’s On Us” t-shirts, gathering in small clusters to sign banners and collect pins and pamphlets.

Representatives from ODU Counseling Services, M-Power and ODU Police had tables surrounding the open space in front of the steps of Kaufman Mall.

Student organizers flanked the right side of the podium while the left seated faculty and supporters.

Students matriculated to the front of Kaufman Hall steps as two student

organizers, Teneesia Moore and Saige Hill, fired the crowd up.

“Tonight we take back our campus,” Moore said.

Moore is the president of Ladies of Prestige and Excellence, an organization dedicated to help women become self-motivated and to increase their confidence so that they can become role models.

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We want it all: Marriage equality just the beginning for LGBTQ community Sean Davis Copy Editor Despite the recent legalization and expansion of marriage equality to Virginia and 12 other states– bringing the number that issue and recognize same-sex marriages to 32, the LGBTQ community is far from finished fighting for equality.

On Oct. 6, the Supreme Court decided not to take up a number of appeals concerning the overturning

of state bans on gay marriage in Virginia. The decision directly affected five states, and led to the overturning of a number of other states’ bans.

Same sex marriages are now open to 61.26 percent of Americans, or more than 189 million people, according to Human Rights Campaign (HRC).

Hampton Roads LGBT Center Director Mary Aab explained, in an email, that gaining the right to marriage brings with it a number of

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benefits for couples including taxes as well as adoption and property rights.

There is still ground to be gained however.

“We need to keep the momentum going and continue to advocate for employment and housing rights,” she said. “It is currently legal in the state of Virginia, and most other states, to fire someone just because they identify as LGBTQ. Landlords can also deny housing to the LGBTQ community.”

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Benson Kua, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode

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Mace & Crown Staff : Adrienne Mayfield Editor-in-Chief editorinchief@maceandcrown.com Sean Davis Copy Editor sdavi116@odu.edu David Thornton News Editor news@maceandcrown.com Veronica Singer Arts & Entertainment Editor Public Relations Manager publicrelations@maceandcrown.com Nathan Budryk Sports Editor Distribution Manager sports@maceandcrown.com Zachary Chavis Photography Editor photo@maceandcrown.com Alyse Stanley Technology Editor astan023@odu.edu Elijah Stewart Senior Graphic Designer layout@maceandcrown.com Jason Kazi Advertising Director advertising@maceandcrown.com Noah Young Webmaster webmaster@maceandcrown.com Jugal Patel Content Strategist

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Mace & Crown is a newspaper published by and written for the students of Old Dominion once a week throughout each semester and once in the summer. Originally founded in 1930 as the The High Hat, the paper became the Mace & Crown in 1961. The Mace & Crown is a primarily self-supporting newspaper,maintaining journalistic independence from the university.

All views expressed in this collegiate paper are those of the author, not of the University, Mace & Crown, or the editors.

Contact Information: Phone: 757-683-3452 Advertising: 757-683-4773

T w it t er

ODU Confessions

NEWS

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Read more about ODU sexual assault awareness at maceandcrown.com

Crime Log

Students rally against sexual assault and violence on Oct. 24, 2014. Josh Caudell | Mace & Crown From A1 “If you are here because you refuse to stand by and let another person be victimized, make some noise,” Moore said.

Students cheered and twirled blue glow sticks, raising them into the air while others applauded.

The event kicked off with readings from the Floetic Movement group, including two student poems depicting rape and abuse, and additional poetry about empowerment from student poets, Adrienne Rich and Lucille Clifton, read by associate professor of English, Tim Seibles.

Also present were representatives from Men of Quality and the Interfraternity Council. Men of Quality is an organization on campus for men that promotes healthy masculinity as well as gender equality.

Kishla Conner, vice president of ODU’s Active Minds organization as well as an M-Power educator, took to the stage. She informed the crowd about the M-Power education program before introducing Wendi White, Interpersonal Violence Prevention Coordinator for the Women’s Center.

In a calm and mildly stern voice, she stated the distressing facts of sexual assault and relationship violence.

“One in five women will be the victim of sexual assault before she completes her college education. One in sixteen men will experience sexual violence in his lifetime,” she said.

Pausing, she told the crowd of a statistic she’d discovered that day.

“Sixty percent of young students will encounter abuse in their intimate relationships, and stalking affects 3.4 billion people a year. It doesn’t matter if you’re black, white, gay, straight, a woman, man or trans[gender], young

or old; interpersonal violence can either happen to you or someone you love at some point in your life,” she said.

The crowd was hushed and remained collectively solemn as White continued to stress the importance of stopping sexual violence.

“This generation of students, all of you, will be tested like no other group or generation before. If we don’t watch out for one another, Monarch to Monarch, and keep each other safe, humanity is much less likely to pass this test,” she said.

White and fellow student organizers then displayed to the crowd the “It’s On Us” campaign video. Celebrities, musicians and political figures ranging from Jon Hamm to Common, Joel McHale to Joe Biden, stressed, in their own words, the importance of people taking a stand.

President Obama concluded the message urging viewers to take the pledge.

Students were then invited to sign the pledge via the “It’s On Us” app.

There, under the blanket of a cloudless evening sky, hundreds of students signed their pledge to stop sexual violence.

ODU is the first college in Virginia to partner with the White House in the“It’s On Us” campaign initiated by President Obama. In September, Hill was invited to attend a White House conference on sexual violence and to be a part of the “It’s On Us” campaign.

“We launched the ‘It’s On Us’ campaign. There were four panelists. I was the youngest. I was the only student and the White House personally called me to ask me to be there,” Hill said.

Students marched across the quad, holding handmade signs and banners.

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Some included slogans, others the names of victims of sexual assault.

Charged and determined the chant “Monarchs unite, march for our rights” echoed from the clustered line of event attendees and supporters as they continued back to the stage.

The Big Blue Take Back concluded just as it began, with resolute and informed Monarchs standing before the stage once more.

Almost as an epilogue, the students who remained at the event were offered a chance to share their personal stories of abuse or violence shortly thereafter.

Although no student approached the microphone with their own personal stories, two students shared the struggle of friends and family.

Keea’jah Baldwin shared “Elizabeth’s Story,” an anonymous story of one woman’s ordeal of overcoming her rape.

“One night I was at home and had gotten into an argument with my parents and was really upset so I left. I went to my friend’s house. This person was my best male friend and he had been since we were little and in diapers. He calmed me down and told me to go lay down in his bed, so I did. Later I got up because I couldn’t sleep so he gave me codeine so I would get some sleep. I eventually drifted off only to wake up to find him performing oral sex on me. I told him to stop but he didn’t. I was so drugged I couldn’t fight. He then proceeded to rape me. After he was done he told me to get dressed and go home.

I never told anyone out of fear. And now he gets to walk free and I have to live with that nightmare. But I will survive. I am amazed by how far I have come, but at the same time, I’m overwhelmed by how far I still have to

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2015 Virginia General Assembly Internship Program Paid Internship Temporary accommodations in Richmond during Session, which runs January 14-February 28, 2015 ODU Interns work a 40-hour week assisting a pair of Hampton Roads legislators

ODU students in all majors are eligible to apply A minimum GPA of 3.0 is required and students must be in good standing with their department and the university Students should check with their departmental advisor if they seek to achieve academic credit Deadline to submit applications is Monday, November 3th at 5:00 p.m. For more information or an application please contact Jacqueline Sayward at jsayward@odu.edu or 683-3152

go. In a few short days, it will be the three-year anniversary of my rape: three years of love, life and laughter, as well as three years of pain, frustration and sadness,” Baldwin read.

A small gathering of students remained and listened quietly as she spoke.

While services for students are available through the ODU’s Wom-

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en’s Center and ODU’s Counseling Services, a strong stigma is still attached to sexual abuse.

If you or someone you know is experiencing relationship violence or sexual abuse, please contact ODU Police Department at 757-683-4000 or ODU’s Women’s Center at 757-6834109 for help.

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From A1 “I’m overjoyed that all couples who wish to marry, or have already married in states outside of the Commonwealth (as my wife and I did three years ago), will now receive the legal recognition and protections that they are entitled to as Virginia citizens,” said Dana Heller, ODU professor and English department chair, in an email.

Echoing a common theme among vocal LGBTQ advocates, she added “there is more work to be done: economic justice, workplace equality and nondiscrimination, (trans)gender rights and more.”

The movement should be a “conduit to a larger conversation about equality and justice for all,” she said.

Much of the discontent centers around challenges faced by one group in particular.

The “T” in LGBTQ stands for transgender, or simply “trans.” According to the American Psychological Association, this refers to an individual “whose gender identity, gender expression or behavior does not conform to that typically associated with the sex to which they were assigned at birth.”

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation’s Media Reference Guide explains that the term “may include but is not limited to: transsexuals, cross-dressers and other gender-variant people.”

This group faces a number of specific issues and challenges including

Jessica Perkins Staff Writer Jess Baker, a blogger, mental health care professional and founder of the Body Love Conference talked body image with Old Dominion University students on the evening of Oct. 23 in the North Cafe. Banker is an active advocate for body love and acceptance.

Baker came to ODU to talk to students about the concept of complete and total self and body love. “The reality is that body image issues affect everyone,” she said.

Baker has pioneered several campaigns that support body acceptance including the “Smash the Scale Campaign,” mock perfume ads portraying different body types posing together, and mock Abercrombie and Fitch ads as a statement against the company’s refusal to make plus-size clothing, among others.

“The only thing you need to know about me is that I’m fat,” she said. “As a fat person in society I am labeled whether I like it or not. I’m labeled with three main things. I am a cultural deviant, I will never be what I’m supposed to be. I am an embarrassment to societies, so when people freak out about the obesity crisis and what America is coming to, I am what they are talking about,” Baker said.

“And I’m also your worst nightmare. I am the reason that you go to

access to trans-specific healthcare, sensitivity in institutions of education, awareness and respect, according to Connor Norton, a member of ODU Out. The rate of attempted suicide by trans people is 41 percent, compared to less than five percent among all Americans according to a report published by the Williams Institute and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention in January.

The rates for those that are bullied, unable to conceal their identity, openly transgender, between 18-24, multiracial, or have a high school education or less are all higher.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 20 to 30 percent of gay or transgender Americans abuse one or more substances, while about nine percent of the overall population does so.

The Center for American Progress attributes this to “minority stress… the negative effects associated with the adverse social conditions experienced by individuals of a marginalized social group,” as well as discrimination across a litany of fields.

Twenty percent of trans Americans have been refused housing and over 10 percent have been evicted because of their gender identity, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality.

Twenty percent have “experienced homelessness at some time in their lives because of discrimination and

family rejection,” according to the center.

Trans people are also disproportionately plagued by both bullying in grades K-12 as well as hate crimes in their adult lives.

“To not be fired for who you are, to not be beaten or killed for who you are. The hard part is getting laws and legislation to protect who you are, to help you transition to who you are, and admit that you’re not like everyone else,” Norton said Norton, who also serves on the Gay-Cultural Studies advisory board, stressed that one problem is tolerance as opposed to acceptance.

“I hate the word tolerance, because people shouldn’t have to tolerate who you are, they should accept you regardless of who you are. That’s what being a human is all about,” he said.

Much like the favorable portrayal in television that helped flip the numbers in gay and lesbian acceptance and approval of same-sex marriages among Americans, vocal trans people in the media are leading the charge for trans awareness and acceptance.

“Orange is the New Black” standout, Laverne Cox, visited ODU last spring to share her story, and has made a number of television appearances to talk about the objectification of and violence against trans people.

Her documentary “The T Word,” which explored the lives of several trans youth aired on MTV and Logo TV on Oct. 17.

While the majority of shows such

as “Glee” and “Modern Family” have portrayed LGBTQ people as, what Norton calls, “normalized, nonthreatening... and most importantly nonsexualized,” he believes the future might show another side.

“I think that we already see it slowly now, but I think it’s going to gather weight as it goes by, so that more TV shows are going to have more sexually active, developed, realistic LGBTQ / queer characters,” he said. “The next step for the queer [community] is for all of us queers is to show America why we’re not like you.”

Trans issues have caused tension and created rifts within different sectors of both the feminist community as well as the larger LGBT community.

Change the world, not your body

the gym so that you don’t become like this, and the reason you do all those diets, the reason you take all those pills, you do everything you possibly can because the last thing you want to be is this body,” she said.

She apologized for using the word fat so often because she realizes it is a “trigger word” for some people, but claimed that personally it is the word she is most comfortable with using.

Baker asked the crowd if there was anyone who could comfortably say they considered themselves to be beautiful or handsome. She was delightfully surprised at how many hands were raised, but assured the people who hadn’t raised their hands that they were not alone.

She explained that statistically, globally only four percent of men and women would actually call themselves beautiful.

“So that leaves the vast majority, 96 percent of us feeling inferior and not okay because of our bodies, it doesn’t have to be that way,” she said.

She continued to reveal a few very troubling statistics to the audience.

She said that 81 percent of 10 year olds are afraid of being fat. She also said these kids are not only afraid of being fat, but their fear of being fat surpasses their fears of cancer, wars and the prospect of losing both parents.

Therefore, 40 percent of fourth and fifth graders have already started diet-

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ing. Additionally, 91 percent of women are unhappy with their bodies and resort to dieting, or any means of trying to change their bodies , and only 5 percent of women naturally have the body portrayed in media.

“So we have the vast majority of people again trying to live up to this thing that they can never become,” Baker said.

“I talk about body image because the way we view our bodies determines the way we participate in the world,” she said.

Negative body image results in low self-esteem, putting life on hold, poor relationship skills, employment loss, people staying in abusive relationships for prolonged periods of time, the creation of or triggering of mental illness, dangerous eating disorders and suicide.

“We see so many people who would rather die than live in the bodies that they inhabit, and have been told are not okay,” Baker said.

“The key point of my message tonight, and I hope you take it away, is that there is an alternate reality other than the one we normally live in, where we can live happily by changing the world that we perceive instead of changing our bodies to fit within the world that we have right now. So we need to learn how to change our world and we don’t necessarily need to change our body… Happiness is not

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a size. Self-acceptance is not a size. It doesn’t matter what your clothes say, you can start loving yourself now,” she said.

She discussed with the audience how body-hate is not something people do naturally, it is something that is learned and a part of human conditioning.

“When we were kids we thought our bodies were awesome, right? We put our toes in our mouths and showed the world our stomach, we would flash everyone because we just thought our bodies were so cool,” she said.

As children grow up they are exposed negative social and media conditioning towards overweight body types she said.

“We feel these things occasionally when we look at larger bodies: repulsion or disgust, sympathy, hatred or amusement. The reason we have these reactions, involuntarily, is because fat bodies are only portrayed in our media in three ways, only three ways: Funny, stupid, or as villains.”

She asked the audience for examples of overweight characters in the media and got responses such as Peter Griffin, Homer Simpson, Jabba the Hutt, and Ursula from the Little Mermaid, proving her point.

“When we see a fat body being the hero, when we see a fat body being sexy, our brains break because we literally do not know how to process

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HRC angered a large part of the LGBTQ community by endorsing a piece of legislation called the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or simply ENDA, in which provisions to protect trans and gender nonconforming people were removed in order to boost its chances of getting passed through Congress.

“You tell them a woman loves a woman and they get that, but a man who wants to transition to a woman and marry a man: people don’t get that. And it makes me mad that we still have people on both sides of the spectrum that don’t get that,” Norton said.

For his generation, he argued, marriage equality isn’t the end, but the beginning.

it,” she said.

In spite of the fact that people are mostly surrounded by negative body media Baker suggested that people begin to find a way to introduce body positive media into their lives.

“I’m not the person that’s going to tell you to turn off your TV and burn your magazines, but what I will suggest is that you diversify your media,” she said.

Baker challenged the audience to stop talking about other people’s bodies with any negative connotations, and to focus on their own.

She also told the audience to recognize two of the most important concepts in body-love. First, letting yourself have bad days, while maintaining that the goal is to have more happy days than bad days. Secondly, she said that it all comes down to a decision: if a person wants to be miserable on a daily basis, or start living their life to the fullest.

“I was forced to make a decision.

Am I going to hate my body or am I going to love it? Those are the only two options I had, and a couple of years ago I just decided I was going to love it,” she said.

“Every single person in this room is perfect just as you guys are, and anything that tells you anything otherwise is fabricated to make money,” she said.

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To see a photo gallery of the Artistree Festival visit maceandcrown.com.

E N T ER T A I NM E N T

David Sedaris perormed readings from his essays and diary entries at the Sandler Center on Oct. 25, 2014. Courtesy ofLittle, Brown and Company

An evening with David Sedaris David Thornton News Editor Warning: This article features adult content The Sandler Center for the Performing Arts echoed with the sound of laughter on Oct. 25 as David Sedaris performed readings of some of his essays and diary entries.

Sedaris, a regular contributor to NPR and “The New Yorker,” punctuated his usually sophisticated and incisive social commentary and selfexamination with gleeful descents into off-color and vulgar jokes.

Sedaris was introduced by Blake Bailey, an ODU professor of creative writing. Bailey performed a reading from his own book, “The Splendid Things We Planned,” which managed to highlight the humor in familial struggles with addiction and self-destruction.

Then Sedaris took the stage.

He began his show with an apology to a woman with whom he, while signing books before the show, had declined to shake hands with.

“I got it into my head that shaking hands should be my idea,” he said, before acknowledging that it probably came off as rather petty.

He said that people often ask him to give shout-outs to various friends and family members before shows, “but I’m not Garrison Keeler,” he said.

Instead, the audience got an apology: “Hot pants. You know who you are. White hot pants. Look for her after the show. She was born to wear them.”

Sedaris then began a reading from an essay dealing with theories that he developed about people. He tested these theories by polling his readers at book signings.

Among these theories: men with beards have fathers who own guns, heterosexual men will never share a dessert and couples who honeymoon in colder places have stronger marriages.

After the theories, Sedaris returned to what was, for many of his fans, familiar territory - his family.

This meandering essay turned out to be a rather sweet examination of how he and his siblings began to grow closer to their father in his old age.

Along the way, he touched on a number of seemingly disparate subjects like a link-surfing child with ADD. Among these subjects were beach houses with irritatingly cute names (his own is named “Sea Section”), cancerous and deformed snapping turtles, southern hospitality (“Some people even wave at you from inside their houses.”), fad diets (“My brother put everything into his [blender]…

kale, celery, some powder scraped off a bee’s knuckles.”) and gun control.

“Since when is the government coming for our guns?” he asked.

“Honestly, can’t any of us walk into a Wal-Mart right now and walk out with a Sidewinder missile?”

In another essay, Sedaris discussed how different people can get different results with the same internet search, and the wholesomeness of his own computer.

When googling “how tall is Rock Hudson,” his computer tried to autocomplete with “how tall was Jesus?”

He said that on his sister’s computer, however, the auto-complete likely would have read “how tall is Russel Crowe’s dick?”

After the essays, Sedaris read entries from his own diary. Some were inane yet clever musings.

“The Washington Redskins should not change their name,” he said.

From A1 gusting but entertaining illusion.

“Kids, don’t try this at home,” he warned, swallowing six small sharp razors and a string of thread. While nearly choking, he pulled the string of thread out of his mouth with all six razors on the string.

The curtain closed, swallowing Krendl and the secrets of his illusions with him.

Illusionist Paul Krendl performs at Cirque du ODU. Oct. 24, 2014. Jake Maines | Mace & Crown

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“However, they should change their logo to either a red-skinned peanut or a red-skinned potato.”

Others were dirty jokes, sometimes told to him by fans at book signings.

“A woman goes in to see her gynecologist,” he said. “As the gynecologist began his examination, she heard him say ‘You have the biggest vagina I’ve ever seen. You have the biggest vagina I’ve ever seen.’ ‘You didn’t have to say it twice,’ she said. ‘I didn’t,’ he replied.”

Surprisingly, the classy, gray hair crowd laughed just as uproariously at these off-color jokes as the college students.

Sedaris finished the show by taking questions from the crowd. “What’s the hardest part about working in the writing business?” one individual asked.

“Writing,” Sedaris said, without hesitation.

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Haunted Halls helps feed families Natalie Sole Contributing Writer ODU’s “Resident Evil” themed Haunted Halls took place at Powhatan Apartments on Oct. 24 and 25.

Admittance was one non-perishable food item, which was collected and then donated to the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia.

Students were led through darkened halls while a voice-over narrated the tale of survivors who needed to escape a zombie-infested apocalypse.

Tour guides led each group through nine haunting rooms as resident assistants across campus adorned in ghoulish costumes popped out at their residents.

Along with the non-perishable food items, students were encouraged to swap $5 in flex points at the Quad P.O.D. Market or the Whitehurst C-Store to for passes that let them skip the lines during the events.

The donations allowed for a minimum of 15 meals for a family in need around the Hampton Roads Area.

“We’re looking to engage our stu-

dents in the citizen type concept.

As citizens of the university, we get involved in campus events but this [Haunted Halls] is also a provider of service to the community for the Foodbank. We’re getting [students] engaged through this way as well,” said Katie Uttich, the residence hall director.

ODU artists raise money for local music at Artistree Festival Formerly Localpalooza, the Artistree Festival took over the Arts District and Downtown Norfolk this weekend with a staggering number of acts rocking over 10 venues including the NorVa, The Plot and FM Restaurant.

The festival covered most of its bases sonically with a wide spectrum of over 100 mostlylocal bands and artists. From the spacey psychedelia of Virginia Beach’s Arms Bizarre, to the utter brutality of Washington D.C.’s Darkest Hour and the mind-blowing beatboxing

of headliner and hip hop icon Biz Markie, Artistree provided a draw for virtually every fan of music.

A number of ODU students and alumni also performed including rapper Era Hardaway and members of alt rock band Tomlin Hill.

The festival was held to support the Music 4 More foundation whose “primary focus is collecting instrument donations and recycling them” into underprivileged and underfunded school music programs, according to their website.

Arms Bizarre and Keith Murray perform at the Atristree Festival on Oct. 25, 2014.

Sean Davis | mace & Crown

Movie review: Fury Julius Ayo Contributing Writer This aptly named cinematic offering from director David Ayer was a gritty, heart-pounding action and psychological drama that unfortunately, fell for the typical tropes and clichés of Hollywood war flicks.

The title, Fury, perfectly described the energy of the whole film and its characters, the way they act with this mindset of everything is their enemy and they could die at any moment if they let their guard down. The film handled the psychological effects war can inflict on an average person

very well.

Fury, besides from being the title, is the actual name of the American Sherman tank which carried a five man crew led by Sergeant Don ‘Wardaddy’ Collier, (Brad Pitt) along with Boyd ‘Bible’ Swan (Shia LaBeouf), Grady ‘Coon-Ass’ Travis, (Jon Bernthal) Trini ‘Gordo’ Garcia (Michael Peña) and young rookie trainee, Norman Ellison, played by Logan Lerman. The film took place on the German fronts during World War II in which Pitt’s character must lead his crew on enemy territory.

What this film did well was show the brutal and raw depictions of the

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realities of war. There are times in this when the plot pushes the characters’ morals to their limits. Along with its psychological drama, it handled the rough and gritty action that normally accompanies war films well. From the tactical maneuvers of the tank battles to the close range solo action, each fight scene was very well thought-out.

Unfortunately, this film can’t have all the praises. One of its most noticeable problems was the script.

Although it was a strong grasp on the tension of the plot and the characterization of the soldiers, it could not distance itself from all the other war films that preceded it. As hard

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as it tried to be realistic, it just could not do without the infamous “death speeches” from characters proclaiming their hopeful-to-be-a-classic one liners on their last breath and borderline cheesy conversations between the characters.

The script did not feel natural at all.

It seemed as though some scenes were forced while others diverted into awkward situations and conversations.

Another problem with this film was that this was marketed as a “Brad Pitt war flick.” As great of a marketing move it was to put an A-list actor as the money grabber, it also took the praise away from the other actors who

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performed just as well, and defeated one of the main focuses of the film.

Fury is mainly about the relationship between the five-man crew inside the tank and how the plot tests their ties.

By focusing mainly on Pitt, it diminished the amazing performances of Bernthal, Peña, LaBeouf, and Lerman who individually held up to their parts.

At the end, this film did action and tension well, but fell short with the clichéd script and set pieces. Fury got better as the film progressed, but as a whole failed to live up to its larger ambitions.

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Sports

Get your head in the game at maceandcrown.com Swimming On Oct. 25, the Monarch men won with 155.5-140.5 over Towson, while women lost 182-118.

Football On Oct. 25, ODU football lost to Western Kentucky 66-51 at Smith Stadium.

Men’s soccer The men’s soccer team lost 4-0 to the New Mexico Lobos on Oct. 25, ending their three-game winning streak.

Women’s soccer Rice beat ODU’s women’s soccer team 5-0 on Oct. 24 at Holloway Field.

Women’s field hockey The women’s field hockey team beat Providence 2-0 on Oct. 24 at Lennon Family Field.

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Percy Harvin, a Chesapeake native, was traded from the Seattle Seahawks to the New York Jets. AP Photos | Seth Wenig

Percy Harvin: A double edged sword

DeAndre Taylor Contributing Writer

Percy Harvin, a Chesapeake native, was supposed to be the Seattle Seahawks most talented receiver, but with a history of anger issues, he has failed to live up to the hype. Last week he was traded from the defending champion Seattle Seahawks to the New York Jets.

The former first round pick of the Minnesota Vikings had a lot of potential, spending only four years there before being traded to Seattle.

Back then, the trade seemed crazy, but now the Vikings are the ones laughing.

This bust of a trade from the Vikings hurt the Seahawks, who knew they passed up the opportunity to draft receivers like DeAndre Hopkins or Cordarrelle Patterson in the first round of the 2013 draft.

Harvin’s anger troubles didn’t just begin in the NFL; they were also seen in high school and college. According to ESPN.com, Harvin was suspended from high school for contacting an official.

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According to Sporting News, during his college years Harvin got into a physical confrontation with wide receiver coach, Billy Gonzales, throwing him to the ground by his neck.

The Minnesota Vikings got a taste of Harvin’s negativity too, especially their former head coaches, Leslie Frazier and Brad Childress.

According to ESPN, Harvin and Childress were arguing in the weight room and Harvin threw a weight at Childress. The weight didn’t hit Childress, but it did leave a hole in

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the wall.

Harvin might be a troubled player, but he has great talent. In his high school years at Landstowne High School in Virginia Beach he helped his team to a 14-0 record and won a Group AAA Division 6 state championship. He also received the National Junior Player of the Year honors in 2005.

At the University of Florida, he helped the Gators in many big games and was one of the most dangerous offensive threats on the team.

His days with Minnesota were

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great too. He broke their record for the most single season combined yards and was named Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2009.

Having Harvin on the team can be like having a double-edged sword; he is a dangerous playmaker and can do damage to the other team, but his constant anger issues can also hurt the team as well.

Will his anger issues continue with the New York Jets? Only time will tell about the outcome of Harvin’s football career.

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M&C| WEDNESDAY | 10.29.2014| Maceandcrown.com

Washington’s quarterback non-troversy Alex Brooks Sports Editor The Redskins quarterback controversy is very simple to understand.

There isn’t one.

Colt McCoy took over the starting quarterback position midway through the game against the Tennessee Titans last week. He took the position away from Kirk Cousins, an early-round pick who was thought to be an ideal stand-in for injured superstar Robert Griffin III. There isn’t any quarterback controversy because as soon are Robert Griffin III is healthy enough to play, he will have the starting job again.

Cousins won’t take the starting gig because he couldn’t even keep it while “RGIII” was injured. Since his very first season, he has only won one, yes one, game where RGIII did not play.

Cousins’ one win was in 2012 against the Browns.

Kirk Cousins was the “savior” for the Washington Redskins last year, putting up some amazing stats.

One of the most proving stats was his win total, which was a big fat zero. How about his touchdown to interception ratio, which happens to be negative, at 18 touchdowns to 19

interceptions?

Cousins had a negative touchdown to interception ratio, with one of the most potent offenses in the league.

Give a quarterback like Andrew Luck a core of playmakers like that and they are Super Bowl favorites.

Give Kirk Cousins that and he will throw the ball to the other team more times than his own players, and will not be able to win more than a single game.

Kirk Cousins looks good to the fans who don’t really watch the games, they just check the stats and see that Cousins might have thrown for 250, 300 yards. But if those same fans watched the game, it would be very apparent that Cousins isn’t the answer to all the problems for the Redskins.

Cousins is a stat sheet stuffer but can’t get the job done in the clutch, managing to only win one game without RGIII. McCoy isn’t much better, but he wasn’t supposed to be taking RGIII’s job because of the way he was playing.

McCoy can come in and get the job done when his number is called. He just has to come in and not do as bad as Cousins had been doing.

Coaches are just filling in the void with whoever they feel best helps the

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team until the best quarterback they have is healthy. Everyone will be number two as long as RGIII is still on the team.

The worst part of all of this is now Kirk Cousins has no trade value on

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the open market. Before this season, Cousins could have brought in a few solid pieces, or a mid-round draft pick, now he will be lucky to get a contract when his tenure is up with the Redskins.

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So there isn’t a controversy at all.

It is a battle between two unproven quarterbacks fighting for the number two spot.

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M&C| WEDNESDAY | 10.29.2014| Maceandcrown.com

Technology By the Mace and Crown Technology Section Staff

Share your scariest gaming moment at maceandcrown.com.

Games that scared our pants off

Whether it’s headcrabs, the infected, necromorphs or creepers, everyone has that computer generated ghoulie that makes their hair stand on end. Just the sound of them approaching makes you breathe faster and hug that trigger button just a little bit closer. Instead of a “Best of ” list this week, our writers will share with you what video game moments have left them cowering under their covers. Tag us at MCTechie2014 or leave your comments in the online edition to share your own memorable video game spooks. And don’t forget to leave the lights on!

Victoria Wood, Staff Writer “My scariest video game moment came when I was playing “Amnesia: The Dark Descent.” It’s one thing to be chased around a level when you’re wielding katanas or a machine gun, but it’s another thing entirely to have nothing but your wits to keep you alive. The premise of “Amnesia” didn’t seem that scary at first. Playing as a man with amnesia that had to keep himself alive in a castle full of things hell-bent on killing him. But as the game progressed, and the character lost his grip on sanity, it really began to get chilling. Of course, it’s the sort of game that has to be given its own ambiance. Close your blinds, turn the lights off, the volume up, and try to stay alive as you wander the halls with nothing but a lantern. By the end of the game, I felt nearly as paranoid as the character. The overwhelming sense of tension and helplessness that comes hand in hand with playing Amnesia made me sleep with the light on for the first time in years.

Noah Young, Web Master

“When I got the Wii U on day one I also got the launch title “ZombiU.” Part way through the game you have to go through an empty daycare, which is already plenty creepy with the children’s music being played in the background. Just as you get what you came there for, you fall through the floor into the basement where you fight this white glowing electric zombie that messes with your radar (causing the gamepad display to be filled with static) and teleports when attacked. After beating it, you are asked to scan the dead body via your gamepad, at which point the screen gets filled by the zombie screaming and rushing toward the scanner. Mixing this with the fact I was playing this alone in a dark room in the middle of the night at someone else’s house, I was too scared to play the game for over a month.”

Alyse Stanley, Technology Editor “I never played a lot of scary games growing up, so when I started playing FPSs even the tame ones left me cowering. Bioshock and Portal were the worst – and yes, feel free to laugh.

The turrets spooked me so bad I hid in Ratman’s dens trying to work up the courage to face them on more than one occasion. But in Bioshock, when the “dead” bodies start to spring up at you near the end. No warning. No nothing. The first time that happened I ended up killing the guy only because my hands clamped down on my controller reflexively and covered the trigger button. I was so shaken up I just kept firing into the wall after he was dead, I couldn’t will my hands to move.”

Seann Barbour, Staff Writer “A few years ago, before “Amnesia” came along and became king of horror games, its developer put out a

series called “Penumbra.” I sat down to play the first game one night, and as I navigated an abandoned mine shaft I soon came across what appeared to be an undead dog. I hid behind some crates, keeping careful track of where the beast was, and managed to sneak past it into another room. As I investigated the room, I suddenly heard a loud crash. I turned, and the door had been broken down and the dog was upon me. I’d thought I was safe.

I was wrong. After being torn apart, I realized that I was shaking uncontrollably. I turned the game off and turned my lights on, and sat, staring at nothing, until I finally calmed down.”

Symmion Moore, Staff Writer “Survival horror is my favorite genre in gaming; it’s my bread and butter. That being said, there are so many things I could choose from, so I picked the only one that made my

hair stick up. The moment in gaming that really scared me was seeing the USG Ishimura in “Dead Space 2.”

The first game took place on a humongous spaceship and you thought you’d never see it again. There’s a key moment in “Dead Space 2” on the Sprawl where Isaac sees the Ishimura, and his response and mine were both in sync. It immediately sent chills down my spine as I remembered what took place there. Instead of the Ishimura being a cameo, Isaac has to once again go through the ship. Walking through the now derelict ship, remembering when Necromorphs came out of vents is literally terrifying. Even on subsequent playthroughs seeing the Ishimura sends chills down my spine.”

Robert Williams, Contributing Writer “The scariest moment in my his-

tory of gamming was traumatic. It happened when I was a preteen, unaware of the horror that a waited. I went to turn on my PlayStation to play “Kingdom Hearts,” but there was one problem. My saved games seem to not be there. I took out the disk and reset my system to check my memory card. There was still nothing there.

Ten hours of “Kingdom Hearts” gone.

All the characters unlocked in “Tekken 1, 2, and 3,” gone. Five hour of my “Madden NFL 98” draft never happened. I panicked, even teared up a little. There was only one thing to do.

I took my memory card out, took a deep, hardy breath and blew into it. I plugged it back in, said a small prayer and checked it again. Everything I thought I had lost forever was back where it belonged.”

Games to code by Seann Barbour Staff Writer Coding has become a coveted skill in recent years as more and more services move to a digital environment.

Professors preach its clout on an aspiring employee’s resume, and the number of books and websites on the subject are dizzying. But why learn the old fashioned way for a twentyfirst century skill? Especially when there are games designed to teach coding in fun, interactive ways if you know where to find them. Here’s a hint: that’s where we come in.

Recently, the BBC released a game based on its “Doctor Who” television series designed to teach

children the basics of coding. Titled “Doctor Who: The Doctor and the Dalek,” players progress by inputting a number of commands in order to solve an increasingly complex series of puzzles. As BBC Interactive’s Jo Pearce told the company’s news division, “The idea behind it is simply to use one of our biggest, most popular brands to inspire children to find out more about programming.”

Unfortunately, the game is not available outside of the United Kingdom, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t other games out there designed for the aspiring coder. The website code.org offers a free course on the basics of computer programming by teaming up with the popular

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“Angry Birds” videogame series. In this course, students arrange lines of code in order to guide a bird through various mazes, helping their avian ally to hunt down their pig nemesis.

When the course is completed, students have the option of continuing to a more advanced coding course on the site Khan Academy.

There is also “CodeCombat,” a free browser-based game in which players take on the role of a fantasy hero and explore a dungeon, collecting gems and fighting monsters. “CodeCombat” allows players to choose from a number of programming languages to learn, including Python and JavaScript, and the hero is controlled by typing commands into a sidebar.

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Because of this, “CodeCombat” is slightly more advanced than other programming games. The game also allows for multiplayer, allowing players to pit their coding skills against one another in honorable combat.

Other games, such a “Lightbot” for browsers and mobile devices, offer different versions. The free version of “Lightbot” provides about an hour of gameplay, and there are two full versions available for purchase on iTunes and Google Play: “Lightbot” for children ages 9 and up, and “Lightbot Jr.” for even younger players.

But children don’t necessarily need a computer to learn code from games. The board game “Code Mon-

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key Island” (not to be confused with the “Monkey Island” series of video games) uses a deck of cards with various commands to teach children the fundamentals of coding. By using these cards, players can move their monkey around the board. A similar board game titled “Robot Turtles” is also available.

Games like these can help prepare children (and others) for the digital world. Of course, students who are interested in coding can take classes at the university, but these games can provide a solid foundation for classes to build upon.

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M&C| WEDNESDAY | 10.29.2014| Maceandcrown.com

Time to ditch those wallets; Apple Pay has finally arrived Victoria Wood Staff Writer During the Sept. 9 launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, Apple discussed plans for a refreshed approach to near field communication (NFC) payment, Apple Pay. As of the app’s debut on Oct. 22, customers can now use their iPhone 6 devices to purchase goods at major chains like McDonald’s, Walgreens and American Eagle.

By utilizing secure onboard storage areas, Apple Pay allows its users to simply take a picture of their credit cards and stores the account data for future use. Once stored, Apple Pay designates a specific device account number for use during Apple Pay transactions.

Thanks to the Apple Pay, specific device account number, vendors are never specifically provided actual credit card numbers, making the process of shopping online or paying for items in person more secure.

This shopping method is available in person as well as online. The technology used to power Apple Pay’s in-person payment information transmission is Near Field Commu-

nication, or NFC. This is a feature that has been available on Android devices for quite some time.

Apple’s reasoning for avoiding NFC initially was explained by Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller in 2012 after the release of the iPhone 5.

“It’s not clear that NFC is the solution to any current problem.” Their implementation of the payment system Passbook on the iPhone was meant to compete with the Android enabled NFC. Shortly thereafter, it appears that with a new plan for security in mind, Apple began integrating NFC into their current payment options. Once the onboard storage chip, Secure Element, had been brought to life, NFC was able to serve a new purpose.

In light of the iCloud hacking scandal that took place earlier this year, Apple made it a point to assure users that their credit card data would not be available through the cloud. Credit card data is stored only in the Secure Element chips on iPhones and iPads, making it safer than if the information was stored in the Cloud.

With the added benefit of being able to disable phones through “Lost Mode” or wipe the device in the event

of theft, Apple has gone out of their way to ensure that their client’s information is safe.

Some of the other stores that Apple Pay will be available for use besides the Apple Store are Aeropostale, BJ’s, Foot Locker, Macy’s, McDonald’s, Panera Bread, Whole Foods, Walgreens and Subway. Other notable stores that will utilize this technology later this year in their stores are Sephora, Staples, and Urban Outfitters.

For online shopping, Apple Pay will be available for use inside Groupon, Target, Staples, Panera Bread, and Instacart. By the end of the year, Sephora, Starbucks, Ticketmaster, and Eventbrite will be added to this list as well.

At this point, the only banks participating in Apple Pay are American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citi, and Wells Fargo. Apple plans to add Navy Federal, USAA, USBank, PNC and Barclaycard to the list of participating financial institutions later this year.

For a full list of vendors available now and later this year, check out https://www.apple.com/iphone-6/ apple-pay/ for more details.

Zack Chavis | Mace & Crown

London calling: TechCrunch Disrupt London 2014 Victoria Wood Staff Writer TechCrunch’s highly anticipated technology conference, Disrupt Europe 2014 wrapped up on Oct. 21 in London. From the Hackathon held before the event to the usual excitement surrounding the Startup Battlefield, the London Disrupt conference was a huge success.

The winner for this year’s Startup Battlefield was Crate.IO, a big data startup geared toward simplifying backend data servers. Their open sourced platform provides a user friendly interface for their users to setup a distributed database cluster that can be accessed through a series of basic SQL queries.

Marketed as “Your Elastic Data Store,” Crate.IO could become a true presence for up and coming businesses, as well as existing clients that are looking to update their current data solutions.

Crate.IO is the first startup to win Disrupt this year with a solution that

transcends the lines between personal use and business use. Disrupt San Francisco selected the schedule coordinating app that assists with hired help, Alfred as their winner; the winner of Disrupt New York was the all in one contextual search engine, Vurb.

While Alfred Club and Vurb are certainly useful tools and deserve the notoriety of winning their respective Startup Battlefield competitions, Crate.IO’s business model was a delight to see.

In addition to Crate.IO, Photomath by finalist group MicroBlink is another project that received a fair amount of attention after the London event. In the days after Disrupt, Photomath received a swift boost in interest, and jumped to the top of the App Store’s download list.

Photomath is a mobile app that utilizes a phone’s camera to assist with solving mathematical equations. Not only will the app solve any math problem, but it will also show the steps that were taken to find the answer.

Kapitall is another project worth

mentioning. According to a write up

by Abigail Elise from International Business Times, the company’s focus is to teach the public how to effectively invest in stocks online. With classes on finance as well as the basics on online trading, the site is sure to save new investors from a few major headaches. Kapitall even allows users to process practice trades on their site prior to investing real money on trades.

This year’s Hackathon was quite exciting as well. Participants in the precursor event had just 24 hours to plan, design and code a final product for submission. The only specification was that the project could not be started before the beginning of Hackathon.

This year’s Hackathon winner was Infected Flight, a web app created on the backbones of some highly complicated differential equations that was designed to confirm whether countries were or could potentially be effected by diseases transmitted through travel.

Other projects worth noting at the Hackathon event were the runners up, Appilepsy and Seeusoon.

Appilepsy is an app designed to monitor the presence of seizures in people with epilepsy and notify their emergency contacts when they occur.

The method the programmers use to identify seizures is an algorithm that analyzes the phone’s accelerometer data.

Seeusoon is an app for long distance couples that monitors flights to the cities of each partner as well as cities between them. When an opportunity arises to meet, the app notifies the partners and even provides options to purchase tickets from within Seeusoon.

One of the highlights from the speaker panels was the Google Ventures Fireside Chat. During this panel, members of Google Venture’s European division divulged on a high level what their project would look like.

Armed with $100 million to invest in Europe’s latest and greatest startup

companies, Google Ventures plans to continue to foster growth in Europe through their own funding as well as through the help of co-investors.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer spoke at the conference about the company’s future changes that users can expect. Marissa Meyer’s main focus was to show that Yahoo was not the same company that customers were familiar with.

Meyer announced that Yahoo would be parlaying into the realm of media with the launch of Yahoo News Digest and Yahoo Magazines. She also drew attention toward a growing sector at Yahoo, their media department. Marketing the brand as a mobile first company, Meyer made it a point to describe how the number of media focused employees at Yahoo rose from 60 when she first arrived to upwards of 500 employees.

These programmers and speakers were just a drop in the bucket of those that participated in the London Disrupt event.

2014 Virginia Cannabis Conference Fort Magruder Hotel and Conference Center Williamsburg, VA | November 1 and 2 Facebook: Hampton Roads Norml

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M&C| WEDNESDAY | 10.29.2014| Maceandcrown.com

Nintendo dumps facts on the new Smash Bros.

Robert Williams Staff Writer Last Thursday, Nintendo held a special Nintendo Direct titled “Super Smash Bros. for Wii U 50-Fact Extravaganza.” The video featured gameplay showcasing new features in “Smash Bros.” for Wii U and was voiced by the “Smash Bros.” announcer. “Super Smash Bros. Wii U” will be releasing Nov. 21, a little over a month after the internationally successful launch of “Super Smash Bros 3DS.” The Nintendo Direct covered a whopping fifty newly revealed facts about the game, the most important of which are catalogued and listed below.

Additional Controls and Characters A total of 40 characters will be playable immediately, with additional fighters available to be unlocked.

Mewtwo will be added to both versions of the game as a free download. In order to claim the download, players must own both versions of the game. Mewtwo is scheduled to be released in spring 2015.

A Gamecube controller adapter will be released allowing four Gamecube controllers to plug into the Wii U. Additionally “Super Smash Bros Wii U” can be played with all of the controllers supported by Wii U or even a 3DS. The buttons for each controller type can be customized.

In order to use the 3DS as a controller, players must own the 3DS version of the game. Linking the 3DS and Wii U will also allow the player to transfer over customized characters and Mii characters.

Nintendo’s new amiibo toy line can be used to add “figure players” to the game. They will continually grow stronger and learn new strategies, allowing players to have a super powered side kick or more advanced

enemy.

The gamepad can be used to display the same visuals as the TV, or to display the damage information.

Pause screen photos can now be drawn on with the touch screen. An update will allow these drawn photos to be shared online.

Using the gamepad’s microphone, there is now a voice chat feature while playing with friends online. Voice chat will only work while in the selection and result screens, but not during actual battles in order to preserve signal strength.

Nintendo is working on a sharing feature that allows players to share pictures, mii fighters and custom stages with their friends as well as post them online.

New and Improved Modes Up to eight players can play at once in a special mode. This mode is offline only and will only allow certain stages to be played.

Stage builder allows the player to draw custom platforms on the touch screen. The player can also add various stage hazards and features, like springs, cannons and magma. Stages can have one of five themes and use any of the music you have unlocked.

Special match mode will be returning. Special match allows the player to customize certain aspects including character size, gravity, and speed.

Stamina matches, which were absent from the 3DS version, will be found here. Special matches will not affect player records.

Event mode will make a return.

In event mode, the player will fight in various themed battles. Clearing an event unlocks events on a map, as opposed to the line in the Wii game.

Event mode features a two player mode with separate events.

Smash Tour is a new mode similar to a board game. As players move around the board, they will collect fighters and power-ups. The final

showdown will be a stock battle where the player’s fighters are powered up based on the items they got on the board. The stock for the battle is each player’s group of fighters, so the more fighters the better.

Target blast gives the player a time bomb that they must use to destroy targets. Before the bomb goes off, it can be weakened, allowing it to be hit farther. The second bomb is a larger, more powerful bomb that also will take more effort to damage.

The stadium now features multiplayer mode. Up to four players can take turns on target blast or multiman smash and up to two can play home run contest.

Special Orders is a new mode where players take on special challenges issued by either master hand (master orders) or crazy hand (crazy orders).

Some features will be repeated

from the 3DS version, such as the “For Glory” online mode, a mode that features no items and flat stages for only the most competitive players, and Global Smash Power.

Stages on Stages on Stages To account for the increased player count in certain modes, there are multiple large stages featured in the game. These will feature “Danger Zones” and other stage hazards to create more hectic battles.

Master Core returns from the 3DS with a new giant form called Master Fortress. Master Fortress is a large dungeon like stage where the player must find and destroy glowing spheres without being killed by enemies. Master Fortress will only appear on higher difficulties.

Dual plane stages were introduced by showcasing a stage based on Donkey Kong Country Returns.

There will be a Miiverse stage that will pull posts from the Miiverse, Nintendo’s Wii U and 3DS social network, to show in the background to cheer on the players.

The stage Gaur Plain will feature Metal Face from Xenoblade Chronicles as a boss that will appear at night to mock and attack the players.

Pyrosphere, a stage based on the Metroid series, will feature Ridley as a boss. Ridley can join a player’s side, power up to Meta Ridley, and be knocked out.

Buying the 3DS and Wii U versions of the game and registering them on Nintendo’s loyalty rewards service, Club Nintendo, will allow users to get a special CD set with two discs, a red one with 36 songs from the 3DS game and a blue one with 36 songs from the Wii U game. This offer will be valid until Jan. 13, 2015.

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor game review Robert Williams Staff Writer “Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor” is an action role playing game for the PlayStation 3 and 4, Xbox One and 350 and PC set in the universe of “Lord of the Rings.” This game mixes “Assassin Creed” traversal with “Batman: Arkham” combat which delivers great gameplay to this compelling story.

The plot takes place between “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” books. Players follow a Ranger name Talion whose story set the tone of game. He and his family are killed

by Sauron’s armies and now Talion’s soul will not rest until he gets revenge for his family death. However,

he does not take on Sauron the dark lord alone; he gains an ally in an elf ghost whose memories are scattered and forgotten. One thing the elf does know is that he and Talion are bound with same urge for revenge.

To simply put it, the game is fun and the combat is a big reason why.

It is easy to fight and kill the enemies despite their relentlessness. The enemy Uruks swarm in large numbers and enemies are diverse enough to keep fighting fresh. In the early game, if you are not careful, dying will be a hobby. Unfortunately in “Shadow of Mordor,” dying is the last thing you want to do because of a new mechanic called the Nemeses system.

The Nemeses system is Sauron’s

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Army which is made up of randomly generated Uruks that are given names and unique strengths and weakness. These strengths can range from invulnerabilities to certain types of attacks to special combat abilities such as poison weapons and jump attacks. They also can have passive abilities which could include attack, defense and speed upgrades just from looking at Talion.

What makes the Nemeses system great and Sauron’s Army almost organic is how it directly interacts with player. When an Uruk kills you, he is promoted to a Captain in the dark lord’s army and is given new armor, new weapons and new strengths. The Uruks might even lose a weakness or maybe an old weakness is replaced

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with a lesser one. Each Uruk can eventually become a War Chief. They are pretty much like Super Uruks, only five are allowed in a given army.

Uruk Captains and War Chiefs remember each encounter the player has with them. Whether they kill you or runaway to survive another day, Uruks will give dialogue about the last clash you had with them and may even have battle scars or burns depending on how badly they were beaten before.

Sprinting climbing and running in the game is not as intuitive as previous Ubisoft titles might lead you to believe. Having played all the “Assassin Creed” games except for the handhelds, the movement in this game feels like AC 1 or 2. I found my-

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self running up walls I did not want to and being stuck on ledges I wanted to get down from. I will admit that it did not get me extremely frustrated until I was trying to complete the timed side missions. Luckily there is a fast travel system in the game so players do not have to run to every location you need to get to.

Overall this is a great game. With a story campaign just under 25 hours, this is perfect for a college student’s weekend. If you do have more free time than most of us, there are an abundant mastery missions and Trail of War leaderboards that add another eight hours to the game to keep players coming back for more.

M&C| WEDNESDAY | 10.29.2014| Maceandcrown.com

Creative

E NC L AV E Last Chance by Lauren Farley

Submit your creative pieces to the Creative Enclave by emailing artsandentertainment@maceandcrown.com The Feather on the Sidewalk by Lauren Farley

Standing, soaking in this downpour My naivety escapes me.

No longer an excuse The ignorance of innocence.

Age creeps on the youthful mind.

The more you learn Imagination slowly dies.

The belief in things once had Can never be returned.

Diamonds begin to lose their luster When the fairytale lies.

Stuck knowing truth that once A childhood bliss hides behind A faceless mask for comfort And hope never to come to rescue.

The golden finger trap Kidnapped my happiness.

This noose for freedoms last glimmer of hope Strangles it out to bring on a dark and uncertain time Like death And like being robbed of your last pennies Having been robbed the hour before.

And whispers in your ear ‘leave your husband and become a whore.’

So stuck So trapped in this downpour The contemplation Of the meaning of life.

These drops of rain hold on to me Begging for one last chance Like the man in my life Who calls me his wife And expects me to take This emotional beat down His words like blood to me will Cast me out and still Beg for one last chance.

SUDOKU

http://sudokucollection.com/

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The wind, this forceful wind Is my greatest enemy.

I, once part of a powerful Graceful, ethereal predator From above now lost Stuck in this blustery hell.

My family tree is one Of awesomeness.

I have been a symbol of power A chieftain’s call to fame.

My warmth is the fluffy innards of your pillows Scattered in a friendly argument Falling in a challenge Of Newton’s law of gravity Battling a brick never to win.

I have been beneficial to history Aiding in Recording, creating and composing great works.

Saloon girls used me to fan their faces And dressed their hair With my airy graces.

Your children used me To adorn their art work With extra flair.

I have been popular in Vegas And draped the shoulders Of well to do movie stars.

Their maids Whether for the bedroom Or for cleaning use me dutifully.

I have been the accents To a virgin brides bouquet Bright and hopeful On her special day.

But oh, this wind How it batters me My life is over Nothing great to come of me I have no job A homeless vagabond Just a feather On the sidewalk.

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Student L I F E

Hashtag #ODUpics to see your face in the Mace.

Powhatan residents and RAs don spooky makeup for Haunted Halls. Josh Caudell | Mace & Crown

Mace & Crown photo editor, Zach Chavis, shows his photos to the student actors from the play “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress.” Samson Dawit | Mace & Crown

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M&C| WEDNESDAY | 10.29.2014| Maceandcrown.com

Student actors from the play “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress.” Zack Chavis | Mace & Crown

Students speak out against sexual assault and relationship violence at the Big Blue Take Back on Kaufman Mall on Oct. 24, 2014. Josh Caudell | Mace & Crown

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