Opinion

Bug Not a Feature: ‘Hades’ was robbed

“The Last of Us Part II”does not deserve Game of the Year over“Hades”

ASTRID HERNANDEZ | MERCURY STAFF

BEN NGUYEN

Opinion Editor

“Hades” should have been 2020’s game of the year, not “The Last of Us Part II.” “Hades” is a unique take on the rogue-lite genre with a lot of heart and addicting gameplay, while “The Last of Us Part II” is yet another third-person action shooter that tries to question violence while keeping it as the main gameplay loop.

At the Game Awards of 2020, “The Last of Us Part II” swept up awards including Best Voice Acting, Best Sound Design, Best Game Direction and Game of the Year. This was decided by a jury of 90% gaming journalism critics and 10% popular vote. The Game of the Year award is granted to the game that is the “absolute best experience across all creative and technical fields,” while the Best Game Direction award is given to the game with “outstanding creative vision and innovation in game direction and design”. “The Last of Us Part II” painfully lacks all of these characteristics. “The Last of Us Part II” is a Naughty Dog action-adventure, thus having the same gameplay as basically any other game Naughty Dog has ever developed: a third-person shooter collectathon. As a sequel, it plays the same as the previous installment in the series, doing little to differentiate the gameplay in any meaningful way. In comparison, “Hades” weaves in the quintessential play-die-repeat gameplay loop inherent to rogue-lites directly into the story, making it necessary to progress the plot.

“The Last of Us Part II” explores the idea that violence is immoral and tries to make players feel bad about all of the killing they do, but the idea rings hollow in the face of the main gameplay loop: killing zombies and people. “Spec Ops: The Line” also followed this thread, but it confronted players even more by tricking them into making horrible decisions before facing the consequences of their own actions. “Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater” has a segment that forces players to literally confront the ghosts of the enemies that were unnecessarily killed. So, this narrative concept has already been explored at length, and “The Last of Us Part II” doesn’t seem to provide any new take on it. Rather, players are forced to kill people and bosses before saying “oh wait, they’re humans just like you!”

“Hades” puts the player in the shoes of the fictional son of Hades, Zagreus, who is attempting to escape the Underworld. Every death puts the player back at the House of Hades, where they can verbally spar with Hades, talk to a variety of other characters and progress relationships with the other gods ala dating sim style. Supergiant Games provides a touching, fully voiced story about family relationship issues that progresses Feb. 1, 2021 | The Mercury

ISABELLE VILLEGAS | MERCURY STAFF

Stability through civility

Who bears responsibility for riot at Capitol Hill?

JIMMY TEELING

Mercury Staff

The Democratic Party, not just former President Donald Trump, bears much of the responsibility for the Capitol riot. Many politicians and the mainstream media may tell you otherwise, but that is not the case.

It would be foolish to walk away from one of the most impactful events in recent history without pausing to consider what lessons we should learn from it. What led to thousands of Trump supporters protesting in D.C. and a small fraction of those supporters breaching the Capitol building? Four years of what conservatives believe to be baseless and unprecedented attacks from members of the Democratic Party on Trump and his supporters, as well as distrust in our government’s integrity, set the stage for the Capitol protest and riot.

The violence that occurred at our Capitol on Jan. 6 was a tragedy. Any form of violence and riots, especially when it leads to the deaths of other participants and law enforcement, is unacceptable. This is why many conservatives across the nation, including myself, condemn the violent Capitol rioters. However, it is important to differentiate between those who breached the Capitol building and those protesting peacefully. We must recognize that most Trump supporters in D.C. were not violent that day.

Even before Trump’s inauguration, Democrat politicians and the mainstream media had already begun the process of overturning Trump’s presidency. This was done through manufactured conspiracies and drawn-out investigations such as the Mueller investigation and partisan impeachment hearings, which failed to find Trump guilty of wrongdoing. These attempts to pin crimes on the former president led to major mistrust in the government among conservatives. Additionally, the effort spent on these prolonged investigations far outweighs the effort put into any election fraud investigation, displaying many politicians’ apathy towards the concerns of well over a third of the country.

Another issue that set the stage for the Capitol riot was the riots that occurred at the Black Lives Matter protests last summer. These set a recent precedent that political violence is acceptable in America, as some democratic politicians encouraged the violent actions BLM and Antifa rioters displayed in the streets. Even the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, an anarchist insurrection that ended up being deadly, was applauded by some democrat councilmembers in Seattle upon its creation. This new precedent is likely a major reason why a few Trump supporters resorted to breaching the Capitol.

Concern over election fraud was the final straw that drew protesters and rioters to the Capitol. Democrats, establishment politicians and the Courts dismissed the claims from Trump and his supporters without any investigation equal to the numerous investigations democrats pressed

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vaccine has an efficacy rate of 94.1%. How-ever, they differ primarily in the time inter-val between both doses and the minimum age group the vaccine can be administered. Ac-cording to the UT Southwestern Science Re-view Committee, the Pfizer vaccine’s second dose is given 21 days after the first dose and is administered to ages sixteen and above. In comparison, the Moderna vaccine is given 28 days after the first dose and is administered to ages eighteen and above.

When it comes to vaccine accessibility, storage and transportation play an integral role. The Pfizer vaccine needs to be stored at a temperature of -80 degrees Celsius and transported up to 15 days in a thermal ship-ping box. The vaccine can only be stored in a refrigerator for five days. In contrast, Mod-erna requires storage at a temperature of -20 degrees Celsius and can be stored in a regular

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“We tested 2892 individuals – 2559 of whom were students were living on campus – during the first two weeks of school,” Grief said. “43 positive results came out of those tests, and 42 of them were students…all of those results were from asymptomatic individuals.”

That corresponds to a positivity rate slightly below 1.5%, which compares favorably with UTD’s peers. Baylor, UT Austin, and Texas A&M have reported 1.4%, 2.2% and 5.5% positivity rates respectively from their on-campus testing programs since the beginning of this semester.

Students who have tested positive or been identified as close contacts are being requested to enter mandatory isolation, either off campus or in the Canyon Creek Heights residences. Matt Grief outlined the process as follows.

“When a student tests positive, come in close contact with an (infected) individual, or self-reports symptoms, the Dean of Students Office immediately contacts those students and begin contact tracing,” Grief said. “(Housing) then makes plans to transfer that student to isolation and identify any food allergies or dietary requirements… the Residence Hall Coordinators work with the student to make sure they get transferred, and will provide transportation assistance if needed. The facilities in Canyon Creek Heights are fully furnished, so all students need to bring are (linens), clothes, and whatever else they need to function for the 10-14 day period.”

The testing program, however, is not over simply because students have moved onto campus. Student-athletes continue to be tested regularly as they return to in-person competition. Additionally, UTD plans to continue attempting to head-off potential instances of community-spread throughout the semester by periodically selecting 7.5% of campus residents for random testing – an approach that Martín says is comparable to the successful proactive-testing strategies being applied at other universities around the nation. Those tests will be conducted in the Blackstone Launch Pad center, rather than the Activity Center.

In addition to the presumptive boost to general health on campus , Martín said that with student participation, the presence of a proactive testing program could expedite the process of returning campus to in-person – if still pandemic-constrained – operations.

“( A testing regimen) was really the missing piece of the puzzle that made us reluctant to opening campus last semester,” Martín says. “If we are confident that we are able to monitor the cases of COVID-19 on campus proactively, we’d like to work towards opening campus back up to more events and activities for students and student organizations.”

Feb. 1, 2021 | The Mercury NEWS

refrigerator for up to 30 days. While Pfizer is common in medical facilities, Moderna takes the lead in community centers and non-medical locations.

“Many community centers or places that are not medical centers don’t have minus 80 freezers. Research facilities often have these ultra-freezers because they use them to store specimens,” Trivedi said. “The Moderna vaccine is more available and accessible for communities, clinics, other types of settings.”

Trivedi said the vaccine industry could learn about storing the Pfizer vaccine through the Dippin Dots industry. The industry manufactures freezers that store ice cream at -122 degrees Celsius to keep the treats sphere-shaped.

“They have these huge refrigerated freezer trucks essentially,” Trivedi said. “There was a lot of talk of how if Dippin Dots can get their products across the country, there is a lot the vaccine industry could learn about getting the vaccines across the country.”

ASTRID HERNANDEZ | MERCURY STAFF

VACCINE

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the state transitioned into Phase 1B vaccinations on December 21, UT Austin – under their campus safety initiative, Protect Texas Together – has made a form available for faculty, staff and students who fit the 1B criteria.

“The form allows the university to request sufficient supply from the state, but scheduling will be based upon vaccine availability,” Trevino said. “All current UT Austin students, faculty and staff will be able to receive a vaccine once there is sufficient supply to meet the demand.”

Once COVID-19 vaccines become more widely available, Martín said that getting vaccinated will not be a university mandate unless specified by the Texas State Legislature. However, he said that UTD’s view on COVID-19 vaccination will be one of encouragement.

“There will be no doubt on what our stance on vaccines will be in the coming months,” Martín said. “We are going to do everything in our power to encourage as many people as possible to take the vaccine. We hope [for] a more normal way of operating in the fall of this year, but that’s only going to happen if a large proportion of our community has been vaccinated. That’s the way we’re going to finally beat this thing.”

JERKY

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10 said. “But with the pandemic . . . even with access to campus and being so close to all the students, I don’t get to have that same level of interaction with them. So, I have to do a lot more of my marketing on social media.”

The b usiness’s c onnection t o t he m ilitary g oes beyond a childhood memory: Jones credits his father’s GI Bill benefits with granting him the free time to develop Jerky Jones. As the business grows, he’d like to give back to the military community through hiring veterans and doing fundraisers for military families.

“The biggest thing I want [Jerky Jones] to become is, I want to eventually kind of give back to the communities I was raised in,” Jones said. “I’m really hoping that this business can eventually evolve to the point that I can use it as a tool to do all of that.”

PRODUCTIVITY

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“I think that’s kind of what we see when we look out – metaphorically speaking – at our campus community. It just seems like everyone has it together, when really underneath people are scrambling and not getting good sleep, delving into their relationships or taking care of their mental and physical health.” 2.Keep work and life separate

I, like many other Comets, had trouble distinguishing between work and life last semester. My room was my office, yoga studio, and sleep space all at once, and I often studied into the weekends and wee hours of the night. To cope with such a space constraint, Carrasco recommends physically orienting oneself in as many different environments – or parts of one’s environment – as possible.

“That might mean just very basically changing out of your clothes, going to take a shower or going on a ten-minute walk just to kind of notify yourself, ‘Hey, that part of the [work] day or that part of what I was working on or doing is over for now’,” she said. 3. Check in on yourself

Even after schoolwork and extracurriculars, many of us feel an incessant need to be productive. But this life is like a giant hamster wheel: if we keep on running and running and running, when do we ever stop? There will always be things to do, so we must make time for what we love amidst all of it.

“There’s so many components that make up our overall wellness, and that can be our relational wellness, that can be our physical wellness, that can be spiritual, that can be intellectual – all of these different things,” Carrasco said. “But when we notice some of those mental health or emotional symptoms – maybe it kind of looks like increased anxiety, spiraling worries or trouble sleeping – it’s important to step back and say, ‘Okay, what is off balance in my wellness wheel? What area is maybe not being fulfilled? What do I feel I’m lacking in or maybe spending too much time doing?’”

If school ever pushes you to obsess about intellectual wellness or neglect your mental wellness, check in with your social contacts to even out the parts of your wheel. This could be as simple as texting a friend or video calling a loved one, Carrasco said.

Watching Netflix or doing yoga between classes may not feel like the most efficient way for me to spend my time this semester. Refraining from evening work or ignoring the advancements of my peers might not either. But in letting go of society’s toxic, impractical expectation that young people live to work and compete with one another, I will be spending my time perfectly well.

The Student Counseling Center (@utdcounseling on Facebook and Instagram) is committed to destigmatizing conversations about mental health and supporting students in times of distress. Do not hesitate to contact them at counselingcenter@utdallas. edu or 972-883-6413 to make a virtual appointment.

Feb. 1, 2021 | The Mercury SPORTS/OPINION

BASKETBALL

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for COVID-19 at a time, Butterfield said the team’s intermittent schedule was often paused for individual cases. Having set out to comply with existing university and NCAA safety precautions, he said he had become increasingly frustrated as the season progressed.

“I just think about the big picture and that all our guys have been returned to health,” Butterfield said. “I think we all try to keep perspective. As important as this is to us, it’s still just basketball and a lot of people are going through a lot worse.”

The current season’s sparse competition schedule came as a disappointment to guard and senior finance major Dimitrius Underwood, who is finishing out his fifth and final season with the Comets. Having only recently recovered from a wrist injury, he was unable to participate in much of the 2019-20 season.

“I’m just glad to be able to play any games,” Underwood said. “I love the guys that I’m playing with now… and so for me, just being able to be around them every day, even if we don’t get to play a lot of games is a blessing.”

For senior players like himself, Underwood said the ongoing pandemic necessitated additional leadership off the court, especially in guiding players towards being responsible and not jeopardizing the team.

Looking towards the remainder of the season, Underwood said he was particularly worried about the potential cancellation of the NCAA Division-III Tournament. However, he said that having seen most of the team already recover from COVID-19, he predicted the rest of the season would allow the team to play more games.

Having been relatively inactive, Butterfield said the team would be continuing their season in a more rested state than much of their competition. Despite the start of their season, he said he was optimistic about the team’s success in coming weeks.

“I don’t think we can be anything but optimistic. We have a great group of guys… and I feel like we have a lot of potential to play at a high-level this year,” Butterfield said. “The bulk of our games are still in front of us. We’ve just started up.”

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uniquely for every player in a genre that generally avoids fully fleshed out plots.

There are also issues with Best Game Direction being awarded to “The Last of Us Part II”. There was a notable crunch time implemented before the launch of the game, and a developer told Kotaku, a video game blog, that “This game is really good, but at a huge cost to the people.” “Hades”, on the other hand, never forced crunch time on its developers and instead actually implemented required vacations to ensure mental stability. Hades also greatly utilized the open beta development cycle, which tends to leave games in permanent early access and result in unfinished games. Any modern game development studio shouldn’t have to rely on crunch to finish games, as the disastrous results of Bioware’s “Anthem” and CD Projekt Red’s “Cyberpunk 2077” can attest.

“Hades” outperformed “The Last of Us 2” in both its gameplay and how it was made, and should have been the Game of the Year. The trending disconnect between gaming journalists and players continues to show that personal preference or smaller reviewers are going to be more important to players than journalists who can’t be bothered to learn how to play the games they’re reviewing. Rather than returning to a formulaic “Ubisoft Sandbox” or third-person action-adventure shooter, players should be looking for more games not developed by AAA studios for actual unique and entertaining experiences.

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against Trump. Some protestors and rioters during the “Stop the Steal” rally at the Capitol were drawn over election interference and felt that democrats had not provided adequate proof to dispel election fraud claims. Having Joe Biden certified as president while 73% of republicans distrusted the election’s integrity served as the catalyst for the protest and riot.

Many Americans believe that President Trump was responsible for inciting the riots at the Capitol. This belief has led democrats and Never-Trump Republicans to pass a second round of impeachment articles. These claims are simply not true. The longest quote from Trump’s Jan. 6 speech the democrats cited in their impeachment articles reads: “If you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore.” Telling supporters to fight for a cause is a common figure of speech and was not spoken in the literal sense. Kamala Harris’ speech at the Democratic National Convention contains eight instances of telling her supporters to “fight.” The claim that Trump’s figure of speech incited violence is dismissable. Additionally, Donald Trump encouraged his supporters to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.” While Trump encouraged his supporters to protest peacefully, he never encouraged nor incited any acts of violence.

The violence at the Capitol should not have happened. However, given the many years of unprecedented attacks and vilification from democrats and establishment “Never-Trumpers” targeted at Trump supporters, it is what we should have expected. Trump supporters feel ignored and silenced by Democrats when they try to voice their opinions on nearly every issue. It is important not to forget this quote from Martin Luther King Jr.: “A riot is the language of the unheard.” Trump supporters have not been listened to by the democrats for the past four years, and this is the unfortunate result. Much of the blame for this riot falls directly at the feet of the Democratic Party and the political establishment.

Our political system will not remain stable if we refuse to engage in civil and peaceful discussions with whom we disagree. It is time to end political violence by both parties. It is time to act civilly, and both democrats and republicans must participate in that change.