January 12th 2021

THENORTHERNLIGHT.ORG TUESDAY, JAN. 12, 2021

JAN. 12 - JAN. 18, 2021

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UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA ANCHORAGE

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Hitbox Review: Cyberpunk 2077

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Movie Analysis: Election (1999)

New UAA interim chancellor: Bruce Schultz

By Daisy Carter news2@thenorthernlight.org

On Dec. 14 former Chancellor Cathy Sandeen sent out an email saying her final goodbyes to UAA students and staff.

Shortly after, interim president Pat Pitney appointed Bruce Schultz as interim chancellor for UAA. This appointment started on Jan. 4, 2021.

“He was instrumental in preparing the UAA community to address the critical issues it faces.

He will be a huge asset to UAA as to the University of Alaska system, and I’m happy to welcome into the leadership team,” Pitney said in the UAA News.

The new intern chancellor has a bachelor’s degree in international business and German, a master of education in student affairs administration

in higher education as well as a doctorate in educational and organizational leadership.

Schultz started his career in 1992 when he was the administrative coordinator for UAA. He also served as vice chancellor for student affairs since 2009.

Schultz stated that he is honored to serve as UAA’s interim president, and is looking forward to advance UAA’s mission, according to a UAA News article “This University plays a vital role in educating the people of Alaska and ensuring communities across the state. I look forward to ensuring UAA continues with the progress we have achieved under the leadership of

PHOTO COURTESY OF UAA.

outgoing Chancellor Sandeen until we welcome UAA’s next chancellor in the coming months,” Schultz said in a UAA News article.

After the civil unrest

Bruce Schultz started his career at UAA in 1997 as the administrative administrator.

at the Capitol Building in Washington DC on Jan. 6, Schultz had some things to say about it.

“Discovery, inquiry and civil discourse are the pillars upon which

our university stands. We must work to maintain those pillars and condemn violence at every turn.” He said in an email received by all UAA students on January 7th 2021.

Pitney is said to make a permanent selection for chancellor in the spring of 2021.

PHOTO COURTESY OF UAA.

Interim President Pat Pitney appointed Bruce Schultz as Intern Chancellor.

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& AE Hitbox Review: Cyberpunk 2077

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By John Novotny content@thenorthernlight.org

After seven long years of waiting, Cyberpunk 2077 is finally here, just not in the state we were hoping.

Developer: CD Projekt Red Release date: Dec. 10, 2020 Platforms: PC [played], PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Playable on PlayStation 5 and Xbox One X/S, but full next-gen editions are coming in 2021.

Price: $59.99 This isn’t going to be a typical Hitbox article, but more of a platform for me to rant a little about a game that I love despite its many flaws. It will also be the last, at least for now, as I graduated last semester and will no longer be working at The Northern Light. It’s been a pleasure writing The Hitbox and hopefully you’ve enjoyed reading them.

Let me just start by acknowledging that Cyberpunk 2077 might be the buggiest big-budget game I’ve ever played.

I repeatedly encountered graphical bugs, such as characters t-posing during intense scenes and ran into brain-dead AI that couldn’t figure out how to take cover behind a box that was right in front of them.

In spite of all of Cyberpunk’s flaws, I still absolutely devoured it. I spent multiple all-nighters driving and shooting my

way through Night City and I don’t regret a minute of it. The only thing keeping me from starting another playthrough is wanting to see how the game plays after the developers inevitably fix bugs over the next few months.

Cyberpunk 2077 came out when I was in a pretty bad mental state. The only thing that snapped me out of it was realizing that the game that I had been looking forward to for almost a decade was coming out in a few days. Nothing besides literally game-breaking bugs could stop Cyberpunk 2077 from being a smash hit for me. Thankfully, the only bugs I encountered were purely cosmetic.

I managed to complete all the missions and side-gigs just fine.

The biggest surprise reveal in recent gaming history was no doubt the announcement of Keanu Reeves playing a central character in Cyberpunk 2077.

It’s incredible that Reeves doesn’t disappoint. He delivers every line of dialogue perfectly and it’s the exact kind of gruff you want from a guy with a vendetta against the biggest and baddest corporation in the world. Reeves’ performance had me hanging on every word he spoke.

Though sadly, there is no moment where Reeves delivers the iconic, “wake the f*** up samurai! We have a city to burn,” from the reveal trailer. Reeves’ character, Johnny Silverhand does take off and put on his aviators with sufficient

GRAPHIC BY MICHAELINE COLLINS

badassery, however.

The entire soundtrack is similarly excellent. From the doom-like combat music, to the varied in-game radio tracks, you can’t ask for better music to drive through the neon-drenched streets of Night City with. I’ve even come around on the hard rock songs of Samurai, Johnny Silverhand’s band. The songs are performed by the real-life band Refused and are perfect to do a little headbanging and occasionally throw up the horns.

The guns all feel surprisingly good for a game like this. The only point of comparison for open-world first-person shooters I had was the Fallout games, which have always had very lackluster feeling shooting. It feels incredibly cool every time to shoot around cover with a smart gun and waste an enemy, or just shoot through the cover all together with a tech weapon. Even the plain old assault rifle variant feels alright.

By far the highlight in combat however, is pulling out a katana and going to work on an entire squad. I once managed to wipe out a whole gas station full of

enemies before they knew what hit them.

Pulling out massive wrist mantis wrist blades filled me with a similar feeling.

Even the gorilla arms, which augment the user’s strength immensely, are fun to use and watch an enemy go flying back after one massive right hook.

The biggest testament to how fun the guns are to use is that even the pistols feel cool. Thanks to some slick reload animations, I never wanted to unequip Johnny Silverhand’s personal pistol, even if other guns did higher damage. The same went for the clothes I obtained. I always maintained a loose “rule of cool” where I equipped items that looked cool rather than had better stats. That system is actually viable too, since it’s easy to add hundreds of armor to an item using armadillo mods.

After 120 hours, I still want to just immerse myself in Night City. It realizes so much of its potential, but only time will tell if CD Projekt Red fixes enough bugs to fully achieve Cyberpunk’s promise.

SCREENSHOT COURTESY OF CYBERPUNK.NET

Jackie (center left) quickly becomes the main character, V’s friend (at least on the street punk life path).

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SCREENSHOT COURTESY OF CYBERPUNK.NET

Keanu Reeves’ character, John Silverhand, is just as awesome as Keanu Reeves is.

SCREENSHOT COURTESY OF CYBERPUNK.NET

One of the missed potentials of Cyberpunk 2077 is trauma team which are heavily armed paramedics that aren’t seen in action aside from a couple times.

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ONLINE PACKAGES There are three parts to an online ad package where ad images are featured: The Northern Light website (both the digital paper and the website itself), The Northern Light Facebook page, and The Northern Light Twitter page. Facebook and Twitter shoutouts will consist of three posts a week on each platform.This ensures that advertisers reach an optimal amount of viewers every week. Media ad content is especially useful during this time and a more affordable price compared to print advertisements.

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Movie Analysis: Election (1999)

By Daisy Carter news2@thenorthernlight.org

Considering How chaotic 2020 was, you might want to watch a movie that has dramatic and self-destructive characters.

“Election” is a great jaw dropping movie that is both chaotic and absolutely hilarious. ‌ “Election” was released on May 7, 1999, and was written and directed by Alexander Payne. The movie is an adaptation of Tom Perrotta’s book Election. ‌ It was nominated for 34 awards such as the golden globe award for Best Performance in a Motion Picture and an Oscar in 2000 for Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced. Reese Witherspoon won Best Actress in the Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards for her performance.‌ “A highschool teacher meets his match in an over-achieving student politician,” says a synopsis on IMDB.‌ Election stars Reese Witherspoon as Tracy Flick, and Matthew Broderick as Jim McAllister. This movie was rated R for strong sexuality, sex related diolauge language and a scene of drug use. It had a budget of about 25 million dollars.‌ According to the fun facts on IMDB, the spanish teacher featured in the film was actually Payne’s former Spanish and French teacher. . Another fun fact is Reese Witherspoon’s portrayal of Tracy Flick was voted as the 45th Greatest Movie Per-

formances of all time by Premiere Magazine. ‌ This movie is so incredible and chaotic. It isn’t appropriate for young kids, but it is a good watch if you’d like to see a petty drama. This movie has so much drama and many twists and turns. The synopsis doesn’t do it justice for how amazingly turbulent this movie is. ‌ The performances by Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick were so amazing. I enjoyed the story line between the two, but also the storyline between Paul and Tammy Metzler, a brother and sister who have an unexpected rivalry. The reason for the rivalry between the brother and sister is because the Tammy is in love with her best friend, but her best friend doesn’t want to be in a relationship with her because the friend isn’t gay. After that feud Paul was tempted by Mr. McAllister run for class president because he doesn’t want to be alone with Tracy. Once Tammy finds out that Paul is running she runs because she wants to get back at him after she found out that Paul was now dating the best friend she liked. There are many storylines which could easily get tangled up or lost but the writing and direction is so good that everything is coherent and the story lines don’t get lost in the film. ‌ Throughout the film the theme of morality is continu-

IMAGE COURTESY OF IMP AWARDS.

Election was nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing Screenplay based on Material Previously Produced or Published.

ous and each character has their struggle with it. While Mr. McAllester is preaching about how people need to have strict morals and that’s what makes people human, he is trying to sleep with his best friend’s wife who was fired because he slept with Tracy. I think that’s what this film is about, people who preach how we need to be more

moral are the same ones who are of the guilty party. It’s a really fun watch and I couldn’t recommend it enough. ‌ Do you have any recommendations on what films I should look into next? Send your suggestions to news2@thenorthernlight.org. ‌

IMAGE COURTESY BY CRITERION

Tracy Flick was about to run unopposed for president, but then a rivalry between two siblings change that.

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REPORTS

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UPD report: December 21 - 28, 2020 Total calls for service: 297 •

December 21: Non-injury traffic accident at UAA Dr. & Providence Dr.

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December 23: 1. Welfare check, 2. Assist other agency, off campus.

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December 24: 1. Mental health, 2. Threats to law enforcement, off campus.

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December 27: Drug paraphernalia at east campus central parking garage.

All information is provided by the University of Alaska Anchorage Police Department.

STAFF CONTACTS 3211 Providence Drive Student Union 113 Anchorage, AK 99508‌

A S S O C I AT E D CO L L E G I AT E P R ES S News Reporter Daisy Carter news2@thenorthernlight.org‌

Executive Editor Gabby Vance (806) 437-8805 editor@thenorthernlight.org‌

Media Adviser Paola Banchero‌

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