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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 25, 2000)
AGGIELIFE N & BARK, >usaders of Might and Magic System: Playstation Genre: Action/Role Playing Game Developer: New World Computing Gaming fans have enjoyed the Might and Magic , ne scries for many years now. Crusaders of - tfht and Magic puts a new spin on the series’ fa- 'j; iar world of sword and sorcery. P,^ ? The player assumes the role of Drake, a man 1 ^ o lost his family as a boy when the Dark Hordes icked. The action is set in a 3-D world where the peter is followed from behind like in Tomb 'er Bui instead of pistols and shotguns, Drake led with swords and magic. The game has a wide variety of weapons, irds and magic that can be obtained, so the meplay is kept interesting. Each weapon handles a bit differently and the aracter becomes more skilled with the J OiinnV il^P ns uses them more often. J IpBme goes for the different ^flls he can cast. The ordplay in the game is nice MY GOD!!') th a good array of different GABBY RUENES/The Battalion sword swings, and it helps in tight situations when the player is greatly outnumbered. The different moves, however, do not make the fights easy. In fact, most of the battles are downright tough. This is the main drawback of the game. There are too many battles where all the player can only trade slashes with the enemy. It is too hard to avoid being hit during hand-to-hand battle. The learning curve on this game is very high, and that can turn away many gamers. Any fan of the Might and Magic games would enjoy the chance to see the series in 3-D. The game can also appeal to any gamers who enjoy a good dun geon romp. Just be ready to practice be fore getting far in the game. (Grade: B-) — Gabby Ruenes Vuthor Kesey creates film about ’60s counterculture PIEASANT HILL, Ore. (AP) — For entesey, digital technology has made it )ss|)le to finish what LSD started back ithlpsychedelic ’60s. Working in a cluttered motel-room- imed-studio near his Oregon farm, the au- id an old friend, Ken Babbs, have just leted the first installment of a movie fflmlieir 1964 LSD-fueled bus trip across i'i 'publican StateC mer j ca — | 1C ^-jp immortalized in Tom ton agreed to the T /olipsbook Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. lance to fill the sen. Kesey, best known for his novel One e, t Wagner ancL : lev&Overthe Cuckoo'sNest, had always t !< <! because of [tended to come out ofthe bus trip with a , He, Intrepid Traveler and his Merry re play covers ofPranksters Look for a Koo! Place. ) yeaisthrough lespiterecruiting a Ilollywood film edi- latters. or,however, he could never get the audio eston and wife nsync with the pictures. Powered pffthe a performed it las. juBjenerator, the tape recorder had speed- tree weeks at Lone dup and slowed down when the bus did. et Theatre. H f ina iiy j us t broke our back,” said mfkrlion PhaCf ese - v ' llow 6 ^- Unlil now - iTlUUIcin vlldOv Babbg’ sorii Simon, and Kesey’s son, ife. transferred the film and the audio- lb a digital editing rig. With modem }#are and a turn of a knob, the sound U RMONT. Md. (AP ndpictures came together. Like Franken- dent Clinton have a A iein’s monster, Kool Place lives, instructor? Hvhen people ask what my best work pur president is a t ] ie p, USi ” Kesey said. “Thosebooks iaks about gd Chevy Chase rs after playing nine| 'linton on Sunday, e former “Saturday] comic said he has If about golf from Clinton anyone else, te whole time he'ste] :elling everybody In] , and he's happy,' 1 ! i. who played thegaif j i and his half brother t: | i. ?s Clinton evercuteffj course? >, he’s not said. ! it possible for the bus to become.’ Kesey had used the profits from Cuck oo ’s Nest to buy the old school bus and take his friends — known as the Merry Pranksters—to N ew York for the Wor 1 d’s Fair and a party for his second novel, Sometimes a Great Notion. The trip soon turned into more, for them and in the public imagination. Kesey, who had tasted LSD in govern ment trials, wanted to share it with the masses. A pitcher of LSD-laced orange juice was a sta ple ofthe bus refrigera tor. The Pranksters put on LSD parties known as Acid Tests. (The drug was legal then; by 1968, half the states had crim inalized it.) The bus, nick named Further and painted in psychedelic colors, became a counterculture icon. “I thought you ought to be living your art, rather than stepping back and describ ing it,” Kesey said. The bus is “a metaphor that’s instantly comprehensible. Every kid understands it. It’s like John Ford’s Stage coach with John Wayne in the driver’s seat just like Cowboy Neal.” Episode one scopes in on Neal Cassady, the wheelman from Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, who piloted the bus while turning out a stream of rhythmic rap-babble. “It’s what keeps this from just being ‘what I did on my summer vacation,”’ Kesey said. “We are keepers of the flame of Cassady.” The Proust-quoting Cassady, who had only a ninth-grade education, was a bridge between the Beats and the hippies. He died along a Mexican railroad track in 1968. Kesey said his cin ematic inspirations are Bergman and Fellini, but Kool Place is more like home movies. The story would be unclear without Wol fe’s book. But the images create an inti macy that makes the characters seem forever young, at a time when gas cost 28 cents a gallon. Episode one opens with an older Kesey and Babbs in lab coats, finding a key to a vault. “I’m scared,” Kesey said. “1 don’t blame you,” said Babbs. They open the vault and take out the films. The flick of a switch starts the clickety whirr of a projector. “We are keepers of the flame of [author Neal] Cassady” — Ken Kesey Author In California oilfields, a highway pa trolman pulls them over hut never suspects these college kids dressed like Tommy Hilfiger are packing LSD and marijuana. In Arizona, the bus gets bogged down in the sand by a river. In Houston, Kesey visits pal Larry Mc- Murtry, and the Pranksters lose one of their number to a bad trip. In New Orleans, they jam with a piano player in a bar and get thrown out of a blacks-only beach. Kesey is offering the film in video episodes in signed psychedelic boxes painted by him and Babbs on the motel bathroom’s floor and sold on his Web site, Intrepidtrips.com. “We’re the people who planted the seeds,” Kesey said. “Whether it’s artistical ly valid or not, we have to cultivate the crop.” “You compost it long enough and stuff will grow out of it,” said Babbs, a Vietnam helicopter pilot and longtime Prankster. Aaron Kipnis, a professor of clinical psychology at Pacific Graduate Institute who says the Pranksters turned him on at an Acid Test, said he is eager to check in with them again. “I can’t say whether it was the sub stance or the people, the environment or the time, but it moved me from be ing a street punk to being a spiritual seeker,” he said. ATTENTION MUSICIANS: f Honor Sockh Auditions for the University Symphonic and Concert Bands are happening now! : oi information or to schedule an audition please contact: Dr. Tim Rhea Adams Band Building 845-3529 trhea@tamu.edu i Miles Moving & Storage i . STUDENT DISCOUNTS . LIMITED STORAGE SPACE 77» Aggie owned & operated • Class of 2000 ting 25th LIS 111 w while you rej® llaneous fee opt® &M yearbook ons, call *********************************************** I New Graduate Course on Environmental NGOs! Register NOW for Fall 2000 | RENR 689: Leadership Development and Management for I Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) [Learn about Career Opportunities with Environmental NGOs, and their roles in Sustainable Development Research, Education, Action Programs, and Legislation Topics will include: • Philosophy and Development of NGO Leadership • Roles of NGOs in Sustainable Development Decision-making • Grant-writing and Fund-raising • NGO Stakeholders • Technical Skills for NGO Personnel • Environment-related Knowledge • Management • Financing For more information, contact: Dr. Doug Loh Department of Rangeland Ecology and Management Phone: 979-845-1551 Fax: 979-845-9749 Email: loh@tamu.edu ft************-********************'**'***-****'** rhe f ush School '''mSmN Government & Public Service , .—_—’ — — Lm —-—- jilr TfeXps A&.Vj University U.S. INTELLIGENCE AND NATIONAL SECURITY MAY 29 - JULY 3, 2000 As part of its new Certificate Program in Advanced International Affairs, the George Bush School of Government and Public Service will offer a masters level course this summer, “U.S. Intelligence and National Security.” The instructor for the 3 hour credit course is Professor James Olson, CIA Officer-in-Residence. Scheduled for Mondays through 1 hursdays from 5:30-7:30pm, the course provides an in-depth under standing of how U.S. intelligence operates (espionage, covert action, satel lite systems, signals intelligence, etc.) and how it contributes to national security. . You do not need to be a current graduate student at Texas A&M to register for this course or to begin rhe new certificate program. For more information call Nikki Jones at (979) 862-3469 or email njones@bushschool.tamu.edu The Advanced International Affairs Certificate at the Bush School...Check it Out ' 3 cuLinavn graduates cu stafifi Custom Sandwich "Bar Sc TdeU IDine. In focr Lunch or dinner fdrioate banquet 42 domestic Sc imported beers ^funday Champagne 'Brunch Carry cut menu DINE IN -k CARRY OUT * CATERING 2319 Texas Avenue • College Station • (979)695-0985 Graduating Seniors Only ENGL 210 & 301 Forcing Days - 2000 Summer I, II, and Fall Wednesday, May 3 9:00 am - 11:00 am Thursday May 4 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm Summer I Monday May 29 9:00 am - 1:00 pm Summer II Wednesday July 5 9:00 am- 1:00 pm Fall Monday August 28 9:00 am - 1:00 pm Bring confirmation from your academic advisor on letterhead. 224 Blocker Got Problems? See Dr. Drew and Adam at LOVELINE APR. 29 - 8PM G.ROLLME WHITE COLISEUM GREAT SEATS AVAILABLE MSC Box Office Brought to you by MSC ICONS with assistance from: The views expressed are not necessarily those of Texas A&M University, The Memorial Student Center, MSC ICONS, or MSC Town Hall. Persons with disabilities please call 845-1515 to inform us of your special needs. 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