It’s been a hard year for Amherst. That seems to be the general consensus among students, faculty and staff as we bring the 2012-2013 academic year to a close. In fact, it seems to be the only thing we can all agree on: that the events of the past year have shaken our community in ways that few could have anticipated. Early in the year we were torn apart by a debate about the new location for the Multicultural Resource Center.
If you’re wondering who to vote for in the upcoming AAS Presidential race, the choice should be simple: go with the person who came to you.
Rarely does a game offer such imaginative potential and replay value that I opt to come back to it again and again. Even in the most content-packed games, I usually max out around 30 hours. But as I was recently browsing my library of downloaded PC games, I noticed something surprising next to one inconspicuous, low-budget game: “104 hours played.”
In the past few months, men and women across the U.S. have been debating guns. President Obama and his administration have called for tighter controls on the sale of certain types of firearms, while activist groups like the NRA have invoked the Second Amendment and shifted the blame from the widespread accessibility of guns to widespread violence in the media — specifically, in video games. Rather than butt heads with the NRA, the Obama administration has conceded the point.
I haven’t yet finished Assassin’s Creed III, and I haven’t even touched its multiplayer side. Yet this game, which I’ve anticipated since it was announced eight months ago, is already worth the buy. That said, I’m something of an idiosyncratic gamer, and what has always sold the Assassin’s Creed series to me is its varied environments, breathtaking cityscapes and thoroughly-imagined environments. This game brings back everything we have come to expect from an Assassin’s Creed game and improved on a number of areas.
Those of us who are truly into video games, who have been gaming consistently since we were small, all recognize and hold dear a certain nostalgia when remembering the games of yore. There was something special to them, and none of us are quite sure whether it was something intrinsic to the spirit of the game, or whether our perceptions had changed since we were six years old. Only now do I realize that nothing is missing from modern gaming, but rather something has been added. And that something is remorse. Mercy.
A few weeks ago a Best Buy employee released a photo of what seemed to be cover art for the upcoming game Assassin’s Creed III. It pictured an assassin in white, reminiscent of previous protagonists but with a colonial edge. In one hand he held a shortened musket and in the other a tomahawk. A wooden bow and quiver of arrows were strapped over his waistcoat. And somewhere off behind him fluttered the 13-starred flag of the Continental Army.
