Photo by Matty Flader / Photo Reporter

By: Alannah DeAngelis, Contributor

Dates can be a fun way to get to know your partner better and try new things together. Between school, catching up on all your Netflix shows and hanging out with your friends, it can be tough to make time for date nights. Try out these five date ideas where you can stay on campus and avoid breaking the bank! 

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Planetarium Show

The W. J. McCallion Planetarium, in the basement of BSB, is an out-of-this world date idea! Shows run Wednesday nights and there is a new theme each week. Learn about outer space, stars, planets, comets and more. For more information, check out the McMaster Planetarium website.                                                                         

Cost: $7 per person.

 

Video Game Room in Lyons New Media Centre 

Get your game on in the Video Games room on the 4th floor of Mills to find out which of you is the “Mario Kart” champion! There are five game consoles that you can choose from: Wii, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 and PS4. They offer many games to play, all of which are available to rent for free. Bookings for this space can be made for up to 2 hours per day for all McMaster students.

Cost: Free! Just bring your student card to rent the controllers and games.

 

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McMaster Museum of Art

Check out some cool art with your partner at the McMaster Museum of Art right on campus. The museum is recognized internationally for its European paintings, drawings and prints. It is also known for its specialist collection of early 20th century German prints. This highly notable museum is just steps away from the Student Centre.

Cost: Pay what you can (suggested donation is $2).

 

 

Trivia Night at the Phoenix

Test your knowledge at the Phoenix Bar and Grill’s Trivia Night, which happens every Tuesday at 7 p.m.. The theme changes each week, so you are sure to never be bored. Top teams will win gift cards to the Phoenix; perfect to use for another date night! 

Cost: Free when you purchase food or drinks.

 

Hike at Cootes

McMaster is surrounded by beautiful hiking trails with breathtaking views. Go for a hike at Cootes (start at the trail behind the Alpine tower) and explore what nature has to offer in McMaster’s backyard. Notably, the Sassafrass trail includes a lookout platform onto Lake Ontario. Who knows, maybe you will even see some deer along the way! 

Cost: Free! 

 

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There are a number of McMaster students with childhood memories of playing video games for extended periods of time.

Playing alone, with your friends on a split screen or against players across the globe, video games have made a similar impact to this generation of students as sports have. Just as professional athletes are paid to play a game they enjoy, plenty of people wish they could play video games as a living.

Enter the industry of competitive video gaming, also known as Electronic Sports, which has grown in popularity as the internet has become faster and more accessible on a global scale. With games such as League of Legends, DOTA 2, and Overwatch each having their own professional leagues with a dedicated fan base, the tag of a professional eSports player has become a reality.

Along with the professional scene, collegiate leagues have also enjoyed a rise to a lesser degree. While there is no established league within U Sports or the Ontario University Athletics conference, McMaster’s League of Legends manager Zoila Ricciardone hopes that one can be established soon.

“Over the next few years, we are hoping to gain more support from the university, both from the students and the institution itself,” Ricciardone said. “We are currently working with the [McMaster] Athletics and Recreation department so that we can be recognized as an official varsity team by the university.”

A growing number of schools are starting to take eSports seriously, meaning there is a growing possibility for the OUA and U Sports to start hosting tournaments for eSports. On March 24 in the United States, Illinois College announced an expansion to their athletic program to include eSports, which will include two co-ed teams that will participate in established collegiate leagues.

Currently, the League of Legends team at McMaster University participates in uLOL Campus Series, an intercollegiate league that includes schools from both the United States and Canada. From the preseason to the playoffs, Mac competes with other schools from October to May of every year, and is continuously ranked based on their performances. The schedule for McMaster’s League of Legends team presents challenges that are unique to eSports teams and shared with traditional varsity sports.

“The biggest challenge as a team was getting together to practice during the week,” Ricciardone said. “There are a few reasons for this, some of which also apply to other varsity teams including schedule conflicts and academic obligations. A challenge specific to an eSports team is the lack of decent internet access during the week. McMaster’s Wi-Fi is not always the most reliable, and bandwidth is almost always taken up in student housing.”

The team still manages to meet up at least four or five times a week for scrimmages against other schools, in-person meetings and regular season and tournament games on the weekend. Even with these challenges, they has done considerably well this season. The team was able to finish third in the Eastern division, playing against top teams from the University of Toronto, New Jersey Institute of Technology, and State University of New York. Their next tournament takes place from May 12-14 at an invitational tournament in Toronto.

McMaster undergraduate students recently approved the creation of a new Student Activity Building to be constructed on campus. This space could include a gaming room. If so, this would provide more opportunities for McMaster eSports teams to get better and compete with the best teams from North America, while also giving Mac students the chance to relax from school and interact with fellow students through video games.

“In the end, our main goal is to generate hype around each of our competitive teams so that we can foster a community of people with similar interests,” Ricciardone said.

Perhaps it is not a matter of whether or not eSports will become established at McMaster and the OUA as a whole; it may be a matter of when.

It started last year, with one commerce student, Eric Hill, along with his two friends and his laptop on the second floor of the McMaster University Student Centre.

Minutes later, eight other students – who were complete strangers to Hill – and an extra laptop showed up, all of whom were playing Super Smash Brothers Melee together, just outside of Clubspace.

This eventually led to the creation of the McMaster Smash group, which is run by third-year commerce student Ian Coomes, who was one of the eight students Hill met in this encounter.

The growth of the Smash community at McMaster should come as no surprise. eSports as a whole, such as “League of Legends,” “DOTA 2” and “Overwatch,” have grown in popularity at the international level, with the top players in the world competing for over millions of dollars in cash prizes, some of which is crowd-funded by the respective communities.

Fighting games such as Project: Melee and Super Smash Brawl have enjoyed similar success. McSmashter was an annual event held at McMaster that ran for four years, attracting players from all across North America and was watched at an international scale. But it wasn’t until the creation of Mac Smash in 2015 where the community at McMaster started to grow. And McMaster Smash is one group that has seen a steady rise in popularity since its creation in 2015.

“Before we started doing anything, we knew that there was some interest in Smash at Mac because of McSmashter,” Coomes said. “We thought it had already been established here. But it was mostly Americans and other Ontario students that came to the event.”

“The fact that when we got here that there was nothing established was so surprising to us, given the size of McSmashter,” Hill said.

Fast forward to now, and the McMaster Smash group has grown in popularity and notoriety within the Smash community. When the group started their weekly tournaments, they were only able to attract 10 or 15 people per week, most of whom were mutual friends of Coomes and Hill. Now, their weekly events typically see about 100 people from across Ontario, some of whom are renowned within the community as the best players within the fighting genre.

Each week’s event is labour-intensive, with tasks that include creating new brackets based on rankings and transporting heavy equipment to campus.

“We used to take shopping carts and cart these heavy TVs from my house to the event and back, until all of them made their way to campus,” Coomes said.

But all that work has paid off. More and more students come to the events, and those who cannot go often stream the tournaments online. More impressively, many of the top rated Smash players attend the weekly events hosted by Mac Smash on a regular basis.

“This year, we have had at least five of the top 10 Smash players in Ontario show up to every single weekly event we have held except for one,” Coomes said. “It is unreal that the Smash scene has gotten so popular in Hamilton, of all places.”

“I remember someone from around Hamilton telling us that our scene was non-existent and that it sucked, because he could beat everyone,” Hill said. “Now, at this point, Hamilton is probably one of the best scenes for Smash in Ontario.”

"How much can we work with other universities in building up some sort of league system? How much can we do in order to make this game really explode in the North?
Ian Coomes
President, McMaster Smash

Most of the money comes from the Smash community itself, with players willing to pay to compete in tournaments. This has allowed the group to expand their events and attract even more attention from those interested in playing Smash.

“The scene in itself for Smash Bros has always functioned on its own, based off of the community’s own merit,” Hill said. “Everyone just loves the game, and they don’t want it to die out.”

The money that players pay as an entry to compete in the weekly tournaments run by Mac Smash goes towards covering cost for renting equipment, such as older televisions. Any money left over goes towards their large yearly event, Frozen Phoenix, which takes place at McMaster from March 24 – 26.

So as the Smash community grows at McMaster, what’s next for Coomes, Hill and the Mac Smash group as a whole?

“If we keep growing, then really the next question is how many medium events can we hold? How much can we work with other universities in building up some sort of league system similar to the US?” Coomes said. “How much can we do in order to make this game really explode in the north?”

Now it is feasible to dream about the expansion of University Sports and varsity sports within McMaster to expand to include eSports in the mix. And it all started with a few students, a couple of laptops, and an underlying passion and love for the game.

By: Hess Sahlollbey

Pokémon has always been about venturing out and searching for the those elusive little creatures. Whether you tried to collect your favorite cards or you just "gotta catch em all" on Nintendo's Gameboy- that feeling of joy when we caught a new one kept us all hooked. Now with Pokémon GO, we have come even closer to feeling like a Pokémon trainer. Sadly the game does have a tutorial outside of a few messages at the start. If you are struggling to figure everything all out, don't worry- I got your back, fellow Marauder.

Developed by Niantic for Android and iOS, Pokémon Go is an augmented reality, real world adventure game. Emphasis on real world adventure.

Exploring the World (or in our case, McMaster)

After logging into the game for the first time and creating your avatar, the game will find your present location using GPS and Google maps. Within a few seconds, Pokéstops started popping up for me to travel to and I was off. Pokéstops are what trainers need to find to stock up on supplies for their quest.

All of those cubes are Pokéstops. Approaching one of them activates it. Swipe left and right on the screen to collect all of the resources at that stop. Once you have them all, the cube will turn pink for five minutes before you can replenish again. You do not need to be standing right next to the icon, but you do need to be close enough for your phone to detect it. You will find the most Pokéstops with premium items in and around BSB, JHE, Mills library, Health Sciences Library and the Student Center. Stay clear of DBAC as there are not many stops around there.

Capturing Pokémon:

As you walk around, Pokémon will appear on your screen. Tapping on one will then activate a sequence where you can try to capture that Pokémon.

The trick to capturing Pokémon is to wait for the circle on them to become as small as possible before throwing a Pokéball. If the ball is green, then the likelihood of success is higher too. Spinning your finger on the screen before releasing will also allow you to throw trick shots for bonus XP. As your level goes up, so will the level and the rarity of the Pokémon in the wild. One of the best hotspots on campus is in front of Togo Salmon Hall where you can find Jigglypuff and Koffing. Attaching a lure to a site, like in the picture on the left to the Nikola Tesla tree outside JHE, will draw out more Pokémon for you and anyone else around you too.

McMaster sites of Interest:

Having already been a student at McMaster now for a couple of years, I know my way around campus pretty well. That all changed however as I started finding all the sites on campus significant enough to be deemed as Pokéstops. Soon I was discovering hidden terraces, gardens, statutes and sculptures in places I've overlooked and walked past dozens of times. Clicking the profile of the Pokéstops pulled up a brief description of the landmark that further increased my appreciation for the app and my little discovery. Often times, my favorite little discoveries on campus where statues or plaques that were hidden off of the beaten path. The same happened on James Street North when I started finding murals, monuments and plaques in places I have walked past countless times.

One of my favorite discoveries was the Chimeric figure outside of 1280. Thanks to the description of the site in Pokémon Go, I finally understand why there is a giant non-descript concrete tower in the middle of the patio area.

Gyms and Combat:

When you reach level five, you'll have the option of joining a team. Once you pick either red, blue or yellow it's time to stake out your turf. Most of the gyms on campus are the major sites where lots of student congregate and lots of battles can occur. As of writing this, the Blue team has the most control but it will likely fluctuate as time goes on.

The major gyms right now are the McMaster Children's Hospital, Health Sciences Library, the Engineering Technology Building and the Mohawk-McMaster Institute for Applies Health Sciences. If the gym is the same color as the team you belong to, you can assign a Pokémon to it to defend it. If it is a different color, you can battle to capture it. Battling is very simple: tap the screen to attack, swipe left and right to dodge and tap hold your finger against the screen to use your Pokémon's special move. Remember that some Pokémon types and attacks are more effective than others! Once you have beaten all the Pokémon, you can assign a Pokémon of your own to defend that gym. The longer you defend that gym (about every 20 hours) the more prizes you can win.

Levelling up:

To level up, choose the power up option. By paying in Stardust and Candy, your Pokémon's Combat Power and health will go up. Catch more of the same Pokémon to collect more candies and level up faster. Pokémon that you no longer want can also be transferred to the Professor for an additional candy.

Deciding when to level up can be hard, but know that you will be spending the same amount of Candy and Stardust to max out your Pokémon's power. Make them evolve when it feels best for you and know that reaching the final level doesn't always guarantee the most powerful Pokémon!

While it may not be officially released in Canada yet, I was surprised by the sheer number of players that I kept running into. Whether I approached people or they approached me, the only icebreaker needed to meet someone new was to simply ask them; "Pokémon?". Over two dozen people responded to me enthusiastically and were quick to compare what they've caught, what team they've joined and any other strategies or tips they had. I've had more positive connections through this app than I have any other planned social event on campus. Gone are the days of wandering around the playground with my Gameboy and a Game Link Cable in hopes of meeting another gamer. Now, any person with a Smartphone is a rival and anyone can be Pokémon master in the works. Right now, trading and player-to-player battling is not featured by it was originally advertised in the September trailer, so we should expect this to happen at some point.

Pokémon Go might just be the best fitness/lifestyle app available right now. Over the past three days, I've walked 17 km across McMaster and James Street North and gained countless insight about landmarks that had been under my nose all along. It is important to note that in your quest to be the very best like no one ever was- the constant use of GPS could potentially consume a lot of data and put a heavy strain on your battery. To avert this, make sure to connect to Wi-Fi when possible and to have a portable battery on hand if you're planning on going on any extended excursions. It is also imperative to make sure you are alert of your present surroundings to avoid walking into anything or falling. Stay safe out there and good luck!

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Hamilton has long been synonymous with the "Steel City" moniker, but a growing market for entrepreneurs is helping to re-shape that perception.

This, along with the growing popularity of online crowd-funding models like Kickstarter have allowed developers like Nathan Dworzak, Parker Martin and Michael Huynh to gather support for their own online action role-playing game they're calling Dragon of Legends.

The three are founders of Thrive Games, which they initially began in 2013 as Thrive! Entertainment. The project, their first game developed from scratch, is described on their Kickstarter page as a "2D online [action] RPG inspired by Celtic and Norse mythology" and resembles the style and art reminiscent of video games in the early 90s.

"If you grew up playing the Super Nintendo, it's kind of tapping into that aesthetic," explained Dworzak.

"But we're also adding more advanced mechanics, like being able to play the game on any device."

At the time of writing, the game had accumulated nearly 500 backers and $18,000 on their Kickstarter with a couple weeks left in their campaign to reach their $60,000 goal.

While the team made the decision to briefly shut down the campaign as they didn't expect to reach their end goal, Dworzak went on to explain that an investment firm had very recently stepped forward to cover 80 percent of their costs.

The campaign is expecting to re-launch on Kickstarter before the end of February with a more modest goal of $12,000 for the project to be fully funded.

The project follows in a style of games that have grown in familiarity in recent years. Cult-hit titles like Shovel Knight, and more recently, Undertale, have demonstrated that independent developers like Dworzak and his team can experience critical success with their games, despite having a minimalist approach to the game's aesthetics.

However, the team at Thrive has certainly spared no expense in attempting to flesh out the world that they're promising on their Kickstarter page, and the wealth of information they've provided on the world and the mechanics of their game indicate just how serious they are.

With a team that Dworzak has estimated to have involved up to 25 people, the input and background of the team has had a variety of influences as well, both within and outside Hamilton. While Dworzak graduated from Wilfred Laurier University with a degree in music composition, Martin graduated from McMaster University with a background in Multimedia/Theatre & Film.

However, the three co-founders have grown up as friends in Hamilton since middle school, and have shared a passion for video games that they've been able to turn into more than just a passion project. They’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with The Forge, a start-up accelerator associated with McMaster, as well as McMaster’s Innovation Park.

“For me, it was just a passion, and I’ve always wanted to make games,” Dworzak explained. “But as a composer, I was limited … I managed to be lucky with the people I knew.”

“We shared the same vision in what we wanted to do; we wanted to create a gaming company that would create heartfelt experiences.”

With their Kickstarter set to re-launch, they’re hoping that others will share in their passion for these experiences.

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After raising more than $1,000,000 for the Prevent Cancer Foundation in 2014, Awesome Games Done Quick is back, and this time it’s bigger than ever.

For those not in the know, AGDQ is an annual event that kicked off Jan. 4, in which hundreds of gamers get together to fight cancer by playing video games. The only difference is that they play these games really fast.

Created by the people at Speed Demos Archive, AGDQ is a place where “speedrunners” show off their knowledge and technical mastery of some of your favourite video games, all while raising money for charity What started off with 20 people in AGDQ organizer Mike Uyama’s basement back in 2010 has quickly evolved into a 600 person event that has attracted the attention of more than 100,000 consistent viewers in the span of only five years.

Despite all of this, I’m sure to some reading this, the idea of “speedrunning” a video game might sound like a strange form of competition – let alone something that could be entertaining – but the times these gamers have achieved shows off what makes the event so great. Games that would normally be completed in several hours like the classic Megaman are expected to only take 25 minutes, while hugely successful puzzle-platformer, Portal, will be finished in 18 minutes or less. It’s rare to see a full-length game beaten faster than you can order a pizza, but that’s what makes AGDQ so exciting. It quickly becomes easy to find yourself engrossed in all the marathon has to offer, as the limits to which these times are pushed seems practically endless, bringing the “how did they do that?” factor at an all-time high.

With over 150 games across the span of the marathon, viewers are offered more than enough selection, as the event features a variety of genres and game types.  As such, these runs are not just limited to old-school games from decades ago; even newer titles like Dark Souls II, a game known for its crushing difficulty, are already lined up to be completed at an astonishing rate during the marathon.

While there are clearly exciting games to choose from, such as the four person race of Goldeneye on the N64, or the two person 100 percent completion race of Super Metroid, to me the events finale is the one game you just can’t miss. Closing off the entire marathon is a 100 percent completion of the classic The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time that manages to collect everything in the game – something that would normally take 30-40 hours – in less than five hours.

All this will take place between Jan. 4 and 11, totalling a 160-hour stream length that you can tune into now on the video game streaming site Twitch via the “Games Done Quick” channel. While much of the marathon is exciting and sometimes bewildering to watch, what makes the event so incredible is that it is doing all of this for a good cause. Like many fans, I’m excited to see AGDQ top $1,000,000 once again, proving that even a small, passionate community of gamers can do some pretty incredible things.

Michael Gallagher
The Silhouette

Despite its growing popularity, few people I ask are familiar with the term “e-sports” and the community that surrounds it. Talk of “professional gaming” sounds like nonsense to many, and is brushed aside without a second thought.

However, when the Korean pro-gamer Baek Dong Jun, better known by his in-game ID “Dear” took home $40,000 at the recent 2013 StarCraft II World Championship Series in Toronto, I’m sure he felt quite the opposite.

Competing for $160,000 canadian pharmacy viagra in prize money, 16 players from around the world met up in Toronto on Oct. 25-27 to play StarCraft II – a real-time strategy game produced by the game developer Blizzard. With them came 4,000 enthusiastic fans, looking to see who the best player in the world was.

To put it into perspective, the combined tournament earnings of the top 50 most successful players totals nearly six-million dollars, with the highest paid player having amassed $406,788 so far. Even more impressive, according to the CEO of Blizzard, Mike Morhaime, the current global viewership of StarCraft II as of Apr. 2013 has exceeded the viewership of the NHL.

These numbers probably seem unreasonably high to those doubting the legitimacy of the game itself, but top players know it requires intense dedication.

“It’s basically like a job,” says Chris Loranger (pictured), a successful Canadian pro-gamer known by his ID “HuK” in the StarCraft II community. “I’ll play eight to twelve hours a day on the days I’m practising, which is about 300 days a year.”

So what makes StarCraft II interesting to watch? To fans of traditional sports, the concept of watching a video game must seem confusing. To help those interested, I sat down with Sean “Day [9]” Plott, arguably the game’s most successful personality to ask him why someone should check out StarCraft II and e-sports. Plott is known for hosting his own online show “The Day [9] Daily,” and has been recognized by Forbes as one of the “Top 30 under 30,” alongside other notable celebrities, including Jennifer Lawrence and Donald Glover.

“Ever been into football? – Like American football where I’m from? – It’s really exciting and fun, as you get into it with your favourite team or region. After you watch the exciting play, you can’t do it yourself, because you need to get a full team together. Games are something where you can hop on immediately and try it yourself,” says Plott.

This kind of accessibility has led to almost four million people playing StarCraft II, with a significant portion tuning in to watch the fast-paced real-time strategy game.

If you’re interested in delving into StarCraft II and e-sports, the World Championship Grand Finals will be streamed online at on Nov. 8-9 with players competing for a massive $250,000 prize pool.

Michael Gallagher
The Silhouette

5. Dead space

Before Gravity showed us how scary space can be, Dead Space redefined the horrors of space. The player controls Isaac Clarke as he makes his way through an abandoned mining star ship, only to find a slaughtered crew and the aliens that killed them. In official canadian pharmacy order to prevent the enemies from killing you, they must be dismembered limb by limb (instead of a typical shot to the head). This, coupled with the ability to fight in zero gravity makes Dead Space unique and thrilling.

4. Silent Hill

The survival horror Silent Hill games in many ways deserve to take the number one spot. This is because they represent some of the earliest and most influential titles in horror video gaming. What makes them so great? Composer Akira Yamaoka’s eerie music, the use of unique camera angles, and the gripping story. If you want to be scared this Halloween, check out any of the Silent Hill games, but my personal favourites are the first and second.

3. Outlast

Red Barrels’ Outlast is a horror gaming treat. You move through an insane asylum armed with only a night vision video camera to navigate the dark. The game is truly frightening. This lack of weapons means that players are only able to run away from enemies and cannot fight back.

2. Amnesia

Amnesia: The Dark Descent pushed horror video forward by removing weapons and forcing players to be unable to fight back, paving the way for Outlast and Slender in the future. You control Daniel, a young man from the early 1800’s London, as he solves puzzles in a creepy castle. The only tool Daniel has is his lantern, which leaves players unable to fight back at the horrors that await them. This game is so incredibly scary that I found myself unable to carry on through some of the levels. If you want to have a fun time this Halloween, get your friends together and check out Amnesia: The Dark Descent or the sequel Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. You won’t be disappointed.

1. Slender

The free-to-play indie-horror hit Slender: The Eight Pages is one of the most enjoyable horror games to date. The game is incredibly simple; players move through a forest armed with just a flashlight, as they collect eight pages to win. Soon, a mysterious figure known as “Slender Man” pursues you, and the character moves faster to get you with each page you collect. The game’s ease allows even non-gamers to give it a try, but still produces Amnesia level scares, something worthy of the number one spot.

Kacper Niburski
The Silhouette

It is a universal truth that Monday mornings are the worst and mine was certainly veering on astronomically bad: I committed a double homicide.

I didn’t mean to, really. I was just driving along and one thing led to another and before I knew it, I found myself knee-deep in the offal of another man. His liver wobbled underneath my tire as I put my phone away.

Sure it could be argued that his Monday was undeniably worse – he was nothing more than a meat pillow now after all - but I had to deal with the messy aftermath and car washes certainly weren’t cheap these days. I’m sure that my fender was bent too and I liked my fender. It shined in the sun.

While I was considering these complications, I heard the scurrying of feet behind me. A different man who had witnessed me mow down the ground-beef lookalike underneath my car was screaming and running. As if my mechanical problems weren’t enough – I couldn’t have any loose ends. So off my car went, spinning bright red tires and fading maroon tracks as I roared towards the high pitch shrill in front of me. I might have even put on my blinker as I performed the U-turn. I can’t be sure – sometimes these things escape me on Mondays.

I wouldn’t call this a regular Monday though. Instead I would call it a tradition that has lasted some seven days since the release of Grand Theft Auto V, a seminal electronic masterpiece that has not gone without its share of controversy and senseless diatribes. Despite its high anticipation, exalting reviews, five years of development, an extensive original soundtrack and spellbinding portraits of real individuals captured in the minutia of a video game, the common critique is that the game is a juvenile, shortsighted, and degenerate caricature of life.

As these critics myopically see it, GTA V dissolves life into a cycle of carnage, carnage, and more carnage in that order. It is violence unbridled and unadulterated, which says nothing of the potential for senseless malice and misogynistic tendencies. Choppy, unrealistic and driven by sociopathic tendencies for brutality, some say the game is a gross, uninformed cliché of reality.

This criticism, I feel, is absolutely true and that’s the point. What so few seem to understand is that Rockstar, the game developer, is not trying to hide this overt excess in human indecency; in fact, it’s quite the opposite. Debauchery is relished, vice defines the norm and the world is nothing short of ugly. The hellscape is entirely intentional and familiar; it is a reflection of ourselves rather than an impression – and for this reason, GTA is the most authentic, most provocative and most compelling piece of art I have ever experienced.

Though it is difficult to unanimously define, art is meant to subvert and change. It is a manifestation of cause and effect in order to reverse that process inherently. By viewing a painting or a statue or reading a book, the viewer is meant to vicariously experience something emotional, psychological or mental, and in doing so, they are meant feel, act and do. For art is not a depiction of what is necessarily, but what has been and what should be instead.

The world of GTA V - Los Santos - is exactly that blend of unique, creative temperament distilled down to encapsulate humanity’s dirty, crude, and abhorrent nature. As a complete globe littered with desires and insecurities stretched to their extreme, the player sees their own world – this world – without its filter. Behind the sunlight, roaring mountains and endless beaches, everyone is driven by self-interest. Whether it is corrupt FBI agents, plastic wives, duplicitous TV hosts, people are either being exploited or exploiting someone themselves. In the game, all are victims but none are innocent, us included.

But it is also more than just a simple mockery of perverse lifestyles, contemporary pop culture, invading social networks, ridiculous political systems and our own vices magnified. Because unlike other art forms that simply mirror life, GTA puts life back into art by putting the player in control of the world and its ramifications.

In each mission or event, we see our actions run their course and we find ourselves in an inescapable torrent of contempt and pain. Wherever we go, suffering follows and we hate it. We don’t enjoy it. No character is happy. No character is left unscathed by their proclivity for violence. Lives are ruined. People are killed. And though the game goes on, we are not enamored by the violence. We are rebuked, chastised and horrified by it. Not because of its grotesque nature or because of how ridiculous it seems, but because we see ourselves in that world of Los Santos and we see how recognizable it is to our own, and that scares us.

There is one scene where a raging psychopath must perform torture on another character in the game. But there is no enjoyment. There is no fun. The controller vibrates. The screams are blood curling. And after it all, we are left with the imprint of our action, the despicable, disgusting, and fruitless action for very little information is gleaned if any at all.

And we hate ourselves for it. Or at least I did.

That is art. It is the agitation of a cruel universe only to provide a message afterwards. In GTA, the message isn’t violence though some people can only see that limited end. Instead it is a cry that with moral choices and consequences, we are responsible for our actions and how society comes together as a whole. If we breed hate, hate results. If we are selfish, others will be too.

Though GTA is a world inhabited by these sins, it is not an embodiment of them. Among the bloodshed and bodies, it whispers that as humans we often get caught in our excesses and mistakes, and this is not right. Earth need not be Los Santos. By showing us what is disgustingly possible in an extreme sense, GTA is a hope that we don’t have to succumb to our selfishness, vanity, and depravity. We are better if we want to be. Like the characters, whether we are good or evil is our choice. It always was. And in order to realize that, sometimes we just need to have a bad Monday morning.

 

Michael Gallagher
The Silhouette

Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto V likes to do things big. How big? Well, I could tell you that the game’s playable map is twice the size of real world Manhattan. Or maybe mention that the game became the world’s most successful entertainment release by achieving more than $1 billion in sales within three days of its release. But I’d especially like to point to the sheer size of the soundtrack, because yes, it’s also pretty huge.

The game features 15 radio stations, with 240 licensed songs, celebrity DJs, and new material from artists like Tyler the Creator, A$AP Rocky, and Neon Indian – just to name a few.

For added realism, the stations feature professional DJ’s with realistic sounding conversation between songs, and multiple commercial breaks satirizing everything from plastic surgery to corporate corruption.

Each of these radio stations caters to a specific musical genre which means that there is endless variety available for the player. Players simply don’t have to worry about being limited to a particular genre, and are instead able to listen to reggae, classic rock, indie rock, 80s funk, and old school hip-hop just some of the many choices GTA V has to offer. Don’t like rap music? You can drive around the city blasting Queen and Elton John just as easily as you can listen to Dr. Dre and Kendrick Lamar (although something about “Radio Gaga” and car chases just don’t mix).

All this is partly thanks to GTA V’s music director Ivan Pablovich, who recognized the need for musical variety in a game that is supposed to create an open world full of seemingly endless possibilities and customization.

By allowing players to not only personalize their cars and clothes, but the musical lens through which they experience the game, GTA V allows for the kind of depth fans of the series have been looking for. In fact, I have actually discovered new artists and songs that I really enjoy, something I wasn’t expecting from a video game.

There were times while playing that I spent just driving around the fictional city of Los Santos (think real world Los Angeles), taking in the atmosphere and just enjoying some of the beats and lyrics the game dishes out.

But what if you aren’t a gamer? Or maybe you just aren’t a fan of the GTA series, why would all this matter to you? Well the game’s soundtrack not only makes for a killer in-game experience, it also doubles as a truly fantastic mixtape.

My only complaint is that despite featuring Kenny Loggins as the DJ for the classic rock radio station, “Danger Zone” is nowhere to be found. It is something probably only Archer fans and I will find disappointing, but I guess in a soundtrack this good, there’s room for at least a few mistakes.

Ultimately, if you’re the kind of person who likes musical variety, particularly across multiple genres, checking out the GTA V soundtrack is definitely worth a listen, even if the game is not something you are interested in.