The Factory News at SHU

MLB 2K11

            Everyone loves video games, whether it be on the computer or your favorite gaming system. My favorite types of games are games of the sport variety, and since my favorite sport is Major League Baseball it is only fitting that my favorite game is MLB2K11. The MLB2K series has been consistently getting better after some poor performances in 2007 and 2008. In 2010 they introduced the “My Player” mode. The “My Player” mode is a way for you to create yourself, put yourself on your favorite MLB team and move your way through the system. You start out in AA and have to increase your stats until they are up to MLB standards.

            Compared to MLB2K10, there aren't many new things in MLB 2K11. The developer chose instead to improve and build on the modes already in the previous installment. My Player has been noticeably improved. You play only that character as he bats and fields.  It still has that problem of being a limited game mode, as you only get to play defense when it's a play that is hit to you. But honestly, if I had to stand in right field doing nothing for most of the game I would end up smashing my Xbox.

            There are other new features that were added to Franchise mode, character animations, and analog controls as well. The MLB series is taking serious strides in trying to become the Number One MLB series game for each system. I love this game and have already won the 2011 World Series in My Player mode as the First Basemen for the New York Yankees. I am in the process of trying to make the Hall of Fame. I definitely suggest MLB2K11 if you are a real sports fan.

By

Brian Depoalo

First Year in Review

Being GA is an astounding position. I come in around 9 A.M. each day, sit in my office and look at tickets. Then I send people out to do it, and help out with issues that aren’t known to the student workers. Being GA is like being a mediator between different departments like telecom and networking and black board. It’s fun and interesting, you meet people, argue with some.

Being GA has its cons, which is not having breaks from school. During the holidays, while the school has off, I have to be here in the Factory. I have to deal with making schedules for workers, and settling disputes between them. It is not a fun part of the job, but sometimes I do have to fire people. Watching their faces drop in sadness, then light up in anger is kind of scary, but it has to be done for the betterment of the factory.

But at the end of the day, we are all friends.

Dan Skrelja

Cataclysmic Follow Up

When it comes to Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming(MMO), it is impossible to ignore World of Warcraft. With roughly 12 million monthly subscribers, it is one of the most popular games to date. After World of Warcraft’s sixth year of release, they are still going strong with a supportive and loyal community by supplying their gamers with constant patches and impressive expansions. The most recent expansion, Cataclysm, was noted as GameSpy’s ‘Game of the Year 2010’ despite the fact that Cataclysm was released late on December 7, 2010.

                Aside from implementing two new playable races: Goblin and Worgen, and raising the level cap from 80 to 85, World of Warcraft developers decided to implement game changes that are radically different than previous versions of World of Warcraft. What makes World of Warcraft: Cataclysm more notable than the previous expansions is due to the fact that all players now have relatively the same amount of health. This amount of health most players have is exponentially higher than the expansion prior to Cataclysm. This health change transitively creates for a different playstyle; however, it does not lose its original feel that the World of Warcraft community has loved for over the past half-decade. Aside from changes in the Player versus Player aspect of the game, the original Azeroth in World of Warcraft has radically changed and is vastly different than the original world that most players experienced over the past six years. Players are now able to fly on mounts in virtually every zone in the game, and many older zones have been revamped or redesigned completely. Cataclysm is merely a precursor for many more expansions that will leave players captivated for many more years to come.

By

Seamus Mcguire

Is The Kindle For You?

The amazon kindle Is great for avid readers! All books are delivered wireless within seconds of purchasing.  One can subscribe to magazines and newspapers such as Time Magazine or the New York Times Using Kindle's 5-way controller, you can quickly flip between articles, making it faster and easier to browse and read the morning paper.

Books range from $.99 cents to about $9.99, which includes new arrivals. Guaranteed in stock since it is all online. You can purchase directly from your kindle or from amazon.com and have it delivered wirelessly! Sharp and natural with no glare or backlight, reading on Kindle is nothing like reading on a computer screen. When I first opened mine, I thought it was a peel away sticker, but it was actually on. The screen looks almost like paper and is easy on the eyes for reading in low light or bright light such as sun. All-in-all, the Kindle is a great purchase for those that like to read, I recommend it to anyone who is on the fence about purchasing one.

 

 

Sal Siconolfi 

Hyperdock

HyperDock is great system preferences extension that adds many features to the stock Mac OSX dock.  The main feature of this application is the addition of Window Previews while you hover over the dock icon.  This is a Windows 7-esque feature that many people wish Mac had and now we do.  The Window Previews give you a preview of the open windows under the application and also minimized windows.  The open windows will be a normal view of the window set to the size you choose for it and the minimized windows will be a grayed out image with a line through to let you know its minimized.  Also the application allows you to bring the window in front of your other windows as a full size preview.  This can come in handy when you do not want to close out or minimize another window but want to check on something else.   Another great feature of HyperDock is the Window Management settings that allow for Window Snapping and Window Dragging.  The window snapping is also Windows 7-esque and arguably the only feature that Mac desperately needs to borrow from windows.  Mac OSX’s inability to manage windows can be aggravating especially on a 13 inch screen, but HyperDock solves many of these issues.  Just like on the other operating system you can drag a window to the top of the screen and it will fill the whole screen, or you can drag the window to either side and it will fill up half the screen.  Hyperdock gives you many options so you can customize which features you want to use and the specific settings of each feature.  Hyperdock is currently in beta but is very stable and ok for everyday use. 

Check it out at http://hyperdock.bahoom.de/

Jim Tangredi

Total Finder

Total Finder is a Mac OSX application that adds more capability to the stock Finder application.  Finder has been long over due for an update from Apple for some time and the developer Antonin Hildebrand of “binaryage” has taken it into his own hands.  The first great feature of this program is that it runs on top of the stock Finder.  This way you do not need to (although you can choose too) open up a separate application to use it.  Right away you will notice a difference due to the tabs that you can use instead of separate Finder windows.  This allows for easy switching back and forth and it does not take up your whole desktop.  Also, when you have more than one tab open you can choose to toggle dual mode, which puts the two Finder tabs next to each other in one window with two sidebars.  This is great for dragging and dropping files and folders or looking at files in two different locations.  Another feature that I enjoyed was the ability to toggle hidden files and folders with a keyboard shortcut.  By default the shortcut command + shift + period will toggle the hidden files.  Normally you would have to use a terminal command to view hidden files (for future reference the terminal command is defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE or FALSE).    The last feature that I enjoyed the most was the ability to put folders on top of individual files.  In a Finder window normally the files and folders are mixed together in alphabetical order (or other sorting methods).  When you choose to keep folders on top using Total Finder the folders will be sorted accordingly above the files and the files will be sorted according below the folders.  This makes it easier to find the folders you need to access without needing to go through a list of files.  The application is not free but you can try it out and then decide you its worth the money.  I would like to give a special thanks to Antonin Hildebrand for letting me try out this application for this review. 

 

Check it out at http://totalfinder.binaryage.com/

Jim Tangredi

Dead Space 2

    Ohhhhh my anticipation! In about two weeks from now the sequel to my favorite horror survival game will finally be released, Dead Space 2! Let me tell you Visceral Studio has gone all out on this one! The story takes off from the previous Dead Space game. You continue to play as engineer turned survivalist Isaac Clarke. After the horrifying events of the original Dead Space you awaken to find yourself in a hospital on one of Jupiter’s moons (don’t quote me on this, I forgot what planet you’re on). Unfortunately for you, the entire city has been infested by the necromorphic menace from the original Dead Space. To top it all off, because of the traumatizing events of the previous Dead Space and exposure to the Marker, you starting to go crazy. To top it all off, the Church of Unitology, a powerful religion in the Dead Space games, believe that the necromorphs are a godsend, and the key to their immortality. 

                So now you know the setting of the storyline, but where the real excitement is lies in to the changes to the gameplay. For starters, there are a number of new necromorph enemies, including the addition of ranged enemies and creatures that will attack in packs. There are also a number of new weapons to choose from, such as the javelin gun which allows you to impale your enemies. The overall pace of the game is faster than the last, and melee attacks are now very quick making them much more useful. Moving in zero gravity has been reworked as well, instead of flying from one wall to another and walking upside down, you now essentially float and use your suits jets to move around. This makes a much more authentic feeling. Last, but certainly not least, there is now a multiplayer mode, where you play as a team of security guards against a team of necromorphs. The premise of the multiplayer is the security team has a number of objectives to complete, and the necromorph team must stop them. All in all there are some great changes in this sequel, and I can’t WAIT for it’s release!

By Rik Kozlowski

 

CoD:Black Ops

    This first person shooter has really landed in consoles everywhere.  The game has redefined the way we play war-simulated shooters.  Game play is fast paced and the story line is very well developed.  Unlike some of the older Call of Duties, like Modern Warfare 2, Black Ops has an easy to follow story board that spans the globe and utilizes a huge assortment of weaponry that some have only heard about.

  

    The online mode of this game is a very enticing mode.  The ordinary death match mode allows for two six man teams to rage war against each other.  Same as any old CoD, however the twist is the way of receiving new weapons and attachments.  It used to be that you would gain then as you gained experience.  Now, as you complete levels you gain money.  That money is then used to purchase new weapons, attachments, and specialty grenades.  Obtaining new weapons can be tough at first, but like any video game, as gameplay increases so does experience.  So naturally, you gain more money per round as you get better with the online platforms.  Black Ops, also has similar Killstreak rewards as other CoD games.  However there are some new ones.  Attack Dogs instead of the Nuke and the exploding remote controlled car are just two new twists to the ever-favorable Killstreak rewards. 

By Mike Demunno

Models of Efficiency - University Business

Through the hard work of our student and full-time technicians along with the leadership of Leslie Roggen we are officially honories of the University Business - Models of Efficiency.  Go SHU!

Check out the article here!

Starcrack 2

 
It’s been a while since we’ve had any blog posts here, so this review is a bit overdue, but here’s my review of the long awaited Starcraft 2 (http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/games/sc2/index.html)! For those of you who don’t know what Starcraft 2 is, it is the sequel to Starcraft, an award winning Real Time Strategy game (it’s literally considered a sport in South Korea) created by Blizzard Entertainment (http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/ ), and let me tell you, Starcraft 2 more than exceeds its predecessor!

                I’ll start with the single player experience. It’s fantastic! You play the role of James Raynor, a good guy made outlaw, who is currently fighting the Terran Dominion (Terran are one of the three races playable in Starcraft).  Throughout the campaign the story has some interesting plots (especially the way they end it) and allows you to choose your path with multiple mission selections available to pursue. The missions also provide credits (a currency) that allow you to customize your army with upgrades. Along with four different difficulty settings, the single player provides an experience that all can enjoy and high replay ability.

                The second major aspect, the aspect that is a deciding success factor for many games, is the  multiplayer. Starcraft 2 introduced Battle.net 2.0 (Battle.net is Blizzard’s free online gaming service) and they certainly outdid themselves with this one. For competitive players there is a ranking system and five different league levels to play at. Defeating opponents earns you points and increases your chances of promotion, and vice versa is you lose.  For those who are less competitive, Battle.net features a co-op style of gameplay that pairs you with other players against the artificial intelligence of your choice (ranging from easy to impossible). For those who would like to play something other than the typical Starcraft 2 game style, there is a custom games mode that allows you to select custom made maps made by fellow Starcraft 2 players that features all sorts of game variations (tower defense and tug of war to name a couple of popular ones). The friends list is easy to use, and provides the person’s real name if the friendship is mutual. The multiplayer revolves around the matchmaking system that comes with Battle.net 2.0 which searches for other players also set to play the same game type as you and finds the best match (someone around the same skill level as you).

                Last but not least are the achievements. Every game nowadays has achievements. All they are is a nice little message that says you earned points for performing a certain action. The points are really worth anything, it’s more like a nice pat on the back. Achievements are available both in multiplayer modes and single player.

                My only advice is this: If you like RTS games, or you liked the original Starcraft, BUY THIS GAME.

 

By Rik Kozlowski