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(10/30/09 12:00am)
What do you get when you mix guns with free-roaming adventure, over-the-top enemies and more loot than you can shake a stick at? Easy: Gearbox's latest video game, Borderlands.Gearbox Software, a developer out of Plano, Tex., has made a name for itself in the first-person shooter genre over the past decade with its plethora of expansions to Half-Life, Valve's legendary 1998 PC shooter, and its numerous console ports of other franchises, including Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and Halo. So when Game Informer magazine revealed the company's ambitious new shooter in the works, Borderlands, to the world two years ago, people were understandably excited.
(09/25/09 12:00am)
It is rare for established artists to snag a Grammy nomination with their first commercial album release, but lifelong jazz musician and Rice Jazz Instructor Larry Slezak has done just that with his group's debut album, No Worries. Earlier this week, Slezak was notified that his album had been nominated for no less than four Grammys.
(09/18/09 12:00am)
It's been 40 years since we went to the moon. And if we want to go back, NASA needs your help. Last week, NASA released a 12-page summary report detailing the space administration's current state of affairs. The 11-member Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee, which was comprised of current and former aerospace executives, astronauts, professors and retired military personnel, outlined the fate of the space shuttle, the projected lifespan of the International Space Station and our nation's options for the future of human spaceflight over the next few decades. Ultimately, the committee found that without an infusion of $3 billion annually beginning with the 2010 fiscal year, few, if any, of these goals will be possible for NASA.
(09/11/09 12:00am)
Opened in 1986 as part of the Ley Student Center expansion, next to the existing Rice Memorial Center, the Farnsworth Pavilion Art Gallery has become best known as a meeting space. Home to countless luncheons, Student Association meetings, dance classes and other random events, few people think of it as a true art exhibition space, especially when there are already two established art venues at either end of campus in Sewall Hall's Rice Gallery and at the Rice Media Center.However, two students are out to change that perception. Hanszen College junior Amy Lin and Lovett College junior Teresa Lee have paired up as the Visual Arts Program Coordinators for the Student Center, responsible for any and all artwork you see hanging throughout the building, from the splatter paintings hanging by Disability Support Services to the "big polystyrene white thing near Coffeehouse." By increasing the amount of student artwork being put on display in Farnsworth this year, both Lee and Lin hope that they can in turn increase the visibility and viability of the pavilion as another venue for exhibits at Rice.
(08/28/09 12:00am)
Quentin Tarantino's name carries a certain vicious connotation. His films are often gruesomely sharp, full of blood-splattered baddies and two-times-too-witty good guys. With his latest effort, Inglourious Basterds, a long, sprawling war-based epic, Tarantino rounds into form. Basterds is Tarantino at his best, and it's awesome.The film takes place "Once upon a time ... in Nazi-occupied France." After escaping a Nazi raid on the house hiding her family, Shosanna Dreyfus (Paris's Mélanie Laurent) establishes herself in Paris, taking on a new identity and becoming the owner of a cinema, where she reluctantly agrees to host a premiere screening of a new propaganda film for the upper echelons of Nazi leadership.
(08/21/09 12:00am)
Aliens. Guns. Exploding heads. All can be found in District 9, and all are among the many reasons that you should spend your last day of Orientation Week at this flick.Born from the ashes of director Neill Blomkamp and producer Peter Jackson's aborted Halo movie, District 9 is a fictional documentary of peculiarly unique proportions. In 1990, 20 years prior to the events in the film, a large alien ship drifted over the city of Johannesburg, South Africa. However, none of the expected invasion, exploration or Signs-inspired raiding occurred. Instead, the ship simply ... parked. Not knowing who was on board or what the ship's plans were, humans cut their way into the behemoth and discovered it contained thousands of severely ill and malnourished alien workers. With no other option than to help them, District 9, a grimy Soweto-inspired slum, was set up outside the city to house the refugee alien population.
(05/15/09 12:00am)
One of the things I got out of my brief stint as a KTRU DJ was a copy of Silversun Pickups' debut album, Carnavas. A fellow DJ suggested them to me after I told him I was a big fan of The Smashing Pumpkins, and once I had spun a few of their songs and listened to their Pikul EP, I was hooked. These guys were good. Hailing from Los Angeles, Silversun Pickups have been enjoying more and more mainstream exposure after playing at Coachella and Austin City Limits in 2008, touring Great Britain and Ireland and performing at this year's SXSW festival to promote their latest effort, Swoon. If you've played Rock Band 2 or Guitar Hero World Tour lately, chances are you've heard a song or two by them on there as well.
(05/15/09 12:00am)
A little under a month ago, the Thresher sat down with Charles Iyoho, aka "Black Caesar," one half of the hip-hop duo Rhyme University. He was in town performing at an AIDS Foundation Houston benefit in Rice's own Grand Hall that night. What makes these brothers different from all the other blinged-out rappers dominating the airwaves today? Firstly, Charles has a master's degree from the University of Houston and his brother Tony, aka "Grayhound Bustrip," has a Ph.D. (Try that on for size, Fitty.) Caesar and Bustrip's parents also hail from Nigeria and the duo has lived around the globe in places as diverse as Muscat, Oman and Paris, adding a unique flavor and outlook to their rhymes.
(05/15/09 12:00am)
First awarded in 1980, the Sammys are the Thresher's way of recognizing Rice theater productions. This year, over 200 of you voted on the performances and productions that made you laugh, cry or both. There were several excellent original productions that were put on this year - enough to merit the addition of student-written categories in both the play and musical categories - and hopefully we will see this number grow in the future
(04/17/09 12:00am)
This weekend, Rice Dance Theatre will be commemorating 30 years of dance at Rice with its spring performance, Retrospection. The show offers a little something for everyone, with dances that range from traditional to contemporary.The show features three guest choreographers: Jennifer Wood, a local Houston choreographer who is the Artistic Director for Suchu Dance; Leslie Scates, RDT Director and Assistant Director for Dance Programs at the Rice Recreation Center; and Chris Lidvall, the RDT Coordinator and staff member of the Rice Recreation Center's Dance Program. All contributed a dance each to the show, but without a program to describe which is which, they are nearly indistinguishable from the dances that have been choreographed by the students themselves, which just goes to show the high caliber of the performances that take the stage.
(03/27/09 12:00am)
These last two weeks have been crazy as far as college theater is concerned, and Rice Light Opera Society has only added to the number of quality shows opening this week with its production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance.The basic premise of the play is that Frederic (Geoff Copper, Sid Richardson College '07) has completed his indentures with a ragtag group of pirates and is looking for some loving. He falls for the beautiful Mabel (Sid senior Quinn Shadko) but is soon caught up in a conflict centered around his duties to his former masters and his newfound love.
(03/20/09 12:00am)
With all the events, meetings and receptions held in Farnsworth Pavilion, it is sometimes hard to remember that it also serves as an art gallery from time to time. But from now until next Wednesday, artist Charles Liu is showcasing some of his work in an exhibition titled "The Songs of Nature," a stunning collection of landscape and nature-themed ink drawings on rice paper. The artwork covers all the walls around Farnsworth, with one particular panel painting, aptly titled "Big Falls," taking up an entire wall by itself. Each wall takes on a theme of its own that changes as you move around the room.
(03/20/09 12:00am)
Capcom definitely had its work cut out when it announced a sequel to Resident Evil 4, the critically acclaimed 2005 bestseller. The game was such a departure from previous titles in Capcom's beloved Resident Evil franchise in terms of pacing, gameplay and plot that it seemed like a completely new experience, and gamers ate it up. Resident Evil 5 may play like Resident Evil 4 with a new paintjob, with several elements that have been copied over from its predecessor, save for a few major changes, but that works just fine.The game continues the patchwork canon of the venerable survival-horror franchise with players stepping into the shoes of Chris Redfield, who has traveled to Africa to investigate reports of bioterrorist activity. Aiding him on his mission is Sheva Alomar, a native of the region who also works for the same anti-terrorist organization as Chris. What they discover goes far beyond the black-market weapons deal in the game's fictional Kijuju region: Umbrella and Wesker are back with a vengeance and, as always, it is up to the good guys to save the world from undead, tentacled destruction.
(03/13/09 12:00am)
Sony's first killer app of 2009 is finally here, and while the gameplay takes some getting used to, fun and frantic multiplayer modes along with PlayStation 3's most beautiful graphics to date make Killzone 2 a solid entry in any gamer's library.Killzone 2 picks up where the PS2's Killzone and the PSP's Killzone: Liberation left off. Interplanetary Strategic Alliance forces are invading the planet Helghan in an attempt to capture Scolar Visari, leader of the Helghast forces, and put an end to the ongoing war. Obviously, things do not go as planned: Stuff explodes, people die all over the place and players find themselves trying to survive on the hostile surface of Helghan as Sergeant Tomas "Sev" Sevchenko, member of the elite Alpha Team.
(02/27/09 12:00am)
During the first scene of The Greatest Story, when the commencement speaker begins to sing his address, viewers may think to themselves, "Is this really what the entire show is going to be like?"Luckily, no sooner does that thought form than the song abruptly halts, and one of the characters onstage asks aloud, "Who sings at commencement?"
(02/13/09 12:00am)
Brian's Take:
(01/09/09 12:00am)
Forget everything you know about co-op shooters; Valve has raised the first-person shooter bar yet again with the release of Left 4 Dead, one of 2008's best multiplayer titles.The game's story is somewhat skimpy on the details, but the main thing to know is that a zombie apocalypse is going on outside, and it's up to the four "Survivors" to blast their way through wave after wave of undead and make it from one safe room to the next. To keep things interesting, players also have to deal with five different "Special Infected" zombies, who have mutated abilities beyond that of a normal zombie grunt: There's the Hunter, who can pounce on Survivors from afar; the Smoker, who can pull Survivors away from the group with his long tongue; the Boomer, whose bile attracts the horde; the Tank, who can beat the living hell out of the Survivors and soaks up a ridiculous amount of damage before dying; and the Witch, who is harmless until players wake her up with flashlights or loud noises, in which case she can kill them in one swipe.
(12/05/08 12:00am)
[Editor's Note: While Tomb Raider: Underworld was released across all platforms, this review only covers the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC versions of the game.]It was only two short years ago that developer Crystal Dynamics resurrected the troubled Tomb Raider franchise with Tomb Raider: Legend and then followed up with a solid remake of the original Tomb Raider just one year later. Can Eidos and Crystal Dynamics pull off a three-peat this year with Tomb Raider: Underworld?
(11/21/08 12:00am)
Best known for their work on the Battlefield franchise, Electronic Arts and EA Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment have gone in a completely new direction with Mirror's Edge, an original title that aims to shake up the first-person genre.Players step into the shoes of Faith, a "runner" living in a gleaming white, futuristic dystopia where the police survey and control all modes of communication. When citizens want to stay under the radar with their information, they rely on runners like Faith to transport their messages across the city's rooftops. The game begins with Faith's cop sister getting framed for a murder she didn't commit, forcing Faith to do some digging around town to uncover the truth.
(11/21/08 12:00am)
Quantum of SolaceBond is finally back in his 22nd film, Quantum of Solace, which landed in theaters last Friday. Picking up an hour after the events of Casino Royale ended, it grabs the audience by the face and doesn't let them go until the credits roll.From the opening car chase to the final showdown, it's clear that this is not your grandpappy's Bond. Gone is the campiness of the Sean Connery/Roger Moore era, and also absent are Q and his fantastic spy gadgets, which had been a staple of the series.
