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Baseball team self-destructs; loses to Carrick
Photo Credit: Abner Roberts
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Written by Markia Freeman, The Eagle Staff Reporter
The Obama Eagles baseball team took on the Carrick Raiders last Friday at the Raider’s Volunteers Field, looking to make a statement about being one of the city elite teams. Instead, the wheels fell off.
. It started off on a very sluggish note for the Eagles. The Raiders had the upper hand in the first couple of innings, going ahead 4-0, lagrely on walks. This game looked like the Eagles were down for the count and yet, Obama clawed to within 7-6 after 4 innings.
In innings 5 and 6 however, the team came unglued.
A walk here, a couple errors there, and the score was quickly 9-6 after 5, and even more of the same….walks, balks and some of the most ugly errors possible sealed the Eagles’ fate in the 6th.
Coach Kocur was philosophic afterwards, saying, “This is largely spring training for us. We have not played exhibitions or scrimmages, and so we almost have to expect innings like we saw today. The trick is getting btter before the playoffs.”
As for being one of the elite, Kocur said, “There’s no doubt in my mind we are as good as Carrick. The score means nothing to me”
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Sabria Mitchell’s Poetry –Should I….
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Written by Sabria Mitchell, The Eagle's Poet-in-Residence
“Should I…”
I wish that I had courage
To tell you all my thoughts
And how I felt when you passed by.
My stomach turns in knots.
I wish that this was easy
And it was you and me
We’d be together safe and sound
And happy as can be
But this is not a movie
My fairytale’s a dream
And life is not that easy
How easy should it seem?
I still need to reveal
My feelings that are true
But right now I’m still thinking
About if I should tell you
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Walter’s Gamer’s Corner: Psychonauts is pure adventure
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Written by Walter Robinson, The Eagle Senior Columnist
Psychonauts was and is an excellent game to play. The game was released in April 19, 2005 and was made by Double Fine and Tim Schafer but despite its poor graphics the game still finds a way to be played, especially as a comedy and into the hearts of those who played it. So enough with the intro it’s time to review Psychonauts.
The beginning of this game has you play as Razputin Aquato, otherwise known as Raz, a young psychic who runs away from the circus and sneaks into Whispering Rock a secret government site disguised as a summer camp for young psychics. During the cut scene the kids are lectured and scared by one of the members, “some of will become Psychonauts, the rest of you will die”, making one of them burst into tears. Later on some rustling in a tree alert the campers because of stories that there is a lake monster that eat the children, making them panic. So the adults use their telekinesis to reveal what’s in the bush that turns out to be Raz. One of the adults, Coach Oleander, tries to read his mind but can’t get in to figure out his name. After all is said and Raz gets in it’s time for the game to begin.
The first thing you do after the tutorial (that every game practically does) is go to basic braining (literally that’s the name, not a joke). During it, you enter the mind of the Coach which turns out to be a war zone. In there you learn platforming and combat while ranking up to gain upgrades, purchase goods, and obtain psychic powers. Also in the Coach’s mind you find vault viewers, memory banks, that allow you to see their past the good and bad just by punching it. Once at the end, he finds that no one’s there and sees an empty room with a window covered with a red curtain. Before he can open it the Coach yanks him out of there and he gets the basic braining merit badge.
After you exit the Coaches mind Raz is met by Sasha Nein, one of the adults from the beginning cut scenes, who’s impressed by his swiftness to come to his underground bunker for testing since he could with stand more than the others and gives him a button. With the main camp grounds accessible, a scavenger hunt is given to increase ranking is given to you. Once Raz arrives two cut scenes happen, one with him being stalked by a big terrifying monster and Lili (the love interest) comes and he starts questioning her, the other is a boy stuck in the isolation chamber where Raz has to enter.
After the kid’s free, Raz enters the underground facility and begins the Brain Tumberler experiment which will show the inside of his mind. Once he gets in his mind he sees a gipsy carriage that he was born in. As soon as he walks inside it, the carriage turns white and the door disappears and he just so happens to be in a giant egg. After busting his way out, Raz sees a bunny (this level is full of foreshadowing features) and a lot of meat. Confused, he questions why there’s so much meat and follows the bunny. During this he runs into a dark shadowy demon like creature that eerily approaches him and then spits a driver helmet at him, after Raz escapes his mind. Because of his inability to combat the shadowy monster he needs to get his Marksmanship merit badge.
Due to his need for it, he must enter Sasha Nein’s mind to learn it. Once inside the whole mental world of Sasha is a cube that is floating in an empty void of nothingness, since he has absolute control of his (for now *sinister look*). So he shows Raz how to aim, target, and shoot things, also he shows him what a Censor is (they are pretty much the guards that reject/destroy anything that doesn’t belong in a person’s mind), the thing Sasha believes was in his mind. Once Sasha decides to leave him while he is shooting them one at a time, Raz decides to speed up the process of Censors coming which causes total chaos. Because of this Sasha orders Raz to destroy the censor outlets. Once all the censor outlets are destroyed, completely suppressing everything in his mind, a Mega Censor appears. “You are my own creation I command you to stop,” Sasha demands but she gets squashed anyway, leaving Raz to kill it and the censor outlets giving it health (I could go into detail of the boss fight but the guy does gross things). As soon as everything is over he gets it and leaves.
Now back do dealing with the shadowy monster, who gets one destroyed in one shot (one shot like a boss). So then some censors come and they attack him, get killed, he finds Dogen who’s about to get his brain taken by some psychotic dentist who has a metal claw for one of his hands that is in a tower he can’t reach. So you must go back out in the real world to learn levitation and save some kid.
To learn levitation, Raz has to meet Milla at the lake and earn it. Once at the beach, a giant hand appears from the water and appears very sinister. So he decides to get in the boat and row over towards the plateau where Milla and the other campers are at. The inside of her mind it looks a lot like a 70s 80s dance party that has him learning all about levitating while partying hard or hardly partying (whatever one suits you). Raz learns more about using it through plat forming, being able to use it over hazardous zones except water, and racing. At the end of it Milla and Raz get the levitation and go back to the Brain Tumbler.
Now you go back to his crazy mind, for the last time, and use levitation to get up and try to save Dogen. Sadly he does lose his brain and in another room Lili is about to suffer the same fate. So the brain goes down a hatch and Raz follows it to a blue print design. Then while looking, a tank takes the brain and attacks him, a boss battle in a blue print field. After the battle ends it places Raz in the secret room where the Coach pulled him out of (for those of you who don’t get it the Coach is the bad guy).
After all that happens, Raz gets out of the brain tumbler trying to tell Sasha about the Coach’s evil plan, but leaves and forgets his Psychic mind door and Raz takes it. Now he goes to the lake again and meets Lily. They both seem to be the last two who are left with a brain in camp. During the conversation Lily blurts out in the moment “LET’S MAKE OUT” and then gets kidnapped by a giant monster that’s really a giant mutated lungfish, like the one from the lake monster, and it was stalking him in the woods.
Now Raz has to save his sudden girlfriend that has been taken under the lake. So he goes into a driving bell where he goes down and lands on the air bubble it made. While doing this, he draws the attention of the monster and begins to fight, run, and platform. After defeating it, the lungfish turns out it was more afraid of him than he was of it and then uses the Psychic Door to go in its mind.
Once inside, Raz is portrayed as a giant monster in a peaceful city full of lungfish civilians that get scared and dub him Goggalor. So now Goggalor is met by some freedom fighter fish who disagree with the living in a city idea and not in their natural habitat. Goggalor busts some of their friends out of jail and also destroys an orphanage for puppies. So he asks them if they’ve seen any other humans like a girl named Lili and they go and say your girlfriend as in a girl who is your friend. Now the lungfish rebels want him to smash the tower that’s controlling its mind. So it’s pretty much just smash, fight, punch, and destroy oncoming tanks, ships, and airplanes in a scene that should remind everyone of King Kong. Once finished, it’s time for you to destroy the tower but then Kochamara who is really Coach Oleander, try’s to defend and defeat Goggalor. In the battle Goggalor defeats him and continues on to destroy the tower and then Kochamara gets up one last time and crashes into the tower in an attempt to stop Goggalor.
Once out and back under water, the monster gives Raz a horn to call it and gives him its name, Linda. So Raz get’s taken to the asylum where Lili is. In the front, the gate is locked and the guard has a crazy conspiracy theory on the wall. The guard Boyd does not have the key and tells him that the Milkman has it. Raz now needs to find the key to get in the asylum so he throws the door and enters the mind of Boyd.
Now in his mind, Raz is in a house with Boyd surrounded by a lot of unclear writings on the wall. Boyd then tells Raz that he can see the world the way he sees it if he goes in the fridge and Raz assumes it is alcohol, though it’s really a new psychic power called clairvoyance. So Raz uses it to see through Boyd’s eyes and finds out the milkman is dead. So Raz has to search through this aweful mind for info on the Milkman. Now I know some of you are tired or want more, but if you want to know more on the Milkman mind of the game go online because this part will be like an eternity to write, the fun things are the government agents all over with stop signs and rolling pans that say some very funny things. At the end of this part, Raz finds the Milkman, goes to get him, fights a boss, wins, the milkman awakens, it’s actually Boyd, and then once outside starts throwing exploding milk bottles that knock Raz out of Boyd’s mind.
Now opening the gate to the asylum and holding a bottle of milk like in the mind and aiming it towards the assylum, Raz is sort of worried about that but goes on anyway. So inside there are three different inmates who have something you need since the man in charge of the elevator is somewhat blind and has trouble seeing.
So seeing as how each inmate has something Raz needs, he must enter all the minds of the inmates to get it. So there’s first guy who’s obsessed with bull fights, the actress who has lost her mind, and Fred Bonaparte who’s haunted by his ancestor Napoleon Bonaparte.
So Fred Bonaparte used to be one of the staff members of the assylum and he lost so many games of Waterloo to Crispin, the guy who’s somewhat blind, so he thought he lost his mind and thought he was Napoleon. So inside his head Raz sees both Fred and Napoleon playing Waterloo in a room with Fred losing once again. So Raz decides to help him out, by getting people to fight and organizing them to fix broken bridges so they can win. Now Raz has to do a lot of helping out to get them to work and fight in the war, which I will not explicate to you just so you’ll buy the game and do it yourself. Once all the work’s finished for Fred both of them defeat Napoleon and it’s over. After all that Fred checks to make sure he’s really gone and then gives Raz his straight jacket.
So one down two more to go and to tell the truth I like all of the inmates mind design. Well the next one will be Gloria, the one obsessed with acting and theater who has a trophy resembling a claw. At the start of Gloria’s mind, in it is a performance that ends when something get’s dropped on an actor’s head from the cat walk. With that happening, Raz offers his services to help, as a critic named Jasper in the audience is giving aweful feedback. So Raz decides to find a way up to the cat walk by doing multiple plays and scenes until finally making his way up to find the phantom. Yes ladies and gentlemen, a phantom of the theater which now Raz has to use his acrobatic and psychic skills to avoid traps and chase the phantom. Later on, Raz discovers the phantom is really Jasper and then defeats him in a boss fight. Once Gloria is sane again she gives the trophy and then one last guy must be dealt with, Edgar.
Edgar’s mind is pretty much full of art, wrestling, a bull, a bull fighter, and cards. Raz gets all the cards to build a way up to some girl crying. After that Edgar turns out to be the bull fight him, help him, defeat the fighter and escape. Now with everything needed to get up there, I should tell you guys there are brain jars of the campers so go get them. Now in the place with the psychotic dentist who is known as Dr. Loboto, who already took Sasha and Milla’s brains, threatens to get his assistant’s turtle into soup if she doesn’t get him any more brains.
After that Raz frees both the adults, gives them their brains back, rescues his girlfriend, and then is about to fight Coach Oleander. However that doesn’t happen and he fights his brain in a psychic death tank, like the one in the blue prints. Due to this some of the sneezing powder gets on him and he loses his brain, forcing him to occupy the tank with the coach.
Now for the finale, Meat Circus, the combination of both Raz’s mind and the coach’s combine and so the coach is now a kid with the nickname Lil Oli. So Raz helps him with the bunnies in their mind finally fighting his dad and Raz’s dad, who both get blinded into one creature of horrific design. Once that happens Raz’s real dad comes into his mind, helps him defeat the monster dad, and then leaves.
Now finally finished, Raz becomes a Psychonaut in one day, with a cliff hanger ending of the president’s brain being stolen.
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