Arts & Culture pages 12 to

Celebrating National Video Games Day

The Manitoban staff shares some games they went gaga over this summer ARTS & CULTURE

After the past year and a half, there is a collective need for decompressing, raising morale and releasing frustrations. Thankfully, these are all things video games provide the perfect outlet for. Nowadays, it’s easy for anyone to find a video game to enjoy and there are seemingly endless choices, no matter what you fancy — console games, online games, phone apps, virtual reality and beyond. So, in honour of National Video Games Day on Sept. 12, the Manitoban staff has put together a list of games that we logged many hours in this summer to celebrate our love for digital gaming.

staff / Dallin Chicoine graphic /

XCOM 2

First released on PC in 2016 by Firaxis Games and 2K Games, XCOM 2 provides a simple yet addictive gameplay loop centred around tactical turn-based combat and strategic base management.

XCOM 2 follows the events of 2012’s XCOM: Enemy Unknown, in which the player commands the titular international military force tasked with repelling an invasion by space aliens. The sequel assumes the first XCOM project failed, allowing the extraterrestrial threat to install a puppet regime called ADVENT.

Picking up 20 years after the invasion, with XCOM reduced to a scrappy guerilla army on the run from ADVENT forces. After being rescued in the game’s tutorial mission, the player is put back in charge of XCOM and its struggle to stop the nefarious Avatar Project.

From XCOM’s new base of operations, a massive Marvel helicarrier-esque aircraft called the Avenger, the player chooses four to six custom soldiers to deploy on various operations, which include stealing supplies, demolishing facilities and defending resistance outposts. Between deployments, the player chooses what to build, what to upgrade and what research to pursue.

The game’s basic structure incentivizes players to keep going with small, hard-fought victories at every step. Every engagement pits your soldiers against a vastly superior force. Every new gadget is the product of weeks of research. Once the player starts to gain momentum, XCOM 2 is almost impossible to put down.

While optimized for PC, Nintendo Switch and last-gen system owners can still enjoy the full game, albeit with some minor graphical issues and longer load times.

— Liam Forrester, news editor

Stardew Valley

If you’re looking for your next cozy game for fall and winter and you’re a fan of games like Animal Crossing, Minecraft and Terraria, look no further than Stardew Valley.

Solely developed by American indie game designer Eric Barone and published by British studio Chucklefish, Stardew Valley is a farming simulation and role-playing game that can be played in both single and multiplayer modes.

Stardew Valley’s story begins with the player trading their busy corporate job for a simpler life on a farmstead inherited from their grandfather in lush Stardew Valley.

Upon arriving in Stardew Valley, the game becomes open-ended, leaving the player to decide what they would like to do with their land. The main activities consist of cultivating the land to grow and harvest crops, raising livestock, mining ore and socializing with the townspeople in the nearby town.

However, Stardew Valley also presents a vast, complex and nuanced world beyond just a simple farming game, with a variety of major and minor quests, minigames and options for exploration.

Additionally, as you move through quests and build relationships with townspeople, real-world topics are brought up — poverty, capitalism, alcohol abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder, to name a few — with a sincerity and sensitivity that isn’t often seen in games.

— Zoë LeBrun, volunteer staff

Detroit: Become Human

Quantic Dream’s latest offering, Detroit: Become Human, is a cinematic masterpiece. Set in a futuristic Detroit, human-like machines called androids have become something of a marginalized commodity. Though they are mass-produced and commonplace, their existence remains controversial and attitudes toward them are contentious. These sentiments are compounded by the growing number of “deviant” androids who have broken their programming, experience emotions and exercise free will.

The game follows a trio of characters with their own interactive journeys that split from, impact and overlap with each other. There is Connor, an android with the Detroit City Police Department tasked with handling cases involving “deviant” androids, Markus, a household android turned activist who hopes to start a revolution and free the android race and, finally, Kara, another domestic android, who rescues a young girl from an abusive home. The pair goes on the run and they must hide their identities, avoid the authorities and fight to survive. The player takes control of each character at various points in the story and dictates their words and actions through selecting dialogue options and completing quick time events. Some of these choices could be the difference between life and death for certain characters. Their moral decisions — and, by extension, the player’s — affect gameplay and shape the complex narrative in a way that keeps you on your toes until the credits roll. The resulting experience is truly more like a film than a video game.

Detroit: Become Human is not all perfect in its execution, but its flaws are easy to overlook when presented with high replay value, a stellar soundtrack and an emotional story.

— Shaylyn Maharaj-Poliah, arts and culture editor

Safety a priority at Active Living Centre

Masks, double vaccinations required to work out

SPORTS

Matthew Merkel, staff Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Active Living Centre (ALC) has gone through multiple transformations. From being completely open in February 2020 to suddenly resembling a ghost town in March, then re-opening months later and eventually going through multiple openings and closures, the past year and a half has forced members of the ALC to adjust on the fly.

/ staff Basel Abdelaziz photos /

As August began, the U of M made the decision to prioritize the health of faculty and students, making masks mandatory for everyone on campus, including those exercising at the ALC. These restrictions were more stringent than what the provincial public health restrictions were at the time, when masks were not mandatory in many indoor public places. Cases of the Delta variant continued to rise across the country as Manitobans reaped the benefits of lighter restrictions. In late August, that changed — the danger of a fourth wave in the province became too much to ignore.

The U of M’s decision is in line with many other universities’ COVID-19 policies across the country, including other educational institutions in Manitoba.

Approximately a week after Benarroch’s announcement, the provincial government also introduced tighter restrictions for unvaccinated Manitobans. People visiting indoor fitness facilities, restaurants, concerts and professional sports games are required to be double vaccinated under provincial health orders that came into effect Sept. 3.

The mask mandate was also reintroduced for all public indoor spaces. In gyms, a mask must be worn when walking around the gym, but not when working out.

The ALC continues to have much more stringent rules for its members, mandating that masks must be worn at all times in the facility, garnering mixed reactions from its fully vaccinated members.

Griffen Hawe, a student in the faculty of science, thinks it is preposterous that some individuals oppose the mask mandate, but admits that it is not ideal when working out.

“To me, it’s ridiculous that we [wouldn’t] be wearing masks when something like this is going on,” said Hawe.

“There’s almost no downside to them […] so, I don’t see why we wouldn’t wear masks. It seems like the [easiest] solution […] it’s not the end of the world.”

“However, at the gym, it is kind of an inconvenience. I think everywhere else, I understand it, but at the gym it’s such an inconvenience because you’re breathing heavy, you’re sweating and they get gross, but I do think that the mask mandate is important.”

The new vaccine guidelines have also caused controversy in the province. Hawe finds comfort in knowing that fellow gym members and classmates will be vaccinated and believes that taking the vaccine is also a no-brainer.

“I think everybody should be double vaccinated,” he said. “I understand there’s people who have health conditions that don’t allow them to get vaccinated […] but [now] there’s all these conspiracy theories about it so people don’t want to take the vaccine. Were you vaccinated for polio when you were a kid? Were you vaccinated for hepatitis A, hepatitis C, hepatitis B?”

“I would hope that most of my classmates in the faculty of science would already have the vaccine because they understand how a vaccine works and they know that it’s perfectly safe […] so, I don’t know that too many more classmates will be getting the vaccine because of the mandate. I’m assuming that most of them would already have the vaccine, but I do take comfort in knowing that everybody has to be double vaccinated.”

For the next few weeks, athletes and gymgoers at the U of M will be subjected to slightly stricter public health rules than others. While some may deem these rules unnecessary, there is no doubt that they will be some of the most protected by COVID-19 in the province.

Judging by the last year and a half, there is a possibility that these restrictions will tighten and loosen throughout the fall semester. The efficacy of these decisions has yet to be seen — only at the end of the academic year will we be able to judge the university’s actions.