Journal and Courier from Lafayette, Indiana • 24

D2 Diversions SORE THUMBS: Video game reviews Missing: Since January Available for Win 98 or newer 3 stars out of 4 Worried that your life have enough paranoia in it? This is the game for you Missing: Since January a profoundly unsettling re creation of the hunt for a seri al killer assigns you the task of investigating the mysterious dis appearance of a journalist and his girlfriend The assignment comes in the form of a CD sent to you containing a sequence of video clips leading up to her abduction Someone or something calling him her or itself the Phoenix is challenging you to unravel the clues on the disc for a chance to save the Eves of the missing peo ple You ask for this job but can you refuse? Missing: Since January re quires an Internet connection along with your mail address Once you start playing you will get mail from people who say they are trying to solve the case but some of these messages may have been sent by the killer You can write back to these strangers and get a reply sometimes from an ac tual person working for the developers and sometimes from a computer that does a pretty good job of impersonating a human To solve the puzzles have to snoop around for clues in more than 300 Web sites some fictitious and some real (or example the name of the model car you see on a desk in a photo is also the password need to break into his personal files) easy to get distracted in this game but take too long the creepy Phoenix people are out there and they might be closing in on you The Washington Post Ground Control II: Operation Exodus Available on Win 98 or newer 3 stars out of 4 This long awaited sequel to Ground Control the 3 strategy war simulation that wowed gamers in 2000 sticks with its relative simplicity no micromanagement of your factories and forces here you just need to focus on getting enough troops to the field for each mission This time around though you also have the option of reinforce ments bought with victory points given out for successes in combat This new wrinkle adds some com plexity if you call in your rein forcements too early the enemy will swoop down to wipe them out (The story as told over 12 missions through movies and voiceovers: The Northern Star Al liance must stop the pending in vasion of the evil Imperial Ter rans while enlisting the aid of a neutral alien race the Virons) Unfortunately the artificial in telligence animating our own troops match up to that on the opposing side Some key units figure out how to get around structures to meet up with comrades in battle and at other times formations broke down for no reason The high point here is the graphics which depict far more detail than those of most strategy titles A smoke trail can be seen reflected in the water be low and such natural environ ments as trees mountains and hillsides are beautiful enough to function as tourist postcards right up until you start ripping up the landscape with explosives The Washington Post Thief: Deadly Shadows Available on Xbox and PC 2 stars out of 4 Thief: Deadly Shadows is a flawed but ultimately enjoyable video game where big thrills of ten bump up against major bouts of frustration You play as master thief Gar rett in a cloak and dagger quest for medallions jewels and other shiny trinkets through an alter native world called The story goes well beyond sim ple pilfering There are shadowy factions like the Keepers and Pa gans have to deal with as you advance through the game which is spread across nine days each with numerous objectives The Al generally does a great job of mimicking real humans If you kill a guard bystanders will run away and bring back rein forcements Other times charac ters are as dumb as doorknobs or sake remember to save the game often Deadly Shad ows do it for you automati cally very frustrating when you die then have to redo an work because you forgot to save Despite some nagging issues the game has a compelling story and thick 'atmosphere The fight ing is fantastic with flickering torches casting realistic shadows as you pick locks and rifle through treasure chests Gannett News Service Journal and Courier Thursday August 5 2004 hits indie film circuit Talking with Rusty Gray you get the sense that while a realist he is an upbeat optimistic and per sonable individual And after viewing this actor pro movie 30 Miles another ad jective springs to mind talented Gray whose real name is Russell Schmidt is a 1983 graduate of West Lafayette High School The former Purdue University student has been working in Hollywood for nearly two decades in film and on television Now he is on the independent film circuit tout ing 30 Miles which he and his partner Cliff Gober along with Ryan Harper and Josh Jaggars produced Gray who conceived the story idea also co stars in the film with for mer Welcome Back Kotter co star Lawrence Hilton Jacobs The feature is being shown at Indiefest in Chicago which began last week and ends Sunday 30 Miles is a tension filled char acter study of two men Ernie a white man stranded in the middle of nowhere after his car breaks down and Anthony a black Samaritan who to his regret helps Ernie by giving him a ride to the nearest serv ice station 30 miles down the road Gray said the genesis for his sto ry is rooted in his friendship with Gober whom he met at Purdue while they were working on the musical Carousel been best friends for 15 Gray said adding that a long time ago the two stopped see ing the racial differences between them The idea of the story he said was to back the onion of hu man He explained that when a stranger picks up someone the two usually open up to each other re Bi Bob Bloom Top Billing Photo provided ON THE ROAD: Ernie (Rusty Gray left) and Anthony (Lawrence Hilton Jacobs) take a break from driving in 30 Miles Gray is a 1 983 graduate of West Lafayette High School and has been working in Hollywood for nearly two decades KmOlBiTi' vealing things they tell others simply because it is unlikely they will see each other again Throughout the film which Harper directed tension builds be tween the two men keeping the audience on edge as it waits for the inevitable results When it hits the outcome is a shocker moral of the Gray said judge a book by its He calls it actors liken ing it to 12 Angry Men You keep watching to see what happens Besides being an interesting movie 30 Miles also is something of a pioneer It is the first movie to use a newly developed Sony HD900 with a 35mm adapter that allows the cinematographer to put a 35mm lens on a high definition camera 30 Miles Gray said is a digital ly photographed film technology was just hitting the market and ours was the first company to use he said It also helped to greatly reduce the budget and shooting schedule allowing at least 10 pages of script to be shot daily photography was done in eight Gray said He added that tape stock is a fraction of the cost of film as are post production expenses The to tal cost of the production was well under $500000 because of the technology and because called in a lot of Gray said ilming was completed in Au gust of 2003 with editing finished a month later The first screening was in October 2003 Since then 30 Miles has been receiving accolades as it makes its way this year around the inde pendent festival circuit It has been shown at the Cinequest ilm es tival in San Jose the Hollywood Black ilm estival where it was named runner up best feature film the est in Hollywood and the American Black ilm estival in South Beach la Gray is rightly proud of the film as a work of art and as a techno lf you go 30 Miles will be shown at 8 today and 4 pm Saturday at Indiefest at the Biograph The atre 2433 Lincoln Ave Chicago or festival schedule and information go to www indiefestchicagocom logical breakthrough proj ect is opening the door for indie filmmakers without the Realistically he said because of its small budget and because it re quires a theater with high defini tion capability to screen it 30 Miles will only get a limited art house release But it will make a profit for the production company Your Half Pictures Some highly regarded actors who have seen the feature includ ing Academy Award nominees John Savage and Angela Bassett have praised the film is the way a movie should Savage told Gray Because of 30 Miles' positive re ception Savage and John Heard are set to star in Steel City the next film which is scheduled to begin shooting in Al ton DI between Thanksgiving and Christmas While Gray enjoys wearing the hats of producer and actor he said if he had to choose one over the other it would be acting But he added that I had my life to do over I would be a The Your Half team also real ized that 30 Miles works well on the stage and is thinking of pro ducing it as a play Whether on screen or stage 30 Miles is drawing reactions from those who see it it makes peo ple think then we Gray said Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier He can be reached by mail at bbloomjournalandcouriercom IIM WB WBBw a 4 Al By The Associated Press TIME OR SOME ACTION: Marty Stratton of id Software Inc sets to battle one of the many assorted monsters while playing the new Doom 3 video game at the headquarters in Mesquite Texas Doom 3 took four years to make and hit store shelves Tuesday Gamers prepare to meet their Doom 3 By Matt Stagle The Associated Press MESQUITE Texas Marty Stratton has already blasted dozens of flame tossing imps flying skulls and other nightmarish demons from another dimension But more keep spawning in flashes of yellow light is where it really starts get ting he says upon entering a new level of Doom 3 where mas sive hell knights lob deadly balls of energy against a backdrop of shim mering lava pools and torches made of corpses know how many times been through hell but it just freaks me our years after setting out to re make one of the most popular and violent video games ever Stratton and the rest of the crew at id Soft ware Inc are finally done with their latest vision of hell a bit nervous like rais ing a child and you send them out into the said Tim Willits one of the designers Doom 3 hits store shelves Tues day though there were reports of some retailers breaking a midnight sales embargo and of pirated copies already being distributed for free on the Internet Improved effects The $55 sequel typifies the first person shooter genre id pioneered in the early 1990s with the original Doom Quake and Wolfenstein 3D: gamers run and gun through hordes of monsters or other enemies in three dimensions With each release the visuals sound and other effects have im proved Doom 3 is by far the most re alistic and looks nearly equal to an imated films like Shrek 2 In Doom 3 you are a marine on a martian outpost that becomes a gateway to hell after a series of top secret experiments involving an cient alien artifacts With shotguns rocket launchers lasers and grenades you alone must fend off a menagerie of beasts and possessed base workers a familiar formula served the tiny developer well While some have decried games as overly violent the company has sold millions of copies of one gory hit af ter another In turn the games have spawned legions of loyal fans By the thou sands gamers of all ages flock to an annual Texas gath ering paid for by id where like mind ed players meet and fight each oth er online Along with Half Life 2 Doom 3 is one of the most anticipated games this year said Greg Kasavin exec utive editor of the review Web site GameSpotcom represents the next techno logical leap by id Software a de veloper remained on the fore front of computer graphics and com puter game technology for more than a he said Analyst Michael Goodman with the Yankee Group said Doom 3 could boost the sagging market for personal computer games Sales of CD ROM based PC games dropped from $14 billion two years ago to an estimated $1 billion this year largely due to the growing popu larity of consoles like the Xbox and PlayStation 2 he said The success has turned co owner and technical director John Car mack into one of the game indus most revered gurus renowned for his skill at creating game the underlying foundation of a game which makes everything from graphics to sound possible Carmack said there was some in ternal debate about what the next project would be after its last game the online shooter Quake 3 and the Team Arena expansion pack in 2000 Eventually they decided to re make Doom using new software tools created by Carmack always been a small com pany of prima Carmack sporting baggy shorts and a white shirt said as he swiveled his be spectacled gaze from a flat screen computer monitor glowing with lines of computer code really matured as a development team Lots of things took longer than we expected but really pleased with how it all turned Crunch mode sleek offices in a nondescript professional building in suburban Dallas have been a home away from home for its two dozen employees Led by Carmack been in since January clock ing 80 hour work weeks in a rush to wrap things up Dress is casual: Employees stroll the dim hallways wearing shorts and shirts a kitchen stacked with boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts bags of beef jerky and a row of arcade machines Lead artist Kenneth Scott said he was worn out after working 9 am to 2 am for months on end but admitted to suffering from a bit of postpartum depression when it was finished pretty up to our chins in what we he said get used to that groove Your mind drifts and you feel guilty when sitting down only been a few weeks since Doom 3 was declared done Already the office is abuzz with renewed ac tivity With window blinds pulled pro grammers and artists are again hunched over their keyboards work ing on an Xbox version of Doom 3 as well as a new game All anyone will say for now is that it will be a completely new game not a sequel not like a rock band where you take four months Stratton said that would be names and faces The show must go on but not if the star in this case Christian Slater has chicken pox Producers had to cancel the open ing night of One lew Over the Nest which was due to open in Edinburgh Scotland ri day and run for three weeks in con junction with the annual arts festival so hoped we would be able to make the first performance but poor chicken pox has simply been too said producer Nica Bums order to safeguard the rest of the run we are having to take the advice to let Christian re cover for one more she said Tuesday McMurphy is an enormous part requiring great en The play is to run at Edin Assembly Rooms before moving to West End in September The producers said those hold ing tickets for riday can exchange them for another night or get a re fund They said the rest of the run would go ahead as planned Jack Nicholson won an Oscar for his role as McMurphy in the 1975 movie adaptation of Ken novel set in an Oregon mental hos pital Our residents come first Comfort Convenience Medicare Approved Anodyne Infrared Therapy Clinically proven to help thousands of patients with diabetic neuropathy Noninvasive drug free safe Reduce pain and pain medications Improve balance and reduce falls Improve wound healing irst therapy to consistently restore sensation Heritage Healthcare 3401 Soldiers Home Road 1 1 West Lafayette 765 463 1 541 id 44 I ft A I 4 A I POSB a I JI? 4 fr ORCHARD Al HARKG 7 Our Own Paula Red Apples HOURS 9 6 DAILY CLOSED SUN PHONE 765 379 2339 1 Mile West of Rossville on St Rd 261 Mile North Mums Michigan Red Haven Peaches 4 1 fs.