SMART detour
When the real heat is too much, surrender to the Steam Summer Sale online
By Stephan Bazzocchi
albeit too-hot weather. Ten you step outside into the soup that is a 100 per cent humidex, and get mauled by the lovely mosquitoes. Quickly, you hear the voice
W
of reason and bolt back to the miracles of modern technol- ogy, namely air conditioning and the loving warm glow of your TV/PC screen. You sigh as you happily sit there with no worries of putting on an- other layer of sunscreen over the layer of bug spray. You can keep your mela-
ith summer in full swing, it’s hard to imagine sitting in front of the computer during this wonderful,
some old-school graphics, mining, explora- tion and building. All in glorious 2-D with a pretty solid multiplayer. It has NOT taken over my Minecraft addic-
tion by a long shot, but it’s fun to clink-clink around in with some friends as you try to drown them, bury them, or set it up so the zombies and mon- sters take them out as you laugh maniacally over the voice chat server. Tat type of fun is quite the bargain at $4 (sale price). Don’t Starve
If blocks aren’t your thing,
noma and your malaria. I will take a sedentary lifestyle indoors over Mother Nature on most days. Besides, the best holiday of the year is upon us. Te mythical Steam Summer Sale. It is the height of the PC gamer’s high holi-
days, leaving one’s bank balance hurting in the same way too much Christmas turkey hurts your waistline. Tis year, I exercised some restraint since there are still games from the last Steam Summer Sale that I purchased and haven’t installed or played. Tis time, I kept the purchases to a mini-
mum. Secretly, I am waiting for Te Forest or Spin Tires to go on sale, so I went in with high hopes and a tight wallet. Now that you have read what I didn’t buy, let’s cover what I did. Terraria
Being a Minecraft player (addict) and be-
ing from the Original Nintendo generation, this one sparked my interest right away. Awe-
Crossword
ACROSS 1. Pasta sauce first sold in 1937 5. Destroyed 10. An Andrews
14. ___ the air: uncertain 15. Egg-shaped 16. Nerve cell impulse transmitter 17. Salad item
19. Zoot ___, jazz artist 20. Commend 21. Poker player's headgear 23. Teeth
26. Handy postal container 27. Baseball Hall of Famer 32. "Eww, gross!" 33. Spinal bones 34. Followers of Nanak 38. Genghis or Kublai 40. "Jurassic Park" star Sam 42. Mulligatawny, for one 43. Serfs 45. Rink feints 47. XV x X + I 48. U.S. novelist-poet 51. Nicks or Wonder 54. Elevator innovator 55. Like some Net hookups 58. Steers clear of 62. Snug as ___... 63. Blanket-flower 66. Mineral in transparent sheets 67. "Dallas" matriarch 68. Troubles. 69. Frisks
70. Singer James and comics' Kett 71. Fine stocking material
DOWN
1. Country cousin 2. Crest 3. Coated with an expensive layer 4. Open with a key 5. Ending with quiet 6. Bit of brandy 7. Nincompoop 8. Tony-winner Judith 9. Money, in slang
August 2014
All Fun & Games Stephan Bazzocchi
nor retro-style graphics, but you like the idea of survival games, Don’t Starve might be one to check out. Take the premise of Rust, Minecraft, and all the rest, and apply a Tim Burton-art style to it. You begin as some lit tle
goth-looking cartoon charac- ter awaking on an island. You
then proceed to collect wood, stone, gold, and most of all, things that are edible. Tis is one of the few games that takes your mental state into account in a survival situation. As time progresses, you seem to get a little more twitchy and jumpy. Was that a pair of eyes staring at you from the dark? Shadows take on a life of their own, in quite a sinister fashion, but then when you look that way, there doesn’t appear to be anything there. So now, you have to worry about survival,
eating enough food, AND those creepy shad- ows that seem to actually hurt you when it gets dark or when you are teetering on the edge of sanity. As you progress, you unlock quite the cast
of characters. I made it as far as the pyroma- niacal little girl with pigtails and a lighter. Guess when she starts losing her marbles? Yes, it involves setting fires.
The world of Terraria. Photo courtesy of Valve Corp. Papers Please
Lastly, we have another little gem of
retro-style gaming. Papers Please is an odd little game. Done in the style of old Carmen Sandiego games, with less than 8-bit graph- ics, just four colours including grey, and horrible animation. In the days of 1080p 60fps and more col-
ours than an art student can dream up, one would think there is nothing other than cons to a rather odd little game. Strangely, they add to the atmosphere. You are a humble family man, living in
a Cold War-era, military dictatorship-style country. You go to work to make money to support your rather large household and try to do the best job you can. Your job is being a border crossing agent.
You inspect passports based on the rules the government sets for that day. You refuse
entry and you allow entry. When you make a mistake, you get docked pay. Docked pay means you can’t buy food,
pay for your rent, buy medicine, or pay for heat, so the wellbeing of your rather large family begins to decline. Every day is more challenging. Failure means Gulag and a dead family. Such is life, but we rejoice! For your suffer-
ing is over. No more family, no more job. Or maybe it’s all a hallucination brought on by malnourishment. Tanks to the Steam Summer Sale, all this
fun was had for under $10. Sadly, if these games interest you, they are back up to regu- lar price. Until the next crazy sale. Till then, start a little slush fund, purely
for Steam sales. Unless you suffer from the same Minecraft addiction, then you really don’t need to buy any other games.
Word Search
Build Carded Caveat Crowd Daunted Dearths Dudes Enjoyment Ensue Extracurricular Fairs Fished Flicking Frailer
10. Colorful shirts for men 11. The A of CAT scan 12. ___ guerre 13. Fox and Goose star 18. Tricky maneuvers 22. Anatomical pouches 24. Crime buster 25. Pull out 27. Nickname for John Wayne, with 'the'
28. Cries of loathing 29. Martial arts actor Jackie 30. More brut 31. Reach by foot
35. 1970's-80's Big Apple mayor 36. Dance done in grass skirts 37. What makes a curveball curve
Answers on next page
www.smartcareers.ca SMART TAB 17
39. Sarin, for one 41. Post-Mardi Gras period 44. Gardener's purchase 46. "You __ mouthful" 49. Barry Gibb, for one 50. "Oy vey!" elicitor 51. Home for Pogo 52. Shinbone 53. Belch 56. "S" shaker 57. Residue
59. One-fifth of MMCCLV 60. Slay
61. Neighbor of Alta. 64. ___ Fail, Irish coronation stone 65. Bandleader Brown of renown
Suduko
Gives Hidden Injurious Interviews Itched Leafed Masks Meadow Minuses Oasis Paves Persuasive Plods Quota
Reefs Relationships Research Safest Screwy Shunt
Slammed Soured
Substantiate Teethes Vetted Visit Warns Worth
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