smart | detour


2014: A year in review from the couch The year brought goofy games like Goat Simulator and critical thinking games like Kerbal Space Program


– I think I have covered all possibilities with that blanket statement. Growing up I never much


W


thought about 2014 or 2015 for that matter. Te year 2000 was the magical number that always stirred my imagination. But here we are. Tis time of year is filled with


hopes of new consoles or games wrapped in glittering paper or fast downloads, and the never- ending year-in-review posts all over the Internet. Yes, this is one of those ar-


All Fun & Games Stephan Bazzocchi


ticles; no, it’s not about all the controversial/disheartening/ bloody stuff that’s happened in the past year. You can get that


fix somewhere else. Instead, I offer a view of some posi- tive introspection, hoping that you too, dear reader, take some time to see how you’ve grown and developed over the past year. Of course, being a pretty consistent gamer (I’ve logged 23


hours in EVE this past weekend, what did you accomplish!), I have my own sources of self-analysis. Turn-based games


Let’s start with some turn-based games. Tis year, I


purchased both Call of Cthulhu: Te Wasted Land and XCom: Enemy Unknown. Growing up, I played quite a few – everything from the original Dungeons and Dragons games to the Age of Empires series. As I’ve grown, so has the complexity of this style of gam-


ing. Tey’ve taught me logic and cause and effect to a pretty serious degree. Granted, I was pretty rusty at the begin- ning of the year, but just like riding a bike, those thinking processes reawaken pretty quickly, and continue to grow sharper with every play. Don’t bother with all those other brain games. Set these


ones up in the retirement home and the effects would be astounding.


Crossword


ACROSS 1. Gnawed: It. 5. "The ___ the Worlds" 10. Univ. hot shot 14. Unattractive tropical fruit 15. Rice-___ 16. Former golfing great Tony 17. Extend


19. Syria, in the Bible 20. Capital of the Edomites 21. Front section of a rocket 23. AOL and others, in brief 26. Play for a sap 27. Restoration requirement, often


32. Healthy 33. Facets 34. Rips off 38. Dangle


40. City near the Perrier spring 42. Sly maneuver 43. Got ___ on the wrist 45. Black Hawk's people 47. Half a drum 48. Minutiae 51. More difficult 54. Famed round-the-world solo flier


55. They might be found on living room floors 58. Gambols 62. Carolina college town 63. Frank topper 66. First planet: Abbr. 67. Having prongs 68. Designer color 69. Heavenly spirit, in Lille 70. Wisest Ones 71. Certain herring


DOWN


1. Coach Adolph in the Basketball Hall of Fame


2. Dictatorial boss 3. Vegas opening 4. Offshore sight 5. Pasty-faced 6. Buenos Aires's land: Abbr.


January 2015


7. Color of a horse 8. Get ___ (board) 9. Glendale's ___ Bowl 10. Driveway surface 11. Nile ruins 12. Native of SE Arabia 13. Oriole yards 18. Gobi refuge


22. Stethoscope holders 24. Nabokov book 25. Masochist's match 27. Man ___ Mancha 28. Rivers, in Spain 29. "___ just take a minute" 30. 1968 running mate 31. Prefix with intellectual 35. Meter starter 36. Camel rival


Answers on next page www.smartbizwpg.com Smart Biz 17


37. Sylvia __-, British leading lady 39. Stripper's specialty 41. Calendar a la Variety 44. Type of group 46. Mute bird 49. Has faith in 50. Work of Ovid


51. British blood opener 52. "Over the Rainbow" composer 53. Shuffle, briefly 56. ___ hypothesis (ecological theory concerning the earth)


57. Like lyrics 59. SST number


60. Aqua ___: clean water 61. Mare's mate 64. Broad shoe width 65. Aves.


Acorn Bales Beefs Cached Chute Comply Croak Dandy Dearths Dense Ditty


Ejected Emblems Gapes Gibes


Suduko


Grief Gullies Handling Hello Integral Nears Neuters Outlet Perkiest Piddles Pinnacle Poets Prompted Redone Ruffian


Shepherd Sloths Station Stingy Sundae Tenor Topazes Trains Trudged Veiled Vital Warts Waste Wedge Widen


ow. The end of 2014 is upon us already. First, the formalities. Happy whatever it is you celebrate in the way you celebrate or don’t


EVE is one of the writer's admitted addictions. Photo courtesy of CCP Games. Once you delve headfirst into some pretty serious


themes, you need to counter that. What would life be with- out any amount of silliness in it? It would be pretty boring and monotonous, especially for someone who has loved the likes of Monty Python since I was a wee lad growing up in a shoebox (you know the rest). Goat Simulator


What better way to get silly and have some laughs than


with Goat Simulator (now with more goats and a Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) update), and Gary’s Mod. Both these games reminded me of my love of things like the Ministry of Silly Walks, goats, and just pure lunacy the likes of what most people have never seen. I haven’t had a chance to check out the MMO update for


Goats yet; maybe that might be put on a list of New Year’s resolutions.


Kerbal Space Program And lastly, I remembered to keep on dreaming, thanks


to some little green guys and their little space program. If you haven’t heard, development is hitting final beta. Like Kerbals, I look at the stars every night and hope that maybe one day in my lifetime I might make it up there. Tis little game has reignited that passion for the cos-


mos. It refueled my passion for playing EVE. It also taught me once again, that things don’t always work out the first time; you need to just add more struts and more boosters, and try again. Most people call that perseverance – I call it being like Jeb Kerman. So among all the feasts, beverages, family, and presents,


take some time and look at your gaming habits. See how they made you grow this year, because I am pretty sure that they did.


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