(13) Clemson at Georgia Tech: Tech is reeling and Clemson is rolling. The Yellow Jackets have dropped two straight since their precious Ramblin’ Wreck was, ironically, wrecked. Clemson is too much for the Jackets to handle, and Taylor Bennett, the GT QB, is having timing issues. Clemson wins, 26-13.
(5) West Virgina at (18) South Florida: South Florida made us look like geniuses by picking them over Auburn, but WVU is a tougher test. The Slaton/White ticket makes even the best defenses look silly. South Florida beat the Mountaineers last season, so West Virginia is revenge-minded, but that can be bad. It’ll be close; WVU gets their revenge, winning 31-28.
Ole Miss at (15) Georgia: Again, the Dawgs made us look good last week. Now the Rebels come to town after a close loss to mighty Florida. UGA sophomore QB Matthew Stafford is getting better and better as the season goes, and he now has a weapon that all the big-time quarterbacks have, poise under pressure. Georgia avoids the letdown and get’s their fourth win of the year, beating Ole Miss 31-13.
Auburn at (4) Florida: Florida won, keeping our record respectable, but they didn’t come close to the point spread we predicted. Auburn made us look good a few weeks back by falling flat against South Florida, and this is an SEC game, so you never know what to expect. Truthfully, Auburn doesn’t have enough for Florida this year. Tebow is a good QB, but all the running he does will get him into trouble. Someone is going to hit him hard, and it will do some damage. Florida wins, but they don’t roll, 30-23.
Mississippi State at (16) South Carolina: I’ll say it right now; the Gamecocks are officially on upset alert. Mississippi State has taken down Auburn, and beating Spurrier and South Carolina would let people know they’re for real. That’s the trick with the SEC, rivalry games happen every week and something bad tends to happen to teams with high rankings. I point back to UGA/Auburn last year. Auburn was number 5 in the nation. The Dawgs beat the Tigers 37-15. This game won’t be a blowout, but MissSt is playing well enough to win. Sly Crrom gets another big SEC “W”, 27-17.
Video games revisited
Today we travel back in time to Christmas of 1996. I was fourteen, and Christmas still held magic for me. Often it seems kids are disillusioned at an early age. Christmas loses whatever power it had, and kids look at it as just another day. I still hold out for the magic of a family Christmas. So it was that Christmas ’96 arrived…
I stumbled into the room, half asleep and half excited. Christmas is my favorite holiday, and not even because of the presents. I love the season. But, at age fourteen, presents are fairly important.
I sat down and began anxiously ripping into packages. First out was the N64 itself, resplendent in its vibrant multi-color box. I sat for a few minutes turning the box from one side to the other, reading every single word on it. The back of the box was peppered with screenshots of the different games that were coming out.
After scanning every panel on the box, I moved to the next present. What good is a game system without games? Not much, but present number two solved the momentary dilemma. Inside the box was a shirt. Now, first off, you can’t play a shirt. I’ve tried it, it can’t be done. Inside the shirt, though, was Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire. My first N64 game. I also opened Super Mario 64 that day, but Shadows stuck with me.
For those of you not in the know, Shadows of the Empire is quite possibly the most unbalanced game ever made. Some levels are easy and can be completed in a few minutes. Other levels can take upwards of an hour-plus to defeat. The bosses also range from the comical to the insanely difficult. To better understand the game, it helps to have read the book by Steve Perry.
A quick synopsis: Shadows of the Empire takes place between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. The story follows Luke Skywalker and company in tracking down the carbonite-frozen Han Solo, the adventures of rakish pilot Dash Rendar, and the competition between the evil crime lord Prince Xizor and Darth Vader.
The game follows Dash Rendar in a loose parallel of the events detailed in the book. In the book Rendar make reference to being on Hoth and fighting in the battle against the Empire. The game begins with that battle, and then follows Rendar in his quest through the Hoth base to get to his ship, the Outrider. After successfully overcoming these two missions, you fly through the Hoth asteroid belt.
From here the game gets harder. You travel to the junkyards of Ord Mantell and track down the bounty hunter IG-88. After dispatching IG-88, there is a fun level where you race swoops (essentially high-powered flying motorcycles) through Mos Eisley and Beggar’s Canyon.
You then track down the man himself, Boba Fett. Fett’s level is easily the longest and most trying in the entire game. After reaching Fett, you must fight him. You can kill him all you want, but he is never truly dead. He falls down into a hangar and reappears, this time in his ship, Slave I. You now have to defeat his ship. You’re still on foot.
If you’ve seen Return of the Jedi, then you’re probably familiar with the line “Many Bothans died to bring us this information.” in regards to the Death Star plans. In the game Dash Rendar leads the Bothan charge against an Imperial freighter carrying the plans. The freighter level is intense and is easily the most replayable level in the game.
The level where you have to trounce through the Imperial Sewers on Coruscant is horrifying. The sewers are dank, dark pits of despair. The boss battle in the sewers takes place under water, which is disgusting.
Once beyond the sewers, and after a nice, hot shower, you enter Xizor’s palace. The palace is one of the game’s most difficult levels. Save areas are few and far between, and the enemies are tougher to beat. The boss of Xizor’s palace is a Gladiator droid that you must kill three times. Round one is fighting the entire droid, who stands about fifty-feet-tall. Round two his legs fall off and you fight his flying torso. Round three his torso falls off and you fight a flying head.
Xizor’s Palace falls and you take to space for the final battle, Xizor’s skyhook. In a way, this battle is anticlimactic. You destroy the skyhook while dodging Imperial, Rebel, and Xizor-aligned starfighters. No matter how fast you fly after delivering the death blow, you will not escape.
In the book Dash Rendar is believed to die in the explosion of the skyhook. The game is no different, with the exception that after the battle, and after a few characters say “Oh my, Dash is dead!” you see Dash Rendar flying his ship through hyperspace.
In the end, Shadows has fantastic replay value, and if you learn the debug, you can play in ways you never imagined before.
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