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Civil War Review

May 23, 2016 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Michaela Peterson

Image Courtesy of Marvel

The much hyped 3rd Captain America Movie, Civil War, hit theaters on Friday May 06. Personally, I thought the movie was almost perfect, with the exception of one major flaw: the plot.

If that sounds like a big deal, well, it is. It felt like there were fourteen different plots running throughout the movie, and all of the barely connected, if at all. Of course there were other things, forced romances between characters, people showing up and then completely disappearing, etc. But nothing ruins a movie more than a plot that doesn’t know where it’s going.

However, despite this problem, I can’t bring myself to hate it. The characters and their relationships were, for the most part, beyond anything I’ve seen before in a Marvel movie. Characters like Black Widow, whose characterization has changed throughout the movies, stayed strong and consistent, true to who she was in prior films. Even with the infighting between the two groups, no one wanted to hurt each other. They were still a team. And the new characters were something else entirely, bringing audiences whole new set of superheroes for us to admire. Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther was incredible. I don’t think there was a person in the theater who didn’t find him humorous and surprisingly well developed. He is a diplomat who hates diplomacy. He is a warrior and a King. He is also unafraid to admit to his mistakes and correct them. The same goes for the new Spider-Man. Like most, I was sceptical when Marvel announced that they were, once again, recasting Spider-Man. I didn’t know how I felt about Tom Holland, who is so young with little experience, playing one of my favorite superheroes. He was INCREDIBLE. He combined the quirky, dorky, very teen-like aspects that Toby Maguire brought to Spider-Man, with the sass and light-hearted jokes that Andrew Garfield provided- while also reflecting the actual age of his character, only around 16 or 17. He really did play the part incredibly, making the truest-to-the-comics Spider-Man yet. With very little screen time, Tom Holland has already earned his place in the hearts of many Marvel fans.

And then, of course, are the three biggest players: Captain America, Iron Man , and the man who created the conflict, Bucky Barnes. The conflict is mostly driven by Zemo, a Sakoian general who has been actively searching for Bucky. Once he gets to him, the real conflict begins. Spoiler Alert! He uses Bucky to find the other Winter Soldiers who were created after Bucky stole the serum from the Starks, whom he had just killed. This fact is what leads to the final fight between Tony, Steve, and Bucky, ending with Steve dropping his shield and leaving with Bucky.
Although I was unimpressed by the plot, it was still a large improvement from Age of Ultron, and in the end the film was redeemed by the amazing characters and their relationships. With only a few minor flaws in terms of character development and interaction, this may have been one of the best Marvel films yet.

Spotlight: Student Drug Use at SLA

May 23, 2016 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Michaela Peterson, Chuckie Copeland, and Aaron Watson-Sharer

As most people know, drugs are an ongoing issue in American with a lot of angles. . On one hand, drug use continues to cause major disruption in our society. For example, 46.6% of inmates in federal prisons are there because of drug related offenses (Source). On the other hand, certain states are seeking to decriminalize or even legalize the use of certain substances. What do these trends mean at the high school level?

When SLAMedia started talking about student drug use, we had the vague impression that everyone at SLA at least knows a student who regularly uses some form of illegal drugs. But was this perception real? SLA Media wanted to find out exactly how many students do what, when, and how much. We formed a group of three students — Michaela Peterson, Chuckie Copeland, and Aaron Watson-Sharer — to be our Spotlight team. These students have spent the 2 months creating and tallying school wide anonymous survey and analyzing the resulting data. In total, 290 students were surveyed from all four grades.

In this article, we will go over some of the information we have found. For the rest of the school year, we will be reporting out about various drug related issues in the school. Below we have put together an infographic of some of the basics.

We hope that this information gives the school community some hard facts which may challenge (or confirm) their assumptions about student drug and alcohol use. As always, we seek to present the facts as plainly as possible.

For the remainder of the school year, we will be publishing various articles about this issue. We will be interviewing people about their experience with drugs at SLA, and how they think it affects the school.

An Eye On Overwatch

May 23, 2016 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Aidan W., Staff Writer

Overwatch is a game reminiscent of some of the first games of the first-person-shooter genre. It is a class-based game, in which you choose from a number of different classes to play from, each with their own unique gameplay and abilities. Centering on teamwork and strategy, the game distances itself from the modern shooter by creating an environment for healthy cooperation. Every player is important, and no player feels as though they are just along for the ride.

Developed by Blizzard Entertainment, Overwatch rose from the ashes of Titan, a game trapped in development hell before it was finally abandoned. Overwatch is almost a redemption story, in which the development team rose from the ashes of Titan with one of the greatest games of all time. However, is this true?

The open beta of Overwatch, a period in which anyone with a gaming platform could try the game and get a feel for it, took place from May 5-9. I was blessed to be one of those people. I regret to say I didn’t get to play it nearly as much as I wanted. However, the gameplay that I got in was more than exceptional. It’s been years since a game hooked me with the same intensity as this. Getting to play this game was a breath of the fresh air, and I cannot wait for the release.

I could talk for hours about my favorite of the twenty-one heroes, from the Clint-Eastwood-wild-west styled Mcree, the robot monk, Zenyatta, the cyborg ninja, Genji, or even the giant with the grappling hook, Roadhog. I could talk about all the fantastic moments of gameplay I experienced, and I could talk about the beautiful scenery on the wonderfully crafted maps. However, all I’ll say is that I greatly look forward to the fast-approaching release on May 24th, and that I can pretty safely say that this is already one of my favorite games of all time.

Locker Talk: What is Your Worst Benchmark Experience?

May 23, 2016 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Meymey Seng, Staff Writer

“EVERY SINGLE ONE, just kidding. My worst benchmark experience was my first algebra project. No one communicated nor worked together so we ended up getting a bad grade and having to do everything over again.”

–Alyssa Eastwood, 9th Grade

“My worst benchmark experience was when I got a 0 from Ms Thompson.”

–Christian M., 10th Grade

“Algebra benchmarks are always the hardest for me. I always make minor mistakes that I don’t realize until the end.”

-Chhievling Seng, 11th Grade

“Never hate a benchmark. Some are more challenging than others, that’s the fun of it.”

–Tamidul Bhuiyan, 11th Grade

“My worst benchmark experience was in junior year. The first quarter Algebra 2 benchmark was about something I forgot about, but I remember that I spent HOURS working on it and it turned out I didn’t know what I was doing. I got a 35 on that benchmark.”

–Nagee Graves, 12th Grade

Fate. . . A Scary Thing

May 22, 2016 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Vilma Martinez

Staff Editor

WARNING: THE WHOLE GAME WILL BE SPOILED!!!

Throughout the past year a game called “Life is Strange” caught my attention. The story is a captivating one that shows you the consequences of your actions and what your fate has in store for you. You can go ahead and mess around all you want, but messing around with fate has another thing in store for you.

The story follows a girl in high school named Max, who was living a normal life. She returned to Arcadia Bay to live out the rest of her life where she grew up. She had so much in her life she enjoyed. From a photography teacher whom she had trust and respect for, to her best friend, Warren who was always there for her, and was about to enter a photo contest,she thought she was living at peace, until one day in class she woke up from the most realistic daydream she has ever had. As her class ends and she heads to the bathroom, a guy named Nathan walks into the girls bathroom followed by another girl named Chloe. The two break out in a feud and Nathan pulls out a gun only to shoot Chloe in the stomach unconsciously. As soon as the gun fires Max comes out from where she was hiding in the bathroom to lift a hand and scream stop. Max did not expect her day to go like that.

As soon as she lifts her hand mid-air, she was back in the classroom waking up from the nap she previously woke up from(Crazy right?! I know!). As she replays that class period she goes back to the bathroom to follow the the same cycle once again. She soon realizes that she had the ability to turn time and used it to her advantage. As she walks to the bathroom for the third time, she uses that power to stop Chloe from being shot. Max does not recall who Chloe was until she ran into her again and recognized her. From there they spend a week together and grow closer and Max learns about what has happened with Chloe while she was gone, such as her dad dying, her mom remarrying, and making a best friend named Rachel, that soon went missing. Upon hearing that, Max does her best to help Chloe in achieving happiness, but runs through rough patches over and over again(which may or may not include completely changing their timeline).

As the game progresses, the main focus Max has is to find out how Rachel went missing and why, but the closer she gets to the truth, the deeper her grave gets.

Now you may be asking, “Why is this game any different from other games” or saying “Seems like another hipster game to me”. Now I see your point on why you might think that, but the story behind this is truly captivating and the reason for that is you have choices. The entire game is dependent on you making choices and every choice you make, whether good or bad has a consequence. Although the plot line may stay the same, there are so many other things that depend on your actions and whether the game has a good outcome for you or not. But let’s move on to the rest of the story.

So as the game continues, you keep getting a glimpse of the future. A future that is at the end of the week. That future hold something that is a result of you constantly turning back time. In the game, Chloe is bound to die 3 times automatically, the other times are “optional” as they are not part of the manual gameplay. The first would be when she gets shot by Nathan. The second being when she gets her foot stuck in a train track right when a train is headed towards her and the third. . . we will get to in a moment. But every time she is close to death, Max is there to save her by reversing time again and again. And every single time she does so, she is messing with the space time continuum and the result is a massive tornado headed towards Arcadia Bay.

Max of course clueless of her actions continues to solve the mystery for the sake of Chloe. Throughout the game’s episodes you get glimpses of someone who is up to no good which no one finds out about until chapter 4. Halfway through chapter you find yourself in a bunker and within that bunker you find red binders that were shown in Chapter One, each labelled with a girl’s named and a few containing corrupted images of them clearly drugged and photographed in horrible ways. As Chloe flips through the binders, she finds one labelled “Rachel” and sees the pictures that showed her drugged body sprawled on a dirt covered surface. Max points out that her body was being put underground and Chloe immediately recognizes the spot and they set out to find out whether Rachel is dead or not.

To Chloe’s misfortune, as she locates the spot and begins to dig with a Max, they are greeting with a foul odor and Rachel’s dead body, which results in Chloe crying, but as the shot zooms out, a phantom doe that has been greeting Max since episode 1 appears for the last time and then disappears. Many like to believe that it is Rachel’s spirit in the form of a ghost who has been leading Max and Chloe to find out the truth. I like to believe so also. After that heartbreaking scene, you find out that Rachel was overdosed by Nathan. Max and Chloe both head out to a party to look for Nathan, but little did they know they had something else coming.

The pair thought they had to look for Nathan, but her was being forced to do a job that he couldn’t handle. The kid was mentally ill and yet he was forced by someone to do their dirty work. Both Chloe and Max were lured by the real criminal back to Rachel’s grave because of a threat sent through Nathan’s phone, to harm the body. They go back only to be greeted harshly by the real criminal, who you may or may not guessed to be. I spent a minutes upon minutes screaming in frustration at the screen when I saw who it was.

IT WAS HER PHOTOGRAPHY TEACHER MR.JEFFERSON!!!

Now throughout the game, her seemed like a chill guy. He seemed harmless but to my shock he was a monster.. Once you find out the truth, the sick guy drugs you and does the same to you as the others, leaving a dead Chloe behind. For the rest of the chapter you continue to turn back time again and again so that you can leave the bunker he had you trapped in and save Chloe from saying. . . yet again

*sigh* “Jesus Chloe do you know how many people got sick of saving you from dying” *groans in frustration*.
But the last day of the week has come and it was the day of the tornado. Once you have saved Chloe you have to make you way to a lighthouse at the top of a hill to take a look at the tornado and its distance from the coast. Halfway up the hill and you pass out. While unconscious you go through a bunch of memories of the past week, but morphed into awful ones. By the end of your unconscious cream you head down a literal path of memory lane. The memories of you and Chloe spending time with one another.

When you reach the end of memory lane, you return consciousness and Chloe begins to talk about how the storm is her fault. Both Warren and Chloe are aware that you trying to save her countless of times is what caused the storm. Let’s face it, she is like a final destination character, you can delay her death, but her death has to come soon because it is her fate. By the end of her speech you are faced with the biggest decision in the game.

SACRIFICE YOUR BEST FRIEND OR SACRIFICE A WHOLE TOWN OF PEOPLE?

The choice was hard for me, I was sobbing by the end of the chapter and given the option I cried even more because it felt like killing someone/others who you held so dear to your heart, but looking at everything, I had the ability to choose one, even if I was a sobbing mess by the end of the game. Chloe herself said that the people in Arcadia Bay deserved to live unlike her. That Max was delaying her true destiny and that she died or almost died countless of times around her. She thanked her for giving her the time of her life that week and for making her smile like she hadn’t done in years, but the only way of saving everyone was to sacrifice Chloe. Chloe shed light on the situation and all was left to do was make your choice.

I chose to sacrifice Chloe. If you look at it, you would only continue to delay her true destiny and unlike her, you are killing so many people if you chose to sacrifice A.B. It is either one life or tens of others. And its amazing a game can make you feel that. After all you never showed up into her life again until she almost hit you with her truck earlier on in the game, Max never even contacted her when she left A.B or when she returned. I think sacrificing her ends her suffering and the potential suffering of others. At the end of the game you are given statistics of the choices you make compared to others and are given a percentage of the outcomes. Apparently I was not the only one to think so. Just look at these statistics from people who actually played the game!

Almost a 50/50 split! With one 3% over 50 sided with sacrificing her!

I truly loved this game and everyone can gain something from it. I can guarantee that others were emotional by the end of the gameplay. “Needless to say, in our playthrough I may have gotten a little choked up” said MattPat in a video on L.I.S, following a clip of him in a few tears by the end. The choices you make says so much about your personality and I love everything it has to give. This games helps you focus on the present rather than going back to change the past for a better future. As we all grow up we tend to regret things and sometimes wish we could turn back time, but our fate will show us what it has in store for us. We can’t change what has happened, but we can continue to fight in the present for a brighter future and be thankful that we lived the moments we did in the past.

I really love this game and the messages that it gave. I loved the story and the characters. The development of every character throughout the game was amazing and the gameplay was so compelling. Not only that, but I appreciated the graphics of the game along with the great use of symbolism and theories. This game had a mix of a lot of things, and they worked very well together.

On another note Life Is Strange 2 has been confirmed and I am waiting for its release. The story will follow a whole new set of characters because Max’s story has been finalized and I can not wait! YAY!