Spectra https://www.shuspectra.com The student news site of Siena Heights University Fri, 14 Dec 2018 13:30:35 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.0.3 EDITORIAL: Hot On the Press https://www.shuspectra.com/5353/opinion/editorial-hot-on-the-press/ https://www.shuspectra.com/5353/opinion/editorial-hot-on-the-press/#respond Fri, 14 Dec 2018 13:27:52 +0000 https://www.shuspectra.com/?p=5353

Sometimes the media presents things that all people may not agree with, including those people who are in a position of power. One of the many great things about living in the United States is that those members of media do not have to worry about persecution because of the rights given to all in the first amendment.

Of course, there are libel laws that prevent the spreading of inaccurate or inappropriate information being published about people or groups. But for the most part, members of the media should be able say or write freely, without fear of reprisal. This free movement of information allows all opinions from all parts of our great country to be heard, as they should be.

It is with great regret, though, to report that we believe a member of the Spectra staff had their freedom of the press rights infringed on, here on the campus of Siena Heights University.

After reading a column regarding the effectiveness of some of the committees on campus, Student Government President Bailey Schwartz invited our columnist, Luc Schumm, in for a meeting to discuss the contents of the column. In the invitation, Schwartz also tagged several University administrators and the rest of the Student Government in the email. However, she did not include or notify the Spectra advisor or editor.

The purpose of a column is for the author to give an opinion for the readers to consider about the world around them. This particular column discussed the perceived shortcomings of some of the committees on campus. This particular column did not name any one person – it was inappropriate – and it did not come close to violating libel laws. It was one person’s opinion.

Apparently, the Student Government president did not agree with what was written, and we believe she used her position of power to try to intimidate – and potentially punish – our writer in an attempt to stop any future negative media towards the committees on campus.

If she was truly interested in giving her opinion on the piece, she has the ability to write a letter to the editor. In fact, during that meeting, our columnist offered that option to her. That invitation remains.

In fact, if any readers of Spectra have an opinion about any of our published content, we invite you to write a letter to the editor and we will gladly post it. We would ask that you include your name with your comment so that we can credit the comment to you. We do not publish anonymous letters.

Unfortunately, we believe Schwartz has used her position and office to try to infringe on freedom of the press. On a campus that promotes a competent, purposeful and ethical student population, it is a shame that this attempt to silence – and punish – a columnist occurred.

Our hope is that this can be a teachable moment for the Siena community on the importance of freedom of the press and being able to have respectful disagreements in an open forum.

“A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.” – John F. Kennedy

SPECTRA

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Late Night Breakfast: More Than Breakfast for Dinner https://www.shuspectra.com/5350/news/late-night-breakfast-more-than-breakfast-for-dinner/ https://www.shuspectra.com/5350/news/late-night-breakfast-more-than-breakfast-for-dinner/#respond Fri, 14 Dec 2018 13:23:34 +0000 https://www.shuspectra.com/?p=5350

Breakfast for dinner? Every semester the stress begins to build as students get closer and closer to finals. Many students stress eat, and some even forget to eat.

Siena Heights University’s Student Engagement team is here to save the day. Often around the time of finals, students’ sleep schedules begins to change as students stay up longer than usual and go to sleep later than normal. Along with an odd sleep schedule, Student Engagement, Student Programming And Recreation Committee known as “SPARC” puts on a Late Night Breakfast on the first day of finals.

On this day, hundreds of students contribute to a line that reaches outside of the University Center doors into the cold winter weather. Students are to bring two things in order to enter Late Night Breakfast. First, they must have their student ID, and lastly, students MUST bring a big appetite!

One step into the University Center and your nose is overwhelmed with the scents of sweet syrup, juicy sausage, and freshly brewed coffee.

One of the things that makes Late Night Breakfast so special is who serves the students the scrumptious meal. SHU faculty and staff take time out of their nights to serve the students they work with and teach everyday. This is part of what makes the Siena Heights campus so special.

The atmosphere in the University Center during Late Night Breakfast is light and warmhearted. The students are relieved the stress that finals brings. They are removed from the daily daily routine of studying in exchange for a delicious study break.

 

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Spears, Men’s Track and Field Ready for Breakout Season https://www.shuspectra.com/5348/sports/spears-mens-track-and-field-ready-for-breakout-season/ https://www.shuspectra.com/5348/sports/spears-mens-track-and-field-ready-for-breakout-season/#respond Fri, 14 Dec 2018 13:18:57 +0000 https://www.shuspectra.com/?p=5348

Cortez Spears is a sophomore at Siena Heights University. Spears attended Robichaud High School.

Spears said he is looking to have a breakout year this upcoming track season. I was able to catch up with spears this past Friday and ask him about this upcoming season and coach expectations for this season.

“My goal is to just keep working hard in the classroom and on the track. Just to become a better player and person than last year.”

The Saints are coming off a good offseason of training.

“We worked hard this summer. I think everybody on the team has bought in and want to be great and do great things,” Spears said. “Coach has done a great job of pushing us to the limit, I think he know that we’re fully bought in now. He expects everyone to do well and work hard every single day. In the classroom and as well on the track.”

The Saints have kicked the indoor season off and headed to Saginaw Valley State University to participate in the Holiday Classic on Dec. 7 to compete against some of the top talent across the Midwest.

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Siena Snapshots: Basketball Against Lourdes https://www.shuspectra.com/5326/sports/mens-womens-basketball-game-against-lourdes-university/ https://www.shuspectra.com/5326/sports/mens-womens-basketball-game-against-lourdes-university/#respond Wed, 12 Dec 2018 02:00:55 +0000 https://www.shuspectra.com/?p=5326

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Siena Snapshots: Studying for Final Exams https://www.shuspectra.com/5320/news/students-in-the-library-studying-for-exams/ https://www.shuspectra.com/5320/news/students-in-the-library-studying-for-exams/#respond Wed, 12 Dec 2018 01:57:22 +0000 https://www.shuspectra.com/?p=5320

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Sports Round-Up: Final Week https://www.shuspectra.com/5317/sports/sports-round-up-another-semester-in-the-books/ https://www.shuspectra.com/5317/sports/sports-round-up-another-semester-in-the-books/#respond Wed, 12 Dec 2018 01:54:19 +0000 https://www.shuspectra.com/?p=5317

Basketball-Men

On Nov. 17, the Saints (3-4) lost at Cornerstone (6-2) 82-67. DeMarco Dickerson registered his second double-double in back to back games with 23 points and 11 rebounds. He also contributed with two assist and a steal. The Saints had great protection of the ball only committing eight turnovers.

On Nov. 20, the Saints (4-4) won a battle at Lawrence Tech (4-4) 71-67. Keith Jordan Jr. had 21 points and was two rebounds shy of a double-double. Josh Winowiecki shot great from the field going 7-9 with 17 points. Jaquantay Rouser had 16 of the Saints 45 rebounds. The Saints as a whole shot 50% from the field and are back at a .500 record. The Saints will travel to CMU Nov. 25.

On Nov. 25 the Saints (4-5) lost at Central Michigan University (5-1) 103-75. Going up against a D1 opponent the Saints fared well shooting a 42.4% and outshooting them from the three point line, 34.8%- 30.0%. The Saints bench also played a huge part scoring 38 of the teams 75. Keith Jordan Jr. led the Saints in both points (13) and rebounds (7). The Saints finally return home as they go up against Concordia

On Nov. 28 the Saints (5-5) won at home to Concordia (1-8) 70-63 to end Nov.  The Saints are now 3-1 in the WHAC. The Saints shot 44.4% from the field. DeMarco Dickerson led the Saints with 16 points. The Saints will look to start December off with a win as they travel to UNOH on December 1st.

On Dec. 1 the Saints (6-4) won at Northwestern Ohio (2-8) 95-70. The Saints shot great with a 58.6% from the field and 64% from beyond the arc. The bench once again came up huge in the Saints victory as they scored 48 points. Keith Jordan Jr. had 18 points shooting a perfect 3-3 from the ark and 6-9 overall. PJ Austin also had a monster game with 17 shooting 3-5 from the three-point line and 6-8. Lastly with 16 points and a team leading seven rebounds was DJ Lundy shooting 6-8 from the floor. The Saints look to continue extending above .500 as they take on Lourdes at home on December 5.

On Dec. 5 the Saints (7-4) go into a three-game winning streak as they won at home to Lourdes (6-6) (Ohio) 93-78. Josh Winowiecki had a double-double in the contest with 16 points and 13 rebounds, which was enough to lead the team in the rebounds category in the contest. Keith Jordan Jr. led the scoring with 20 points and 7 rebounds. The Saints will look to keep the streak alive as they take on Madonna at home December 8th.

Women

On Nov. 17, the Saints (3-2) won at Cornerstone (1-8) 78-60. Demi Russell led the Saints with 22 points, eight rebounds and four assist while shooting 10-15 from the field. Alyssa Larson also had a monster game where she was able to score 21 points coming off the bench and shot 10-14. The Saints shot 51.8% from the field and had 43 total rebounds and 38 of their 78 points coming from the bench.

On Nov. 20, the Saints (4-2) defeated their cross town rivals Adrian (3-2) at home 66-36. This game put the Saints at four straight wins as Kiana Votava lead the Saints shooting 6-9 with 14 points and had a team high of four steals and five rebounds to add to her stat line. Sharmaine Wills led the Saints in rebounding pulling in nine of the 40 off the rim and had six points, three assist, and two steals.

On Nov. 24, the Saints (5-2) continue to keep their streak as they outworked Wright St. Lake (0-6) at home in the Thanksgiving tournament, 100-32. Sharmaine Wills earned her first double-double of the season with 16 points and 10 rebounds, seven being on the offensive side of the ball. Alyssa Larson shot perfect from the field going 7-7 with 14 points. The Saints bench had a total of 61 points in the contest and the Saints worked in the paint scoring 62 of their 100 there.

On Nov. 25, the Saints (6-2) won an overtime thriller against Saint Xavier (Ill.) (3-3) at home to win the Thanksgiving tournament 80-75.  Sharmaine Wills had her second consecutive double-double with 18 points and 12 rebounds. It was a team win as the Saints outrebounded (50-42), had more points coming from a rotational role from the bench (40-13) and shot a 41.1% to Saint Xaviers 37.1%. The Saints look to now extend their streak to seven straight as they take on Concordia at home on November 28.

On Nov. 28, the Saints (7-2) won against Concordia (0-7) to finish off November at home 58-51. Alyssa Larson contributed in the Saints victory coming off the bench and contributing 13 points and 13 rebounds to earn her first double-double on the season. Though Larson only shot 3-9 from the field she was able to fight her way to the line 14 times and able to convert on half of them. The Saints bench is something that teams should fear as they scored 31 of the Saints 58.

On Dec. 1, the Saints (8-2) won their 8th straight at Northwestern Ohio (3-7) 81-67. Kiana Votava was the Saints leading scorer with 17 points and shot 7-11 from the field and 3-3 from the line. Peyton Banks was one rebound shy of a double double as she scored 16 points, 10 of which came from the free throw line where she shot a perfect 10-10. The Saints also had 18 assist in the contest.

On Dec. 5, the Saints (9-2) won their 9th straight against Lourdes (Ohio) (5-6) at home 73-48. Demi Russell led the scoring charge with 19 points, seven which came from the line. The Saints shot great from the free throw line as they were able to convert on 19 of their 22 attempts. Alyssa Larson earned her first start of the season and it paid off as she was able to score 18 points while shooting 8-14 and nine rebounds. The Saints will play at home against Madonna Saturday, December 8, as they look to extend their streak to 10 wins.

Bowling-Men 

The Saints finished 7 of 13 at Westgate Bowl in Comstock, Mich., averaging 908.3 pins per game/baker in the 7.2 matches with a total pin count of 6540. The Saints’ best pin count came in the second one with 965 pins and their first baker with 730 pins.

Women

The Saints finished 5 of 12 competing teams in the WHAC third jamboree with 6228 total pins and an average pin count of 865 through the 7.2 games. The Saints came out red hot in their first match knocking 981 pins in the first game and had their best baker game with 687 pins.

 

All information gathered from the Siena Heights Athletic web site.

 

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REVIEW: Earth Defense Force 4.1 The Shadow of New Despair https://www.shuspectra.com/5314/arts-and-entertainment/review-earth-defense-force-4-1-the-shadow-of-new-despair/ https://www.shuspectra.com/5314/arts-and-entertainment/review-earth-defense-force-4-1-the-shadow-of-new-despair/#respond Wed, 12 Dec 2018 01:49:12 +0000 https://www.shuspectra.com/?p=5314

Earth Defense Force 4.1 The Shadow of New Despair is a third person shooter game released to the PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows, and was developed by Sandlot and published by D3 Publisher.

This game is a remastered version of Earth Defense Force 2025 and known in Japan as Chikyū Bōeigun 4. The Earth Defense Force was first created in Japan because the story begins and takes place in Japan. Sandlot redeveloped the series in the U.S. so others could give this game a try. The remastered version is a next generation update that comes with improvements made to make the EDF appear to actually be at war. For example, some of the missions open up with AI controlled tanks, and one of them is mission 1. This was the first third person shooter video game I played and I got to say, I was amazed.

The story of the game goes like this, The Earth Defense Force, a unified multinational military sponsored by nearly every country, is founded after detecting an impending alien visit in case the aliens prove to be hostile. In the year 2017, that proved to be true and the EDF fought against the Ravagers, an alien race that attacked Earth with giant insect-like creatures, UFOs, robots and gigantic, 120-foot-tall lizard-like creatures.

Eight years after defeating the last Ravager in Arizona, they attack again with new creatures, evolved from their underground nest. Among them is the Retiarius, a spider-like creature which makes gigantic spider webs, and giant wasps. After destroying the first mother ship in the first game, the EDF thought that was the end of the Ravagers, but they were wrong.

It turns out that some of giant bugs had survived and have been hiding underground. With the return of the Ravagers, planet Earth is once more under invasion, but this time aliens are twice as strong as they were in the first game.

The gameplay takes alien warfare to a whole new level. The player takes control of an EDF soldier from one of four soldier classes. To fight these alien forces, the player can access several weapons in the game, ranging from assault rifles and sniper rifles to rocket launchers, grenades, and laser weapons.

Only two weapons may be selected for each mission with the exception of the Fencer, who can have four weapons, and the Air Raider, who can have three.  The game has more than seven hundred weapons; roughly 175 weapons per soldier class. This the highest weapon count of any EDF. Some levels also contain vehicles which can be operated. The game takes place across levels featuring destructible environments. Taking place in settings such as cities, beaches, hills, underground tunnels and more.

There is no penalty for collateral damage that is inflicted on the environment by the player, for instance when buildings crumble after sustaining a few hits from a rocket launcher or grenade. Other EDF soldiers can be recruited or followed, and attack enemies on sight, as well as provide radio chatter. You can also customize the color of your soldier.

There are several difficulty levels. More effective weapons are dropped by the enemies in the game at the higher difficulty levels, encouraging players to repeat the missions. In addition to weapons, armor enhancements which function as permanent maximum health bonuses are dropped along with healing items.

The soldiers you get to play as in this game, you are a part of the EDF’s Elite Storm Team, which consists of four different soldier classes:

  • Ranger: a flexible and adaptable basic infantry class soldier with weaponry suited for just about any situation. Ranger form the core of the EDF ground forces and are highly trained frontline infantry and can carry two weapons. The weapons given for this soldier are the usual types such as assault rifles, shotguns, snipers, rocket launchers, grenades and grenade launchers, missile launcher, and special weapons. Since this is the main ground soldier, all your weapons work best at different ranges as long as you’re in proximity of the aliens.
  • Wing Diver: an airborne class female soldier that uses high tech energy weaponry and jetpacks powered by a plasma generator. The energy from the generator is the ammo for the Wing Diver’s weapons and the power for the jet pack and depletes as you use one or the other, but when using both simultaneously the energy depletes really fast. When the generator is empty it then replenishes. The weapons class for this soldier are short range and mid-range lasers, mid-range electroshock bows, particle cannons, snipers, plasma launchers for ranged attacks, homing weapons similar to the ranger’s missile launcher and special weapons. The Wing Diver’s weapons are effective against enemies at close and mid-range, but not far range.
  • Air Raider: this is a support class soldier that specializes in providing assistance for the infantry and can carry three weapons. This soldier can deploy health recovery field generators and force shields when the infantry is suffering heavy losses, summon ground armor and air support vehicles to battlefield and call in air strikes on targets with a laser designator. The weapons for this soldier are laser guidance and beacon guns for calling and guiding in air strikes and satellite lasers, Support requests such as air strikes, bombing runs, strafes, missile strikes and satellite blasters all marked by a smoke grenade beacon, limpet guns, and stationary guns like turrets, rocket launchers, and bombs. The vehicle support is the third weapon the Air Raider can carry and requires battle points from the kills you make with your other two weapons you use. Once your point meter is full you can call in your vehicle. You can also use your vehicles to obtain the kill points for your meter. The vehicle types you can use are tanks, ground vehicles, helicopters, and power suits.
  • Fencer: a heavy soldier equipped with a powerful exoskeleton and jet booster, able to use outsized weaponry, melee weapons and a special shield. It has the slowest movement of the team, but wields hand held weaponry that is more powerful than any of the other weapons used by the other Elite Storm Team members. A key ability of this soldier class is that it has a duel wield mode weapon ability, meaning it can carry two weapons at the same time that are the same or different, but what makes this soldier very powerful is that it can carry a total of four weapons. The weapons the fencer uses are shields, close combat strikers, which are replicated melee weapons, these are like blades and axes with powerful high tech energy that cause heavy damage on impact, piercers that are long range weapons that look like spears and hammers, automatic artillery such as flame revolvers, disruptors, Gatling guns, cannons, and shot guns similar to the Ranger’s weapons, but bigger and more powerful, artillery cannons that can fire armor piercing shells like a tank, mortars and javelin catapults, and missile launchers that can be used either with an Air raiders tracking system or without.

The aliens you fight against in the first game are the original ones from the first game, which are the Black Ants, Crimson Red Ants, Spiders, the Queen Ants and King Spiders, Hectors, Drone Gun Ships, The Quadruped Fortress, UFO Carriers and the Mother Ship, and new Insect call Retiarius. Both Ants are dangerous up close because of their powers.

The Black Ants have the power of shooting an acid liquid from their back straight at you and dodging it isn’t always easy. The acid is deadly and can melt armor and damage your health badly depending on the difficulty you’re playing.

The Crimson Ants are just like the Black Ants, but instead of shooting an acid, they charge at you head on and grab you with their teeth and chew on you. If you get caught by one, the only way you can break free is by killing it or if one of your AI soldiers kills it.

The spiders and Retiarius are similar aliens but attack differently. The basic spiders shoot web from their back side and if you get caught it pulls you and you need to kill it to break free, similar to how the Retiarius attacks.

The Retiarius is a new spider introduced in mission 4. They can’t jump like the basic spider, but instead crawl on the surfaces. They are slow, but can create a whole web between building and use them for trapping soldiers. Their mostly effective in trapping the Wing Divers, so if you play as a Wing Diver in mission 4, be careful. You have to shoot the webs a few times to destroy it without getting stuck because if you get stuck, the web begins depleting your health and it’s harder to destroy a web when stuck in one.

When fighting from the ground, the Ranger and Fencer are the recommended soldiers. The Queen Ants and King Spiders are not seen too much in game, but only in certain missions. They attack the same way as the basic spiders and Black Ants do, but their attacks are more deadly. Your first encounter with the Queen Ant is the same in this game as in the first game, battling with your allies against it and an army of insects in the Queen’s chamber in last mission to destroy the bugs nest.

The nest created by insects in the first game is hard to fight in with the bugs attacking from above and below and this new nest is even harder. When facing the Queen and her army in the mission to destroy the nest, this is what I recommend: using the Ranger equipped with a cascade rocket launcher and a flame thrower, a Wing Diver equipped with a thunder sniper that’s rapid fire and a plasma launcher, Air Raider equipped with two ZE-Rocket Launcher turrets and a depth crawler, and a Fencer equipped with two powerful Gatling guns and two flame revolvers.

As for the King spider, its big and its web attack is larger than the basic spider. The best ways of killing one is with head on rocket launcher attacks, missiles, and air strikes.

The Hectors are giant robots armed with two plasma weapons on their arms. The weapons they use are plasma cannons, plasma repeaters and plasma railguns. The hectors are a far bigger threat than the bugs with they’re attacks.

The Fencers armor piercing weapons, Ranger’s rocket and missile launcher, and the Air Raiders Tanks, choppers and power suit are most effective against them. The Wing Diver’s weapons could stand a chance if you choose the correct load outs.

The drone gunships are the basic air unit for the Ravagers. The drones can be deployed from the mothership, UFO carriers and the fortress. Ground units can take them down head on, but the Wing Diver and choppers are most effective against the drone gunships.

Near the end of the first half of the game, you face the drones in a new form. The red drones. These new drones have stronger armor than the silver gunships and can evade tracking missiles faster than missile can seek and destroy. These new drones don’t attack as often as the original ones because as they fly around, they attack at the right moment.

The Quadruped Fortress is an enormous walking carrier robot that is tough to beat. It weapons consist of shield generator screens on its front and sides to deflect fire power from the EDF, laser cannons on the front and sides and a turret on its back side, and a 100-foot Plasma cannon capable of destroying builds. The laser cannons and turrets are all vulnerable to rockets fired from ground.

In the first game the weak spot on the fortress is the hatch that opens up when it deploys enemies, but in this game, the first mission you encounter the fortress in, your task is to hold against it long enough until the EDF fire a bombardment blast to destroy it. If you’re going to fight the aliens it deploys close up, then be careful of the legs because every step the fortress cause serve damage, and if your too close to the fortress when its walking its steps will really damage your health.

The weapons the UFO carriers in this game are the same as the ones from the first game. Designed to carry and deploy the giant bugs. Their weak spot is also the underside hatch. When they open and deploy the bugs open fire on it with rocket launchers or grenade launchers. The Mothership is the final boss to in first game, but in this one it’s the middle boss. It’s a giant alien space ship in the shape of a sphere and its fire power is extremely powerful.

The Mothership can deploy gunships and has a very powerful cannon on its bottom called the Genocide gun. The mission starship is the mission you get to destroy the Mothership in, but it won’t be easy. Once you destroy the genocide gun is destroyed, the Mothership will then deploy its laser and plasma cannon cannels, and then after a few minutes it deploys 10 larger cannons and all are firing. While this continues the air intake vent where the genocide gun was opens and close expose the weak spot. Like the fortress and carrier, use rocket launchers and target the opening each time it’s exposed. Give it enough and the Mothership will fall.

Before and after defeating the Mothership, the game is not over yet. It turns out the Ravagers are still being deployed and some new enemies are introduced. The new enemies are Hornets, Deroys, Dragons, the Greater Wild Dragon, Flight Vehicles, New Carriers, Shield Bearers, upgraded hectors, Argos, Erginus, Earth Eaters, and the Brain. The Hornets are another new insect in the form of bees that shoot large stinger darts from their abdomen. Their attacks are diagonal and on impact they make a metallic shing sound. All four soldier classes are effective against the hornets, but since it’s a new flying enemy, Choppers and Wing Divers are most effective against them. Like the ants, the Hornets attack in numbers and they also have a nest, or in other words a bee hive, that you need to destroy.

The Deroys are a new form of robots that look like beasts made of steel, and fire high charged artillery blasts from their bodies similar to the hectors plasma cannons. The key difference in fire power is the Deroys laser emitters are fired from the legs. There are two ways to destroy them, destroying all the lasers on their legs, cause them to break apart, or targeting the head of Deroys where the legs are connected with rockets.

The Dragons attack just like Crimson Ants, when not flying, they’ll charge at you and grab you with their teeth biting you to deplete your health. The only way you can break free is by killing it or if one of your AI soldiers’ kills it. They’ll even take flight with you in their mouth. The fire breath from these basic dragons is superheated plasma in the form of fire balls spread out. These dragons are fast, but can be killed easily.

The Greater Wild Dragon is a larger version of the basic dragon and similar to leaders of the giant bugs. The biggest difference is the attack this dragon uses. Its attack is actual fire breath, a lot like the Dino Vallak from the first Earth Defense Force Game.

Erginus is a new alien dinosaur introduced to the game. Its form is a colossal size dinosaur that puts the Vallak from the first game to shame because of its powers and its developed body. Erginus’s body allows it to move and jump like a Tyrannosaurus Rex and it’s claws attack like a lion or a tiger, but harder. It has the power to charge up a power breath attack and when it fires, it’s devastating, but the good thing is that Erginus doesn’t use it as much as you would expect him to. This monster can’t be beaten that easily not only because it’s an immense amount of health, but because attacks from infantry and armor, and airstrikes are useless against it. Not even a single nuke or a group of nuclear missiles can destroy it.

No matter how big of an army you have and how much fire power is at your disposal, it won’t even feel the impact of the attacks, nor will it care. It will just keep going on a rampage. Its body was designed to be impervious to all attacks, with the exception of one, but you will learn of the attack type to kill Erginus later in the game, so I won’t spoil it.

The Shield bearers are support units for the Ravagers. They provide defense shields for the Ravager forces and can move while having their shield deployed but there’s a catch to it. When they’re stationary and open out slightly, their shields extend out fully and when they’re walking their shield becomes smaller. The only way to get a shot at them is passing through their shield.

The bright side is that infantry and armor can pass through the shields. Don’t think it will be easy to destroy them, the Ravagers will be guarding them. The Flight Vehicles are a combination of the shield bearers and the flying drones. They may be slower, but they have twice as much health as the drones and use a much more powerful attack. They circle a target and descend until they’re within attack range. They attack with a sweeping rapid fire laser. The Rangers, Air Raiders, and Fencers dodging move makes them best suitable to evade the lock on, but the Wing Divers can’t even with their jet packs.

The new carriers deploy aliens just like the UFO’s do, but there are some differences between the two. They’re actually called large transport ships; they have the power to teleport into combat areas. It’s kind of like the same way the Covenant and UNSC ship enter and exit slip space, and these transport ships can deploy full size hectors and Deroys which is beyond the capability of UFO transports, and they can deploy dragons, drones and flight vehicles.

Basically, these transports are the newly upgraded version of the original ones. They can be destroyed the same way as the UFO’s are, but when these ones open up the deployable hatch is exposed from top to bottom, meaning that they’re vulnerable to air strikes called in by an Air Raider and choppers.

The new upgraded hectors are given new armor and more advanced weapons. Their armor is blue and acts like a shield, which makes their bodies tougher than the standard hectors. They’re armed with the standard hector weapons, but this time the weapons have been modified and still can only carry two.

The weapons are a Solid Particle Gatling Gun, a Power Launcher, and a Particle stream gun. They are also given a shield screen to make frontal attacks useless, so you need to attack them from the side or the rear. These new weapons are more powerful than the standard hector weapons, so be careful when attacking close up.

The Argo is a massive battleship that can transform into a giant robot. When in ship mode it moves around really easily and has numerous attacks that are mostly explosive. Its underside cannons fire huge beans and exploding projectiles just like the hectors and Deroys, and uses a slow moving machine gun. After causing least 50 percent damage to the ship, it will then transform into the largest robot enemy you have ever faced. It’s said to be three hundred meters tall which is like 980 feet in height. Now you have to finish it off while it’s in robot mode, and it won’t be easy.

The Earth Eaters are module panels that drop down from the sky vertically and connect together at their edges and block out the sky. Some of them have laser and plasma cannons or just laser beams, and other can deploy flight vehicles and Deroys.

Finally, the last enemy to face in this game is the Brain. The Brain is the flagship for the ravagers and controls all the Earth Eaters. It takes the form of an enormously elongated Earth module with a large red crystal like structure at the top that is vulnerable to long range attacks. It’s the final boss to destroy in order to win the game. When alone, the Brain is vulnerable, so it uses the Earth Eaters to form a shield in the sky so you can’t hit, but alone you can blow a big enough hole in the defending Earth Eaters, you’ll be hit the brain with a problem.

The Earth Eaters with a glowing module are connected to other adjacent Earth Eaters and when destroyed, the other ones adjacent to it get destroyed as well. Exposing a big hole.

This is a game I’ve never been more proud to play, especially after I beat the first one. Originally first person shooter video games were the only shooting games I played, but when I got into third person shooting, I got the hang of it really easily. The missions in this game are really fun and challenging.

To be honest I like fighting robots, gunships and dragons more than the bugs. The first of the hardest missions for me is in this game when you are destroying the giant bugs nest. Getting through the first mission of destroying the nest was easy, but the other three are tough, especially number four, which facing off against the queen.

The missions in the first half of game were great especially with new effects, level, modifications and improvements. As for the missions in the second half of the game, they were challenging which I like, especially when trying to destroy a hornet’s nest.

This game is definitely worth playing and it will keep you occupied for quite a while. I still haven’t beaten it yet and I’m on the last level still. The Ravagers returned in greater numbers and it’s up to you as member of the Elite Storm Team and rest of the EDF to send the Ravagers packing for good by destroy their Brain.

The fate of earth rests in your hands.

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Final Exam Tips https://www.shuspectra.com/5312/news/finals-tips/ https://www.shuspectra.com/5312/news/finals-tips/#respond Tue, 04 Dec 2018 19:22:46 +0000 https://www.shuspectra.com/?p=5312

As the excitement of the holiday season approaches, along with the end of the Fall semester, something dreaded by many college students also comes along: Finals Week. For Siena Heights University, finals week is from Dec. 10-14. During this time, college students will be turning in semester projects, giving final presentations, and taking lengthy, cumulative exams.

This is a busy time for college students, and with the winter break approaching, it can be hard to stay focused. There are several tips and tricks to not only survive finals week, but to thrive as well.

The first of these is to not panic and make too much of the final. It will help to start by checking to see how much the final is worth for each of your college courses. That being said, do not be too relaxed and make too little of the final. Sometimes, the final can be a large portion of your final grade, so it is best to take it seriously, and aim to do your best.

Another tip is to work smarter, not harder by using an effective study method. The key to effective retention is repetition, and not putting your brain on overload. It is better to study in small chunks of time than it is in large chunks of time. Take many breaks, and allow your brain time to process the information you just studied.

A large tip to being successful during finals week is to get enough sleep. “All nighters” leave you tired, and cramming often leads to confusion about the material you have just studied. It is best to go into an exam feeling refreshed and ready to go.

Junior Kelsi Stover said, “I am excited to be done with the semester, but I know I have a lot of work to do for finals week. I try to stay extremely organized, and create several to-do lists when this week comes.”

Staying organized is another great way to tackle finals week. Make a to-do list, and record all of your exam times in a planner to stay on top of things. This, along with efficiently studying, and getting enough sleep will surely lead you to success!

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COLUMN: Haunted Hallways? https://www.shuspectra.com/5310/opinion/haunted-hallways/ https://www.shuspectra.com/5310/opinion/haunted-hallways/#respond Tue, 04 Dec 2018 19:20:59 +0000 https://www.shuspectra.com/?p=5310

I am going to slide away from my usual topics that I have covered in the past weeks and adventure into something I have always been interested in at Siena Heights. Is Siena Heights University haunted?

Now, if you live in Ledwidge and this kind of thing scares you, I would stop reading now and pretend that you never even saw this article.

I have stories from older students and staff that there may be some interesting activity in certain areas of the older parts of campus. Not to worry, nothing crazy, but definitely something. There are even stories online about haunted parts of campus!

This first story comes from 99wmfk.com, a radio station’s website. According to their post, room 211 (assumed to be in Ledwidge) has an interesting light situation that will send chills down your spine. It is rumored that there are two sets of lights, resembling eyes to witnesses, that will appear from time to time. After attempts to debunk this story failed, there were attempts to cover up the lights with sheets, paintings and even to wallpaper over the lights but they still appear. According to the website, people have even seen the paintings that were intended to cover the lights fall from the wall “as if something just plain doesn’t want to be covered up.”

This story is backed up by what appears to be a former student here at Siena that has had personal experience in the infamous room. Their article is posted on ghoststoriesworld.com and this former student said similar things to what 99wmfk.com has said. One thing from this story that struck me as particularly spooky was when the former student was addressing the paintings trying to cover the “eyes.” When a piece a paper was taped over the lights, the student claims that he woke up with the same paper taped over their bed with no explanation at all.

Yikes.

There are more stories and tales like this of Siena Heights being haunted and I hope to get a part two up for my next Spectra post if you guys, the readers, are interested.

Also, I wonder if there could be a haunted tour of campus if these stories are true for those thrill-seeking students that go here?

If interested in reading the full articles, copy and paste these links:

99wfmk.com/sienauniversity/

Ghoststoriesworld.com/haunted-places-in-america/siena-heights-university-adrian

 

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REVIEW: Halo 3 https://www.shuspectra.com/5307/arts-and-entertainment/review-halo-3/ https://www.shuspectra.com/5307/arts-and-entertainment/review-halo-3/#respond Thu, 29 Nov 2018 21:00:27 +0000 https://www.shuspectra.com/?p=5307

Halo 3 is a first-person shooter videogame that was developed by Bungie for the Xbox 360 console. This game is the third installment in the Halo franchise and part three of the Halo story. The story is about a war between two factions, the UNSC (United Nations Space Command) and an alien faction known as the Covenant. this was the first game of the halo series that I played and it became one of my top favorites.

After the second game was finished, the Elites faction of the Covenant join the UNSC after learning of their leaders’ betrayal and brutes. The last leader of the covenant is known as the Prophet of Truth. The main character you play as is Spartan 117, the best soldier in the UNSC, also known as the Master Chief. The campaign has 10 missions total, that starts off easy, but gets harder as you complete each mission.

After a failed attempt to kill Truth, the game begins with the Chief crash landing in Eastern Africa, where he is found by Sergeant Johnson and the Arbiter. He tells Johnson that his Artificial Intelligence, AI for short, Cortana stayed behind after the second games ending and he promised to save her, because she knows the solution stop the Covenant and the Flood without firing the remaining halo rings. Once everything is in order, the UNSC and the Elites take the fight straight the brutes and the Prophet of Truth and the Flood.

I like playing all 10 missions, and I will describe them.

Mission 1 Arrival: Is a visual test for the Chief just to make sure he’s good to fight.

Mission 2 Sierra – 117: you fight your way through the jungle to the first landing zone for pickup against the brutes, but your pelicans get shot down by two Banshees one ends up going in the ocean. The other one that had your sergeant aboard crashes a few miles past the landing zone in the jungle, and you need to find the crash site and save your Sargent. The only problem is that after find the crash pelican, your Sergeant is already captured by the brutes and you need to rescue him.

Mission 3 Crow’s Nest: you arrive at an underground base and meet up Lieutenant Commander Keys and get briefed on a plan an attack with Lord Hood against Truth’s army. Then the base gets attacked by a large force of brutes, grunts and jackals, meaning it’s time to evacuate. Your job is to clear the base and secure the hanger bay. Once that’s done you return the Ops center and learn that brutes have attacked the barracks and trap some of the marines’ inside. Your next task is to head for the barracks and save those men. You first encounter a brute force led by a chieftain. The chieftains are tough brutes because they carry a weapon called a Gravity hammer and its impact can be dangerous, just one or two direct hits and your dead. Usually you need to kill the brutes in front of the chieftain before it attacks you, but it you get close enough it will charge at you. As for the mission, after you take out those brutes, you then meet up with the arbiter and enter barracks, just as the brutes are about to kill another soldier, you can step in and kill them, saving the marine. Then you round up the remaining marines and clear out the barracks. Once that’s done, head for the landing pad outside the barracks, but you encounter jet pack brutes. Kill them to clear the landing pad, after that Sergeant Major arrives and informs the commander that brutes took the Ops center and disarmed the bomb set up to destroy the base. Your then sent back the ops center alone to kill those brutes and re-arm the bomb. After the bomb is re-armed, head for the service elevator in the hangar to escape.

Mission 4 Tsavo Highway: After you make it safely to the elevator, the bomb explodes and you find yourself in the caves under the base with some surviving marines. You need to head through the caves and out into the open, re-establish contact with the commander, and put some distance between you and base. You encounter heavy enemy forces as you precede. Once your connection is re-established, you need to assist some marines in the valley. After that your given two warthogs to push through the enemy armor to reach the town of Voi, when Truth ship is located.

Mission 5 The Storm: Your job is to retake the city, and punch a hole in Truth’s defenses so Lord Hood can start his attack run. Your first task is to destroy an Anti-Air Wraith in the first area, and then destroy two more in another area along with brute heavy armor. The good thing is that you team up marines riding mongoose four-wheelers armed with rocket launchers. Once you neutralize the armor, your faced with a difficulty challenge. A Covenant Scarab Tank shows up and begins attacking. Your task is to find a way to take the scarab down using rockets and missiles. A scarab tank is not easy to destroy. Its armor is impervious to all weaponry, but he has one weak spot, his legs. This can be done in a few ways. One, using a mongoose ATV, with a rocket marine on the back, drive around the scarab while the marine tries to shoot out a leg to get the scarab down. Two, using a missile launcher pod near the crane to target the legs. And three which is my favorite, using the cranes. Go up the cranes elevator either on foot, or with an ATV and once the scarab is in place charge off the cranes arm at the right speed and land on the scarabs back. Once you’re on the scarab look for it power core and blast it, destroying the scarab. After that your final task is to destroy a covenant AA gun that’s preventing Lord Hoods strike, once the gun is destroyed, the attack begins.

Mission 6 Floodgate: It’s a short mission, but it will be tough. After Lord Hoods attack on Truth’s dreadnaught fails, a portal opens and heads to a place called the Ark, which is the location where Truth plans to activate the remaining Halo Rings. After Truth’s dreadnaught and the other brute ships head through the portal, a badly damaged covenant ship comes out of slip space and crashes near the factory complex, and to what makes it worse, the ship is infested with the Flood. The Flood is a dangerous species first introduce in Halo Combat Evolved and Halo 2. The Flood in this game means the Dead Reincarnated or known to the covenant as the Parasite. They’re controlled by a single monument known as the Gravemind. The Gravemind is first encountered in its real form in Halo 2 and later again in Halo 3 as a voice background. The infection forms of the flood have the power to infect every species in the game. That means they can infect the marines, brutes and elites regardless if they’re dead or alive turning them into combat forms, except for the Chief, Arbiter, grunts and jackals. And I can tell you this, the infection transformation is very disturbing. The pure forms of the flood are forms created from an entire flood biomass. These forms consist of Stalkers, Ranges, and Tanks. The stalkers are the ones that can scale walls and change into these other two forms. It’s just as bad as an infected host transformation. Any weapon in the game can kill them, but it depends on how much ammo it takes and how strong it is. The best UNSC weapons to use against the flood are the shotgun, sub machine gun, rocket launcher, the Spartan laser and the flamethrower. As for the covenant weapons against the Flood the best choices are the plasma rifle, the needler, the carbine, the brute shot, and the energy sword. All the grenades work well too. Going into the mission your task is to head back into the city, find the crash site and overload the ships engine core, but the task changes later in the mission. As you head for the crash site you encounter many flood combat forms. Later you meet up with the arbiter’s elite brothers and then encounter the new pure forms. You then learn that Cortana is on the crashed flood ship and your task is changed to retrieving her. Once you reach the crash site, the arbiter and the elites stay behind to guard the entrance as you enter the ship to find Cortana. When you find her, it’s just a message, then the monitor 343 Guilty Spark shows up to repair the device. Cortana has a solution to destroying the Flood without the rings firing. The decision made was to go through the portal to find her solution. Lord Hood remains on earth to hold out against the threat while commander keys, sergeant major, and Chief go through the portal.

Mission 7 The Ark: After going through the portal, the UNSC and Elite forces arrive outside the Ark and come across Truth’s brute fleet and engage in combat. While the battle space goes on, the UNSC deploy soldiers to the surface to secure a landing zone for the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn so the commander can land reinforcements. As you fight your way on the ground you come across a group of marines that escaped and crashed a pelican and spotted a good LZ. Before heading to the LZ two brute prowlers arrive and you have to stop them. As you make your way to the LZ you encounter brute forces and light armor. Once you reach the LZ, you need to clear the hostile anti-air defenses before the dawn can land. When the dawn lands you’ll be in for a surprise. After the dawns under hatch opens, a couple warthogs and tanks come down the ramp and your joined by the monitor. The monitors part in this mission will be to pry open any locked doors. Your new task is to locate the Cartographer, which is located on the other side of wall and guarded by the brutes. It takes one of the scorpion tanks to reach the wall, it’s the best way to break through the enemy armor. Once you reach the wall, park your tank on the lower door and then head to the upper doorway. As you enter the upper part of the wall, your armor enters the lower part. In the middle of the wall you need to activate an energy bridge for your armor to cross, once that’s done the first fun part starts. As you exit the wall a Scarab appears and more brute armor is blocking the way. Your given command of the armor, and take the wheel of the warthog with a Gauss turrent. Assist the armor in destroying the Brute Wraiths and Choppers, then take down the Scarab. Once the Scarab is destroyed, meet up with the Arbiter on in the next structure and find the Cartographer. After finding and activating the cartographer, you learn of Truth’s location, and head down a level for pickup, but you have to fight a pack of cloaked brutes first.

Mission 8 The Covenant: After discovering Truth is located in Citadel, the Elites and the UNSC launch their final attack against the Covenant loyalists. This will be your final mission to take down the Prophet and the remaining covenant loyalists so it will be difficult. You find out that there is a barrier controlled by three generator towers and your task is to deactivate them to bring down the barrier. While you head for the first tower, the arbiter and elites deal with the second tower, and Sergeant Major deals with the third tower. Once towers one and two are darkened, it appears that Johnson team is unable to deactivate the third tower, meaning something has gone wrong. Now it up to you to deactivate the tower. You head out of the tower and back to where you landed and two hornets will arrive, your task is to provide air cover and escort commanders Keys pelican to third tower. This will put your piloting skills to the test as you will need to shoot down a phantom and several banshees in the process, as you approach the third tower, there are three wraiths guarding the entrance, two anti- air wraiths and one normal tank wraith. The ally phantoms can’t land the arbiter and elite allies until you take out the anti-air wraiths. Take all three wraiths out with your hornet, and entering the tower will be much easier. This tower is full of brutes, so be careful and watch out for the hunters, they’re hard to kill unless you find a gap in their armor. Once you reach the lift, take to it to the top, there will be a cloaked brute squad waiting for you and a chieftain. Take out the brutes and deactivate the tower, then the barrier will fall. With the barrier down, the ship masters assault carrier gets into position to bombard the citadel, but before it can attack, a slip space portal appears and out comes the Covenants Holy City High Charity, which was taken over by the Gravemind after the second Halo game. As it passes over the carrier, dispersal pods fall from hitting the carrier and disabling its weapons. Then a pod breaks through the tower screen and out comes some flood combat forms and infection forms, you need to deal with the attacking flood. Once you’ve dealt with the flood attack, it’s time for your final attack on the Citadel and stop Truth. After heading back outside the monitor and the arbiter board an elite phantom to access the damage to the Ark after High Charity crash landed on the Arks surface, while the remaining elites join you and a few marines for the final push towards the Citadel. For this you are given a choice of driving one of three vehicles, a Mongoose ATV, a Warthog with a Gauss turrent, and a scorpion tank. I always take the warthog and only let the elites join me. The scorpion tank may be stronger, but the Gauss Turret’s shots are strong to. Now comes the final attack. Before you mount up for the attack, you receive intel that Jonson was captured by Truth’s forces and is being held in the Citadel. Your objective is make your way Citadel as fast as you can through the cliffs and take out any covenant forces you encounter. As the Citadel comes into view, the brutes mobilize everything they’ve got to try and stop from getting through. Fight and drive your way to center cliff in front of the citadel, where two hornets will land, you can then pilot one of the hornets to destroy the rest of the brute armor or continue drive the vehicle you chose. Whichever way you chose, your final obstacle to face before entering the Citadel is two scarab tanks. Destroy the tanks, and then you can enter the Citadel with the Arbiter and find Truth. After ending the Citadel, it turns out that you’re not close enough to Truth. The surprising part in the final part of this mission is after you and the arbiter reach the floor of the Citadel. Two flood tanks drop from above, but then the grave mind speaks through them and this is what it says, “Do not shoot, but listen! Let me lead you safely to our foe. Only you can halt what he has set in motion”. Then a bunch of infection forms crawl past you. Turns out after Truth activated the Arks rings, the Flood is temporarily helping you fight your way through the last of the covenant forces to Truth. You’ll find this to part to be strange, but useful. After killing the last of the covenant loyalists, you find your commander is dead. Angered so roughly, the Arbiter then stabs Truth in back, killing him and the Chief shuts down the rings, which finally means the covenant is finished. Then comes a scary part, the Flood appears again, and attack you, shutting down the rings and putting the Flood against you. Your objective now is to escape the Flood. After jumping down the lift shaft, the Chief activates a panel and then an incomplete ring emerges from the fog and rises into the skies, then the Monitor appears. The incomplete ring is a replica of instillation 04 from the first Halo game. The Chief decides that he’ll light the ring to finish off the Flood. The Arbiter asks how, and they both look and see the crash site of High Charity.

Mission 9 Cortana: The answer to lighting the replacement ring is the activation index from the first Halo ring that Cortana still has from the first Halo game and she stayed behind in high charity after the Chief went after Truth, then the gravemind took over. This mission goes well in cooperative gameplay, but the story is single mode. The mission opens up with the Chief flying a banshee to high charity, which has now become a hive for the flood and the gravemind. He lands at an entrance to the hive and jumps in. After high charity was cleared out in Halo 2, the gravemind arrived and turned it into his hive. The inside of the hive is just like the crashed flood ship in the floodgate mission, only this time you’re inside the prophets infested holy city. This level is really scary for first timers because all you battle in this mission is Flood. Your task is to search High Charity for Cortana and kill any and all Flood that stands in your way. One thing to be careful of in this mission are Flood growth pods. The Flood growth pods are large, spherical collections of biomass that grow on the surfaces of ships, buildings and structures. They start to form when mass floods form or flood spores enter a certain area. They incubate developing infection forms and are only seen during stages of advanced Flood infestation when a gravemind has formed and consumed enough biomass to support the pure forms. What makes these pods more dangerous is that they can burst open at any time and release the infection forms in them. As the infection forms developed the surface of the pods move around like a new baby animal hatching from an egg, but in a more disgusting way. These pods are seen everywhere you go as you advance through the hive and the one thing you don’t want to do is shoot them. One hit from any gun and the pod will burst open. Going back to the mission as you make your way through the hive the gravemind wants to know why you’ve come to high charity and figures out that you came for Cortana. Throughout the mission until you find Cortana the gravemind will continue to speak and Cortana’s spirit will appear and speak to you and as it continues you like Cortana is dying and you need to hurry or that her mind has merged with the gravemind’s mind. As you press on, the amount of flood forms you encounter become harder to take on unless you can find some better weapons to fight with. Once you reach the reactor room you have to find an operational door that will take you down a long corridor through two hallways. In the first hallway comes a moment of Cortana experiencing rampancy again, and a gravemind moment. In the second hallway is another Cortana moment, “this is UNSC AI Serial Number CTN 0452-9, I am a monument of all your sins”. This is same reference to when the Chief and Cortana first met the Gravemind in Halo 2. The last door opens and you are in a chamber that was the Sanctum of the Hierarchs before the Flood took over. Right in front of you in the center of the chamber is small podium with a stasis field and in it you find Cortana lying prone. Melee the stasis field and Cortana will be free. Now comes the second part of the mission, shoot your way out. Now that you’ve got Cortana back, you need to return to the reactor room. Before leaving you need destroy High Charity. To do this you need to start a chain reaction in the reactor by destroying the reactor pylons. Once you destroy the pylons, GET OUT OF THERE. You need to head for the pelican you came across earlier in the mission. Make your way back through the hive, killing any Flood in your way. Before you reach the pelican you come across the Arbiter fighting the Flood with a flamethrower near the pelican. Help him kill the remaining Flood, get in the pelican, and you both escape just as the reactor reaches critical mass and High Charity explodes.

Mission 10 Halo: It’s been one heck of a fight, but the war is nearly over, with the death of Truth and the remaining covenant loyalist killed and the destruction of High Charity, you and the Arbiter in the pelican head for ring, while the shipmaster takes the elites and marines through the portal. The ring is right over the Ark, and Johnson is landing the Forward Unto Dawn frigate on ring to meet up with you at the control room. Once you reach the surface, head for the control room. When you reach the bottom of the tower, Flood dispersal pods begin falling form the sky. The gravemind is still alive and is trying to stop you from lighting the ring. Head for the top of the tower but be careful. Not only are there combat forms on the tower, but stalkers are scaling the walls and will attack at any time in any form. Luckily Sergeant major is heading along the cliffs providing cover for you with a Spartan laser. Once you reach the top of tower, the door to control center is closed and the monitor is inside, then a flood army appears and you need to kill them all before monitor opens the door. Once the Flood forms are killed, the door opens and you, the Sergeant and the Arbiter head for the control room, then the gravemind speaks. Turns out after destroying High Charity, the gravemind is trying to rebuild itself on the ring, meaning you need to find the control room quickly. Once you reach the control room comes a cut scene. The door behind you closes before the Flood reinforcements attack you. Then the chief hands Cortana to Johnson and walks over to the panel, then the monitor comes down and say the ring should be ready to fire in a few more days, but you don’t have a few more days. Johnson tells the monitor to deal with the Arks destruction, and then monitor turns red and shoots Johnson with his energy beam turning on them. Now you need to kill the monitor with Johnson’s Spartan laser. After a few direct hits the monitor explodes, Johnson dies and Cortana activates the ring. Now comes the second part of mission getting off the ring. You and the arbiter have to head through the cliffs and find the Forward Unto Dawn’s landing site. After making it through the cliffs you find the warthog Johnson used to reach you and now comes the fun part and final objective. Put the Pedal to the Medal. Drive the warthog while the Arbiter operates the turret across the ring all the way to the frigate. Flood and sentinels will be everywhere so ignore killing them because this is a race against time, even though there’s no timer. Once the back of the Dawn comes into view give the warthog all its got to make the jump and land in the hanger. Then comes a cutscene of escaping through the portal and the game is finished.

This game gave me an experience I never had before in the various games that I’ve played. I was challenged in every game in this series when it came to completing each mission, fighting certain enemies, and getting stuck on certain missions.

It took me awhile each time, but I managed to figure it out. My first encounter with the covenant in Halo’s one, two and three I could handle without a problem, but when I came across the Flood, then I was terrified, especially when they got too close especially the carrier forms because when killed they explode releasing a lot of infection forms.

Lucky for me, I got over my fear of the Flood after I completed the Cortana mission in Halo 3 on my own, but I was still careful when carrier forms appear by shooting them from a distance. The stalkers were just as bad because of the sound they made in range form or stalker form and the speed of their attack, but I can handle them now.

So if you have the console for this game, then buy not just Halo 3, but the others as well. It’s your turn to join the fight against the covenant and the Flood, so rise up, play as the Master chief, and stop the rings from firing.

The fate of Earth rests in your hands.

 

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