10 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, September 24, 1999 'Expendable' provides mindless gaming fun 4r AAN Expendable nfog ames Dreamcast Mindless third person shooters have tended to stick to a general formula; stick a camera next to or behind some, kinda spaceship and shoot at big fields of stuff. Expendable is plowing different ground by returning to the other side of classic mindless shooters. Games like "Contra" on the old NES were essential- ly third person shooters, but using guys with guns instead of an armed rocket. Once games like "Doom" and "Wolfenstein 3D" came along, that half of the older genre dwindled in favor of first person shooters. "Expendable" is a nicely rendered take on this forgot- ten passageway of the gaming archives. The game resem- bles strategic programs like "Diablo," but excluding their planning portions. With a camera angle above and over a bit to view the three dimensional figures, you have a bird's eye view of the dark landscape, licked by flames... You control tank decanted battle clones, dropped in the middle of a battle zone of aliens, robots, alien robots and their dogs. You start out with a weak gun, but the more enemies you kill, the more weapons you get from the remnants of boxes or your splattered opponents. You can also get medical kits and time extensions for the bomb implanted within you that will explode if the clock reach- es zero. Your weapon must have explosive rounds, because enemies explode when you kill them, not to mention crates, fuel tanks and guns. Have you noticed that there's a lot of blowing up going on in the game? Well, other than walking over a pink human hostage on occasion, there's not much to do except run around and turn stuff into shrapnel. Otherwise the game would- n't be a shooter. Relatedly, "Expendable" is not the most thought pro- voking disc on the market. You need to break a handful of green globes to open some doors, you need to walk around and kill things, and you need to get to the end of the level. It's fun, but it doesn't have a lot of depth. Of course, the same can be said for games from Space Invaders to any kind of racer, and there's no question that those have always entertained legions of players. - Ted Watts F The University of Michigan SCHOOL OF Music MICHIGAN CHAMBER PLAYERS Sunday, September 26 Britton Recital Hall, E.V. Moore Bldg., 4:00pm. Lynne Aspnes, Anthony Elliott, Fred Ormand, Stephen Shipps, Bright Sheng, Sergio de los Cobos, Amy Porter, Harry Sargous, Richard Beene, Soren Hermansson, Katherine Collier, Paul Kantor, Yizhak Schotten. *.Harrison: Suite for Cello and Harp; " Stravinsky: L'Historie du Soldat o Poulenc: Sextet " Dvorak:Piano Quartet UNIVERSITY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Tuesday, September 28 Hill Auditorium, 8:00pm. Kenneth Kiesler, Conductor " Smetana: Vltava (The Moldau) from MdVlast (My Country) * Shostakovich: Symphony #5 in D Minor, Op. 47 STRING FACULTY RECITAL Friday, October 1 Britton Recital Hall, E.V. Moore Bldg., 8:00pm. Yizhak Schotten, viola Katherine Collier, piano Simon Wynberg, guitar Arianna String Quartet * Paganini Quartet for Viola, guitar, violin & cello " Mozart Quintet in A, K. 581 * Schumann Piano Quintet in Eb Major, Op. 44 OCTUBAFEST Saturday, October 2 McIntosh Theatre, E.V. Moore Bldg., 8:00pm. UM Euphonium and Tuba Students, Solos and Duets Music of a variety of styles and eras: including a jazz duet by two tuba students who will also double on piano and guitar; Gillingham "Vintage",Newton "Capriccio", Broughton "Sonata", Scottish folk song "Carrick Fergus", Schumann "Adagio and Allegro", Luedeke "Wonderland Duets" (Narration by Fritz Kaenzig), Baroque and Classical duets. Events are free and wheelchair accessible unless otherwise specified. The E.V. Moore Bldg. is located at 1100 Baits Dr., North Campus. For more information phone (734) 936-2214 or visit the web page at www.music.umich.edu 'Pen Pen TriIceLon' fills 'cute game' niche Courtesy of The w8 The cast of "The Jamie Foxx Show." Pen Pen TriceLon I nfogrames Dreamcast The Sega Dreamcast does not have many "cute" games right now. There's Sonic Adventure of course, but that's about it except for the quirky racer "Pen Pen TrilceLon." You're on an alien world, ready to participate in its wintry games, known as the TrilceLon. As the name implies, there are three events in the game; ice walking, belly flopping and cold water swimming. Every course has at least one of each of these types of competitions. Different contestants have differ- ent attributes and different looks. With players ranging from happy penguin types to bad attitude shark characters, the look of the game takes a little from San Rio and a lit- tle from Hanna Barbera. You can even dress them up with items you win in races. The game involves steering, jumping and stroking at the right time and nicely enough attacking your opponents at an opportune moment. This is not the model of racing we've come to know, but more on the order of a track meet. Of course, it's not like any track meet you've likely seen; huge fans try to blow the runners off track, fish try to butt heads with the swim- mers, and flying bats buzz the belly floppers. Sure, occasionally you'll get a sniper in an Olympic stadium, but that's still the exception in most of the world. Gameplay does not take advantage of the Dreamcast's vast powers, but it does not need acrobatics to fulfill its function; one of the problems with many Dreamcast games is that there is overuse of the console's capability to the detriment of the games. The worst of these is constantly shifting camera angles at unfortunate times and in unfortunate places, making you fall off a cliff or not see an enemy you are about to get stepped on by. "Pen Pen TrilceLon" is pretty simple and keeps fairly simple cam- era work while play is on, making it controlled easily. In addition to only having two working buttons, there are few options of where you can flop, walk or swim. This may not be enough for some people. The environments are limit- ed in their scope, but that's endemic to lots of racing games. The trouble is that "Pen Pen" is not aimed at the average Nascar fan. It's going to appeal more to the "Mario Kart" crowd, and these courses are not as varied and the ability to trash your friends is not as evolved. While still a good game, it might disappoint those expecting a fast and changing thrill fest. - Ted Watts WB launches series Friday night at 8 p.m. By Heather Riedy For the Daily Tonight is the first time that "WB will be the place to be" on a Friday. During the past four years, The WB Network has continually expanded it's programming, starting with WB Friday Lineup The WB Tonight at 8 C o m e d y Wednesday" in 1995 to six nights of prime- time program- ming starting tonight. Not only is WB expanding to a new night filled with com- edy, but it is also the only station to launch a new night this sea- son "The Jamie n~~1 KLCi After an hour of Jamie Foxx an Garcelle Beauvais dealing with their on screen relationship, "The Steve Harvey Show" is about a high school teacher and his daily trials with his students, the principal and his good_ buddy Cedric. This season Harvey might be moving up the ladder from teacher to vice principal, Cedric is. F pulling out all the stops to finally ast p his girlfriend Lovita to marryhint+ and as always, whenever you tur your back a bunch of high schoo l kids are getting into trouble. Last but definitely not least, thei funny series, "For Your Love" deaisr with three different couples in com- pletely different stages of their rela-, tionships. Reggi and Bobbi are sti $ getting use to the idea of their- breakup, even though both want to be together, it just does not seem like they will ever be in the same place ,, once. Malena and Mel Ellis are hav- ing a fun time working out the kinks of being a married couple. The funny duo of Dean and Sheri Winston keeps the comedy flowing due to, Sheri's recent purchase of a product; , that makes her appear pregnant. Not only is she getting use to the idea of carrying around the extra weight, bt; she and Dean are profiting from her "new addition." The WB's new lineup hopefuly will bring a little laughter to your, evening, starting at 8 p.m. with "The.. Jamie Foxx Show" and ending with "For Your Love" at 9:30 p.m. Foxx Show" continues to follow Jamie King on his pursuit of success as a singer. King finally has the chance to be with Fancy, the woman he has pined over for three years, however, he has a hard time with, the idea of a commitment. The second episode of "The Jamie Foxx Show" continues with Jamie and Francie's relationship and how Jamie feels inadequate with his pre- sent career situation. Even though Jamie doesn't want to compromise his "big talent" as a singer he might just have to in order to move into a more respectable job. Read the Daily online! www.michigandaily. corn 11 5 ,AS / I CELL 11 V # 'yeL EaeUUai~ FU+; r- RO W = .LiO . . 1