Events this Week
August 4, 2009
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Family Movie Night
Wednesday August 5th
6-8:30pm at the Douglas Library
Come meet some of the STARS from the STAR program! The young actors will talk about what it’s like working on Annie, The Lion, Witch and The Wardrobe, and a new play based on the land otter men. After the presentation, we will watch the classic 1982 musical version of Annie. Snacks and a simple craft project are provided by the library. All ages welcome. Question: Amelia 586-5303
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Storybox with Brett Dillingham and Ishmael Hope
Sunday August 9th
7pm at the Downtown Library
Storybox – a highly entertaining evening of sophisticated humor and stories at the downtown library for families and adults. For more information call Carol 586-0434.
Video Games arrive at JPL!
April 27, 2009
Thanks to a generous gift from the Friends of the Library, the public libraries are entering the gaming age! You can check out 2 games at a time for 2 weeks each – but watch out – just like movies, there’s a $1 a day overdue charge on them. Our core collection contains games for the PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360 that span the gamut from first-person shooter to role playing and real time strategy games. Here’s what my guest reviewers have to say about their favorites.
“Okami” (Wii) 100 years ago a great evil was sealed away to protect Kamiki Village. Now, the evil has been released and once again the village is in danger. Players control the sun goddess Amaterasu and use her celestial brush to rid evil from the land. Originally available on the Playstation 2, Okami takes full advantage of the Wii remote. Don’t worry about lacking artistic ability; the game is forgiving of shaky hands while using the paintbrush. Often I would draw lopsided circles or wavy lines that would still meet the requirements of the sun or staff needed to advance the story. (by adult reviewer Kate)
Check out “Battalion Wars 2” (Wii) and take command of the battlefield. Control a wide variety of combat units, from foot soldiers to battleships and fighter jets. The single player campaigns are entertaining, but the 20 missions may feel short when you’re finished. The game also features an online multiplayer mode with three different styles of game play: skirmish, assault, and cooperative. Personally, I enjoyed teaming up in the cooperative mode to battle larger computer opponents. If you enjoy real-time strategy games you should check out Battalion Wars 2 for the Nintendo Wii. (by adult reviewer Brad)
“Soul Calibur IV” (PS3, Xbox) Even by looking at the intro of this game, I could tell it was going to be a good one. Once you go to the menu you have a couple of options: you can play the story mode for the characters which unlocks bonus characters, or you can ascend a tower filled with evil people, challenges, and treasure. This game also has a neat character customization option where you can take the pre-made characters and modify them, or create an all-new person with your choice of fighting style, hair and eye color, armor, everything down to what their voice sounds like. I happily spent hours just creating new characters.
“Battlefield: Bad Company” (PS3, Xbox) After playing the campaign I can say that this is one of the best first person shooters that’s going to come out for a long time. It may take a bit of time to get used to the controls and looking around might be annoying at first, but once you get those down everything else in the game is great, the story line’s well put together, the graphics are great, and the AI give you a challenge.
“Assassins Creed” (Xbox, PS3) One thing I like about this game is how it ties being an assassin way back when and being a prisoner in modern times. Another great thing about this game is how when you get a little bit of practice in you, you can run across rooftops perfectly and assassinate your target with one clean strike. This game has achieved what most other games could not, it can be played for days on end and still be fun.
“Burnout Paradise” (Xbox, PS3) Like Super Mario or Pong, this is one of those games that is going to be around for a long time and is probably going to have a lot of people lining up around the corner for the next of its kind. EA and Criterion did an amazing job on this game, you never have to load individual parts of the city, you can unlock new cars, and even crashing is cool, because everything slows down, and your car instantly becomes a compact.
“Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune” (PS3) This game starts when you find a coffin on the ocean floor, and are then attacked by pirates. This game has plenty of fight scenes and puzzles which will keep you entertained for days. The only bad thing about this game is where the enemies you face change from normal humans, to vampire zombies which take forever to kill. (all of the above by teen reviewer Seamus)
