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Trying to write a video game theme song

Often times, when you start a game for the first time, you hear the opening theme before you see anything. It sets the tone and your initial impressions. A good opening theme is crucial to preparing you for the story ahead and triggering an emotional reaction. One of my favorite examples of this are the openings for every episode of Tales from the Borderlands. They use licensed music rather than original, but for the tone they try to create it works wonders. But what is the point of me bringing
Glue Magazine •

Skateboarding finds a winter home

A group of local skaters gather at an underground parking lot at 8:30 p.m. on a Sunday in minus 25 degree weather. Soon enough, they are going to get kicked out, but it’s the middle of winter and have nowhere else to go. “Winter is torture for skateboarders and I think especially for those in Ottawa,” says Derek Roberts, Algonquin bachelor of hospitality management graduate and local skateboarder. “Winter here in the city doesn’t offer really any chance to get outside and skate. There’s On Deck
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The not-so-definitive list of great video game soundtracks

Video games can be impactful in many ways. They can captivate with a deep storyline, challenging mechanics, beautiful graphics, or relatable characters. All of these can stay with you for long after you finish a game, but one of the most iconic aspects of many of the greatest games to date is the soundtrack. It’s the part that gets stuck in your head, becomes the soundtrack of your childhood, or even supersedes the game itself in popular culture. In making this list – which is by no means defin
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An ex-whale's advice on CS:GO cases and Steam spending

Over the course of 18 months around the age of 17, I spent $500 USD on CS:GO cases and the community market alone. Beyond that, it’s hard to tell how much I’ve spent on cosmetic cases and loot boxes in other games. A rough estimate puts it in the thousands. While the debate over whether video game loot boxes are gambling still rages on in courts around the world, to me there is no debate. Whether you agree or not with the classification, my personal experience with CS:GO cases was absolutely ga
Algonquin Times •

Truth before reconciliation, Algonquin’s new indigenous lead believes

All of us are Indigenous. That’s the view of Algonquin College’s new executive director of truth, reconciliation and indigenization. “When we say indigenous, what is it that we’re trying to talk about? Because I know that I’m talking about a specific group of people relative to a specific place on Earth,” Ron McLester said in a January interview. “From that perspective, we’re all Indigenous, it just depends on where we’re talking about. So, I think everybody’s Indigenous.” In his new position
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I cheesed my way to a Plague Inc. world record and you can too

Nancy Drew. What does she have to do world records you ask? Well, thanks to the stories of a teen who’s clearly faking crimes for attention, I was given a brilliant idea. I discovered a way I could step all over the hard work and dedication required to get a speedrun world record and cheese my way into getting multiple in a single day. Our story starts in the summer of 2019. I was binging some speedrun videos with a friend and we came across a runner named Arglefumph who has seemingly dedicated
Algonquin Times •

Procrastina…maybe later

It’s 11:50 p.m. and I haven’t finished the assignment for my elective that’s due at midnight. I’m panicking and I know my marks are going to suffer. But here I am. Worse still, despite this experience I know I’ll be doing this same thing with the next assignment. Sound familiar? Then you know the self-made hell that is procrastination. I know I’m just slowly killing myself by doing this every time but I can’t help it. I have ample opportunity to do my work early but I choose not in favour of
Algonquin Times •

Algonquin caught up in wave of cyber attacks

In a breach over the summer, nearly 111,000 students, staff and alumni had information exposed to an illegal party in Algonquin servers. The college has stated that no information was taken but it was exposed. “On May 16, Algonquin discovered unauthorized and illegal access by hackers on one server infected with malware. The college acted immediately to re-establish the security of the server,” said administration in a statement to all students and staff. Algonquin had a lucky break in this c
Glue Magazine •

Ravens men’s basketball reveal their not-so-secret weapon

The Carleton Ravens men’s basketball team are warming up before a game. As the final minutes before the game’s start approach, they pull out their secret weapon. The one thing that makes them dominant, the kind of hidden secret sauce that you hear about from those ads that promise better performance for only $29.99. Except that isn’t true. It’s undeniable that the Ravens men’s basketball team has been a powerhouse for nearly two decades. Last week was their first regular season loss since 2016,
Algonquin Times •

DARE district open for business

A low murmur can be heard through the DARE district replacing what once was loud banging and drilling. Algonquin’s newest building is officially open and in use by students. “It’s a multi-use space, we didn’t just build one building for one singular purpose,” said Todd Schonewille, director of Physical Resources. The space was made to localize all of the student’s needs in one easy, accessible place. The space contains everything from the registrar’s office to A/V recording studio. Some of the
Algonquin Times •

No Mighty Ducks finish for Thunder men’s basketball

The Thunder men’s basketball team ended their season with an 86-80 loss to La Cité on Feb. 21. The Thunder had a difficult season with a record of six wins and 14 losses, and were never able to gain any traction for more than two games. “Very disappointed, it’s the worst one [season] in 20 years, it’s a very disappointing season,” said head coach Trevor Costello. “It shouldn’t come to us as a surprise because we never really played too many good games. We could only ever put it in for 40 minut
Algonquin Times •

Women’s basketball open with an upset but hope for a better season

A last-second buzzer-beater by the Thunder women’s basketball team at the end of the first quarter set high hopes for the rest of the game but they were ultimately left disappointed, losing their season opener 71-68 to the George Brown Huskies. The Thunder put in work during the first half of their game with guard/forward Rita Sibo controlling the floor and Sierra Peck heavy on the rebounds, but their plan fell apart in the back of the third quarter when the Huskies took away the lead bringing
Algonquin Times •

Thunder’s greatest era comes to an end

Algonquin is bidding farewell to the people behind the most successful five years in the college’s women’s soccer history. Dom Oliveri, now former head coach of the Thunder women’s soccer team, along with five other members of his staff, recently left Algonquin and moved to Carleton where they will be coaching for the foreseeable future. Coming off a five-year stint with Algonquin, Oliveri coached the Thunder to a 73-8-2 record during his tenure. He also led the team to three consecutive provi
Glue Magazine •

Outdated memes: where are they now?

Memes come and go so fast these days it’s hard to keep up. Ugandan knuckles, Bird Box, air pods, Дpyr, zucchini elbows, tide pods, waves and absolute unit are just a few of the hundreds of memes from the last year. However, one of these memes is completely made up and you probably can’t tell which one. Modern memes don’t last very long, but classic memes from the past have lasted for years and people still remember them today. The early stages of meme history saw some classics but now they’ve
Algonquin Times •

Thunder bring potential but not fundamentals

Coming off a successful season opener, the Thunder men basketball team lost its traction, losing its second game to the George Brown Huskies 90-69 at home court Oct. 26. The Thunder were able to put in the effort for five minutes at a time but the Huskies were consistently able to keep 10 to 20 points ahead. The Thunder held the lead early in the first quarter but by the last minute and a half the Huskies were ahead and kept the lead for the rest of the game. A large factor in the Thunder’s pe