RovingEye
GAME REVIEW
1701 A.D

  Reviewed by M. Jalal Awan

This game takes place in the golden age of conquest and is the accurate representative of the time. Not only are the tools and architecture recreated accurately, but also the ancient cultures of that period are dead on. The game is beautiful and the visuals are incredible. The water effects are done fantastically, casting perfect reflections of your trade vessel and breaking realistically on the shores of your new city to be. People and animals move smoothly around the city and the camera moves fluidly as it pans from above the clouds right down to street level. Buildings are unique and pleasantly appealing while the landscapes are very convincing and inviting.

One thing that causes a very interesting twist is that the game doesn't focus most of its energy on military conquest. Although there is certainly an option to train a military and take over the neighbouring islands, you can also spend weeks on building your civilisation with no conflicts to deal with.

However, it also has it flaws. It doesn't have much of an actual storyline and it can be graphically taxing on older computers.

All in all, this game is easy to pick up for inexperienced gamers and complicated enough to please the hardcore gaming freaks.

BOOK REVIEW
Candida

Author: George Bernard Shaw
Reviewed by Luavut Zahid

Candida is one of the most celebrated comedy plays of its time. Written in the late 1800s by the masterful George Bernard Shaw, the play revolves around a woman and her choice.

The plot is stretched along a single day in which everything turns upside down for the three main characters: Candida - the female protagonist, Morell - her husband and Marchbanks - the boy who is madly in love with her.

Morell, the charismatic clergyman, it seems has no idea who his wife really is and is completely oblivious of her personality. For him she is only the woman he thinks she is. Marchbanks, the young idealistic poet on the other hand, seems to really understand Candida. She is attracted to both men for this difference alone. It's a shock for anyone who's acquainted with the play that the abnormally shy Marchbanks is able to convince Morell that his marriage is not a happy one. He furthermore convinces Morell that Candida belongs to him. Towards the end both men beg a choice of the lady; it's her husband's love against her admirer's.

Candida deals with many serious issues of the late 1800s. For example, the play takes a strong stance for Fabianism and feminism. The day and age the play was written in was focused around the 'woman question' which basically meant to resolve whether women had the right to be anything more than nurses to their doctors and secretaries to the businessmen. And in that era, for such a choice to be presented to a woman was a taboo; however, Shaw, a known feminist, created Candida as a woman who had a mind of her own, and for that woman there was a choice. She defies conventions in the end by choosing…but whom did she choose and what were her reasons? Candida is often said to have made the wrong choice. Whether you agree with her choice or not is totally up to you, but to make it you must get hold of a copy of this great play. Happy reading one and all!