@ www theotherpress.ca Arts Bell's media takeover and the sad state of Canadian television By Joel MacKenzie, Staff Writer ell Media CEO George Cope announced last week that the company plans to release an on- demand movie program, featuring Canadian and international entertainment. With this, they want to provide a Canadian alternative to Netflix and other similar services... even though we already have Netflix in Canada. The company is also controversially acquiring Montreal-based media corporation Astral Media in the near future as a part of their Canada- wide ‘media takeover.’ Bell currently controls many Canadian television stations, including CTV, MuchMusic, MTV Canada, TSN, Discovery, and Space, and radio stations including The Beat and QM/FM. Owning Astral Media would place even more stations under their power, potentially putting them in control of a big chunk (around 35 per cent) of Canadian media. What's confusing is that controlling any more than that amount is prohibited by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), in order to prevent any one company from having too big of an influence on the market. The CRTC stipulates that a lot of content featured on Canadian stations must, of course, be Canadian, in order to ensure that content from America and other countries does not dominate the market. A similar stipulation would surely be enforced on their Netflix- style project. The question arises: would television viewers be interested in buying such a program filled with Canadian content, when they have access to ones containing both that and the vast array of American programming? Iam not a big fan of esilell Canadian programming. The occasional Canadian television show that I tune in to often comes off as corny, lazily-written, or cheaply animated. They also often come off as merely operating in the shadow of popular American shows, either by imitation (compare the acting and cinematography of Mr. D to Parks and Recreation or The Office, for instance), or by being a Canadian version of such a show (remember Are You Smarter than a Canadian Fifth Grader? Me neither). Though, one can’t write Canadian programming off that easily: as we have about a ninth of the population of America, less shows can be produced altogether; much less unique, well-written shows anyways. And Canada has proven that it can produce the occasional gem, like the self-aware Corner Gas, or the immensely popular (albeit short-lived) Clone High. Maybe the incarnation of a Canadian Netflix-style program could provide motivation and revenue for Canadian television producers to make more excellent programming that could draw international attention to said potential shows, or our own Black and white and black all-over Taking a look at the computer release of Closure’ By Angela Espinoza, Arts Editor oD 25 25 ack in 2009, Tyler Glaiel and Jon Schubbe uploaded a game to Newgrounds. This game was an early version of Closure, which they released in full to the PlayStation Network earlier this year in March. To release the full game in the form we see it today, Glaiel and Schubbe formed an independent company known as Eyebrow Interactive. As of Friday, September 7, the team released the game onto two additional platforms: PC and Mac— this is a review of the Mac version. In 2012’s Closure, our shaky little man in the demo has since been upgraded into a clean, cute little demon spider. Controlling this spider with the arrow keys, the player is thrown into complete darkness, literally pitch black. Save for your starting point and the occasional key area, one can only produce light in two ways: adjusting floating lamp heads, or more commonly, carrying around tiny glowing balls of light. As the levels go on, you will find yourself needing to jump in order to reach additional areas, as well as adjust the positions of glowing crates and tires. The game opens with a brilliant tutorial that simultaneously works as the credit sequence, something extended from the original demo; be sure to remember the experience, because you wont be repeating this. From there you are provided three doors, each containing 24 stages, and a piece of headgear that transforms your spider into either a man with a miner’s hat, a young lady with a ponytail, or a little girl with pigtails. Each of the following batches of levels understandably become somewhat more difficult, but the game is carefully designed so these changes do not come off as a brain- melting spike. Technically speaking, the entire game has already reached that spike in merely existing; once you’ve got the grasp of what you’re playing, the game’s impossible to become, well, impossible. Closure is experienced largely in black and white, with the characters and background art presented in white with touches of shading for detail. It’s a beautiful game to look at, having been hand-drawn by Glaiel himself. But while it’s hard to ignore minimal comparisons to 2010's Limbo, I’m happy to stress that despite the ‘colour pallet,’ and puzzle solving, these two games have almost nothing in common. If I have to be honest, I will say I prefer Limbo, simply because its become widely accepted as an ‘art game,’ whereas with Closure, I’m not exactly sure where the game sits. The closest I could get to a feel for the game was ironically by checking out the demo, in which the title card features a beating heart pumping blood—at least that image lets me know this is actually supposed to be a game dark in content and presentation. In the full version of Closure however, I’m not entirely sure what’s going on, or what connects Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television itself (which holds a Canadian television award show, The Gemini Awards, which operated annually from 1986 until 2011). Canada’s unique identity was created by its inclusion of many different cultures, its relationship with America and Britain, and its array of talented writers, actors, and visual artists. One would hope that with all this, our country certainly has more to offer than cheap clones of American programs. the three additional ‘characters’ for that matter. Nonetheless, Closure definitely ranks in my top 10 indie games of the year. While there isn’t much to offer story-wise, the puzzles are immensely fun to solve, and the soothing, if not haunting, award-winning soundtrack keeps even the most beastly of players calm as they attempt to solve the more problematic puzzles over and over again. Closure is a tad on the short side for a $10 price tag, but I guess it just depends on how fast the player is able to solve the game’s puzzles. Closure is currently available on PC and Mac through Steam; while you'll have to make the judgment call on whether to wait for a sale or not, this game is absolutely worth getting.