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Putting together the jigsaw puzzle that is college life MUSIC Henry Rollins talks about piracy in the music industry Entertainment All the style at the Golden Globes Lifestyle What to do in Dublin on a budget SPORT Interview with UFC ‘s next big thing

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Ballyfermot's MJH2 student publication

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Page 1: Hit or Miss magazine

Putting together the jigsaw puzzle that is college life

MUSIC

Henry Rollins talks about

piracy in the music industry

Entertainment

All the style at the

Golden Globes

Lifestyle

What to do in Dublin

on a budget

SPORT

Interviewwith UFC ‘s next

big thing

Page 2: Hit or Miss magazine

CONTENTS

You hold in your hand the first edition of our student publication ‘HITorMISS’. As a second year journalism class we worked on this collectively as a group for the year and finally, after a lot of dedication and hard work, completed the final prod-uct. This magazine is focused on students and their lives inside and outside college. Our sections include Lifestyle, Entertainment, Music, Gaming and Technology and Sport.

I would like to thank the class and everyone who has contributed to this magazine for all the hard work you have put in. Without everyone’s dedication we would not have a final product to show for it.In my opinion we are a very lucky group of students to attend Ballyfermot College and to have the privilege of producing a product as a class. We are one of few col-leges who give students the chance to work as a group alone on a product without any input from lecturers. I feel this really gives us a great insight into the life that lies ahead for many of us here today.I would also like to mention that we stand beside the fallen in Paris, France and their fight to maintain free speech for All. Je Suis Charlie

Autumn O’ConnellEditor

2

Ed’s LEttEr

LifestylePage 4 Freedom of Expression

Page 5 A Pet’s not just for ChristmasPage 6 Student Holiday of a lifetime

Page 7 Dublin on a budgetPage 8 New Year, New Me

Page 9 Song of the Sea

EntertainmentPage 10 Is reality Tv dumbing you down

60 Seconds with Dave FanningPage 11 Red or Dead

5 Shows you’re not watchingPage 12 10 Shows cancelled before their

timePage 13 Style at the Golden Globes

GamingPage 18 Brenda Romero

Page 19 Grand Theft Auto - Almost Unplayable

SportPage 20 Cathal Pendred

Page 21 Race for Ballon d’OrPage 22 Patrick Monahan

Page 23 Paul CorrySix Nations Preview

MusicPage 14 and 15 Top 10 Albums

Page 16 Small TalkDean Forrester interviewPage 17 Henry Rollins

Page 3: Hit or Miss magazine
Page 4: Hit or Miss magazine

The attacks were an act of revenge for Charlie Hebdo’s depiction of the Prophet Muhammad on the cover of their maga-zine. The attacks have sparked a debate about freedom of expression and what papers can and cannot publish. The world responded with the #JeSuisCharlie to show their support.The attacks have since united the world in a way we have not seen since 9/11. Joachim Roncin first used the slogan Je Suis Charlie. The French artist used the slogan on Twit-ter and the hashtag took off like wildfire. By the afternoon of the attack the slogan had been used 3.4 million times on Twitter, by Friday it escalated to 5 million. Soon the slogan became more than just a way of expressing sympathy with those who had died, but a in which of journalists could discuss censorship and threats against the media. It became a way for people to stand up against those who were determined to silence journalists all across the world. Peter Bella wrote that over 100 journalists had been killed doing their jobs or just because that they were journalists. He said the hash-tag “was created to support Charlie Hebdo, the victims, and freedom of the press, speech, and expression. I am Charlie. You are Charlie. We are all Charlie.” An act of terror that was intended to silence those in Charlie Hebdo and across the world completely backfired and has now united the world against those who are against freedom of speech. Gene Policinski said, “Ironically, such violence directed at journalists, authors and others is recogni-tion that free expression and the market-place of ideas—enshrined in the U.S. in the First Amendment—is a powerful weapon against tyranny”, he wrote; “For more than 220 years, in the U.S., the 45 words of the First Amendment have defined the nation’s core freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition. We now have another few words that will serve as a global means of declaring those freedoms: #JeSuisCharlie.”Freedom of Speech has recently become a massive issue with the fiasco about Seth Rogen and James Franco’s movie, The Interview, with North Korea claiming it was

an “act of war”. Now the shootings in Paris prove that the need to stand up and prove to those who think that they can take our voices away will never win. An attack that was designed to divide and destory a nation only brought it and the rest of the world together as one against the terrorists. On Sunday 11th of January 3.7 million people all over France turned out to rally, including 1.6 million in Paris, in support of those who had lost their lives. 40 world leaders were in attendence, including British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, EU President Donald Tusk, and Jordan’s King Abdullah II. French Prime Minister

Francois Hollande was at the head of the march. “Paris is the captial of the world today,” he said. In Ireland, 5,000 people turned out in the centre of Dublin to march towards Leinest-er House to show their support for the victims of the shootings. Gwen Ferret, who was only in the country four days before

organising the march, was delighted by the Irish turnout. “I am really moved to see all of these people here understanding this is not about France only but it is about all of us. It is beautiful to see not only French people here.”In the last six weeks freedom of speech and censorship has been plaguing the news, as journalists-in-training, it has really opened the eyes of everyone in HitorMiss mag-azine. Charlie Hebdo described itself as “journal bête et méchant” which means a silly and rude newspaper. And after printing pictures that depicted Prophet Muhammad in a blasphemous manner they payed the ultimate price. All in all in those three days 17 people lost their lives because of an extermist group decided what we can and cannot publish. What we needed was to stand strong and stand united in the face of those who want to break us. And that’s what we did. We have proved that we will not be silenced, we will not back down and we will defeat those who want to destroy our rights to freedom of speech. Je Suis Charlie has become something to look to, something to stand by, something to defend. On behalf of everyone at Hit or Miss Magazine and Ballyfermot College we say: Is Mise Charlie.

On the 7th of January 2015 12 people were murdered in the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris. Editor Stéphane Charbonnier, seven employees and two National Police officers died, they also wounded 11 others. On the 9th of January Al-Qaeda claimed responsibil-ity for the attack.

The Dangers of Freedom of Expression 4

By Seán Ryan

“Paris is the capital of the world today”

Page 5: Hit or Miss magazine

When people think of Christmas they generally think of happy things, Christmas trees, family time, snow, presents, and the one and only Christmas dinner. People usually don’t think about the sad realities of Christmas. One of these is always close to my heart and it is the animals that cannot find a home for Christmas. There are so many animals in the shelters all around Ire-land, especially the bigger ones in Dublin. These animals sit in a cage/kennel day in, day out with one Christmas wish. A wish to have someone to love and care for them. Animals that are sitting in a shelter everyday can become depressed and even vicious. Many dogs and cats in these shelters today are the ones who have been there for a long time as people come in hoping to find that cute kitten/puppy face glaring at them which is hard to not fall in love with. Many of these shelters advertise on social media sites a lot at this time of year as Christmas and the New Year are approaching fast. Cats aid is ‘A non-profit making organi-zation made up of volunteers who give up their time for cats’. This organization does not have a base in Dublin at the moment although they are very active through Face-book and Twitter. They also have a website http://catsaid.org which include pictures of the cats looking for a home as well as a little story about them. Adopting a cat from an organization like this can be so fulfilling. I know this as I myself have adopted a cat from here and it has worked out so well. The staff is so helpful and nice and they are also very efficient. You can adopt a cat from here free of charge once they find your house a suitable environment for a cat.

I spoke with Cyrileen who works with cats aid and asked her about cats at Christmas time. She says at the moment they have 100 cats and kittens in their care who are looking for homes as well as a number in foster care. During the busy period, which is Christmas and new years Cats Aid, require a lot of foster homes for kittens and cats. I asked her if there was an increase in cats now that Christmas time is here and the near year is approaching. ‘Yes, all the animal shelters are inundated after Christmas with puppies and kittens that have been given for Christmas and are unwanted. It is our policy not to home kittens or cats coming up to Christmas, unless we are sure that the home will a permanent one.’ She also talks about people who have requested for cats to be homed on the 25th of December so the cat will be ‘Under the tree on Christmas

Morning’. This is a slight cause for worry on its own as this shows people really do feel like a cat can be given to a child or any-one for that matter as a Christmas present. Cats aid, along with other rehoming shelters have worked hard to ensure no cat will be given a present to a child which will most likely get bored of the cat once its not a cute kitten anymore. Cats aid didn’t have any influx in cats over the Christmas holidays due to their care homing them around that time. The main message they aim to get across is the ‘vital importance of neutering and spaying, to cut

down on the huge numbers of strays on our streets’.Dogs Trust are another non-profit organiza-tion, which focus on rehoming dogs. They receive no funding from the government and take pride is raising the money for the shelter themselves. They do so they can pay for food, shelter, veterinary bills etc. During difficult times of the year like Christmas, they ask people to send them bedding, blankets, food etc. They are also sure to tell people that ‘We never destroy a healthy dog’. This is a calming affect on a lot of people as this is the one fear that lives in people when going to shelters and animal organisations. The one question everyone

has on their minds is ‘what is going to happen to these If I don’t take them?’, ‘will they be put down?’. On their website they post a picture, breed, and name of each dog that is looking for a new home. They have a website www.dogstrust.ie which has a lot of information about the dogs they have to rehome and also different information people may like to read on rehoming etc. There are many more organisations around Dublin and Ireland who work everyday to try and place an animal in a loving forever home. This can be a lot of work and could not survive if it wasn’t for all the volunteers around Ireland who do their part in helping these animals trust humans and get homed in the best home possible. Dogs Trust hold many different fundrais-ing events throughout the year in which everyone can take part in. All the informa-tion you need about these events is on their website at dogstrust.ie if you would like to get involved.

5A Pet’s for life, not just for Christmas!Autumn O’Connell takes a look at the dilemma faced by animal shelters in the weeks that follow the Christmas Holidays

Page 6: Hit or Miss magazine

Summer 2015 is just around the corner and planning for holidays is about to start. Students flock all around the world during the summer months to experience different cultures whether it be party or cultural… AIt’s that time of year again when we all start to think and plan for the upcoming summer. With Christmas over and New Year beginning students start to brainstorm plans and trips around the world. But heading away for a summer isn’t as easy as a wave goodbye and a one way plane ticket. Students flock all around the world and the favourite ways to explore being inter-railing or the J1 but the percentage that do, have planned and saved extraordinarily hard to have such a breath-taking experience for the summer months. Costs are often forgotten when thinking of disappearing across the horizon for the summer with J1 visas costing a minimum of 1,235 (including visa, flights & insurance) and InterRailing costing 442 for a monthly global pass, not far off what students pay in Ireland for the regular monthly commuter route fee. But before handing over the dosh let’s see what previous students make of their ex-perience. Jack Reynolds 21, “I flew to San Diego last summer and had the time of my

life, I have never really travelled before and loved it. I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.”With J1 being most popular among 3rd level students here in Ireland you can see why people are hopping across the water, “but before heading hours away everyone

must experience what are their doorstep,” says Claire Rochford,

I did two summers of InterRailing before doing my J1 and I really found it gave me the confidence and know how to enjoy cultures and traveling to the full. There’s nothing like having a rucksack on your back and the rush of running for a train to take you to another country to explore.”Whenever and wherever you want to go there's a range of InterRail Passes to choose from. InterRail is second only to the J1 as a rite of passage for Irish students, who head off every summer with their trusty map and homemade sandwiches. With so many different routes around Europe it’s easy to discover new towns and cities in a footstep onto a new platform all not being too far from home. J1 is available for all 3rd level students com-pleting a degree they can avail of traveling to the USA for 4 months between the 15th May and the 15th September. With the SWT program for J1 application changing in 2012 it is now stricter than ever regarding regulations of participants wanting to under-take the J1 experience. ‘Being secure finan-cially is very important’ according to Sean Matthews, a travel advisor for goforless.ie ‘Travel can be costly but nothing with burn through your pocket quicker than regret. The world is your oyster!’

“There’s nothing like having a rucksack on your back and the rush of running

for a train to take you to another coun-try to explore”

The Student Holiday of a Lifetime 6

Lifestyle Editor and travel junkie Aisling McGinn takes us through the options available to Irish students for a summer experience of a lifetime that you will never forget.

Page 7: Hit or Miss magazine

7Dublin on a Budget

•Rent a bike and cycle around the Phoenix Park. Two hours will only cost you a fiver and you can get to explore Dublin’s most famous park like you have never seen it be-fore.

It can be hard to figure out things to do that don’t involve cheap student drinks in Dublin when you are existing on a budget. Here is a quick rundown of alternative days out that involve little or no money.

•The National Gallery is always worth a look as is the Irish Museum of Modern Art for a quick culture stop. These museums are free but you can donate if you have the money.

•The Savoy Cinema on Dublin’s O’Con-nell Street does Wednesday deals which include a cinema ticket, medium popcorn and a medium soft drink for a tenner, the big screen alone is worth it. The red velvet curtains will make you feel transported back in time.

•Thrift shopping is always fun and you can find some incredible bargains. Oxfam and St. Vincent de Paul on Georges St are always worth a look with their vintage section up-stairs.

•If you are feeling peckish than fill a plate or buy soup in KC Peaches for under a fiv-er with some pasta bake, vegetable balti and some of their delicious salads.

•For cheap student drinks head to Lafay-ettes or Captain Americas for cheap cock-tails, you can get them in Lafayettes for €5 or Captain Americas for €3 Monday through Wednesday.

•Cassidy’s also have their famous pizza and pint on Westmoreland Street for €10.

•They have Paella Monday at Havana tapas on Georges St you can get a plate of paella for a fiver.

•Soup Dragon also serves gorgeous home-made spicy soups with bread and a piece of fruit for only €5.30.

You can’t ever go wrong with a cheap coffee and a stroll around Stephens Green, all you need is a book and a bench, sit down and take in the passers-by.

Dublin has become a vibrant melting pot for many different cultures in recent times. You only have to walk down Grafton Street or Temple Bar to know that Dublin is a multi-cultured city that hosts an exotic selection of music, dance, cuisine and fash-ion. There are resources such as dublin.ie where you can find out what’s going on in the capital along with some others like visitdublin.com. It’s not the biggest city in the world so just dedicate an early morning or late night wandering around and you’ll find plenty of coffee shops, music venues and cheap food options.

Page 8: Hit or Miss magazine

New year, New me, we all say it, but who actually sticks to it? Gyms are bombarded with new memberships this time of year with everyone promising they will change their life around, but how many manage to do that?With gyms, on average, taking on 100 new members each January it is the peak season for frantic Christmas over indulgers to join and attempt to change their life around. New Year resolution triggers a fierce amount of people to join gyms, start run-ning, eat healthy and generally cut out the crap. People decide to pull out all the stops to attempt to stick to their grilling routines.But how many stick to the pain of mul-ti-tasking life and pleasure? With a survey taken recently 40% stick to their aims for up to six weeks. Six weeks of intense work concludes and life returns to normal piling back on the weight they had lost. What can change this to weight never seen again? Dedication determination and total style change. Aoife Duff, a highly qualified gym instruc-tor and personal trainer, tells the DO’S and DON’T’S to keeping those pounds at bay and how to finally sweat the fat away. Ded-ication is the key to finally losing the weight you need and want to lose. “Sticking to it is the hardest part, some days you will feel like quitting and life will get you down, but the most important thing is to remember you are on a new walk of life and you have taken this step so you might as well see where you end up.”Lifestyle change is critical when becoming healthier and fitter. “You can’t continue your old ways. It’s simply all or nothing. Late nights, long evenings, early morning’s people become dedicated and want to do it.”All age groups are becoming more aware that healthy eating and exercising regularly is key to a healthy and fulfilled lifestyle. Safe Food is increasing awareness to fami-lies and students about safe portion size and managing treat foods.

As one in every four children are over-weight or obese. Many guardians and par-ents may be unaware of this or frightened of the truth this is why Safe Food have brought to the frontier. Many individuals do not meet the dietary

recommendations for fruit and vegeta-bles, saturated fat or sugar. With one out of nine getting their energy intake from sugary foods such a fizzy drinks sweets and chocolate. With such high percentages being revealed from Safe Food individuals and families need to take on board their habits and try to get this New Year to a flying start. ‘Take one step at a time to achieve a live long goal’.

TRX is currently one of the fastest growing workouts for men and women. If you are looking for something that will make you sweat, ache, and maybe even cry, try a TRX

class.The concept of the TRX suspension training is quite simple: you use two cables on your feet or hands to partially suspend your body and use your own body weight as resistance. The muscle works as hard as you work all depending on the positioning of your body on the cables.The workout is designed to strengthen your muscles, but it’s not just your muscles that you're working. TRX moves work on different parts of your body while also raising your heartbeat and breath as you hold a move or do your reps. Local fitness instructor Robbie Murtagh says he ‘advises everyone to try TRX classes at least once. They can be a bit too intense for some people and other love it straight away. Pick one that suits you and invest time in it!

8New Year, New Me...

It’s that time of year again - gyms are packed to the rafters but how many of them will stick it out. We want to make sure that you do with the help of Aisling Mcginn and Aoife Waldron

Page 9: Hit or Miss magazine

9

Ballyfermot now sees its 5th Oscar nomi-nation for college graduates in recent years. Tom Moore, a graduate of the college has directed a film ‘Song of the Sea’ which has been shortlisted for an academy award alongside Big Hero 6, How to Train Your Dragon 2, The Boxtrolls, and The Tale of Princess Kaguya. This ousted a highly fancy Lego movie from an Oscar nomination. Tomm Moore studied Classical Animation in Ballyfermot College, Dublin. This course focuses on helping a student understand the principles and techniques employed by professionals in this industry. It helps high-light the important skills required for entry level positions in Feature, TV or Computer Game animation.He is now the co-founder of Cartoon Salon which is an animation studio and produc-tion company based in Kilkenny, Ireland. He has been nominated for his second film award now following ‘The Secret of Kells’ which was nominated for an academy award for Best Animated Feature Film in 2010.

‘Song of the Sea’ follows the story of a ‘selkie’. A selkie is described in mythology as a half-human, half-seal creature. This film focuses on one woman who disappears into the sea one night leaving behind her two children and husband. This film is not a follow on from his previous film ‘The Secret of Kells’. Tomm Moore focuses his film around Irish history and folklore. ‘Song of the Sea’ focuses on ‘an era before the economic boom of the Celtic Tiger transformed Ireland from one of the poorest countries in Western Europe to one of the wealthiest-at least for a while’. Moore feels “There is something important in the folklore, in the stories that links peo-ple to their environment and where they’re from that’s worth remembering”.When Tomm Moore was growing up he held a strong interest for American and Jap-anese cartoons, Steven Spielberg movies, and 8-bit video games. He had no interest in Irish culture but that has surely changed over the years. Moore expresses his fondness for the kids movies released in the 80’s. “Kids’ movies in the ‘80s, like ‘E.T’ and ‘Goonies,’ they

had a melancholy to them, another layer that today’s kids’ movies just skirt past or use in a cynical way to set up a kick-ass superhero.” When he developed a keen interest in animation he used family chores as a way of gaining equipment to make his own animation cells. American animator Don Bluth established Sullivan Bluth studio in Dublin. He then returned to the US after Sullivan Bluth financed the animation programme at Bal-lyfermot College which Moore attended. This gave him the skills and knowledge he needed to go on and obtain a viable career in animation for an Irishman. The real inspiration for Moore to produce animation movies was the well-known Toy Story which turned the animation industry upside down. He wanted to be a hand drawn animator or go into the world of being a comic book artist but Toy Story changed this dramatically for him.‘I felt that since CG came in, 2-D had to redefine itself, like when photography came in and painting had to redefine itself. It had to use the language of drawing, to be expressive’. He founded Cartoon Saloon in 1999 and co-directed ‘Secret of Kells’ with Bally-fermot classmates Paul Young and Nora Twomey. Moore found securing finance for ‘Song of the Sea’ a lot easier after ‘Secret of Kells’

earned its Oscar nomination. It’s assembled from the Irish film board, broadcasting rights and French and Danish co-produc-ers.Moore states, “When I came out to Califor-nia in 2008, I met the guys working at Pixar, and I said, ‘You guys are living the dream’, and they said, ‘No, you’re living the dream. You’re making your own movie.”Good luck to Tomm. The 87th Oscars award ceremony will rake place on February 22, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. Everyone at Ballyfermot will be cheering Tomm on as he has done us proud

“It had to use the language of drawing, to be expressive”.

Song of the Sea, Star at the Oscars

Former Ballyfermot student, Tomm Moore, has been nominated for an Oscar for his movie “Song Of The Sea”, Autumn O’Connell gives you the scoop.

Page 10: Hit or Miss magazine

Since the explosion of reality TV hit screens in the mid 1990’s, it doesn’t seem to have lost its popularity yet.With the introduction of ‘The Real World’ and the expansion of the Dutch production ‘Big Brother’, this sensation has taken over millions of screens around the world. Even so, is it fair that the people involved in these shows are now being called ‘celebrities’? Many would disagree with giving them that title, but surprisingly a handful of people would say it is quite right.It is astounding in this day and age that there is still a demand for the likes of ‘I’m a Celebrity’ or ‘Keeping up with the Kardashi-ans’. Many people believe that shows like this are dumbing down our society, even exploiting our morals. Lauren Kelly from Ballyfermot says, “I feel these shows are dumbing down our younger generation and trivialising relationships because monogamy doesn’t seem to be an issue.” However, Fiona Flynn of entertainment.ie believes “the real people who you’d be concerned about getting dumbed-down are the stars of these shows, who have pretty much become caricatures of themselves at this stage, uncertain of where the real person begins and the reality show ends.” The worrying thing about this situation is how obsessed people become over these shows, they literally become their lives. It is

almost as if they aspire to be them or even think of them as their ‘idols’. Dave Fanning of RTÉ 2fm agrees, saying, “some people think it’s great, they don’t have to look to Hollywood stars for people to look up to, they can look up to the likes of these reality stars.” Although others believe reality TV is dumb-ing us down, there are some who feel it is a great idea, Robert O’Neill from Inchicore says “it is a great concept, for an hour or two we get to step into someone else’s life and see things from their perspective.” The statement is quite true as for a while we can escape and feel a part of their lives. As sad as it sounds, reality TV is comfort food for a lot of people!With 2015 hot on our heels, so is the be-ginning of reality TV season; Celebrity Big Brother aired at the beginning of January with many controversial house guests such as Katie Hopkins, Perez Hilton, Callum Best and many more. Disaster has already hit the CBB house as former Baywatch star Jeremy Jackson was thrown out after pulling open another contestant’s dressing gown. I wonder what else is in store for this year’s CBB cast.When you get to the root of the problem, the main people we should be worrying about is the younger generation, by them witnessing these shows they will think that

60 Seconds with Dave Fanning by

Amelia Arkins1. What was your favourite interview? I can’t really say, well one would have to be Leonard Cohen, I love him! Bob Dylan, he’s my hero. Anthony Hopkins and San-dra Bullock as well, I just can’t pick one!2. What’s the highlight of your career so far?The years doing Night Time 2fm and just being very lucky getting the jobs and being able to do all of them.3. What was the lowest point of your career so far?Having to accept decisions by management when most of them haven’t got a clue what they’re doing! You’re basically not in charge

of your own destiny, they are.4. Who is your dream interview?I’ve interviewed two Beatles already, but it would have been great to interview John Lennon!5. If you were on a desert island, who or what would you bring with you? Suppose I’d have to say the wife and kids! Without a doubt, the three things I’m obsessed with since the age of three or four. People say don’t make your hobby your job and I say that’s horse shit, I made my hob-by my job! So I’d have to bring something I could play music with, and make sure I could watch all the Champions League matches.

Is the rise of Reality TV Dumbing you down?

10Entertainment Editor Ameila Arkins looks at the rise of Reality TV and the way it has shaped the thinking of a generation

behaving like this is acceptable. At some point there has to be a stop to all this madness!

Page 11: Hit or Miss magazine

Red or Dead?

TV3 is cooking up something big in a dis-used tobacco factory on the South Circular Road. Red Rock, TV3’s first ever home-produced soap, is the biggest project the channel has ever undertaken. With €7 million invested, TV3 are really hanging all their hopes on the fictional town of Red Rock, Dublin. The twice-weekly soap centres on the staff of a Garda station dealing with two feuding families: The Kielys and the Hennesseys. And judging by the trailer, it’s grittier than Love/Hate.So it’s basically a cross between Eastenders and The Bill, right? Wrong, apparently. Producer Paul Byrne explains what makes Red rock different from your typical soap. “I’d say our ambi-tion to look and feel like a contemporary drama, and not a traditional soap, is what will set ‘Red Rock’ apart. That and the fact that at heart we are a police show. Most of the other soaps all follow a similar model – everyone lives and works on the same street/square/village. Most of our action will revolve around Red Rock Garda station, which means we’re able to tell very different kinds of stories in fresh and innovative ways.” Red Rock’s not TV3’s only new show, oh no. January 2015 is a new dawn for TV3. At least, that’s how they’re spin-ning it. Rather than running scared of the competition, TV3 is meeting UTV Ireland head on and reminding advertisers that they’re still here, even if UTV Ireland is taking almost all of their top-rated shows. Though they’re putting on a brave front and a very slick advertising campaign, a quick look at their ‘new’ lineup reveals nothing, but cheap game shows and remakes of popular British reality formats.Can the nation’s second favourite channel survive against a competitor with such a huge catalogue of content at its disposal? Uncle Gaybo doesn’t think so, telling The Sun earlier in the year: “I think [UTV Ireland] will damage TV3 most. It’s going to be a very crowded and different market.” And as cheesey as their slogan is, TV3 is right. 2015 will definitely be a new dawn for Irish television, but when the morning haze clears, who’ll be left standing?

Barbara Crabtree looks at Ireland’s

newest TV drama

The Blacklist:The Blacklist begins when former fugitive Raymond ‘Red’ Reddington surrenders to the FBI, but he soon makes them an offer they simply cannot refuse! Reddington agrees to help put away criminals, all from this list he has who includes the likes of politicians, mobsters etc. However, he has one condition that he must only work with recent Quan-tico graduate Liz Keen. This is an action packed series and is not to be missed mainly because of James Spader. He embraces his character down to the tiniest details and looks as though he enjoys it! A definite watch if you are a fan of action or James Spader.

5 TV shows that you’re probably not watching by Ameila Arkins

11

Hannibal:This series explores the relationship of gifted criminal profiler Will Graham and an out-standing psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter. When their partnership is formed it seems there is no villain they cannot catch, yet Lecter has a horrid and dark secret of his own. Due to this it seems he has more in common with these fiends than Graham could imagine. It is described as one of the most thrilling, exciting and beautifully filmed shows on TV, well worth a watch!

Masters of Sex:William Masters and Virginia Johnson are known as the pioneers of the science of human sexuality. They shoot to fame because of their research on trajectory which takes them from humble beginnings to the cover of TIME magazine. As the show goes on Masters and Johnson’s relationship develops from professional to wonderfully personal and inti-mate. The show is a breath of fresh air and really captivates the viewer; it doesn’t just rely on the sex or nudity to draw you in.

The Fall:The Fall focuses on the lives of two hunters, one is a serial killer who continuously stalks his victims around the Belfast area. The other is well renowned Detective Superintendent who is brought in to investigate the case. One of the main reasons to watch this series is the outstanding talent, X-Files star Gillian Anderson and Fifty Shades of Grey star Jamie Dornan. It’s an intense thriller and a home grown series! What more could you ask for?

Tyrant:This series tells the story of Bassam ‘Barry’ al-Fayeed and his American family who are suddenly brought back to his native country in the Middle East. To their surprise, they are caught up in political upheaval and are forced to stay in the country. The storylines and character description instantly draw the viewer in and make you want to watch more. It is an extreme and cultivating series which is being brought back for a second series next spring!

Page 12: Hit or Miss magazine

10 shows cancelled before their time 12Ameila Arkins takes a look back through the television archives for shows that weren’t quite ready to hang up their boots yet

2. FuturamaFuturama was an animated sitcom which followed the life of a New York pizza delivery boy, Philip J. Fry, who was accidently cryogenically frozen in 1999 and wakes up in the year 3000. The show aired March 28, 1999 until August 10, 2003, however the show was brought three times. The last episode was shown on September 4, 2013.

3. HeroesHeroes told the stories of a group ordinary people who discovered they had superhuman abilities and how their abilities affect their lives. The series used the style and storytelling of American comics i.e. multi episode story arcs. The show aired September 25, 2006 until Feb-ruary 8, 2010.

4. My Name is EarlThis series was about a petty criminal and wrong doer who wins $100,000 and decides to use his newfound wealth to right all the wrongs from his past. The show aired September 20, 2005 until May 14, 2009 and had four series under its belt; however fans were disappointed and some angered when the final show ended on with a cliff hanger. It was nominated for 57 awards and won an astounding 12.

5. Ghost WhispererMelinda Gordon is a woman who has the ability to communicate with the earthbound spirits of people who have recently died. These spirits seek out her help to send their important messages to the living. The show aired September 23, 2005 until it was cancelled May 21, 2010; the show lasted for five series.

6. FireflyThe series is set in the year 2517 and follows the lives and adventures of a renegade crew of Serenity, a ‘Firefly-class’ spacecraft, the crew try to survive as they travel the unknown parts of the galaxy. The show aired September 20, 2002 until December 20, 2002. After its cancella-tion it gained a cult following through the internet and now fans are extremely vocal about getting it back on the air.

7. AngelAngel, a spin off series from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, depicts the life of a vampire with a cursed soul who moves to LA. Angel helps people with supernatural-related problems while trying to vanquish his horrific past. The first show aired October 5, 1999 and finished May 19, 2004.

8. Veronica MarsVeronica Mars is a high school student who moonlights as a private investigator under the watchful eye of her father. However, when her best friend Lily Anne is murdered and her father removed as county sheriff, Veronica dedicates her life to solving crimes in the fictional town of Neptune. The show aired September 22, 2004 until May 22, 2007.

9. One Tree HillOne Tree Hill follows the action-packed lives of high-school kids in the quiet town of Tree Hill, North Carolina. The series focuses closely on the lives of two half-brothers that compete for their position on the school basketball team. The series aired September 23, 2003 until April 4, 2012.

10. The Borgias The series is set around the 16th century; it follows the lives of the Borgia family, an Italian dynasty of Spanish origin. The show premiered on April 3, 2011 and was cancelled on June 5, 2013 due to expense of production.

1. Buffy the Vampire SlayerThis was an American series which aired March 10, 1997 until May 20, 2003. The show was about a young girl who was destined to slay vampires, demons and other hellish creatures with the help of her loyal friends which were known as the ‘Scooby Gang.’ The success of the series led to hundreds of tie-in products such as novels, comics and video games.

Page 13: Hit or Miss magazine

This year’s Golden Globes have come and gone in a flurry of sparkles. Awards season is usually the public’s first real taste of what fashion will look like in 2015 and the main red carpet trends are good indicators of what we’ll all be wearing this year. There were two main trends on the red carpet this year: embellishments and red.

Unlike most years where solid colours reign supreme, there were a lot of embellished gowns on the red carpet. Some executed more successfully than others…Kiera Knightley takes the crown as worst dressed of the night, sporting a cus-tom-made embroidered Chanel gown which resembled a table cloth with a ruffled bib. The pregnant star, who normally tops the best-dressed lists, proudly boasted that her dress took 30 people to make. Appar-ently, none of these thirty people can see. Historically, formal maternity wear is tricky. Style icons like Natalie Portman and Kerry Washington have all suffered faux-pas while

trying to dress their bumps. While preg-nant, comfort is the most important factor. Structure and fit are sacrificed for a flowy silhouette and forgiving fabric, which is only fair really, considering they’re creating life and all. Claire Danes was another embroidered disaster: her Valentino gown had so many embellishments it looked like the Home-land star rolled through a haberdashery in a Velcro onesie. It was stiff and poorly fit. With an embroidered gown, the fit must be absolutely impeccable or the outfit becomes a complete disaster. An example of embel-lishments being done right this year came from Ellie Kemper, whose beaded Naeem

Khan gown fit like a dream.Red was another flaming-hot trend at the Globes, with over a dozen stars paying homage to the carpet on which they strode. Lena Dunham was certainly memorable as a scarlet woman. In keeping with tradition, The Girls creator wore an unflattering, ill-fitting gown by Zac Posen. Lena is no

stranger to the worst-dressed list, and seems to care very little about the usual post-award show scrutiny. Recently, she said of her dress: “It looks like cake and feels like sweatpants”, which may indicate that her priorities aren’t exactly aesthetically driven.Although a bevvy of beauties donned varying shades, the most memorable lady in red was Dame Helen Mirren. The 69-year old put her younger colleagues to shame, looking positively dazzling in a Dolce and Gabbana gown that showed off her figure in all the right ways. Even more wonderful, however, was Mirren’s choice of jewellery: she wore a pen pinned to her chest as a show of solidarity with the staff of Charlie Hebdo.So, if you want to be on the cutting edge of fashion this Spring/Summer, throw on something red or rob your Granny’s best tablecloth and some scissors. An embroi-dered gown is only a snip away!

We will be keeping a close eye to see if these trends continue as Oscar season approaches.

13Style on Display at the Golden GlobesBarabra Crabtree takes a look at who’s hot and who’s not as well as the different styles on show at this years Golden Globes

“Red was another flaming-hot trend at the Globes, with over a dozen stars paying homage to the carpet on which they strode.”

“Kiera Knightley takes the crown as worst dressed of the night, sporting a custom-made embroidered Chanel gown which resembled a table cloth with a ruffled bib”

Lena Dunham was certainly memorable as a scarlet woman

Page 14: Hit or Miss magazine

10. Kasabian – 48:13It’s always a brave move to change your style in the music industry, but “48:13” conveyed that Kasabian have pulled it off. Moving from the guitar-riff songs to songs predominately done by synthe-sisers, Kasabian proved they can release hits without it being their best work.

9. Hozier – HozierHozier has come a long way to become one of 2014’s break-through artists, the self-titled album “Hozier” reaching No.2 in the US charts. The singer’s soulful and spiritual voice easily draws you in to the quality of his debut LP.

8. Jungle – JungleThe London duo’s debut LP is a must for anyone who loves soul music; “Jungle” is a laid back album to enjoy after a long day, but it richly comes with a dark side which makes the album more com-pelling. Jungle made a well-balanced album full of dance tunes, but completed with slow builds and feverish climaxes.

6. Lana Del Rey – UltraviolenceThe third studio album by Lizzy Grant comes a more gorgeous and richer set of songs than the previous LP “Born to Die”. “Ultraviolence” includes the elements of desire, violence, sadness, which helps Del Rey silence her critics. Del Rey’s newest LP is an intimate, drunk driven piece worthy of a listen to. Check it out soon.

7. Ed Sheeren – XThe good boy of British music stays true to essential notions of the singer-songwriter genre, with the second LP more influenced by the British urban scene than its predecessor, with has Sheeran pushing the boundaries more and taking the risks of what he does, which has successfully paid off.

Top 10 Biggest Albums of 2014 14Dylan Murray takes us through the top ten unmissable albums of last year from the best hip hop duo to the new breakthrough act

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5. La Roux – Trouble in ParadiseWith only nine tracks featured on La Roux’s second album, 7 or 8 are surely singles worthy, with her first album being more aggres-sive, the second LP is softer, with the melodies more addictive and with vintage synth-pop magnificence, without a doubt this is an impressive showing from the London born artist.

4. The War on Drugs – Lost in the DreamThis album really surprised us at HitorMiss. It’s a masterpiece with the most slow and simple chords that can blow a track from being pretty to absolutely devastating. The album is about one man’s suffering and in return is a joy and peaceful LP with a touch of 70’s and 80’s style production, surely this is one of the albums of the year. We have it at Number Four!

3. Run the Jewells – Run the Jewells 2If this was a list for best Hip-Hop albums of the year, then “Run the Jewels 2” would definitely hit the top spot. Killer Mike and EI-P have stepped up in all aspects from the first album, from the original beats to the amazing flows the two possess; they are quite easily the best Hip-Hop duo at the moment.

2. St Vincent – St VincentAnnie Clark finds strength in her own frank freakishness on power-ful and direct album “St Vincent”. By far the most versatile album of 2014, the album unfolds with St Vincent offering 40 minutes of fantastic songs with mixtures of voluble guitar mayhem, head-bopping electro beats. Since Annie Clark’s first album debut “Marry Me”, she has grown to become an important artist is indie rock. It is St.Vinvent’s fifth studio album to go along with releases in 2007, ‘09, ‘11 and ‘12. This one might just be the best yet.

1: Royal BloodThere is absolutely no doubt that this year’s number one album is Royal Blood’s eponymous debut album. Released in August, it went straight to number one in the Irish and UK album charts thanks to an incredible performance at Marlay Park and Glastonbury in the summer. Their sound is like nothing we at HitorMiss heard be- fore & doubly amazing is the fact that their heavy sound actually stems from a bass and a relatively small drum kit. Mike Kerr accompanies his bass with two guitar amps, a bass amp & a hell of a lot of effects pedals to create monstrous riffs that would otherwise take three musicians to create. Couple that with Ben Thatcher’s hard as nails drumming & you've got probably the best band on the market right now. Of the ten tracks, there's not one forgettable song. The heavy riffs, the skilful drumming and the Josh Homme-esque vocals from Kerr are simply a treat for the ears.

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blow a track from being

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Dublin, not known as the electronic dance music mecca, plays home to Small Talk, Dublin’s best promoters specialising in the House/Techno scene. Small Talk was set up just over a year ago and has begun to gather a following of loyal patrons, the promoters set up gigs all around Dublin City and further afield. With the main aim of bringing the best international DJ’s to the crowds of music fans in Dublin, the group over to the pint to play a set alongside Irish DJs. Including the event manager, Jack Cleary. The Music at the event broadcast the upcoming new artists within the Dublin Music scene, the likes of small time “Bedroom” Producers; have the exposure to show off their producing and Djing skills in a newbie friendly area. Originally the events were run in Sense within the Academy 2, in Dublin’s city centre, the basement below the main stage area where DJ extraordinaire such as Duke Dumont took to the stage, the events gained a massive speed from there time within the venue, so much so that the collective moved to The Pint on the Quays within the City centre, and has continued to grow since the move.Small talk are known for giving upcoming DJ’s an opportunity to play their own tracks at their events believing “ in giving everyone a fair chance”, if you feel up to the challenge, you can apply to play at one of their numerous events by sending them a mix via there Facebook page. The Small talk group has since began a smaller sister night named,

Unknown. With the group planning to launch their first night with the sister collective, huge things are expected from the group. It’s Looking like 2015 going to be Small Talks Year.

Big Future for underground techno sceneLuke Fields takes a look at how 2015 is shaping up to be a big year

for SMALL TALK, Dublin’s new underground scene

BCFE Student has theVoice

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Ballyfermot College Of Further Education music student, Dean Forrester, has set his sights on a stellar career in the Irish music industry following his appearance on RTE2’s “The Voice Of Ireland”.The BCFE student first appeared on the high-profile show back in 2012, having impressed the judging panel at the time, he was invited back for a further audition.Forrester’s distinctive voice suits the genre of music he sings, which he describes it as “a swing twist on modern songs”. The video of his first appearance on the show two years ago illustrates what a precocious talent Forrester is in the making, and his choice of song on that occasion, “Unforgetable”, suited his unique vocal delivery and visual style. I asked Mr. Forrester how he found the input and advice from “The Voice Of Ireland” panel at the time of his first audition: “I found all of the panel very helpful, Bressie was outstanding when it came to practical advice, suggesting various ways that I can pol-ish-up my act and boosting my ego by telling me that I have the tal-ent to succeed in whatever musical career-path I choose”, he says.Underlining the extent of Forrester’s success to date, statistics reveal, 40,000 applicants are “sifted through” by the producers of the show and then is whittled down to 106 lucky participants. There is an additional process in place to reduce this figure so that the final performers on the show are the so called “cream of the crop”.The viewing figures for “The Voice of Ireland” are an average of 570,000 tuning in last year and this year’s fig-ures are likely to be on a par. The 21 year-old, originally from Ballyfer-mot, is due for an au-dition again in January and he promises further updates on his progres-sion in February:“I have been involved in music in one form or another since childhood and I think that I have finally found my niche. The course at BCFE is really helpful for the business side of things so I am looking forward

Aidan Crowley interviews lastest BCFE Voice hopeful

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It is of the common view that music as an entity is being slowly destroyed by the downloading revolution. Back in 1999 when Napster came on the scene and created the peer-to-peer network of sharing mp3 music files, they were met with mixed reviews. College campus students loved being able to discover and download new music for free, but in the music industry, there was a lot of opposition. Metallica

drummer Lars Ulrich famously printed off the hundreds of thousands of usernames that downloaded a demo version Metallica’s

song “I Disappear” months before it was released to the general public and delivered them to Napster’s headquarters in Silicon Valley himself.

Other artists like Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst and Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl saw it as the future of the music business. Despite the fact that Napster have now changed to a paid subscription site and other subscription-type sites such as Spotify are now on the down-loading revolution frontline, there are still a few artists on the fence; one such artist is for-mer Black Flag and Rollins Band frontman Henry Rollins. He sees both sides of the

spectrum when it comes to sites like Spotify. “The good part is that you can go on a site like Spotify and hear a ton of music. It allows you to be curious as hell for a small price per month. Bands and artists you might never hear become available. I can’t find any bad part about that.”What balances his good points, however are the bad points, particularly as to how the artists actually earn through Spotify downloads. “Someone I know recently told

With so much access to free and illegal music, Henry Rollins has been on a one-man crusade to prevent musician’s rights being misused. The debate regarding intellectual

property is ongoing. Dan Smith chats to the man who once fronted Black Flag about his take on sites like Napster and Spotify.

me that a song she wrote had been listened to on one of those Spotify types over 6 mil-lion times. Her pay for that was 30 dollars. I don’t think that’s right.”He also feels bad for kids who listen to bands such as Led Zeppelin on compressed mp3 files through

poor quality headphones. “With online downloads soaring, physical copies of music such as CD’s and vinyl records are slowly falling down the pecking order in terms of sales. The future of CD’s and LP’s are looking bleak. Rollins seems to agree with this point. Having asked him about the future of analog music copies he reckons that “CD’s will be phased out”.There has, however been a significant increase in the sales of LP’s. Rollins stated that there's been a “52% increase in sales of LP’s,” but maintains that it's “still a small percentage of overall sales.” In the modern day age of 2015 Rollins claims that “it's mostly about the download. Sales of phys-ical digital media will decrease and analog will increase but will never nearly be what downloads are.” Rollins also appeared in the 2013 docu-mentary film “Downloaded” where he gave his two cents on the matter of Napster. It is a great documentary and gives a fantastic insight into the spectacular rise and crush-ing fall of Napster and what it spawned. Anyone with a big interest in music should definitely watch it.

“The good part is that you can go on a site like Spotify”

“It’s mostly about the download.” 17

They will never hear a fraction of what the band was trying to tell them.”

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“I’ve gotten a degree of notoriety for be-ing a woman in games”

Seán Ryan and Luke Fields caught up with legendary game design icons John and Brenda Romero after their visit to BCFE in September

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In September, BCFE hosted a series of talks featuring notorious game designer Brenda Romero, who has worked on such games as Dungeons and Dragons and Wiz-ardry on consoles and Train and Siochan Leat as board games, spoke to a packed Anna Brett hall full of students coming from all different courses within the college, who even had the slightest of interest within gaming. Brenda was also joined by her world famous game designer husband John Romero, who was the programmer for DOOM, a game in which ushered in the First person shooter genres popularity. Seán Ryan and I caught up with Mrs Rome-ro after her last talk of the visit.The interview began with the question of what inspired Mrs Romero to become a games designer, she told us here at Hit or Miss, “I was never really inspired to

become a games designer, I just was always kind of a games designer.”“I only made a conscious decision to become a games designer, after college, when I went looking for work, that’s when I found out what I really wanted to do”When asked the same question, John replied to the question with a vivid descrip-tion of how he began to gain a huge interest within the gaming culture,

“I was about eleven, my friend came down to me one day and told me that the college near our homes had free games, we both rode our bikes up to the college and made

our way into the college’s computer depart-ment and began to play.””I remember being so intrigued by these games, I asked all the college students at the time how it was done, how they were made, and that’s how I got into the whole gaming world”We asked Brenda, who is strongly connected to her Irish roots, about the game “Siochan Leat”, a game describing the Cromwellian invasion of Ireland, she designed the game to teach her daughter about her Irish heritage, she made the game with the idea of keeping it as cheap

as possible, with many parts of the game being made out of homemade recycled products, the idea of the game is, as Mrs Romero described it, “There is no winning, the British have already won, you just have to see who can lose the least” The game has since been placed in the strong museum of play in New York City.

Being an award winning game designer and married to a man in the Hall Of Fame for game designing you may think that any children may not have any interest in the subject. Not Donovan Romero. In what is stereotypically a very male dominated industry that Brenda was able to make it to the very top and become one of the most renowned game designers around is an impressive fact in itself. But to Brenda she prefers to go up against the men as well. “If anything I’ve gotten a degree of noto-riety for being a woman in games. I’ve a lifetime achievement award from Microsoft

“One of the most important things is to know your history.”

“Donovan loves sitting with John talking about games, codes and developing games. He has this idea of a zombie taco truck game. Basically you have to kill zombies to collect ingredients to make tacos at safe points in the game. We’ll be starting work on it soon.”

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Video games are the world's number one form of entertainment. There are huge suc-cesses like Halo, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto and Fifa. However, these successful games always have their flaws but lately, es-pecially on next- gen consoles, the flaws have been so great that it has almost rendered these games unplayable.Each year EA Sports create a new Fifa with jaw-dropping features and improved game-play but each year seems to come with a new problem. Fifa 12 was the start of the over-powered abilities with skill being easy to use and master. Fifa 13 was a game of pace where a fast bronze team could easi-ly beat a average paced gold team. Fifa 14 had an improvement to passing but an over-the-top through ball would cause defenders to stop in their tracks and leave the striker with an easy opportunity one on one with the goalkeeper. Fifa 15 looked promising in its early stages with upgrades to goalkeep-ers and pace being affected by ball control. There really seemed to be a balance with-in the game. That was until we learned that you could easily take it past these 'upgraded keepers' and a finesse shot from outside the box would surely hit the back of the net. For each problem fixed another seems to arise.Call of Duty is another prime example of a broken game. It is easily one of the biggest games to ever hit store shelves but it has

simple errors that are easy to fix. One of the main errors is the hits. Time and time again we rage quit because someone has killed us without even firing a single bullet

women in games. Not a lifetime achieve-ment award period. Top 20 women, not top 20. On my résumé I’ve cut it back to include my joint awards.” And then for all aspiring game developers out there we asked Brenda and John what they’re top 10 tips would be for all aspiring game designers. “Well first off keep it simple. Actually I could say one to nine is make a game. Make your game have a core. What’s that three? Only ever complain upwards. If you complain down you’ll wreak you’re game and destroy morale.”John’s advice was all about coding and de-bugging. “Code for five minutes or less to learn how to de-bug and always check for bugs after five minutes. Start small and don’t rush. Don’t try to make a Final Fantasy. Start small and work up. Make Pac-Man. Just

finish something and make sure it’s good.”“Make sure the game is cohesive. It needs to work for the player. Don’t write code for more than one game at a time. It’ll distract you. Make something unique about the game. Don’t do something like zombies if it’s not unique. Throw in a taco truck. It’s new.” “One of the most important things is to know your history. A lot of game students and they don’t know about anything about past games like the first three Final Fan-tasy’s. It was one guy on his own doing all the code. The Mozart’s of this generation are alive at the moment and people aren’t taking advantage of it.”

into our bodies. It's frustrating because you could have had an easy kill but also it always seems to happen just before you earn a big killstreak. Another issue is the unrealistic drop shots. This is going prone while close quarters for a cheap kill that really just an-noys people rather than shows how good you are at the game. Most complaints in the CODverse are about the power of certain weapons. In Modern Warfare 2 you were shunned if you used a UMP-45 or a FA-MAS. They were considered too powerful and players hated being killed within a cou-ple of shots.It seems Electronic Arts are always the cen-tre of broken games. They are a tremendous developer but their games have too many bugs and glitches. Battlefield 4 was the latest

installment in the series and it looked to be game of the year with outstanding graphics and realistic gameplay. Online players were treated to unnecessary bugs. What frustrated players most was when firing at the enemy, blood would burst out yet no actual damage was done to the enemy. It was like the char-acter just absorbed the damage. Apart from gameplay it had some major errors with servers. It seemed as though Conquest was the only game mode that had decent servers. The rest would either have terrible connec-tion or wouldn't exist. Players who searched for a server using the 'Quick Match' option would be brought into an empty game and woud have to wait for ten more players to join. It was an annoyance for Battlefield players to say the least.Most broken features are easy to fix and it is a shame that they're not dealt with. It is the simple things that make a game special. It will be interesting to see video games in the future and the balance they will bring to competitive gameplay.

Grand Theft Almost Unplayble?

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By Conor Linehan

Page 20: Hit or Miss magazine

Sun Tzu said that “every battle is won before it is fought”. This belief is shared by Cathal Pendred, Irelands lesser known MMA hero. A far cry from the ancient war genius Sun Tzu, Cathal is a warrior nonetheless. Now two wins out of two in the UFC, he is cer-tainly making a name for himself, even if he is living somewhat in the shadow of his team-mate and countryman Conor McGregor.Reasons for this are probably that Cathal is a lot softer spoken, and tends to keep away from the limelight and lets his fighting do the talking. But in terms of confidence Pendred is definitely on par with McGregor. When asked if he thinks he can challenge for the title and fight among the elite fighters, Cath-al replied without hesitation, “I don't think I can. I KNOW I can. I wouldn't be doing this otherwise”. Cathal shows all the signs of someone who believes he can be the best and as Sun Tzu said, “Know yourself and you will win all battles.”The speed of Pendred’s journey is uncom-mon. Less than a year ago he was fighting in Cage Warriors, the second tier Euro-pean competition. But he insists that the difference in levels between that and the UFC are not very different. “I was fighting the best guys around Europe before I got to the UFC. I fought 4 current or former UFC fighters before I reached it myself. I always took the hardest fights out there to test myself. Because I took the hard route to the UFC, I haven't found the competition increase too drastically”.The hard route Pendred talks about is The

Ultimate Fighter, a MMA competition come reality show run by the UFC where contestants live together, train together and fight each other for a coveted UFC contract. Although Cathal didn’t win the show, he was knocked out in the semi-final stage in very controversial fashion, with even UFC

president Dana White disagreeing with the decision, Cathal was offered a UFC fight in his adoptive city of Dublin. Pendred won the fight surviving a two round beating be-fore submitting Mike King, a fellow TUF contestant.Not only was this Pendred’s first win, he also received a six-figure bonus for fight of the night. Stockholm was the destination of Pen-dred's much anticipated second fight and this time his opponent was a seemingly much tougher fighter, Russia’s Gasan Umalatov. The fight turned out to be a very dull affair with Umalatov seeming content to damage limitation rather than going for a win. Although Cathal won the fight he was very outspoken about his frustration at how his opponent fought. “I think Umalatov psyched himself out before the fight and didn't see anywhere area he could beat me in. I was told he said in an interview that he watched every single pro fight I've ever had. That to me shows a sign of mental weakness. He was more concerned about me than he

was himself. He focused his preparation on me: something he is not in control of. Focus-ing on something you are not in control of strikes fear and worry in person”Pendred’s third fight, however will be a much more special affair than his previous. On January 18th Cathal will return to Bos-ton, the town he spent the first five years of his life, for the first time in 22 years where he will fight his most experienced opponent yet, Sean Spencer of USA. Cathal is clearly relishing the occasion that he missed out on the last Boston event despite his very public appeal to be part of it. However McGre-gor did fight at the last event and received an amazing support from the home fans. “That’s the way it is in Boston,” Cathal says “It’s very much an Irish city and they’re very proud to be Irish. I just can’t wait to get back over there.”

Never one get distracted though, Pendred is very clear that there is work to be done over there, and if the experts are correct it will be harder work than he has experienced before, but he reveals he hasn’t changed his preparation. After all in the words of Joe Rogan said “Fighters are creatures of hab-it”. Preparation and confidence are the two most important virtues a fighter should pos-sess and it is clear that Pendred has them in abundance.

“I don’t think I can. I KNOW I can” 20Seán Quinn talks to Cathal Pendred about his upcoming fi ghts, the UFC and representing Ireland all the way from Boston

I was told he said in an interview that he watched every single pro fight I’ve ever had. That to me shows a sign of mental weakness.

“It’s very much an Irish city and they’re very proud to be Irish. I just can’t wait to get back over there.”

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“I'm preparing like I always do. I'm training every day improving all aspects of my game. I am focusing on myself and my own self im-provement. I am eating well and I am think-ing positively, and constantly visualising my performance. By the time the fight comes around, I will have played it over in my head 1000 times, imagining every possible situa-tion. I believe Spencer won't fight like my last opponent. This will be an explosive and fast fight that will finish early. I will be the victor by any method I am presented with”.

The Ballon d’Or is awarded to the best football player of the year, but for the last number of years it has been decided between two players, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. The two superstars have shared the last six previous Ballon d’Or awards and are in the top three once again this year, but the domination between the two could end in German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer and he is many peoples ideal winner after helping Bayern Munich to the German league and cup double as well as winning the World Cup in Brazil with Germany.Obviously current Ballon d’Or holder Cristiano Ronaldo is the clear favourite

after having quite possibly the best year of his career. Ronaldo scored seventeen goals in the Champions League to help Real Ma-drid win the European Cup and Madrid’s coveted “La Decima” as well as winning the Copa Del Rey and the Uefa Super Cup and scoring over 60 goals for club and country, in many people’s eyes, Ronaldo is the clear favourite to take home the Ballon d’Or.In hope of becoming the first goalkeeper to win the Ballon d’Or since Lev Yashin claimed it in 1963, Manuel Neuer has become the modern day goalkeeper in terms of protecting his goal; Neuer also

plays as sweeper and has excelled in his profession to a significant extent. Neuer tackles his opponents and passes the ball to his teammates. He springs from his line to sweep up chances before they materialise. Defenders routinely go back to him secure in the knowledge that he is no less compe-tent as a passer than many of their outfield colleagues. Since winning the World Cup with Germany, many of his colleagues, include Arjen Robben, Louis Van Gaal and Winfried Schafer, all feel he deserves to win the Ballon d’Or, but winning the award doesn’t happen for a goalkeeper, since there is only a limited scope of what a goal keeper does on the pitch, but when you play for Bayern Munich, you won’t have much to do in goal, but when called into action Neuer makes world-class saves. The German National team of 2014 were the best team by far, but Manuel Neuer was their best player which is why he deserved to be nominated

After having a trophy less year for the first time since 2007, well 2008 if you exclude winning gold in the Beijing Olympics, Lionel Messi has broken so many records in 2014, the important ones been becom-ing the top goalsocer in La Liga and the Champions League. Messi has been in the top three since 2007 which is also another record broken, however unlike most years, Messi isn’t the favourite to win the Ballon d’Or, he did make a run with Argentina all the way to the World Cup Final, but he was seemingly invisible in the biggest match in football, but he did pick up the Golden Ball

award as the best player, but that remains to be unseen as many feel he didn’t deserve it, Messi hasn’t had quite the best year he could of wanted, but what we do know is that the winner of the prestigious award is deserving of it.

The Race for theBallon d’Or

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By Dylan Murray

Cristiano Ronaldo makes it two in a row as he chases Lionel Messi for the most in history

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“It sounds stupid but sometimes I forget that I'm in a wheelchair.”To suggest that Patrick Monahan has come to terms with his paralysis is an understate-ment, but to understand the full story, you have to travel back almost seven years, five weeks after the Christmas of 2007 and to a back road in Kildare.A cold morning in February and an impos-sible-to-see patch of black ice changed Pat-rick's life. He was driving to work when he turned his car upside down. His initial re-action was to get out, call a friend and pull the car out of the ditch and forget it ever happened. When Patrick tried to move his legs, however, he couldn't. You can proba-bly imagine how the next few months and years went.Physiotherapy which resulted in progress and then setbacks and a new found respect Patrick learned for people who were in wheelchairs all the while learning about his disability. It was a trying time for Patrick and his family, but you get the sense that it never really slowed him down.Patrick's won the first wheelchair marathon that he competed in. He also shattered the record that had been set previously by five whole minutes. Such a success resulted in Ian Mirfin getting in touch and coaching the Kildare-born athlete.“Not much has changed since the Dublin Marathon.” Patrick explains. “I got a few awards and there's a civic reception from the Kildare county council.” It is still very much shoulder to the wheel kind of stuff for Patrick whose goals haven't changed. “I took one day off after the Dublin Marathon and my focus went back to the next race”. Patrick watches the times of his competitors, but

explains how difficult it is to gauge exactly where he is based on his races. The London Marathon is mostly uphill and then you have different courses that provide different chal-lenges, something Patrick isn't capable of dealing with and the hope in his voice when discussing these challenges gets you, as the listener, excited. I ask Patrick how he feels about discussing his paralysis and you get a strange sense that while he feels completely

comfortable talking about it, he talks about it the same way as he treats it in his day-to-day life. Why talk in-depth about something that doesn't define him? He would prefer to talk about his future, his goals of competing, a new gym regime and his trainer Ian Mirfin's

plans for him going forward. Patrick talks about the expenses he never knew existed for a wheelchair athlete.“I used to hate when a new customer would come into the bank and you'd bring them into the office and they'd see the wheel-chair.”Patrick knew and the customer knew what they were thinking and he would hate the people who wouldn't ask.“Just ask,” Patrick says.Patrick discusses the complexity of the Paralympics, his desire to win everything he competes in and life in a wheelchair. Over the course of the interview he mentions the term “A-Standard” several times. It is real-ly what he is trying to achieve in terms of athletic performance. He needs to be recog-nized as an A-Standard performer in order to compete where he belongs. He strives to be the best and you can tell the way he talks

about it that he is doing everything in his power to make sure it happens.As far as competing and his goal of compet-ing in the Paralympics in Rio, we must treat it like we treat anything in the future. We simply don't know how he will fare on the world's stage. One thing is for sure, Patrick

has an A-Standard attitude and you feel as though that will make all the difference.

Paul Corry has had a strange wait to be-come a professional footballer. The current Sheffield Wednesday midfielder, 23, had offers when he was 16 and again at 18, but turned down the opportunity that most young players dream of in order to go to UCD for a Commerce degree. He dispels the myth that footballers have an easy life and gives us an insight on how a young Irish footballer makes the transition from UCD to one of England’s biggest clubs outside of the Premier League. The first question was the most obvious considering his circumstances. Why turn down the offers when you were 16 and 18 from Burnley and a couple of other clubs? “At the time I didn’t really feel that I was ready or mature enough to give it my best shot at the time. I went to UCD and really applied myself to my course and my football and really set myself up for to go

“Sometimes I forget I’m in a wheelchaie”

“I took a big risk at 18 by turning Burnley down”Seán Ryan talks to Sheffield Wednesday midfielder Paul Corry about life in England and second chances

“Not much has changed since I won the Dublin Marathon”

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Robbie Dunne chats to Paralympics 2016 hopeful Patrick Monahan about life in a wheelchair, the Dublin Marathon and Rio 2016

“I took one day off after the Dublin Marathon and my focus went back to the next race”

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over. I was always confident that I was good enough to go. It was just when I felt I’d be ready. By 21 I think I was better prepared.” “Doing the degree and playing with UCD was definitely a big benefit for me. I took a big risk at 18 by turning Burnley down, but I was lucky and got the Sheffield Wednes-day offer.” One of the big fears for most lower league players is the problem of what are they go-ing to do after football. Most players don’t have a backup option. With a degree in commerce and a job at KPMG lined up for when he finishes Paul has it down to a tee.“Coming up to Christmas of my final year my parents encouraged me to go to the interviews and see what happened. I wanted to take a year out anyway to play football full time in the League of Ireland. During the interviews I told them and the likes of PWC and KPMG were very flexible to let me go try it. I’m still in contact with KPMG and they’re very flexible with the time and I’m able to defer the job.”“So if, God forbid, you got injured the job is lined up?”“Yes, exactly. Look at the end of the day football is a short career and if you aren’t making the big bucks in the Premier League you need something after the game in or out of it.” From the sidelines the difference between the League of Ireland and the Champion-ship is huge. From the inside it isn’t much different. “It is a pretty big step up. You go from playing with a part-time with UCD to full-time with Sheffield Wednesday. Your life revolves around football. Beforehand you had college and your social life as well as football. Now it’s total football. The difference in the facilities was another thing to get used to. Here we have state-of-the-art training pitches, an indoor dome, a canteen, our kit is laid out before training. The list goes on. All we need to bring is our wash bag.”“My debut against Southampton in the League Cup was an eye-opener. They were in the Premier League and we hardly got a touch of the ball. It was like chasing shadows. My league debut against Leeds United was a more level playing ground. I think that it’s more nerve-wracking when you’re looking down from the stands. It wasn’t really until I got home and replayed it on the Skybox that I realized how big a spectacle it really was with 30,000 people at the game. The Championship is a much

more physical league then the LOI. It’s a very demanding league. Going from 2,000-3,000 to 20,000-30,000 is a massive step, but it’s part of the job and you just have to deal with it.” As a current championship footballer I was as surprised as any when I asked whom the best player who he has ever played with and against.“Santi Cazorla,” he laughs after a moment’s hesitation. “We played Villarreal in a friendly in Belfield a few years ago just be-fore he joined Malaga. He came on in the second half and just blew us away.”“As for who was the best I played with that was Ross Barkley. He was on loan from Everton and for an 18 year-old he was a different class. We both played in centre midfield and he had so much raw ability

and wasn’t afraid to try anything.” The fans have taken him to heart, but it seems that Paul may be made to wait for another chance in the first team after last season. But for the moment he is just hap-py to be there and is ready to scrap for his place in the team.

“My debut against Southampton in the League Cup was an eye-opener”

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This time last year we were dreading the six-nations as it seemed like this Irish team was coming to the end of an era as the legendary Brian O’Driscoll called time on a glittering 15 year international career. Now we go in quietly confident off the back of a very successful November series and as defending champions. With three wins from three, including too incredible performances against South Africa and Australia, the Irish team hasn’t looked this solid since the Grand Slam victory of 2009. Johnny Sexton and Conor Murray have cemented their place as the best half back pairing in the world, Robbie Henshaw has shown that Ireland have another potentially world class 13 on their hands, Rob Kearney is showing the form that had earned him so many plaudits in the past, Tommy Bowe is back to his beast and injury free and Paul O’Connell has become the rock that Ireland need. When the pressure was on against the Wallabies O’Connell was the one putting in the big hits and leading from the front. With the World Cup next year Ireland need to build on one of the best November series and keep confidence high. With Sean O’Brien and Cian Healy all to return Ireland have a lot to look forward to. Joe Schmidt’s biggest problem is going to be deciding who to leave out rather than who to put in. The biggest plus from 2014 is that Ireland can finally close out games. After the heartbreak of the game against the All-Blacks, to see Ireland closing out the Springbok and the Wallabies games was a breath of fresh air. November proved that Ireland are able to adapt to the challenges of every game. We are able to close down the energy sapping Springbok and clinically take our chances when they presented themselves. Against the Wallabies going forward was exceptional and at the end the defence stood up tall after allowing Austral-ia back into the game. If Ireland can keep their form up for the Six-Nations and the World Cup a Grand Slam and a very good showing in the World Cup could be on the cards. A lot of the pressure will lay in the hands (and feet) of Johnny Sexton and Conor Murray, but as Joe Schmidt enters his second Six Nations campaign there could be a lot to be excited about in 2015 for the Irish international team.

Six NationsPreview

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