Top 5 Video Games You Should Play Before You Finish College

I have been a video game nerd for the past 4 to 5 years. My love for video games started when I got a Nintendo DS around my 7th or 8th birthday. When I was kid, my favorite games to play were Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (2009), Sonic Classic Collection (2010), and Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing (2010). Since I have a love for video games, I wanted to do a listicle on top 5 video games you should play. These include 

1. GTA 5 (2013) 

If you ever wanted to visit Los Angeles, California without leaving your living room, GTA 5 can give you that luxury. GTA 5 is a an action-adventure game. The characters that you play in this game live in a city called San Andreas which is based off of LA. When you play GTA 5, you can control three different gangsters. These gangsters can carry out three different heists, buy fancy vehicles, outfits, and guns, as well as explore various locations in San Andreas. In your spare time, you can even skydive out of a jet that you stole from the Los Santos International Airport (I'm being serious). You can also bike your way down a tall mountain (just make sure you don't crash.) I love the amount of free will in this game because the possibilities are truly endless! 

Click here to learn more about GTA 5

2. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 (2022) 

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 puts you in the driver’s seat of a military soldier. It is a first-person shooter game, you play as a military soldier in Task Force 141, which is working with the Mexican Special Forces unit Los Vaqueros. Your team is working with Los Vaqueros to find a terrorist named Hassan Zyani, who has American-made ballistic missiles. There is a part in the game where the helicopter your're riding in is shot by a missile, and your solider falls outside and is hanging by a rope. While your hanging upside down, with the helicopter still flying, there are bad guys shooting at you. You have to shoot and kill these guys while your hanging upside down! This is why I love Call of Duty. These unexpected moments that just throw you off guard and force you to do everything you can to keep your soldier alive. 

Click here to learn more about  Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

3. Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018) 

When you were a kid, did you ever wonder what life as a cowboy or cowgirl was like in the late 1890s? Well, if you play Red Dead Redemption 2, you can live that childhood dream. Red Dead Redemption 2 is an action-adventure game, and the character you control is Arthur Morgan, who is a member of the Van der Linde gang. Between being chased by the police, other gangs, and Pinkerton agents (Pinkerton is a private security guard and detective agency), the phrase "your're in for a bumpy ride" doesn't even begin to cover it. But besides all this chaos, you can also experience the gorgeous American landscape while riding horseback, hunt, and fish, as well as canoe down a river while you listen to the sweet sounds of nature. What I love about this game is the world that your character lives in. You can ride your horse up a gorgeous North American mountain or across a beautiful pond. 

Click here to learn more about Red Dead Redemption 2

4. Forza Horizon 5 (2021)

Imagine driving near a beach in a Lamborghini, or even street racing at breakneck speed. Both are possible in Forza Horizon 5, which is a racing game. Besides street racing, you can also drag race, dirt race, and do cross country racing. Besides racing, what I also love about this game is that it gives you a huge selection of cars to choose from. Whether it's a Lamborghini, Bugatti Chiron, or even a McLaren Senna, Forza Horizon 5 has them. If you can't own an expensive fast car in the real world, why not in the virtual one? 

Click here to learn more about Forza Horizon 5

5. Fortnite (2017) 

Five years ago, Fortnite was the biggest game on the planet! No matter where you went, no matter what you heard, it was always Fortnite this and Fortnite that. How the game works is that you must to be the last player standing out of 100 players, in order to win a match. Fortnite is a battle royal game, and I was one of those lucky souls to be consumed by its hype 5 years ago. In 2018, I was constantly playing this game on my laptop. In 2019, I started to play the mobile version of Fortnite on my iPhone. The reason why I loved this game when it was at its highest popularity was because it took a lot of strategy. Instead of just being a third-person shooter game, you must to make sure you have certain resources such as med kits, powerful guns (some are more powerful than others) as well as shields.     

Click here to learn more about Fortnite

Human Interest Story on Midrina Tucker

As many of us know, college life consists of many things. Whether it be completing a ton of assignments, keeping our grades up, or applying for internships, college students are busy 24/7. For this assignment, I decided to ask one of my senior classmates, Midrina Tucker, an overview of how her college experience has been, how her senior is going, as well as her future after college. Also, I wanted a personal opinion from one of Midrina's friends about who she is a person. The student that I gave this question to was Benjamin Gadson, who is also a senior at SC State.

Below are some beautiful pictures of Midrina

Thanks to the covid-19 pandemic, Midrina's life at SC State was, in a word, interesting. "During my matriculation at SC State, it's been a whirlwind. These past three years have been something not typical due to the fact that I was in school when Covid-19 first came about. What was very nice was the way that the university continued to maneuver and find ways for education to be continued via online, but still have a very close touch with students to make them feel like they are not sitting at a computer screen; My freshman year molded me the most. That year is when your independent and you don't have someone there to guide you through everything. That's when you have to get your stuff together, and SC State has definitely implemented some more independence and guidance for me."

Midrina's senior year at SC State hasn't been exactly a walk in the park, but at the same time she has enjoyed it. "My senior year has been a whirlwind. I pledged in my junior year, and my senior year has consisted of a lot of school work and Delta. It has been enjoyable and it kind of went by really fast. We are down to the last three weeks before graduation and my senior year has definitely been one for the books."

For some college students, its easy to ask questions. But for other students, its not that easy. This is what Midrina had to say about asking questions in college. "The most difficult part of my college experience would be reminding myself that it's ok to ask questions. For a while, I was not comfortable to ask questions. I just felt like I was annoying my professor or that I should already know the answers. I learned that people are there to help you for a reason. I don't have to do everything by myself, that is why the teachers are here."

Not everyone likes the intership that they applied to, but this is not the case for Midrina."I absolutely love the internship that I am currently doing. I want to be a news reporter, so I went in thinking that this is so strict, there's no laughter or fun, but that was not the case. It has been a very fun, it has a comfortable environment and the learning process is pretty nice. The internship has been relatable. The employees want you to feel welcomed and enjoy what you’re doing so that you can get that everyday taste. I work at my internship three times a week from 9 am to 7 pm, so I spend the whole day there. During that time, I am learning a lot of new things whether its pertaining to producing, reporting or just even editing, things of that nature. I am a jack of all trades and still a master at all of them."

When it comes to plans after graduation, Midrina said, "After I graduate, my plans are to work at a local news station in my hometown Columbia, SC. I would like to dabble as well in producing, aside from being a reporter fulltime. Hopefully after that I would like to relocate to a bigger city and a bigger network."

Benjamin Gadson, a senior at SC State, gave his oppinion on who Midrina is as a person. Benjamin had many nice things to say about Midrina. "Midrina is the best friend that you could ever have. She is a true friend, very inspiring, and motivational. She is always picking me up when she sees that I am feeling down and she is very encouraging. She doesn't just look on the outside of a person, she also looks on the inside. She is always finding new ways to encourage the people that she is surrounded by and she surrounds herself with people who have goals and motives in their lives. Midrina is a very talented, hardworking young woman and she has a very bright future."

Restaurant Review- Food for Thought!

The restuartant that I chose to review for this assignment is IHOP. The IHOP that my family and I went to is located at 2567 North Rd, Orangeburg, SC.

Here are exterior and interior photos of IHOP

                        Exterior                                                      Interior

Pictures of what I ordered, which was French Fires, Hash Browns, Mac andn Cheese, and a Fruit Bowl.

My family and I ate at around 8:30 pm on April 5th. When my family arrived at IHOP, the resturant  wasn't really crowded. It had at least two or more families seated inside. The first thing I noticed about IHOP's interior is the lighting. The interior lighting was low, but it wasn't so low that it bothered me. The interior design was simple, and the exterior also looked simple as well as the seating. The noise level in IHOP was pretty good to me. The music playing throughout the restarant wasn't too loud or too soft, and the acoustics were perfect. The service at IHOP was excellent and the server was very helpful and respectful. The food wait time was medium, so we didn't have to wait too long to eat. The food that I ordered tasted great to me.

I ordered French Fries, Hasbrowns, Mac and Cheese, and a Fruit Bowl. The drink I ordered was orange juice. The food was presented beautifully and everything looked very appealing. All of the dishes I ordered were warmed at perfect temperature. The fruit bowl that I ordered was missing watermelon and blueberry, but the server explained to me that the restaurant did not have enough of every fruit that was supposed to be serverd, which to me was very unexpected; Between the wonderful food, good noise level, excellent service, and medium wait time, I would recommend this resturant to other people. However, when it comes to sepcial events like birthday parties, graduations, anniversaries, I would suggest finding a differnet resturant to hosts for these special events.

To learn more about IHOP, click this link to visit their website

Click here to visit IHOP's website