For many gamers, "downloadable content" (DLC) inspires, if not condemnation, at least suspicion. Many modern video games seem overloaded with attempts to make money off of players after the initial purchase. "Microtransactions" parcel out minor aesthetic options or mechanical bonuses in exchange for cash. At its worst, downloadable content means additional fees for core features, as in Assassin's Creed II and Deus Ex: Human Revolution, in which segments of the main narrative were omitted and sold as DLC. At its best, well, it's the DLC for Fallout: New Vegas.

New Vegas' DLC includes four major pieces, each a complete story the length and breadth of a smaller single-player game: Dead Money, Honest Hearts, Old World Blues, and Lonesome Road. There are also two smaller pieces, Courier's Stash and Gun Runners' Arsenal, that are of the more common, largely inconsequential variety. All are collected with the original game in the recently released Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition.

crossword.graphicTo download a pdf of the puzzle, click here.

For the answers, click here.

For the answers to last week's puzzle, click here.

crossword.graphic

To download a pdf of the puzzle, click here.

For the answers, click here.

For the answers to last week's puzzle, click here.

Chucho ValdesMusic

Chucho Valdés & the Afro-Cuban Messengers

Englert Theatre

Friday, February 10, 7:30 p.m.

 

The latest guests in Hancher Auditorium's Visiting Artists series are the renowned Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés and his Afro-Cuban Messengers ensemble, who bring their exuberant Latin stylings to Iowa City's Englert Theatre on February 10. I should tell you, though, that if you visit Valdés' Web site (at ValdesChucho.com) wanting to learn more about the man yet don't know any languages beyond English, you may be slightly disconcerted by Valdés' biography, which begins: "Nacido en 1941, el pianista, compositor, profesor de música, arreglista y director de grupa inició su formación musical a temprana edad ... ."

But fear not! I've taken the trouble of running every phrase from the site through an online Spanish-to-English translator and have now learned everything you need to know about this artist whom All About Jazz calls "among the most accomplished jazz pianists from Cuba or anywhere else."

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