Dog days of summer

It's been a while since I've blogged about my personal life. I guess it's probably because it's a bunch of the same old shit happening and when something different does happen, I'm to indifferent to blogging about it. A few things that have happened are that I've got a netbook now. All that plasma donation has finally paid off. It's nice having a (almost) full sized computer to play with. Also....uh....ah...I can't really think of anything major that's happened since my last post :(

We're getting into the busy part of summer now, so that every other weekend when Pam's not working we've got some big event going on. Last weekend was our first week camping. It went pretty well, considering I'm not an outdoorsy person. We're still streamlining our camping approach, however we still managed to forget a few things (more firewood, seasonings for chicken, etc) but I was able to McGyver a few things together. It also reminded us that it would be nice to have a list in order make sure we have what we need.

The place we were at was Kilby Lake campground, just outside of Montello. This one became our favorite right from the start because all they did was carve out each campsite from the forest, leaving natural barriers between you and your neighbors so that it feels a little more private. However, the first thing Genna did was investigate the site next door and found another 5 year old girl to play with. That normally would have been OK, except that if Genna wasn't over at the neighbor's campsite, their kid was over by us. It got to the point where we literally had to tell Genna that she needs some family time without her friend hanging out.

My favorite part about camping is just sitting by the fire drinking beer and talking about nothing. I didn't get to do too much of that because we didn't take enough wood for the first night, and the second we were too exhausted. It didn't help that the kids just cannot seem to settle down at night, in fact the later it gets the wilder they semm. I don't know how to fix that at all.

Anyways, there was a lot of fun had by all with the berry picking and hayrides and what not. They had a pig roast on the day we were there and that was some good stuff too. The campground has decent wifi up by the office, and I was able to get a better EDGE signal on my cell phone than when I'm at home (that's funny). The game room was mostly filled with broke ass games, but Genna and I managed to get the high score on 1942 (her shooting and me steering).

I don't know why I like camping so much but I'm glad I do and I'm glad we're taking the kids. I didn't get much of that experience when I was a kid so it's new to me too :) It's also nice to like camping because we're doing it 2-3 more times this year.

Belated Game Reviews: Godfather II

Godfather II is a successful followup to the first Godfather game which puts you in the shoes of Dominic, an Underboss in the Corlone family.  The story takes place after Michael Corleone takes over the family and it starts in Cuba with a meeting of five Mafia family in Cuba in an attempt to consolidate their business influence down there.  There's one little problem: Some guy named Fidel Castro decided to pick THAT day as the day to start his little revolution against the government.  Some timing huh?

Of course, once you fight your way out of Cuba and make it back to New York, some other family has to start some shit and then it's on.  The game follows Dominic from his promotion to Don, building an army and then taking out the other 5 families to make the Corleone's the only family in town.

The gameplay is a blend of Monopoly, Risk,  and Grand Theft Auto.  You can view a map that lists all the available businesses you can take over.  If you have enough made men, you can send your boys on their own to take it out for yourself, or bomb it to take it out of the picture for a while.  Most times though, you'll be doing it yourself.  You can add up to three made men to your crew and pay a visit to your rivals businesses.   Ideally, you'll want to take out all the guards before "convincing" the owner of the business to start giving you money. 

Unfortunately, it's not as easy as just taking over businesses.  You have to stock your owned locations with your own paid goons because the rival families are not going to sit idly by while you take over their rackets.  They'll actively send their own made men to take back what was theirs.  You can pull off hits on their made men by doing favors for random pedestrians on the streets.  Yeah it sounds weird but it's the only way to take out rival made men.

Once you take over a family's businesses you can attack their compound and blow it up to take out the entire family and put you one step closer to being the Don of Dons.

The game has taken hits in the media for it's excessive violence, swearing, and nudity but come on it's a game about mobsters.  Name me one mafia movie that doesn't have all the above.  It does get a little repetitive at times but it's still a damn good game in my opinion.

There is an online mode as well which I didn't play but it looks like standard fare (i,e. A CTF variant, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch)

Final Verdict: 7.5/10

Trophy Whores: This ones a pretty easy trophy game, there's several trophies that you have to get before finishing the game because they have to be performed on mobsters and once you're done with the game there's no more mobsters.  Every other trophy is either a storyline trophy or can be easily gotten during gameplay.  2/10 for trophy difficulty