An Evening Without Internet

Last night I lost my Internet service at the house. I first noticed it when my wife tried to look up an address on her smartphone so she could go get us a Christmas ham. Her phone had been having problems all day and so she thought it related to the mobile device. Fortunately my daughter mentioned that she also had connection problems on her laptop. I suggested that my wife turn WiFi off on her phone and see if she could get directions. Sure enough it worked and we now have a massive ham to celebrate the birth of someone that wouldn't have eaten ham. Anyways . . .

Spending an evening without Internet service is a bit tough in today's day and age. It really surprised me at how much I rely on my computers being able to connect to many others out there. I started with my PlayStation 5. I finished all of the tasks in Astro's Playroom and wanted to see what trophies I still needed to complete. PlayStation's trophy service requires being able to access the Internet.

Next I wanted to look up some potential investments. I have decided that it is time for me to get back into the stock market. For the past decade or so, I have relied on the expert of others to manage my investments. Back in my 30's I really enjoyed following individual companies and have opened an online trading account. I'll keep you posted if I do well or not but ultimately I couldn't do any research last night because of the lack of Internet. Too bad I don't get a copy the Wall Street Journal as I could have looked through that.

I thought about watching a Christmas movie but this year I have already seen the ones I have on DVD and Blu-ray. No Internet means no streaming video services and so I looked for other ways to kick off the first evening of my Holiday break. As the night wore on, I pulled out my guitar and Rocksmith only to be reminded that all of the extra songs I have purchased are not playable without a connection to the Internet to verify that I have the paid to play them. Sure Rocksmith comes with 60 songs but I wanted to rock out to all my Christmas ones. Instead I ended up playing my acoustic guitar with my songbook full of Christmas music.

Eventually my service provider got the Internet working again. I checked my e-mail and during the time that the Internet was down, I only received 2 messages which goes to show it wasn't down that long. However it still felt like an eternity.

To show how important the Internet is in our daily lives, I have the day off and here I am back on the Internet. Sure I got up and went skiing this morning at Snowbird. We got 16-inches of new snow last night and I had one spectacular run in untracked snow before the crowds destroyed any hopes of a repeat. When I got home, I did a few chores but have spent the past 2 hours utilizing my home Internet connection. I am done though and will be heading off to do things that don't require a computer . . . oh wait, I may continue one of my video games. Scratch that.

Video Game Review: Red Dead Redemption 2

Last week I finally finished Red Dead Redemption 2 and so I thought I would provide a review of the game. It is a long one so plan to spend close to 100 hours if you want to finish it. I completed all of the story missions including the 3 epilogues. There are still a few side quests that I can go back and do but my son wanted to play the game and so it is time for me to move onto something else.

As I have stated in the past, I really enjoyed playing Red Dead Redemption on my PS3. I anxiously awaited the sequel when it was announced. Once it released I contacted one of my close friends who used to work at Rockstar Games and had him help me get a copy for $20. Then I patiently waited as it took an hour or so to copy all of the information from the 2 provided discs to my PlayStation 4. Fortunately I still have a PS3 on my boat and practiced guitar with Rocksmith 2014. Plan to have something else to do during the loading time or you will be bored.

The game started out well as I relearned all of the controls. Many people refer to the beginning of the game as a horse and snow simulator. I didn't mind it at all as I love the snow. Once I got familiar with the game, I sort of got frustrated as I felt forced to do tasks go against my style of play. If I was to give myself one piece of advice it would be to make your own choices and not feel like you owe anything to anyone else in the game. Once I figured that out, I started enjoying the game more.

Rockstar spent a lot of money creating the game and they did a phenomenal job. There are still areas that feel a lot more polished than others. The last few sections of the main part of the game really kept my attention and I wished that more of the game had the same level of finish.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is really 3 games in one. There is the main part of the game where you play as Arthur Morgan. In the Epilogues you change characters and play as John Marston who is the main character in the original Red Dead Redemption. That means RDR2 is a prequel to RDR. Then there is an online portion of the game where you create your own character and perform separate missions using the same map as RDR. All sections of the game combine to create high-value if you are looking for a video game set in the late 1800's.

I played the game knowing I would be doing a review and so I looked for a number of elements so I could comment on them. Firstly the game is rated "M" for Mature and says it includes violence, strong language, drug use, nudity, and sexual situations. I know that some parents are concerned about nudity and the only that I saw during the game was in paintings found in an art gallery. In other words, I wouldn't worry about it in this game. As for the rest of the content, yep, it is all there.

There is a lot of content for a $60 video game. Right now, that price has dropped to $35 and is well worth it at that price. If I didn't have a friend in the industry that got me the game at a nice discount, I would have gladly paid the original asking price. I highly recommend the game for young adults but would be a cautious parent getting this for a teen.