The nephews are 16, 14, 11 and 9. When they are gathered together their fun, such as on big national holidays, their fun and enjoyment usually centers around the XBox, Wii, or some other video game system.
This weekend the fun was centered around Mercenaries 2 and, for some reason the adults were present for a fair amount of it. (Usually the children are relegated to the basement to play while we are all elsewhere, but because of logistics that wasn't always the case this weekend).
Theoretically the game is about overthrowing Hugo Chavez, but the way the nephews play it the game is all about stealing motorcycles to make cool jumps and buying helicopters to blow stuff (bridges, oil rigs, entire cities) up. Video game physics function such that a guy can drive a motorcycle up a flight of stairs, crash through a wooden archway, slam himself into a mountain, which he rolls down (if he doesn't embed his head in a rock) and walk away from it all unscathed. Also, apparently, you only need to walk up to a guy riding a motorcycle and he will gladly stop driving and surrender his ride to you. And even after you've stolen at least 20 motorcycles from the street outside your headquarters, no one ever wises up and stops driving their motorcycles down that road.
But I must admit that it's pretty darn impressive the crazy stunts that can be pulled. Most of us were cheering for the crazy jumps, questioning what would happen if you tried to make the jump with a Mack truck, or making suggestions on how to repeat the jump where they fully cleared the canyon or imploring them to try to jump onto the roof again.
The improbability of it all is just astounding and amazingly entertaining.
It also makes me a little disappointed in the video games we had as children. I remember how excited we were by the easter egg in Adventure. I don't know if our minds could even comprehend the stuff that can be done today.
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