the gunslinger's lament

electricshoebox:

It would have world design and level-up process and controls from Bethesda, and character design and story-writing and voice-acting and basically everything else from Rockstar.

No but seriously, Red Dead Redemption will always be one of my favorite video games, if not the number one. The story is so carefully conceived — it’s bittersweet, but it’s also satisfying. While the ending is not (spoiler alert?) ultimately “happy,” you don’t feel like everything you did was in vain. And there’s a lot of freedom in the game, but it all feels like it could legitimately fit into the story? Like, even the side quests and all. 

Anyway I could go on and on, but I love this game. It’s really hard and I’m not that good at it, but I love it. 

ciaranandhisps3:

It’s been a whole month since the last Game of the Month. There have been plenty of announcements from the various games shows that have been going on and the one that will interest Plus subscribers is the list of upcoming games to feature in the Game of the Month slot. You can see a full list of the announcement at Gamescon 2012 here. So let’s get started with this month’s game, Red Dead Redemption.

For those that missed out on this game back in 2010 here’s a brief idea of the fun in store. John Marston is in trouble. His family is being held to ransom by the government and he’s at their beck and call. So what does he have to do to ensure their safety? Simple, he has to capture or kill the members of the posse that he used to ride with back in the bad old days. Of course it’s never that easy and these guys aren’t going to just hand themselves over so John needs to chase them down and do whatever he has to, in order to ensure their capture. Even if this involves fixing horse races, selling miracle tonics, working with grave robbers and helping the Mexican revolution!

The secret to this game is the way it tells the story. When you boot it up you expect to be shooting bad guys from the outset but you’re quickly brought down to earth as you watch the opening credits roll and you see John being escorted to the train. Once on the train you find yourself listening in to a conversation between two old women which at first sounds quite shocking and at times almost racist. The more they talk the more you realise this is Rockstar’s way of slowly introducing your to the era that you’ll be spending so much time in. The views of these two old ladies are actually quite tame compared to some characters later in the game. After the journey comes to an end you find yourself face to face with one of the old gang and very quickly you get shot down. Thankfully there’s a helpful soul around to ensure your survival and you awake to meet Miss Bonnie MacFarlane. It’s here that the game really sets off. You’re introduced to joys of working the farm (and incidentally the basics of the game) and you also get to learn more about John Marston. After becoming a fully-fledged farmhand it’s pretty much up to you how you proceed. There’s usually a bounty that you can collect on (it’s best to hogtie them although it means being chased by their gang) and there’s games of poker and five finger skillet in most major towns. You can also hunt wild game or just explore the countryside. One of the interesting aspects of the game is that the world isn’t static. Things happen, there are people out there that need John’s help and there are people who also want to kill him. Often it’s difficult to tell the difference which is which and you’ll find yourself on the wrong side of the law because you decided to believe the criminal not the lawman (it doesn’t help that they all look so similar) and you’ll also think twice before helping out that damsel in distress. The game also has a morality system that can see you being well known for your good deeds or feared for your bad ones so you might want to think twice before shooting blindly at the ladies in the bar!

The game also has a multiplayer mode which even two years down the line is still alive and kicking. There are up to 16 people in each session and there are two basic types (although additional add-ons and free DLC have increased this) which are free for all and team based. I have to admit I’m not big on multiplayer so I can’t really comment on this aspect to much. All I do know is that you aren’t able to play as John Marston.

I’m not usually a fan of Sandbox style games but the way that this was put together is amazing. The story is exquisitely told and the fact that the multiplayer is still alive is a testament to the games endearing popularity. Add four free lots of DLC and another which add zombies (you can rarely go wrong with zombies!) and you’re onto a winner. It’s a rare 10 out of 10 from me. Red Dead Redemption is available now for free for Playstation Plus users until the 2nd of October 2012 and is also available on Xbox

The information in this post is based on the SCEE territories. Availability may vary depending on region. You can always check the full availability of games in your region by visiting the PlayStation Blog

popquickies:

 

There’s something very exhilarating at being able to ride a horse on some of gaming’s most breathtaking landscapes, from the dangerous and snowy Tall Trees to the arid Mexican plains. Add the visuals to a compelling storyline and one of the best soundtracks ever composed for a videogame, and the result is Red Dead Redemption, released across platforms in 2010 by Rockstar Games.

RDR sets the bar very high for open-world games, recreating 1911’s American Wild West with impressive fidelity. The game is nothing like GTA IV, although it has similarities in its core. Players are given so many things to do, and Rockstar always finds ways to keep everything interesting. You can play poker, hunt animals, pick flowers, help strangers, duel mano-a-mano – while completing endless challenges and constantly being rewarded. The game is definitely adult-oriented, given its thematic elements of redemption/vengeance, a very explicit sex scene and hints of necrophilia (!).

On the campaign, we are introduced to John Marston, a former outlaw who is trying to stay away from his past. John is married to Abigail, and they have a little boy called Jack. They are kidnapped by the government, which forces John to hunt down and kill his ex-gang members, led by ultimate psycho baddie Dutch. Twisted as this “imposed request” may sound, John ends up complying: by turning the page, he will be able to get back to his family and really start a new life. On his journey, John meets several unique characters, like the fraudulent Mr. West Dickens and the native Nastas, not to mention the inspirational Bonnie, who saved John after he was left to die.

The soundtrack (mostly composed by Bill Elm and Woody Jackson) has been consistently praised, and it really stands out as one of the best elements in the game. When John first crosses the Mexican border, “Far Away” by Jose González starts playing. It’s an absolutely stunning and meaningful moment, and one that many players will never forget.

TECHNICALITIES – A cover-based shooter by nature, Red Dead Redemption has tight controls and an auto-aim feature that makes the game relatively easy to learn. The weapons range from pistols to shotguns and carbines, but are all balanced. If you’re going bear hunting on Bearclaw Camp, make sure to carry a powerful Rifle. The voice acting is impressive, and there’s so much dialogue in the game, but still we never hear the same line twice. The Spanish is beautifully spoken, which enhances the notion of being in Mexico. The textures look great, and the weather changes are very realistic. There are notoriously funny glitches, like horses floating, but nothing that prevents the game from achieving masterpiece status. The multiplayer experience is even more massive than the campaign. Maybe you’d like to join a posse and eliminate some gangs, play a poker game at Armadillo or simply go against other free roam individuals: the possibilities are endless, and they are all tremendously fun. Also worth mentioning is the Undead Nightmare DLC, in which John fights hordes of zombies. In this pack, the unicorn and the Four Horses of the Apocalypse can be tamed and the rare Chupacabra can be killed. How cool can it get?!

thehouseofmunch:

My piece comparing Mass Effect 3 to Red Dead Redemption and how their endings were both similar … and wildly different. And why the second one worked.

I haven’t actually read this because spoilers (I’ve barely started the first Mass Effect game), but if you’ve finished both games, I imagine it’s worth a look.

aledmorgan:

We love zombies in our films, in our music, on our TVs and certainly in our games. Yet with all this Zombie saturation, you could be forgiven for feeling a little bored with animated, brain-eating corpses. Enter Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare, the largest expansion for this summer’s acclaimed Western adventure that switches out the cut-throat bandits of the Old-American West for a horde of shambling corpses. It’s both a fresh take on zombie themed games, and the slightly more straight-laced atmosphere of the initial Red Dead Redemption experience. The result is a slightly difference approach to the Red Dead Redemption formulae that, while not elevating it above the drawbacks of the base game, is enough to provide fans with a solid experience that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Set shortly after the completion of Red Dead Redemption, and out of the official narrative arc, players will once again don the boots of John Marston. Late one evening on a suitably stormy night, the dead rise and Marston’s family are infected. After hogtying them up, leaving them a plate of raw meat and barring the door behind him Marston sets out to find the cause of the undead invasion and once again save his family. The expansion doesn’t have the narrative kick of the original game, choosing instead to switch out the thoughtful and introspective conversations for some truly funny scenarios involving the past cast and the new zombie threat. While the original game was occasionally funny, this expansion takes this element and truly capitalises on it, making one of the biggest reasons for continuing with the story missions the chance to see the bemused denizens of West react to the undead invasion.

 

Undead Nightmare comes across as a very successful mating of the Western and Horror genres.

Most of the game, as you might expect, revolves around combat with the brain-hungry undead. Zombies are weak on their own, but dangerous in numbers, and the only way to put them down for good is with a well-placed headshot. Combat is the main way in which the expansion offers a substantially different experience to the core game. Zombies don’t use guns, and as such manoeuvring about cover is useless. Instead you’ll often be gunning though hordes in order to take refuge on higher ground. Combat feels less methodical, and as monsters begin to overwhelm you may well find yourself getting panicky and wasting precious shots shooting zombies in the leg just to buy yourself a moment to aim straight. The necessity of shooting the undead square in the head, coupled with a relative scarcity of ammunition means the game takes on a slightly more survival horror style of play. In the midst of the apocalypse there’s naturally nobody around to sell you more bullets, so guns can only be reloaded using the few bullets found on downed corpses, or the scarce chest of ammunition you might stumble across.

In addition to the main mission line, each of the towns and settlements in the game will require your help against the marauding undead. Clearing the undead from the towns will give you a bed you can use to fast-travel to other liberated towns from. However, helping these towns out will often require a sacrifice in ammunition, creating a system of choice. Do you burn through some of your ammo stash to create a safe-zone, or simply ride past the burning barns and groaning corpses on route to the next story mission? In addition to liberation of individual towns, there are missing person quests, graveyards to purge and more ‘stranger missions’ with some new, characters and scenarios which are just as engaging as those in the base game.

Yet all of these are mere distractions from the main missions, and very few of them involve anything new from a gameplay standpoint. While combating the undead is a new experience to the cover-based shooting of stand-alone Red Dead Redemption, everything in Undead Nightmare ultimately bottles down to the repeated decapitation of the undead and this can wear thin after just a few hours of play. There are three special zombies which are slightly more irksome than their regular friends. One which runs at you on all fours, overweight ones which can charge you down, and one which can fire projectile, acrid spit at you. On their own these class of undead scarcely present a challenge, but mixed in with a larger horde, they quickly become the most dangerous foes in the pack.

 

You do, of course, have to shoot them in the head.

The expansion offers a handful of new guns, mounts and outfits – the best inclusion being the blunderbuss, a shotgun fed using zombie ribs and eyeballs that turns multiple undead into a putrid puff of blood. Powerful new mounts are available for those with the patience or luck to track them down as well. The four horses of the apocalypse – War, Famine, Pestilence and Death, as well as a Unicorn – can all be found in the wild, tamed, and used as fast quicker ways of crossing the landscape, each with different effects. It is this absurd, anachronistic feel of zombies and mythical creatures in the old West is what makes this expansion most enjoyable. The atmosphere of a traditional western is still thick, which much of the old music returning, but it’s laced with some extra touches which give the game the fresh feel of a horror. New, spooky music, plays during night-time encounters with the dead, and the expansions features at least one, excellently chosen licensed track that fits the western/horror mood of the game absolutely perfectly.

Bottom Line:  Undead Nightmare provides a fantastically atmospheric and well written addition to what has been many people’s favourite game of the year. The new, survival-horror tinged combat is enough of a difference from the cover-based styling of the main game to ensure that the expansion plays out differently, despite its occasionally repetitive nature. If you enjoyed immersing yourself in the environments of Red Dead Redemption, enjoyed the characters, the ambient challenges, and didn’t terribly mind the basic combat mechanics, then Undead Nightmare will be the perfect expansion. It’s different enough to the main game to warrant its own existence, taking the overall feel of the main game in a weird new direction. If you didn’t find the core game to be your thing, then you still might find the more manageable size of Undead Nightmare to be more accessible, and at an excellent price-point (800 points for just under ten hours of play-time) this might just be the best piece of downloadable content to have been released all year.

the-entire-history-of-you:

okay, so i may be a little late playing this but who cares? not i. before i start this is going to be biased, so if you don’t want to hear me gush my little fangirl heart out then don’t read. 

i was sceptical as i started the game, john marston an ‘ex’ gang member that used to ride the old west robbing and murdering and doing all of it for the good of humanity etc. you pretty much know the drill before you’re told any of it because last time i checked, in popular culture at least, that’s all the midwest/westwest was good for pre world war one. it’s old world vs. new world, and no world is free of an ambivalence to morality.

the big, mean and untrustworthy government has your wife and child and they won’t let you see them till you track down your old ‘riding’ friends will and dutch. you do this they’ll let you have a normal life, a clean slate and a chance to start anew. hmm.
when you go and confront will, really for his own good, well, he shoots you. and so the tale begins. 

it took me a long time to adjust to this game, the third person threw me off as normally i only play first. in fact it really annoyed me that i couldn’t pick which perspective *i* wanted. another thing i found nigglesome was the iron sight. at times the small white dot was practically invisible and i had no clue where i was shooting or what at.

but but but, as i previously mentioned i was going to gush like a fangirl. and gush i shall. the story, be it obvious, was extremely well written and acted. the dialogues were long but i found them to be necessary and by the end i found myself waiting for the next cut scene. once my brother walked in and said ‘i didn’t know true grit was on’. 

another aspect was the length of the whole thing, no wonder it took rockstar so long to get this specimen onto the shelves. by the time my john had landed on the side of the mexican border i was preparing myself for a small gunfight and then a short ending. mexico was (for me at least) the most time consuming of the three locations but it was where i found myself captivated by the plot 100%. 

the side missions were brilliant, the highlight being ‘i know you’. each time i arrived at the new location of the moment i looked out for that purple question mark so that creepy man with his too fancy for words top-hat could torment me. ‘who is he?!’ i shrieked. 

the ending was predicable but i still didn’t want it to happen, i grew too close to john. even before the end, as he was reunited with abi and jack i felt like it wasn’t worth it. jack annoyed me for some reason and my mum looked on at me perplexed as i shouted at the tv what a disappointment he was. abi herself was okay but i still found myself preferring bonnie, but hey, rules are rules. and vows are rules. 

i was however pleasantly surprised (at least until the barn … incident) that the game didn’t just end after dutch was savaged by rocks (a beautiful speech before his demise made it one of the best deaths in the game). i enjoyed living my little ranch life which made the ending more poignant, i suppose what rockstar wanted. those life ruiners.

the epilogue was a nice touch though i felt no connection to jack. stupid jack.

in the end, i loved it. it doesn’t matter how annoying it was when you had to escort someone with a carriage, or a train. when pumas or cougars or whatever they were tore your horse up from under you. when people stole your horse. those fucking gatling machine guns! at the end of the day this giant sandbox provided me with all the things i need in a game. i got well into it and i’m not even ashamed to say it. they worked hard on this game and it shows. 

(via sevenceremonials-deactivated201)

printmediaisdead:

4. Red Dead Redemption: This game was made for me, Rockstar was like “how can we appeal to Jakes inner child?” and then they tailor made a cowboy game exactly to my tastes and better yet they made a main character who didn’t suck! Seriously half the time they screw up the main character so bad i purposely kill him over and over again just because (Hi Niko!) it might be sadistic but i come from the school of thought that its just a bunch of pixels falling off a building made of more pixels. Red Dead did everything right though, beautiful open world environments, awesome characters, compelling story and you can hunt things! It drew from the influences of old and new westerns and condensed it all into an enjoyable playing experience. If you want to see how amazing this game is just look at the horses, the way they are animated is nothing short of brilliant. In fact look at the horses then look at the horses in assassins creed then once you have stopped laughing (usually it will take around 25 minutes) go play Red Dead Redemption!

I kind of wish I’d seen the AC horses before RDR so I might be able to judge them a little more fairly, but…yeah. I’m not sure any horses so far can compare, but the ones in AC are especially bad.

(Source: flipmaybetimecowboy)

xsarabean:

This has been something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. It’s been about four months since I played Rockstar’s “Red Dead Redemption” on my Xbox 360. My boyfriend let me borrow it, and the moment the opening scene popped up, I was in love. I grew up watching classic westerns with my grandparents and I’ve always had an interest in the old west. The game is possibly the longest game I’ve ever played, and even then, I was so engrossed in it that I finished it within a few days. And this probably sounds really ridiculous, I felt depressed after I beat it. The game was just that great. 

I love video games that have a good plot. Red Dead is the epitome of what I look for in a video game. John Marston, the main character, is a former badass outlaw who is looking to set things straight for himself and his family. He is sent by the government to assassinate members of a gang he used to run with even though they were at one point his friends. In order to live a peaceful life with his wife and his son, John accepts the mission and travels as far as Mexico to hunt down his former friends. On top of the interesting plot, it is really quite impressive how in-depth this game goes as far as characterization. Even the smaller characters, such as Abigail Marston, have their own distinct personality without being too cliche. All of the characters are likeable in their own way—even the wicked gang leaders that John grew up with. 

The graphics and gameplay are pretty good. I’ve always preferred open world/open roam games to those that follow a very strict direction. The side quests (known as stranger missions) are very interesting. Although most of them are not needed to finish the game, I would suggest doing them anyways for the hell of it (and for the achievements, if you are playing it on Xbox 360.) The only complaint I have about this game is that actions can become very repetitive if you play it for an hour or more at a time, as many of the missions follow the same formula. 

I did not get the opportunity to earn 100 percent in the game. Sadly, my boyfriend didn’t keep the game either. I’d like to buy it again and accomplish everything to be accomplished in the game. In the short period I had the game though, I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Due to gameplay, story, and replay value, I give Red Dead Redemption a 10/10.

Agreed.

(via xsarabean-deactivated20120722)