Wow, Red Dead Redemption. I've played quite a few good-looking videogames, but I have to say this is the first time I've sat quietly in front of the screen, not touching the controller at all, and watched a virtual sunset for ten minutes.
And there's so much to do in this game! You can play Texas Hold'em poker with NPCs! Not only that, but there is an in-built cheating system that allows you to hide a card up your sleeve if you're wearing the right clothes for it. Not only that, but if you fail the cheating minigame you will be caught cheating and challenged to a duel.
They built in the ability to cheat at cards. That's attention to detail. Yes, there are elements that make the world feel slightly less real (the same guy keeps trying to murder the same prostitute in the same place no matter how many times I kill him, what the hell, he must have done this four times by now), but on the whole the game does a fantastic job of creating a world that feels vast and alive and dangerous and beautiful.
I'm not a big fan of the last part of the 'American Appetites' stranger mission, the one with the missing people up by Hanging Rock. Look, Red Dead Redemption: I am the least observant person in the world, and I could still work out that the terrified, unarmed man pleading with me not to take him back probably wasn't the culprit. It all ended well, if you ignore the part where I shot an innocent man in the leg to slow him down so I could hogtie him and nearly get him killed, but I was forced to make an incredibly bad decision before I was able to do the right thing, which - as I could quite easily see that it was an incredibly bad decision - bothered me a bit.
...and I just spoiled myself for the game's ending whilst trying to find out whether there's a way to complete that mission that doesn't require being an idiot. Blast! I really need to stop reading YouTube comments; my life is never any better afterwards than it was before.
I became very attached to the horse Bonnie gave me at the beginning of the game, and then I got another after the horsebreaking mission and I was quite distressed! The Kentucky Saddler and I are becoming good friends now, though. The horse-switch inspired me to look up horse breeds on the Red Dead Redemption wiki (yes, I'll concede that I am wandering into very dangerous territory if I don't want to be spoiled), where I found the following line on the Infested Ardennais: 'When riding this horse, the player will not look as visually pleasurable as some of the other horses offer.' This amused me immensely. 'Just so you know, you're going to spend an awful lot of this game looking at a horse's arse, so you might want to invest in a more attractively-arsed horse.'
Regarding the actual storyline: I really like Bonnie MacFarlane! I almost 'ship her and Marston, but it's difficult to when Marston is so obviously devoted to his wife. Regardless of that devotion, I'm filing 'addressing Bonnie as "Miss MacFarlane"' next to 'expertly tying people up' in Things John Marston Does That I Find Strangely Attractive.
This entry may have fairly limited appeal (number of people on my flist who have, to my knowledge, played Red Dead Redemption: two), so here, for the rest of you, is a video of a very brave kitten.
And there's so much to do in this game! You can play Texas Hold'em poker with NPCs! Not only that, but there is an in-built cheating system that allows you to hide a card up your sleeve if you're wearing the right clothes for it. Not only that, but if you fail the cheating minigame you will be caught cheating and challenged to a duel.
They built in the ability to cheat at cards. That's attention to detail. Yes, there are elements that make the world feel slightly less real (the same guy keeps trying to murder the same prostitute in the same place no matter how many times I kill him, what the hell, he must have done this four times by now), but on the whole the game does a fantastic job of creating a world that feels vast and alive and dangerous and beautiful.
I'm not a big fan of the last part of the 'American Appetites' stranger mission, the one with the missing people up by Hanging Rock. Look, Red Dead Redemption: I am the least observant person in the world, and I could still work out that the terrified, unarmed man pleading with me not to take him back probably wasn't the culprit. It all ended well, if you ignore the part where I shot an innocent man in the leg to slow him down so I could hogtie him and nearly get him killed, but I was forced to make an incredibly bad decision before I was able to do the right thing, which - as I could quite easily see that it was an incredibly bad decision - bothered me a bit.
...and I just spoiled myself for the game's ending whilst trying to find out whether there's a way to complete that mission that doesn't require being an idiot. Blast! I really need to stop reading YouTube comments; my life is never any better afterwards than it was before.
I became very attached to the horse Bonnie gave me at the beginning of the game, and then I got another after the horsebreaking mission and I was quite distressed! The Kentucky Saddler and I are becoming good friends now, though. The horse-switch inspired me to look up horse breeds on the Red Dead Redemption wiki (yes, I'll concede that I am wandering into very dangerous territory if I don't want to be spoiled), where I found the following line on the Infested Ardennais: 'When riding this horse, the player will not look as visually pleasurable as some of the other horses offer.' This amused me immensely. 'Just so you know, you're going to spend an awful lot of this game looking at a horse's arse, so you might want to invest in a more attractively-arsed horse.'
Regarding the actual storyline: I really like Bonnie MacFarlane! I almost 'ship her and Marston, but it's difficult to when Marston is so obviously devoted to his wife. Regardless of that devotion, I'm filing 'addressing Bonnie as "Miss MacFarlane"' next to 'expertly tying people up' in Things John Marston Does That I Find Strangely Attractive.
This entry may have fairly limited appeal (number of people on my flist who have, to my knowledge, played Red Dead Redemption: two), so here, for the rest of you, is a video of a very brave kitten.
