GAMES: POW! Right in the Kisser: Red Dead Redemption: (X360)

This one will be short, cause it's my day off, I'm busy as heck and I want to free up some more time to play Red Dead Redemption.

Played the original, liked it a lot. Seems like such a long time ago, so I'm treating this as it's own game.

SINGLE PLAYER:

I'm a good bit through the single player, excellent.
Some of the cut scenes can drag on and on it seems, but you can skip past any of them, even ones you haven't seen.
The Campfire mechanic is kind of cool, being able to save anywhere, but still have to "do" something. Outfits is also an idea I thought was neat. Apparently you when you unlock one of the "gangs" outfits you can camouflage yourself as them; don't know how that works, but sounds cool. Just haven't tried it.

There is a fair amount of story and side missions to keep one person entertained for quite awhile. Plus the option to go back and do the game differently; I'm being good now, but next time I'm trying to be a Wild West Satan.

Showdowns are back, of course, but the bullet time slow down now has an appearance outside of dudes standing in a street. Dead Eye can be used in the middle of a gun fight or hunting or whatever by clicking down the right analog. In single player it slows stuff down and lets you pick where to shoot someone. In multiplayer you don't slow down, but get the shoot choosing and then super quick shot succession. Worth its weight in gold in multiplayer.

MULTIPLAYER:

Been playing quite a bit more multiplayer, super excellent.
The Free Roam mode is the lobby of sorts, select multiplayer, that's where you go to posse up and choose what you actually want to do.

The only thing that sucks is when your connection "fails," as it seems to do randomly in this game, you are bounced from Free Roam and stuck in a limbo loading screen. If you don't want to back out to the dashboard and reload the game, just unplug your network cable from the Box of X and it will kick you into single player.

Level progression in multiplayer is fun, killing "real" people is always more entertaining, because they think. Or they don't. I've come across some really dumb people in this game, but it's XboxLive so I wasn't surprised.

All the gametypes are fun, Free Roam is entertaining because you can do the gang hideouts and work on your Challenges (explained below). But there is always the looming threat of a posse riding you down and interrupting your progress. Some may find that frustrating, and it is, but I think it's also exciting. Any old school MMO player knows the terror of being ganked by roaming packs of PKs in Ultima Online.
It's the same sort of feeling.

In both play options you have Challenges, which range from shooting a different number of animals, to picking flowers (seriously), traveling different distances by different means and shooting skill challenges. All different and doable while you are doing other stuff, so it is a nice distraction among all the killing. :D

Controls can cause a little frustration in Red Dead, not moving the way you want it to, but only for a moment. Which is usually enough to get you killed.

Horses can also be frustrating, especially in multiplayer. I've whistled for my horse and the damn thing just runs right by me and stops. So I go to get on, but he keeps walking away. Maybe he was scared by the line of 5 dead horses, but he should realize I am not a man to be trifled with and if you keep walking away you will get a slug in the side of your head and then be sold to Elmers.


Red Dead Redemption
4.75 out of 5

Bought it after one rent