Red Dead Redemption Catch-all

So are we going to find out that Blackwater was founded on an old Native American burial ground?

Edit: Man, a really well done Tremors DLC would be so awesome.

Mission 1: It could start off by visiting Bonnie, who would tell you that some of her cows had been going missing lately. You'd go ride around the property and find half of one sticking out of the dirt. This would lead to a discussion about what in the area would be big enough to tear a cow in half, eat it, and then try to bury it.

Mission 2: This one would start off in Armadillo. The Sheriff would ask you to ride out with him to look for a stagecoach that was expected a couple days ago. You would find what's left of it near the gold mines, the horses would be gone, no sign of the driver, and the coach would look like it had ridden into a pit. The sheriff would remark that it looked like someone had dug a trap for the coach, but Marsten would notice that all of the money is still there. Him and the sheriff would decide to investigate the closest gang, the Treasure Hunters. They would find the place completely deserted. The mine would be laid out a little differently than it is now, most of the current tunnels would be collapsed, but there would be a couple large tremor tunnels that were still intact for a ways. The sheriff would remark that those tunnels were new, and hadn't been structurally reinforced. He'd remark that this place was a deathtrap, then they'd both leave. Maybe they'd find a severed hand or foot in the mine, and think that it had been cut off in a collapse.

Mission 3: Now it's time for the plot to thicken. Marsten would run into Seth up in a tree or a telegraph pole. Seth is the perfect crazy, slightly creepy person to have present when the danger is made apparent. Marsten would at first think that Seth was just being his crazy self, indeed Seth would be even more delusional due to the beginnings of heatstroke. However Marsten would come to realize that there was real terror in there with the craziness. The conversation may go something like this:

Marsten: Seth! What in the hell are you doing up there.
Seth (asleep): GAAAAH! Shhhhh John, you have to be quiet. I'm hiding.
Marsten: Hiding? There isn't a man alive that couldn't see you from a mile away.
Seth: **Cackles** It's not eyes you should be worried about John. You better get out of here, find your own tree, the tallest one you can.
Marsten: I'm a little old for climbing trees Seth, and I think you are too. Shouldn't you be digging up one of your friends or something?
Seth: Oh no. No no no no. (scared) I don't want to dig him up. **Cackles** (manic) he wants to dig me down.
Marsten: What on Earth are you talking about you fool.
Seth (continuing, ignoring Marsten): Just like the cows, like the horses. Down down down -- Not on Earth! No! In it. Just like everything else that matters John. In the Earth.
Marsten: What was that about cows? Do you know who's been taking the MacFarlane's herd?
Seth ignores him and starts sobbing into his chest, and hunches more tightly around the tree.
Marsten: Seth I think you need to come with me, lets get you to a Doctor.

It would probably go on a bit longer before Marsten clubbed him on the head, or nursed him down, or something. As they were getting on John's horse the tremor would appear coming towards them, maybe breaching the surface occasionally. Seth would wake if he had been unconscious and panic, trying to get back to the tree and screaming. Marsten would start to gallop away with them both on the horse. Not entirely sure how the gameplay would work here, whether the horse would be able to straight up outrun it or if it would gain, start to breach, and then you would shoot it to get it to back off a bit.

At this point it would make sense to go either to Armadillo or MacFarlane's Ranch, both of them have buildings to climb on top of. I'd be cool to have Bonnie there, but it seems messed up to take this thing to her ranch. Of course it seems messed up to lead it to Armadillo either, but going to the ghost town would make the presence of a box of dynamite (which we'll need later) pretty lucky. Whether he goes to Armadillo or not I like having Bonnie around, so we'll say that she's on a shopping trip there.

Anyways, so he rides into a town with the thing trailing him by a a reasonable distance and shouting "Get to the roof! Everyone get off the ground! Get on the roofs!"

----------------------------------
Alright, I have a few ideas for where this DLC would go from here, but this has already taken me a long time so I'll leave it here for now.

Yonder wrote:

Man, a really well done Tremors DLC would be so awesome...

This sounds awesome. Where do I sign up, and whom should I make a check out to?

Honestly, I couldn't be less interested in the DLC. RDR was is a darn fine game, and nothing they can do will make me embrace multiplayer when the singleplayer was as good as it was.

Sorry, Rockstar, no paid DLC for me, thanks.

Honestly, I'd rather see DLC deal with...

Spoiler:

Jack, specifically what he did during the three year jump at the end of the game.

Since I'm not a Left 4 Dead player, I say bring on the undead!

Undead Nightmare Pack wrote:

- 8 New Multiplayer Zombie characters
- Additional animals unleashed in the world

I look forward to riding through town as a zombie outlaw on my zombie horse.

Yeah.. the two Left 4 Dead games are the only zombie games I've put any time into, so game wise I really can't say I've been inundated with zombie games.

Riding around in a western game popping zombie heads sounds like fun to me.

I'll parrot what seems to be the prevailing sentiment regarding this dlc announcement...meh.

Having a zombie pack seems kind of cliche. Not to mention that it's a completely different vibe. When I was neck deep in that rich western atmosphere the last thing I wanted to pop up was some ridiculous supernatural mumbo jumbo.

I, too, was really wanting some story continuation via dlc.

Spoiler:

Jack's life during those three years would be interesting, but I'd really like to see John's life with Dutch's gang and when/if he started to change his outlook

HansomB1derful wrote:

I, too, was really wanting some story continuation via dlc.

Spoiler:

Jack's life during those three years would be interesting, but I'd really like to see John's life with Dutch's gang and when/if he started to change his outlook

That too. Considering how the GTA4 DLC took place outside of the main storyline (with different characters, no less), I would have liked for something similar to happen with RDR.

HansomB1derful wrote:
Spoiler:

Jack's life during those three years would be interesting, but I'd really like to see John's life with Dutch's gang and when/if he started to change his outlook

Spoiler:

I have absolutely no interest in playing Jack as a teenager, but it would be cool to play as John during his time with Dutch's gang.

I'm not sold on Zombies either. The better the game and the more invested I am in the story and atmosphere the less I want to see zombies.

I'm really surprised that there seems to be no new co-op missions in any of the packs (they could be hidden in some of those descriptions I guess.) The missions they introduced recently are glitchy but a ton of fun. I'd pay for some more of those in a heart beat.

I'm with you Rat Boy (I won't quote you. I don't want to see the spoiler (I've made that mistake before!)) Stories of other characters in the same world would be fantastic. They could be tales of a wagon train or an outlaw gang..... basically more coop.

This is as good a time as any to share two tales of the west I've encountered recently that would fit whole sale into Red Dead or a sequel (they probably don't fit into the time of RDR's story.)

I'm reading a book on the Civil War (Battle cry for freedom - J.M. McPherson) and, in the build up to the war, there are descriptions of the various compromises that were struck between free states and slave states. In one of the sets of failed regulations it was legal for slave owners to travel into free states in pursuit of escaped slaves in order to retrieve them. There are stories of owners being none too discriminating as to whether the people they caught were actually the same people who had escaped. Some free men and even women and children fonding themselves suddenly kidnapped from the middle of free states and dragged off into slavery. A tale of pursuit and revenge could ensue.

The other story, if it wasn't true, could easily be a Rockstar working script for Red Dead Renegade. It's the tale of Cynthia Parker and her son Quanah Parker (some of you will know this stuff already but it was new to me.) Listen to the podcast. It's worth the time.

Fresh Air - Comanche Nation: The Rise And Fall Of An 'Empire'

Higgledy wrote:

I'm reading a book on the Civil War (Battle cry for freedom - J.M. McPherson) and, in the build up to the war, there are descriptions of the various compromises that were struck between free states and slave states. In one of the sets of failed regulations it was legal for slave owners to travel into free states in pursuit of escaped slaves in order to retrieve them. There are stories of owners being none too discriminating as to whether the people they caught were actually the same people who had escaped. Some free men and even women and children fonding themselves suddenly kidnapped from the middle of free states and dragged off into slavery. A tale of pursuit and revenge could ensue.

The other story, if it wasn't true, could easily be a Rockstar working script for Red Dead Renegade. It's the tale of Cynthia Parker and her son Quanah Parker (some of you will know this stuff already but it was new to me.) Listen to the podcast. It's worth the time.

Fresh Air - Comanche Nation: The Rise And Fall Of An 'Empire'

If you want to know more about American slavery and the political process leading up to our Civil War, I just finished Sean Wilentz's The Rise of American Democracy. I highly recommend it, despite its length. It's excellent. If the second story you mentioned is a captivity narrative, the most famous one in American history is written by Mary Rowlandson, although it's from a much earlier time period.

As long as we're talking about books, I'll mention that one of the most influential sets on the American West (and the first one is about captivity narratives) is the trilogy by Richard Slotkin: Regeneration Through Violence, The Fatal Environment, and Gunfighter Nation.

Rat Boy wrote:

That too. Considering how the GTA4 DLC took place outside of the main storyline (with different characters, no less), I would have liked for something similar to happen with RDR.

Honestly, that's what I was expecting when DLC support was first announced.

I purchased GTA IV and went on to also nab Lost & Damned and Ballad of Gay Tony. I thought the whole package was incredibly comprehensive in spite of the fact that all three stories took place in Liberty City.

I wonder if Rockstar is feeling burned by the sales numbers of the two expansion packs and that in turn caused them to flinch at the prospect of following suit with substantial RDR storyline DLC packs. I mean though the engine and assets are already there, when you think about it, the two GTA IV expansions could have easily qualified as full retail games all things considered.

I'm not giving up hope yet that we'll get a L&D/BoGT-type expansion for RDR, but the latest DLC announcements are a bit underwhelming for sure.

Here is the rest of my Tremors DLC idea:

So he rides into a town with the thing trailing him by a reasonable distance and shouting "Get to the roof! Everyone get off the ground! Get on the roofs!"

I'm assuming that John has done enough in this area at the time of the DLC that he is pretty respected (or at least infamous). Also I would space out the missions long enough and have atmosphere and overheard dialog that showed that everyone had been really edgy and scared as the last couple of weeks wore on. Missing people, missing livestock, very edgy wildlife or wildlife that had fled the area. Consistently terrified horses. That would explain there being a fairly small delay between John giving a ridiculous order and people actually hoping to it. Of course the Tremors (3 or 4)? would get a couple of the slower people in a spectacular fashion to make everyone hustle.

If in Armadillo John would go to the bar, him and Seth would slip off the horse (which would take off galloping even faster) and run upstairs. If they went to MacFarlane ranch the same thing would happen at Bonnie's house. I'll assume he goes to MacFarlane's ranch.

At this point John, Seth, and Bonnie are up on the roof of a two story building, and have a great view of the rest of the ranch. We have the large barn, and a lot of much smaller structures that aren't as safe. At first there should be a lot going on, we want this to be a really action packed and overwhelming scene. Stage Coaches and carts with horses attached should be taking off at a panicked sprint, maybe with people on them, maybe not. People should be sprinting to and fro, maybe trying to catch a cart and escape, climbing a cart that isn't being pulled. People should be climbing up onto the smaller shacks and the barn itself. The penned in horses should jump the fence and bolt, neighing madly. Among all of this there should be people screaming, yelling, and getting eaten.

After a short time everything will settle down, the only noise will be sniffling and murmured prayers. This will give the player a chance to get his bearings and maybe allow some time for the creepiness to set in.

At this point there should be about a dozen people left. Those on the barn and the house are reasonably safe for now, but others will only be on smaller structures or carts within reach of the tremors. It'll start with a man on a cart. He will start to scream to draw the player’s attention, the cart will shake, and then the snakes will come out of the ground pulling at the cart and searching for him. The player (and the NPCs) will shoot at the tentacles. If they are successful they will drive the Tremor off a ways, giving him a chance to run for a larger structure.

Similar scenarios will play out at the other smaller houses, and at the Bonnie’s house to give the player a chance to see them close up. Two or three of them would come up to the house, grab onto windows and porch posts, and try to shake the house down until they were driven off.

Eventually (if Marsten hasn't done it yet) an NPC (Bonnie or her father?) will throw a stick of dynamite at them and they will squeal and flee for a couple minutes. This will let everyone on smaller structures get to the house and barn. And will give everyone a chance to plan. They will decide to try to get one of them to eat the dynamite. They will try pulling one along the ground, things like that, but it won't work.

Finally someone will say "we need to get them to swallow it with something alive."
"Are you volunteering for that?"
"We can use an animal."
(Good ol' Charlie the guard dog will have gotten pulled up on the roof with Marsten.)
Deputy: "I'm not feeding Charlie to those monsters! Besides, there is only one of him. There are four of them by my count."
"We can use the chickens."
(The half loaded cart that was attacked in the beginning will have two caged chickens in it. They have quieted down since the beginning of the attack, and that, along with the prevalence of larger game in the area, is the only reason they are still alive. The chicken coop and the loose chickens have long been demolished.)
"Oh yeah, and who's going to get those?"
Marsten: "I will."

The player will then have to run and jump from Bonnies house to a smaller house next to it, then along the row. At the last house the tremors will catch up to him and start shaking the house and coming for him. He and the others will be shooting madly at it to make them flee. Finally someone will throw a stick of dynamite that lands at the bottom of the house. It will go off and knock over the house, and the Tremors will flee. Marsten will be very disoriented, with a loud ringing in his ears. The player will be able to hear (barely) gunshots and shouts, but won't be able to make out the words. Slowly, agonizingly slowly Marsten will pick himself up. When the player controls him he will be disoriented, staggering a bit as if drunk. Picking up a chicken cage in each hand, you'll be defenseless as you run back to the house (rapidly getting your senses back). It will be a pretty close call to make it back upstairs in time.

You'll be able to tie a stick of dynamite to the chickens and toss them out, two Tremors down. Lastly you will indeed have to sacrifice Charlie. Marsten will volunteer to do the deed (the Deputy will be in the barn, unable to say his goodbye himself). When Marsten ties the dynamite the camera angle and arm motions will be identical to the skinning animation, however instead of sarcastic remarks Marsten will be full of praise. “What a good boy Charlie. Who’s a good dog?” Charlie will be whimpering faintly, but at the praise you will be able to see his tail wag slightly at the corner of the screen as Marsten finishes tying.

Marsten will then hoist the dog over the side, where it will land with a yelp. Panicking, the dog will leap and scratch at the wall, trying to climb it. As the tremors approach it will take off running, but it won’t be fast enough.

After this there will be a long, subdued silence. There is still one Tremor out there. Everyone knows what that means, but nobody wants to say it.

After a while Marsten will speak up. “Someone has to take care of the last one.”
The same man who was snarky to the last guy that spoke up repeats his question “"Are you volunteering for that?"
There is no biting sarcasm in it this time though, but there isn’t any hope in it either. The remark is devoid of expression, he just sounds tired.
Marsten: “Yeah. I am.”

Everyone snaps to face him. Bonnie starts to object, but is cut off by her father, who believes that he should be the one to go because he is older. An argument, and perhaps a scuffle ensues, but is interrupted when the noise causes the last Tremor to attack the house again. As they fight off the Tremor again Marsten gets an idea. He shouts “No one has to die today!” and whistles. Just like at every other time in the game this causes his badass, loyal, awesome horse to appear at the horizon, galloping towards him. The tremor goes off for this new target, but the horse avoids it (jumps over it?). As it approaches Marsten wrests a stick of Dynamite from the dad’s hand and jumps to the ground, mounting on the horse.

You then gallop to the south, with the beast right behind you. As you approach the cliff you are prompted to throw the dynamite out in front of you. You gallop over it, and the Tremor passes under it as well. Just after that it goes off. The tremor squeals and sprints ahead, while John shouts “Woah! Woah!” and pulls on the reins. Right at the edge of the cliff the horse rears up and we get a great scene of John on his rearing horse as the Tremor bursts out of the cliff below him and drops to its doom.

Screw Tremors. Bring on the Dune sandworms

[size=10]Obscure Dune reference:[/size]

Wow. I do not agree with how they're handling the DLC.

If you only play single player and want the new weapons? Too bad, you're paying $10 per pack because you also need to pay for all the multiplayer stuff.

Like multiplayer stuff and want everyone on fair, even footing? Too bad, new weapons are included with those new features. Better get yourself an explosive rifle, because the guy aiming at you already has one!

Essentially just an ad for Project Rooster's upcoming new series Naughty Bear Adventures.

CptGlanton wrote:
Higgledy wrote:

I'm reading a book on the Civil War (Battle cry for freedom - J.M. McPherson) and, in the build up to the war, there are descriptions of the various compromises that were struck between free states and slave states. In one of the sets of failed regulations it was legal for slave owners to travel into free states in pursuit of escaped slaves in order to retrieve them. There are stories of owners being none too discriminating as to whether the people they caught were actually the same people who had escaped. Some free men and even women and children fonding themselves suddenly kidnapped from the middle of free states and dragged off into slavery. A tale of pursuit and revenge could ensue.

The other story, if it wasn't true, could easily be a Rockstar working script for Red Dead Renegade. It's the tale of Cynthia Parker and her son Quanah Parker (some of you will know this stuff already but it was new to me.) Listen to the podcast. It's worth the time.

Fresh Air - Comanche Nation: The Rise And Fall Of An 'Empire'

If you want to know more about American slavery and the political process leading up to our Civil War, I just finished Sean Wilentz's The Rise of American Democracy. I highly recommend it, despite its length. It's excellent. If the second story you mentioned is a captivity narrative, the most famous one in American history is written by Mary Rowlandson, although it's from a much earlier time period.

As long as we're talking about books, I'll mention that one of the most influential sets on the American West (and the first one is about captivity narratives) is the trilogy by Richard Slotkin: Regeneration Through Violence, The Fatal Environment, and Gunfighter Nation.

Those sound fantastic.

To be honest I found the political build up to the war a bit confusing. Quite a lot of the political terminology was new to me and I occasionally found myself thinking a person was on one side of the debate only to realise, a little while later, that they were on the other (it doesn't help that that is often the reality of what was happening.) I'm getting into it more now and following what's happening more clearly.

That trilogy appeals. It looks like it might be a challenge to get hold of a copy of one of the books but I enjoy tracking these things down.

Did I read the description correctly? Does it say that you'll be able to play multiplayer poker while in single player mode?

Advanced co-op is damn hard with two people. Especially on stage coaches with attacking enemies on horses.

That is all.

Rekindle the flame.

(Exclusive on roof of Rockstar Games New York)

Needs more galloping.

IMAGE(http://nerdnirvana.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/haters.jpg)

That's a really nicely produced video, and kinda made me want to fire 'er back up again. Mission accomplished Rockstar!

FWIW, Jose Gonzalez's Veneer is a very nice album. Bought it about five minutes after I saw this ad for the first time:

Just a nice, gentle, relaxing chunk of music.

IGN wrote:

Best Selling Games of 2010 So Far
Red Dead Redemption running away with it.
July 19, 2010

We've hit the halfway point of 2010, and it looks as though Rockstar Games' Red Dead Redemption is going to be the best selling game this year in the U.S. if things don't change dramatically.

Posted below are two groups of console game unit sales ranked from January 2010 to June 2010, provided by research firm NPD. The first is a look at the top ten individual console sales. The second is the top five sales when multiplatform games are combined. (Note: Unit sales figures could not be published)

Some things to note:

- Modern Warfare 2 is still outselling Bad Company 2, even though the title was released in November of 2009. Bad Company 2 launched in March 2010.

- Wii dominates individual sales with five titles in the top ten.

- Mass Effect 2, considered one of this year's best titles, did not chart in the top ten.

Top Ten Individual Platform Sales (Jan-Jun)

1. New Super Mario Bros. Wii - Wii
2. Pokemon SoulSilver Version - Nintendo DS
3. Red Dead Redemption - Xbox 360
4. God of War III - PlayStation 3
5. Wii Fit Plus w/Balance Board - Wii
6. Wii Sports Resort w/ Wii Motion Plus - Wii
7. Pokemon HeartGold Version - Nintendo DS
8. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - Xbox 360
9. Just Dance - Wii
10. Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Wii

Top Five Combined Platform Sales (Jan-Jun)

1. Red Dead Redemption (360,PS3)
2. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii)
3. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2* (360,PS3)
4. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (360,PS3)
5. Wii Fit Plus* (Wii)

* = Sales across all platforms and bundles, CE, GOTY editions etc.

Not sure why they're so confident that RDR is going to outsell Halo Reach or Call of Duty. It might, but it seems just as likely to me that it won't.

CptGlanton wrote:

Not sure why they're so confident that RDR is going to outsell Halo Reach or Call of Duty. It might, but it seems just as likely to me that it won't.

RDR is multi-platform, and Reach is 360 only. As for the new CoD, it's coming out in November, so there won't be enough time for it to sell that many units. Seems like RDR is probably safe.

And two Pokemon games in the top 10? It must be nice to be able to print money.

I could see Reach or CoD surpassing RDR. Look at how well Halo 3 sold, and look at MW2 still charting as #3 cross-platform in 2010 (a late 2009 release). Regardless, I thought it was interesting because before it was released it wasn't even on my radar, but I picked it up anyway and don't regret it one bit.

As for the top 10, there's 5 Wii games, 2 DS games, 2 360 games and 1 PS3 game. That's just crazy.

If RDR was on the Wii...

I want to do some coop with some reliable folks. I would like to beat the basic missions and move on to the advanced. Anyone want to team up tonight? I'll probably be on around 730 EST. Just send me a friend invite/message and we can get a party going.

FYI, it really sucks that coop missions end if everyone bails. Pubbies suck.

@Shoal07 - If you don't mind playing with someone who has yet to play an online game of RDR, I will send you an invite. Mine will probably not be until after my kids go to bed at about 8:30 or so, EST.