Red Dead Redemption Catch-all

Ballotechnic wrote:

Hrmmmm. Did not know about the Unicorn.

I got bored with the last GTA as well, but not RDR. I loved GTA San Andreas so much more, I thought it had a much better sense of humor as well as some ridiculously odd and fun missions.

That's just the thing. I don't hate GTA games as a rule. Far from it. I loved San Andreas and I played Vice City for more hours than I care to count. I just found GTA IV lacking because the toys weren't interesting to me and the story wasn't to my liking. Vice City is up there amongst my favorite games ever.

Secret Asian Man wrote:
Aaron D. wrote:
Spoiler:

That was the first gaming Kleenex moment I've had in a while.

Spoiler:

I decided to finish the job. I'm probably not a good person

Spoiler:

Yeah, that sounds about right. :p

Do we hand out prizes for double posts?

P-P-P-P-Page breaker!

Update: Aaron D. fixed the page. This now seems out of context.

/awkward silence

Double XP until 2011! Who is up for some zombie multiplayer this weekend?

While watching TRUE GRIT yesterday, I realized that I would give quite a bit of cash to be able to play a TG game using the RDR engine. Rooster & John Marston FTW.

SallyNasty wrote:

Double XP until 2011! Who is up for some zombie multiplayer this weekend?

I'm on the road until Monday, but after that I'd be interested in some multiplayer.

SommerMatt wrote:

While watching TRUE GRIT yesterday, I realized that I would give quite a bit of cash to be able to play a TG game using the RDR engine. Rooster & John Marston FTW.

You could have minigames for rolling cigarettes and fixing bitten tongues.

CptGlanton wrote:
SommerMatt wrote:

While watching TRUE GRIT yesterday, I realized that I would give quite a bit of cash to be able to play a TG game using the RDR engine. Rooster & John Marston FTW.

You could have minigames for rolling cigarettes and fixing bitten tongues.

Mattie Ross would kick Marston Junior's ass.

I thought her character--and that actress's portrayal of her--were both wonderful. Together, they highlight just how far Rockstar has to go in their 'cinema games' genre.

Was the Coen brother's True Grit good?

I watched 'All the pretty horses' yesterday. It wasn't exactly full of christmas cheer but I enjoyed it.

True Grit is about 100 times better than the film version of ATPH. If you are just starting out in the genre, the Coens' No Country for Old Men is a lot better than ATPH, too--and both are Cormac McCarthy novels.

CptGlanton wrote:

True Grit is about 100 times better than the film version of ATPH. If you are just starting out in the genre, the Coens' No Country for Old Men is a lot better than ATPH, too--and both are Cormac McCarthy novels.

I may have to try Cormac McCarthy. I enjoyed No Country for Old Men.

Higgledy wrote:
CptGlanton wrote:

True Grit is about 100 times better than the film version of ATPH. If you are just starting out in the genre, the Coens' No Country for Old Men is a lot better than ATPH, too--and both are Cormac McCarthy novels.

I may have to try Cormac McCarthy. I enjoyed No Country for Old Men.

In that case: Blood Meridian. It will blow your mind. I think it's the best American novel of the last 50 years. Brutal.

Hangdog is correct--I think that McCarthy is probably the best American novelist since Faulkner. I'm not sure that I'd start with Blood Meridian, though (which is his best novel; I think that the last paragraph of that book might be the best thing I've ever read). Maybe read NCfOM, then The Crossing, then Blood Meridian. They're all Westerns, but in terms of stylistic and thematic accessibility, they go from middle school to high school to college.

CptGlanton wrote:

Hangdog is correct--I think that McCarthy is probably the best American novelist since Faulkner. I'm not sure that I'd start with Blood Meridian, though (which is his best novel; I think that the last paragraph of that book might be the best thing I've ever read). Maybe read NCfOM, then The Crossing, then Blood Meridian. They're all Westerns, but in terms of stylistic and thematic accessibility, they go from middle school to high school to college.

Excellent. Thanks. I'll give them a go.

If anyone's up for some MP tonight or tomorrow, i'm down.

What to do now? I finished Undead Nightmare. I still love the picturesque world and running around multiplayer as Abigail almost has a certain appeal, but after 20 minutes or so in that space I get the sense there's nothing really going on, no "there" there, just aggro horsemen who want to burn me alive, even on the Friendly servers. Time to move on?

Slumberland wrote:

What to do now? I finished Undead Nightmare. I still love the picturesque world and running around multiplayer as Abigail almost has a certain appeal, but after 20 minutes or so in that space I get the sense there's nothing really going on, no "there" there, just aggro horsemen who want to burn me alive, even on the Friendly servers. Time to move on?

Time to move on, I'm afraid. Sure was good while it lasted, though.

trueheart78 wrote:
Slumberland wrote:

What to do now? I finished Undead Nightmare. I still love the picturesque world and running around multiplayer as Abigail almost has a certain appeal, but after 20 minutes or so in that space I get the sense there's nothing really going on, no "there" there, just aggro horsemen who want to burn me alive, even on the Friendly servers. Time to move on?

Time to move on, I'm afraid. Sure was good while it lasted, though.

I went to this (not the thread, the game).

Well, I managed to borrow Red Dead off a friends son so I can stop pretending I didn't want to play Undead Nightmare. I lent him Assassin's Creed, Half Life Orange Box and Crackdown in exchange. He didn't have any of them which simulataneously made me sad and made me happy to be able to offer such a bounty of gaming goodness. Unfortunately his 360 is in the living room and, from what he had in his game collection, I sense his parents restrict the games he can play on grounds of the violence involved. I may have to warn him to only visit Ravenholm when they're out.

As far as Red Dead is concerned I'm not sure how far he got with the game. I cringe to think that his parents might have been around when he arrived at a certain scene in Mexico involving casual, yet enthusiastic, copulation.

Viva Mexico!

"Laura?"

I spent about three nights running around in online multiplayer (sort of fun, but felt like spinning my wheels) and then finally worked up the gumption to seal it up and drop it in the UPS box en route to $24.75 in credit from Amazon. For a game whose middle I basically hated (Mexico and all that) I don't know I've ever been so attached to a game world. Hell, when Gamefly starts selling used copies for eight bucks, I might even re-enlist. Just trotting up to the edge of a cliff on horseback does something to me.

I found myself wanting to stick around after getting 100% in the singleplayer-- the world is awesome, I was kind of sad to be totally finished with it.

The game itself, though, while fun, fell short for me in the same way the GTA games always do-- they start off with an interesting premise, or at least an interesting take on an old story, then relegate that story to a cheap set up for more gratuitous violence. On top of that, this game set up the moral choices much better than any GTA game before (ie, there are actual consequences to your actions in the game world aside from getting cops to chase you); then, like GTA, they do nothing more with it, and eschew the hard work a player went through to gain complete honor and fame for the sake of a generic, violent story. I'm all for a depressing story of the anti-hero trying to make amends, but the way Rockstar always deals with that story (every GTA game they've ever made, basically) always ends up rather juvenile. I'd like to get Undead Nightmare at some point before I hand the game back to Secret Asian Man, but the wife was getting tired of coming home to me playing the game, so I'll be holding off for a while. I'll probably also try to pick this one up when Gamefly has it at a reasonable sale price, so I don't keep Secret's copy forever

Undead Nightmare is so worth it, I thought. The sort of videogame-emptiness that an open world like this always seems to have lends itself well to a post-apocalypse, and trying to determine on some foggy trail if that far off movement is a zombie or merely a shrub blowing in the wind is an experience I've never had in games before, thanks to the unique coupling of genre and setting.

Undead Nightmare is very atmospheric at times.

I really enjoyed (if enjoyed is the right word) riding through Tall Trees in the semi-darkness, accompanied by unsettling music and a constant fear of undead bear attack. Spotting female zombies in amongst the trees, with their neat white dresses and ruined faces, was just creepy.

As you say Slumberland, the open world nature of the game adds to the feeling that you are seeing a whole world go to hell.

I wasn't sold on the DLC at first. I realised a while ago that I hate sluggish aiming when combined with a need for head shots. Fortunately I found a great technique that helps. You take aim at a zombie, hit Dead Eye for a second, line up on the head and then shoot. It works like a charm and doesn't use too much Dead Eye.

I don't like the undead horses but I think there is a lot of potential in the way they steer themselves for a second or two. If it was toned down quite a bit (so they didn't steer you off bridges and into the water (grrrrr)) I think it could be used on normal horses to give the feeling that you are riding a living animal.

Higgledy wrote:

I don't like the undead horses but I think there is a lot of potential in the way they steer themselves for a second or two. If it was toned down quite a bit (so they didn't steer you off bridges and into the water (grrrrr)) I think it could be used on normal horses to give the feeling that you are riding a living animal.

It's funny-- I always ride with the analog stick pressed "up" and never even noticed the zombie horse veering issue. My biggest gripe re: horses is the sort of idiotic way they did the four horses of the apocalypse. I got "War" after only about 45 minutes of play, but then managed to ride him off a cliff before getting a chance to hitch. Had to wait until the entire game was over to be able to get him again.

SommerMatt wrote:

It's funny-- I always ride with the analog stick pressed "up" and never even noticed the zombie horse veering issue. My biggest gripe re: horses is the sort of idiotic way they did the four horses of the apocalypse. I got "War" after only about 45 minutes of play, but then managed to ride him off a cliff before getting a chance to hitch. Had to wait until the entire game was over to be able to get him again.

I had a similar thing. I'm almost 100% positive that I did hitch War while resting up but then, while I was freeing a settlement, he 'buggered off' (technical equestrian term) mid fight and never came back. I really want an ordinary horse to ride on but the only means of doing that seems to be to shoot innocent passers by.

I don't do a lot of looting bodies but, if I'm in the mood I will do one or two. My favourite random comment so far is, "I think I looted you the first time you died."