Red Dead Redemption "eyes on". Get fucking pumped

[The Sceneman]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/blogs/game-junkie/2810735/Red-Dead-Redemption-eyes-on



Sounds amazing, like Fallout 3 mixed with Saints Row in a wild west setting. Cant wait for this!

(sorry if similar stuff has already been posted)

[chronovore]

Good grief, just the description you gave is giving me gamerwood.

[Bebpo]

Every single game nowadays tries to be the next Fallout it seems. Bethesda hit the jackpot with Fallout 3.

Maybe they'll figure out how to make Fallout 3's gametype fun, like how SR2 and Crackdown and Infamous made GTAIV's gametype fun.

[fistfulofmetal]

i can't get the link to load. post the article here plz

[Himu]

Every single game nowadays tries to be the next Fallout it seems. Bethesda hit the jackpot with Fallout 3.

Maybe they'll figure out how to make Fallout 3's gametype fun, like how SR2 and Crackdown and Infamous made GTAIV's gametype fun.

burn

[The Sceneman]

While I'm still not allowed to say anything about Beaterator and The Ballad of Gay Tony yet, I can talk about Red Dead Redemption, so here are my impressions after getting a look at it earlier this week.

Red Dead Redemption is almost a western-themed GTAIV. It has that same ambition about it.

Remove the leather chaps, Stetson hat and gunslinger's belt from the game's star, James Marston, and exchange the wide open spaces of the Frontier, the North and Mexico for a chaotic urban metropolis, and you'd almost have GTAIV's Niko Belic and Liberty City. Both of them lone souls trying to make their lives better in the big, bad world and stay alive at the same time.

For a games company with as high a profile as Rockstar ,not much has been heard about Red Dead Redemption since it was first hinted at during a tech demo in 2005 that showcased the company's RAGE graphics engine, first put to use in Rockstar Presents Table Tennis.

Set around 50 years after the PlayStation 2 game Red Dead Revolver, Redemption is described by Rockstar as an open-world Western game in a similar vein to the great Hollywood western movies like The Wild Bunch and Unforgiven.

But one thing is clear, Rockstar is adamant Red Dead Redemption is ''more ambitious than GTAIV'' and while the story is similar in length to that of GTAIV, the size of the game world is said to dwarf Rockstar's last game.

Wild West shooters are few and far between - and for good reason. There's one major stumbling block for a game based in an environment where the buffalo roam and the deer and the antelope play: the wide open spaces that stretch for miles and miles and miles. How can you have an action game when the nearest town is miles away and the only other inhabitants in the sprawling desert wilderness are wildlife, cactus bushes and buzzards flying overhead?

You create random events, that's how. But more on that later.

reddeadOur session begins with a Rockstar employee guiding Marston into the sleepy hovel of Tumbleweed where he has to trade a hostage for the life of family friend Bonnie, who is about to be lynched. But first, the Rockstar handler manning the controller pans the camera around Marston: you can see the wrinkled fabric on his vest, the stirrups on his dusty boots, and the bullets attached to his belt. Marston is a partly reformed outlaw but after being given an ultimatum he can't refuse is forced to work for The Bureau (what will eventually become the FBI).

As you'd expect, it all turns pear-shaped and Marston has to despatch the kidnappers and save Bonnie. It's here that I see the game's Dead Eye mode put to good effect. It's a targeting system that slows down time, giving you the ability to ''paint'' up to six targets at once then despatch them in a flurry of super-fast shots once you flick back into real-time. It's impressive on foot but even more so when it's done on horseback.

Once Marston cuts the noose from around Bonnie's neck, it's time for Rockstar to show us another important feature of the game: the horses. Think of horses as like the vehicles in GTAIV, except they can bolt, leaving their owner stranded.

Rockstar says that great pains have been taken in making the horses as realistic as possible. Each horse has its own ''brain'' and reacts to events thanks to the game's Euphoria physics engine.

Marston heads out to ride to the town of Armadillo and it's here that I see the random events that Rockstar were talking about earlier. Word is that because the events are random, something that happens in one game won't necessarily happen in another.

Case in point? As Marston trots through the desert, a cougar suddenly appears out of nowhere, nipping at the hindquarters of our horse, causing it to rear up a little. The Rockstar employee manning the Xbox 360 controller appears genuinely surprised that it had happened. You'll also come across campsites, bears, rabbits and snakes.

At another point, I see a lone figure running through the scrub, being pursued by two gun-wielding men. Shots are fired and the man collapses to the ground. It turns out that the pursuers were sheriffs trying to catch a wayward fugitive.

reddeadblogFurther along the dusty trail there's a scantily clad woman (well, by Wild West standards) standing beside a broken-down cart, waving her arms frantically and calling for help. Do we stop and help, or continue? As Marston rides by, I see five men brandishing pistols hiding behind the cart, waiting in ambush. As Marston rides into Armadillo, a group of men on horseback are dragging a hapless man behind them. Consequence and notoriety play a big part in the game, affected by whether you get involved in any of the events you pass.

Once in Armadillo I see one of  the mini-games that will vary the game play. Five Finger Fillet, a game involving quick reflexes and a sharp knife,  reminds me of that scene early in the movie Aliens where Bishop does the speedy knife trick using Hudson's hand. No doubt there will also be drinking and card games in the many saloons that will dot the game's towns.

The demo ends with Marston having to provide armed support for a train leaving Armadillo. It's here that we see the Dead Eye targeting system put to effective use again.

While I only saw a small portion of Red Dead Redemption, it was a most impressive visit to the Frontier. Come early next year, when Red Dead Redemption is released, I'll be ready to saddle up, load up the six-shooter and take on them varmints.

[Human Snorenado]

Every single game nowadays tries to be the next Fallout it seems. Bethesda hit the jackpot with Fallout 3.

Maybe they'll figure out how to make Fallout 3's gametype fun, like how SR2 and Crackdown and Infamous made GTAIV's gametype fun.

It's kind of hard to take seriously criticism of the best game to come out in years from someone who gets moist at the release of any generic jrpg.

[Himu]

I loved Fallout 3 and I fail to see how it's the best game to come out in years especially with better games like Portal out there.

[Human Snorenado]

I loved Fallout 3 and I fail to see how it's the best game to come out in years especially with better games like Portal out there.

It's kind of hard to take seriously the opinion of a known felon.

...seriously, Portal was fun and all but it got old after maybe 20 hours of gameplay for me, whereas I sunk easily more than 100 hours into Fallout 3 and have yet to play any of the expansions.