GAME DAY: RED DEAD REDEMPTION

If you noticed, my bloghopping's a bit limited this past few days. Most of you already know the reason for this. But if you're unsure, let me tell you... I'm playing Red Dead Redemption!!! (If you guess another answer, you're probably correct there as well).

So anyway, I purchased this title last week. I was supposed to buy Alan Wake, but the store where I usually buy Xbox games from, they didn't save me a copy of the title when I requested to have one copy reserved for me. I'm not buying from that place anymore.

Anyway, to compensate for my disappointment in not having to buy the title I really really wanted, I bought this. I wasn't really interested in it, as westerns don't pique my interest. But when I went to Data Blitz, everyone there was lining up to buy that title. So I thought to myself, what the heck.

I had only limited playthrough of this game over the weekend due to some fortunate events that happened last Sunday. But what I did play though was enough to get me hooked on this title for the next few weeks, or until a copy of Alan Wake becomes available.

This was a great game. In the same vein as Grand Theft Auto IV. A sandbox game set in the wild west where instead of stealing cars, you steal carriages, and horses.

Players play as John Marston, an ex-convict/ former outlaw being blackmailed by the government to stop his former group. I haven't gotten to the really meaty parts of the story yet so I don't have that much to say about the story.

Anyway, the game is actually really good. Some of the story arcs are engaging. What do you expect? It came from the same people who created my most favorite video game ever. The gameplay is somewhat similar if you're familiar with the GTA series. And the world of Red Dead Redemption is really HUGE!!! And there are tons to do. You can save a lady from being raped, you can go hawk, rabbit, horse, cow and bandit hunting. You can be a nightwatch guard. You can go find wild horses to tame, or just pick flowers for an old man's rotting corpse of a wife. There's also those random gun duelling ala The Quick and the Dead. And also, there's one crazy cannibal loose in the middle of the desert killing innocent people. No fifteen minutes will pass without you doing anything.
But if you get tired of doing missions, you can get on your horse find a high spot and marvel at the vast expanse of the games world.

I actually love the game. The only problem I have is that in the beginning of the game, there were alot of glitches. I mean the second town I visited, I was surprised that I'm only seeing a white screen. Some parts also hang. And load times are sometimes very long. Made me doubt that I actually bought the original title or a pirated game. But apparently everyone who bought this have the same problem.

But those glitches aside, the game is very addictive. Had I more free time, I would probably have a better review of the game. But regardless, the bottomline is, Red Dead Redemption is a great open world game that is both engaging and fun.

This is for people who want to know how it feels like to be a cowboy.

RATING: 8.5 OUT OF 10 STARS