Red Dead Redemption is something that has quickly gone to the top of my must-have list. The weird thing is, I didn't see it coming at all. In hindsight, it makes perfect sense though. Despite what many people have said, I enjoyed GTA IV immensely and will be trying to get ahold of Liberty City Stories as soon as finals are over, and I'm done with the Reach Beta, and I play a lot of Red Dead Redemption. So in other words, I'll get to it eventually.
From what I've read, Red Dead Redemption's engine is based on the ones that powered GTA IV. Personally, I think this game looks a lot better. It's been a few years since GTA IV was released, so the engine has probably naturally progressed with the continued development on it. In addition to this, the Old (but not really since it's 1908) West is not a major metropolitan area. As a result, more detail can go into everything that is there. I also hope that there is a little bit less pop-in which doesn't seem like it'll be too hard to do.
Regardless of the graphics, the gameplay just seems like an expansion of GTA IV. It seems like there's still a vertical rise to the game that is now more integrated and functional than it ever was before. The old weapons don't really seem limiting at all because they don't keep to a very realistic **** I could have sworn that I saw somebody using an automatic shotgun at a decent range. These team battles could be great if done correctly. Although that can probably be said about any sort of multiplayer. The way multiplayer is setup, it seems like it could very well act as a mini MMORPG so I guess just a MORPG. While it seems to heavily encourage teamwork, it does say that you can choose to stay solo. While I would like to screw with people coming through a town, I could see that being annoying if people do it constantly. Sort of like what happened in GTA IV free-roam. I liken it to laser tag when after you shoot somebody they don't go anywhere and come back to life right next to you so you have to focus on them or else get shot. I'm looking forward to seeing how Rockstar has addressed this issue without making it so joining back up with your posse is a long journey if they choose to revive you a respectable distance away from where you were last killed.
In other news, episode 12 of The Black Couch is now up. We cover a lot of topics in our second full attempt at recording the podcast. Javier Harris guest stars this week again. Will he stay or will he go? We've had to stop using real songs as our intro and outro so we present you with the 2nd draft of our new theme song. Don't like it? Tell us what you think at mattsblackcouch@gmail.com
Episode 12 Timeline:
0:08-Intro
3:11-Halo Reach Beta Footage
14:30-Free MAG DLC
17:45-Las Cruces Olive Garden Opening
21:58-Walking
24:00-Tiger Woods '11 Mini-Golf
26:05-Sex With Ass
27:05-Videogame Primetime
29:25-PS3D Preparations
31:15-Kanye Sunglasses/Fashion
32:40-Dead Rising
35:15-Javier's Fish Phobia
36:34-Madden Cover
37:20-Cloud Mario Video
40:40-Further Red Dead Redemption Discussion
41:38-Dante's Inferno
43:00-Dante's Inferno Spoilers
43:40-XBOX Live Service Shutdown-Halo Holdouts
46:10-Sega shifting focus
46:40-Javier's iPad Impressions
50:30-Javier's B-Boy Career + Rap
54:00-What's Cookin
1:01:27-Javier's Outro
1:02:05-Callback
1:02:40-What We've Been Playing
1:04:(20-50)-Bioshock 2 Spoilers
1:06:45-May Games + TBC Future
Listen: HERE