Red Dead Redemption (Sony Playstation 3, 2010)

The depth and scope of this game is second to none. It's essentially grand theft auto for the first decade of the 20th Century. The Old West was dying and rapid Westward expansion brought with it civilized behavior and organized law enforcement. BORING! You take the reins (literally) as John Marston, a former outlaw turned family man who is being blackmailed by some Feds to take out one of his former partners, Bill Williamson (must've been at least a few meetings to get than name figured out). You'll have to get your hands dirty, and though Marston will tell those he meets how resistant he is to hurt others, his actions don't seem in line with his statements. Good thing too. If you're a fan of the original game, Red Dead Revolver for the last-gen systems, you won't have any difficulty making the transition. The game's basic structure is similar, but the scope has increased tenfold. The only knock I can come up with right now (and I'm probably only 15-20% through the game) is the amount of time you spend riding from mission to mission on horseback. There's no motorcycles or sports cars to be found here (though I'm hoping to happen on a "horseless carriage" at some point) so it takes a lot to travel through to the various settlements that are nice and spread out. The game includes a few ways to make money on wagers like horeshoes and, my fave, Texas Hold 'Em, or you could always pick up a Wanted sign and go after some bounties. Gooood times! This game is freakin' AWESOME. Buy it now, just don't spend more than 35, that's about the max value right now due to its age and supply. Enjoy!

RDR is Wild Wild west meets Grand Thief Auto. The game has the same freedom style in it, do whatever you want, plenty of action, plenty of stranger side quests and you can hunt, collect flowers, buy/sell stuff, go on bounties, play Liar's Dice, Poker, Black Jack, arm wrestle etc. The main storyline is pretty long and even after that is complete there are many other things you can do, especially if you want 100% game completion (I'm at about 95 & and I been playing for weeks.)

General List of Things to do include:

Number of Main Missions: 57
Jobs: Horsebreaking & Night Watch (catch bad guys) at 6 loctions
Houses for purchase: 13
Rentals: 2
Mini Games: Poker, Black Jack, Arm Wrestling, Liar's Dice, Horse Shoes, 5 Finger Fillet
Main Gang Hideut Missions: 8
Stranger Missions: 19
Survivalist Challenges: 10 (flower collecting)
Hunting Challenges:10
Sharpshooter Challenges: 10
Treasure Challenge Loctions: 9
Rare Weapons: 5
Bounties: 37
Outfits to Purchase/Unlock: 13 or so
Maps/Locations to Collect/dicover: 94
Weapons in the Game: 7 Pistols, 3 Projectiles (Dynamite, Fire Bottles and Throwing Knives), 7 Rifles, 4 Shotguns, 2 Sniper Rifles, Laso
Animals in the Game (general count, not including the different kinds/breeds): 39 (roughy)
Hard Trophies/Achievements: 6 Catgories

As you can see there is more than plently to do so you can't say there isn't enough to do! There are a few things I didn't mention in the list but thats most of it.

Overall, I think this is one of the best games ever, if you are a GTA then you will most likely be a fan of this too. This game is made by the same creators of GTA so the controls/gameplay is very similar from GTA.

Only cons in my opinion is the horseriding, it takes a long time to get to far locations, so for those I use a coach (taxi). Sometimes the loading pages take a bit to load.

My ratings

Gameplay: 10/10
Graphics: 10/10
Sound: 10/10
Replay Value: 9.5/10
Freedom: 10/10
Storyline: 9.5/10 (I didn't like the ending much).

Overall like I said, Excellent game!!!!

Hope this helps you.

This game puts you right in the middle of the wild west. You play as john marston, an ex-outlaw who is working with the givernment on a mission to find the men who he used to run with in exchange for his family's freedom.. The story is great because he is still an outlaw at heart so he is constantly fighting the urge to go back to his old ways but big brother always seems to be one step ahead of him... let's just say that this leads to.quite an exciting finale..
Gameplay is similar to Grand Theft Auto.. (only with horses and wagons, not cars and trucks). There are many side quests which are fun and challenging. You can easily get lost on side quests for hours on end.
Graphics are amazing and among the best to be seen on the next Gen consoles to date.
Watching a sandstorm blow through the landscape as the sun sets is quite awe inspiring.
The sound is right on par with The visuals. Everything from the heros gritty footsteps in the sand to the recoil of a bolt action rifle creates a totally convincing environment.

This is a good game, but it was over hyped for no reason. They talked about the massive free roam area, but it felt too small. The story is very short, just requires a lot of running around. Online I have a hard time getting people to join for the co-op missions they released, mic seems to drop randomly on this game only. I think the game came out everyone beat it, then stopped playing. It does not have much replay value, but one I plan to keep in my collection. I find the Uncharted games worth more than RDR's still over priced tag. I do have some more trophies to get from online play, but only missing 1 from single player story mode now. I may put it in maybe once a month when Sony has a day for playing.

I found many glitches with the game even though the credits showed tons of play testers. It seems that Testers do very little work on just assuring the game works. They need a better team to find the below glitches.

# Sometimes while playing Poker, the other people would loose all facial features and be blurred objects, then it would go back to normal. This occured after beating the game, but I didn't play many side quests first.
# The people never layed correctly in beds. It didn't affect game play, but when I went into a room the guy is just floating at a strange angle above the bed. Sometimes I would see this of random people found out in the wild as well walking above the ground.
# Sometimes I would get stuck in a wall or in an area that I should not have been able to get to (stuck between a house and wall with no where to climb out.
# Certain areas I found I could harvest the same location infinite times. The flower patch would appear (harvest) then disappear, then reappear for harvesting again.

Over all I think Rockstar should have spent more time in planning and development to make this title a hit seller like GTA series. The companies that go from making good games to rushing new titles are the ones that start to lose reputation. Look at Square Enix, they are buying out too many game titles and the games turn out bad which makes me check over a SE game than just buy it anymore.

Red Dead Redemption was one of the must play console titles according to reviews when it released. Then I found a good deal on ebay and decided to buy the title. Its worth every penny of it.

Developed by Rockstar, the same people who developed GTA, this game sets the bar high for sandbox games. It has many similarities to the old GTA games, but make no mistake, this is not a GTA clone in a different setting. The gameplay is more deep and satisfying. The missions are quite varying and interesting which makes the game fresh. There is no repetitiveness. Even when you travel along the vast expanse of the wild American west, you don't feel bored because strangers would occasionally pop-up and give you side quests and small challenges. The story it self is quite good and the character development is excellent in my opinion.

I have bought the PS3 version and the GFX in that looks amazing. There are some scaling issue since I have a 1080p monitor (the game is rendering in 720p), where I convert the HDMI signal to DVI.Even then the graphics look amazing. Rockstar really immerses you in the lawless west with its environment. Also the lighting effects should be specially mentioned since they are simply awesome.

Voice acting and ambient sounds are also top notch.

In short RDR is a must have console title and there are tons of content to keep you playing for a long time.