Red Dead Redemption sat next to my keyboard all day yesterday, face down, and I frequently stole glances at the screens printed on the back. Soon, soon.
I wonder if this game will see the kind of post-release attention the new Grand Theft Auto did. Next month’s sees a free co-op mission pack hit, and I’m a position to savor it, but GTA4 essentially delivered full games as downloadable content. The countryside in this game just goes and goes, and goes and goes, and then goes some more. It’s beyond beautiful. At the rate we’re going, though, we’ll chew the middle out of the dedicated co-op content in a couple focused evenings. I can already tell we’ll need more in that vein, and badly.
Gabriel came up with a comic for Red Dead Redemption while he was awake at three o’clock in the a.m., ministering to his young man. The comic in question concerned a downloadable pegasus mount, which is already pretty sweet. For some reason, though, I kept thinking about two things. The first is the equine curve of a pearl handled revolver. The second is Six-Gun, the robot you can make out of the weapons that come with Metroplex.
I drew this on the board:
The jagged looking anomalies you see at its steel flank were intended to be wings, feathered with knives. They didn’t make the cut. Not a pun.
People, we’re fucked. Fucked! We’re literally F’d, though it’s only up the proverbial A, so we’ve got that going for us. But Red Dead Redemption, Prince of Persia, and Split/Second on the same day is some cosmic bullshit, particularly when I’m this close to finishng Lost Planet 2.
This is a game that needs to be batted back up into the air, reintroduced to the discussion. I’ve had experiences in Lost Planet 2 that put it very near the top of this year’s releases, though I don’t see why we should limit the scope to this year. Distinct and stylish, their characters are steeped in some bizarre, nanopunk aesthetic that is wholly their own. Beautiful cutscenes show your bad-ass quartet from the best possible angle. Then, you’re tasked with broad objectives in far-flung locales that satisfy night after night.
The Apparatus is returning a nebulous result on Lost Planet 2, but most of the things I’ve read about the game are irrelevant to me. I happen to like the weird stories in Japanese games, and hearing that a co-op game is best played in co-op ain’t exactly front page material. “We” have “said” for years that we want meaningful co-op experiences, but when they’re delivered to us, they must give an impeccable single-player performance as well?
Here’s what I do know. Out of nowhere, this supposed “shooter” became a bizarre puzzle game in the middle of the desert, where my friends and I had to learn to crew a massive, train-driven deck gun. We failed our first attempt, but in the best possible way - considering the problem for days, until reuniting to claim victory.
It has grand ideas, and longs to show you them. No, it’s not perfect. How could it be? This is how the future happens, sometimes; it comes in fits and starts.
(CW)TB out.
