Seeing as Red Dead Redemption 2 has officially been announced to the masses, albeit with no idea what the game is about (John Marston's name is not even mentioned), I thought I’d voice some thoughts. While I wholeheartedly enjoyed both Red Dead Revolver and Red Dead Redemption, I am worried by Red Dead Redemption 2. Aside from hype, which apparently can’t be stopped, seeing as the collective internet ethos freaked the hell out, let me explain why it’s important to be cautious with something like this.

The release of the original _ Red Dead Redemption _ in 2010, along with the _ Undead Nightmare _ expansion, left players wanting more of everything. More shootouts and saloon fights. More eccentric and wily characters. More riding horseback through the vast, Open world games news world of the western frontier. And while it was a long eight years, Rockstar made sure that the wait was well worth it – albeit not without some controversy . _ Red Dead Redemption 2 _ immerses players in the grueling world of the wild west with familiar gameplay dynamics that have been taken to the next level to not only make _ Red Dead Redemption 2 _ an easy favorite for game of the year, but also Rockstar’s crowning achievement to d

Red Dead Redemption 2 brings with it new realistic gameplay mechanics for maintaining Arthur’s well-being. Failing to eat for a few hours results in Arthur becoming hungry and sluggish. Horses must be groomed and cared for in order to be most effective for speed and travel. While this sim-style element might seem like a chore, it ultimately aids in pulling players into the world and grounding their experience with a sense of real

Now, reading the title of this entry, you might not think that getting flowers for a dead woman is revolting per se; leaving flowers on graves and memorials is a common and loving thing to do. But, John quickly finds out that the man’s wife isn’t dead and buried — she’s just dead. And sitting in a rocking chair in the corner of the god damn kitchen. While this could be seen as a testament to the man’s unyielding love for his wife, I believe it falls into the realm of frontier madness. And even if it is all in the name of love, it is still revolting to have a rotting corpse propped up in your ho

In the town of Blackwater, John encounters a sobbing pregnant woman who’s praying at a church. She asks him to go to the child’s father to ask him for money so she can have a better life for her and her child. When John finds the father, who (surprise!) is a total asshole, he challenges John to a standoff for insulting his honor. John guns him down, loots his body for cash, and heads back to the sobbing mot

Red Dead Redemption is one of the best video games ever made. It's not up for debate. Rockstar took the wildly successful Grand Theft Auto open-world formula, threw it in the tumultuous Wild West, and made the story more engaging than "drive here, shoot them, drive back." Some may still dismiss it as GTA with horses, but they are dreadfully wr

The Red Dead franchise succeeds because it's playing into the most American fantasies of what the Wild West was, while keeping it grounded. It was a time were America was still getting its footing as a new nation. Things were being discovered by a people who had largely still never seen most of what the land had to offer, thus appropriately titled, the Wild West. It seemed like a hellish dreamscape where those from the east coast talked of savages and wild beast, men who idealized the same sort of lawlessness discussed among certain circles. Yet, it was none of these things, for a people having just arrived to a nation, it was much tamer than one might imagine. Instead, it was a place not overly populated and begging for people to settle its lands (I hope we see Natives in this game). The west was a place of opportunity and discovery, somewhere one could make their mark in a relatively easy way (for the time).

Whistling for your horse carries a litany of problems. For example, the distance it can hear it in isn’t that great. Even when you do whistle, within distance, it takes forever for your steed to trot to you even when you have a good relationship. It’s weird in games where you turn around and your horse is there like in The Witcher 3 , but as ridiculous as that is I would much prefer that silliness to this. Thankfully there are cheat

The game has a weird dichotomy when it comes to making Arthur seem like a bad man. Even when he does good deeds he always says something along the lines of he isn't a very good guy. Despite that, he constantly does good things. There's the morality meter too. Here you are, at the height of the Van der Linde gang, a bad guy through and through, and yet the game sort of pigeonholes you into doing virtuous deeds. It sends a mixed mess

Red Dead Redemption 2 will release for PS4 and Xbox One on October 26th, 2018. If you have yet to pick up a copy of the game, you can do that right now over on Amazon before it releases later this month.