Hook, i know you are not the greatest fan of GTAIV with its dating and slow progress, but you REALLY should consider getting Red Dead Redemption.
Well, you would have had better luck selling it to me by not mentioning GTAIV.
;D I've tried convincing myself to give that game another chance, finally forgive its faults and put at least 20 hours into it. But I can't. Not when I can't even stand its main protagonist. That alone is a big deal for me. It says a lot about the overall quality of a game like MGS2: Sons of Liberty, when I can enjoy it, hell, really like it, laugh and have fun, get tense, get involved (even if I and most of the characters don't know what's happening half the time and just when I think I know, the big honcho Solidus' grand master plan is revealed as a ruse by OceLiquiwhatever and I'm confused all over again, specially after I had to fight a whole bunch of Metal Gears that hilariously resembled plucked chickens taken directly from the freezers in the meat aisle of the local supermarket), and leaving me wanting and craving for more (of the same cool experience), to the point of almost replaying it right as the last credit and "secret convo" pass by... when its
main character is a whiny bitch, pathetically in love with an airhead girlfriend he's barely spent any time with (but is actually an airhead spy playing an airhead girlfriend... slash corrupted computer program) yet he
knows was duping him the whole time. Seriously, how many times did I get all upset after dying just because I wasn't the one given the privilege of choking Raiden myself? Man up, dude!
Anyway, I'm told GTAIV gets better once you leave your end of the city and go North... which you have to do by taking the subway.
Whose idea was it to grab a sandbox game, the brand that made it popular and fun, no less, and put gamers in control of a world that looks and acts almost as real life, but it's even more boring? And spending just a few minutes with Mr. Niko Bellic releases that side of me that is most forgiving, full of remorse and regret, making me want to come up to Raiden, look him straight into those teary, guerrilla-childlike eyes, and say: "I'm sorry, Raiden. I am so sorry. I owe you my apologies. I would hug you right now, but I know you want to be with Rose, if that's her real name, right now. It's Presidents Day (I think), the day of your phony anniversary. Go to her. Go be with her. I will wait. I will wait for you, right here *points to heart* right here."
Agh! Enough pointless ranting. On the sandbox side, you made it all right by reacquainting me with it through Saint's Row, so no probs, General. That and other games in the genre have made it all cool between us. Also, in case you guys give a damn, after playing Raiden for 30 hours (how long
was that game? didn't feel it, to be honest), with MGS3 right next to me, yearning to be given a chance, I had extremely high hopes for a game starring the original Snake DNA, Naked Snake (aka Big Boss, the manliest, best soldier to have ever lived). Surely, it could never fulfill them. Well, it did. And hard. I was crying for my hero and my hero's hero, during the game's ending sequence (cued to Crimson Tide's 56th alternate theme). To this day, MGS3 remains one of my favorites. Sure, Snake's brute manliness (and he's supposed to start out as a rookie who wusses out in front of his mentor! and he's made fun of by the developers by giving him an alter ego of sorts that pops up from time to time to say "Bond, James Bond") played a great part in my enjoyment, but that game is great: took the best of its predecessors, developed that further and added all these extra elements that were equally awesome. I don't want to see what other sandbox games took from GTAIV by playing that game cuz I wonder if I'll just be disillusioned all over again and stop liking the genre on the whole. That game's dangerous.
GTAIV's multiplayer is laggy? I wouldn't know, I couldn't get past the official how-to videos and the annexed strategy guides in order to play it. Burn!(?)
Ok, ok, for real now (I admit I always wanted to comment on my hard-on for MGS3 but never quite figured how to introduce the topic here, so I'm sorry for derailing your post).
*goes to website, declares to be of wrong but more than enough age even though he already meets that specific criterion, wonders why brothels and machine guns instructors weren't as gullible as javascript is back when he was still in his teens, ends this sentence because the joke's ran out of fuel..... wonders how many people on the internet were born January 1st*Ok, this game looks really cool. It shows a lot of potential. If done right, I can see planning a good time with the guys, out hunting, going to town for supplies, and then BAM! another gang runs into you, and then another, and then two more. And the action gets heavy and claustrophobic, all RE4's village opener, and BAM! getting kicked out of the server for no reason.
Ok, that was first video.
*second video loading...*I hope they don't introduce a Na'vi and a robosuited Marine for no reason. Or... I hope they do!? Confusing the hell out of the community would be fun with hidden tokens like these I imagine (they put a bunch in the GTA games, anyway). If they try to keep this fun, don't inject the 3:10 to Yuma storyline just because the writers are going way over their heads again and add touching, human stories to the game. I do not want to babysit cattle because one of my kids is so sick he can only stand the weather in the desert. Ack! I hope they don't make it real, but real fun.
I may be wrong, but it looks like they're pulling a sneak-attack on players with the new content they're promising. It looks like posses will set the rules. I don't care if this is all a scheme to get players to buy more and more DMC, as long as they don't mess with my one-man operation.
Uh-oh, this guy's narrating a bit too much about "decadence" and the town "losing its innocence". He's getting a tad preachy. If I, indeed as I plan to, want to walk away from a carriage covered in flames about to hit a Mexican Church, I don't want no somber music or mini-video looking over my character in contempt. I want it to be hilarious. That's why I'm playing.
Hope the stuff in vid 3, life in the west, can be easily skipped. I'm tired of walking into mobs of people willing to share their life's stories with me. And if I do have to go through any of them to accomplish some unrelated, greedy and selfish goal, make it as excruciating as possible, knowing full well they're (developers) annoying me to no end but keep pushing me to shame myself because otherwise I won't get access to the secret hideout I want to dirty all up when unoccupied, just so that I'm referred to as the legend of the "Americano del Pañal en la Cabeza" (oh, google it).
I'm not into any of these chicks. How about a lovable, Renee Zellweger type of blond, we fool around a bit, nothing too fancy but not too innocent either, have a few laughs, part ways, a few days go by, and just as I'm heading for the barn where I secretly hide my stash while the owner thinks he's doing me a favor, letting me work for him because I've convinced him that I'm not very samrt, and BAM! there's Renee Zellweger leading her posse (of men, not women, the lesbo-feminist clan is way too old a stereotype to be using nowadays) cleaning me of my possessions! WTF? I stole that, I own it! Then she sweet talks me and says she's about to do me a favor. *kisses, points gun at the joint's owner, standing in shock, covered in those 1800s pajamas with the convenient opening in the back but his is wide open because he can't chance it, what with his chronic case of the runs, and boom! headshot* "Buh-bye! Mwack!" Now I own the place! Gotta do accounting for it. Do lines at the merchants' bank (she stole my stuff, I need some money)... get bored... and BAM! bank robbery from crazy gang from out of town. I ask if, by saving the crazy leader's son from da poe-leese, I can join'em. Say yes, they crazy! Run along. Heck yeah.
The law seems so boring. Typical, corrupt bunch with a badge. Boring. Why can't they come up with better. It's a game, people. Here's an idea: I'm talking to this guy and he seems like a really nice fella. He's all dressed up, too. For some reason I can't make out, his attention is suddenly turned away from me. But he's so polite, he excuses himself (without saying why)... perfect time for some petty thieving. Then the mayor comes out of a meeting and *bang, bang, bang, bang, bang* he's shot by a whole bunch of dudes, including the one I'm trying to steal from. They all leave on horses and, after the dust settles, all that's left is me staring at the bloodied corpse of the honest mayor. I'm wrongfully accused of the 37 bullet holes adorning the mayor's body. My reputation as a straight-shooter precedes me, after all. I'm thrown into jail and get to meet the sheriff, but only snippets at a time. Meanwhile, as the day of my hanging comes closer, I'm sent to the outside to work, chain-linked to other inmates, doing all these minigames in the glaring sun (think Bully's "classes").
In my final week as an outlaw, I sit alone in my prison cell, all other cells in the place now empty, the sheriff comes over to mine and starts conversing with me, even though I resort to mere nods of approval or brief but appropriate interjections, while I retreat in the shadows thinking about my deeds, my death, my possible escape plan, but the guy doesn't go away. Won't shut up. He keeps talking and talking and seems not to care that I'm barely listening. Thing is, he starts this monologue concerning his badge. The clipping, the contour, the shine, the gold glimmer... and how the other town's sheriff's badge is much nicer than his. Oh, man, what a blow to his self-esteem. He doesn't go for the mannerisms, no, not at all. He is very cool and steady in his behavior. His voice is equally at ease, in control, no matter what. His getup is impressive. He smiles at me and leaves. The following night, before I know it (I'm doing some minigame to keep myself busy, "escaping" from the town in the outline I made of it on the wall: everything in this particular minigame is drawn in chalk or has stuff on it I found laying on the ground; hunting for mice to feed on; whatever) he's right there in the middle of another monologue. Now he's going on and on about his favorite music band and into the details of a song of theirs that sums up their philosophy, casually interrupting his speech to give me orders/directions in the minigame that my character's still playing on the side (I'm only allowed into the minigame whenever the sheriff tells me what to do). So, anyway, the sheriff keeps at it a couple o'more times and I realize "Damn, I'm in the custody of the wild west's very own Patrick Bateman!".
A day before my execution, a nasty gang war erupts and every "lawful" resource is drawn to keep it under control. All the sheriff's men are out and about, some being mislead in the wrong direction, others dropping by the dozen. So sheriff Bateman comes over, again, seemingly not noticing (or caring about) the blood covering his otherwise impeccable attire, or the bits and pieces of human remains on his back and shoulders. He is not wounded. He's there because he wants me to know where the real party's at: that sheriff from out of town's homely place of dwelling. At me: "Let's go for a ride". I'm free! I'm free and joining Sheriff P. Bateman in a spur of the moment trip to a place far from the flames, gunshots, and hollering of innocent women and children. Nah, we're going to visit a guy from out of town who has a real fancy badge and sheriff-cred, invite him for a few drinks, and bring him up a hotel where we'll get the party started. Put party boy here in a sack and drive him in his/our fancy horse carriage (all trips on the saddle we ride to the tune of a Morriconeesque, spaghetti western whistling and yahahaaahhs!) far away in the land and have ourselves a little campfire going on in the backdrop, as we have ourselves some fun with what remains of our buddy, recently pulled from the sack, surprisingly alive. A modern remix of "Just the Two of Us" plays as I try to keep the guy from going away (if he does, I have to either redo the minigame or grab Bateman's horse and get the hell out... Bateman lives all through the game... we'll see him in various incarnations of his cool, professional attitude then under new employ). Fun.
The guns and arms video looks promising, but I can't imagine the fighting mechanics working here. Unless they
heavily polished the GTAIV engine, these are going to be awkward as hell to use. And I bet the "law" will be as heavy a nuisance as it was in that game. You dare scratch your nose and Mr. Ed calls you out on it, from 2,000 yards away on the mountains, all of a sudden you're surrounded by poe-leese shooting at you. I don't know if it'll work that well, but sure seems nice.
Hmm... I have all these expectations now...
*sees the Official Trailer*Oh, come
on.
Eeeeh... I'll wait after the Messiah is Back! reviews die down and... perhaps rent it and give it a try some day after they've fixed the servers, about a year's time from May.