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Vanbergs German Suplex’ing me.

Vanberge hurling himself into the abyss.

I might remake these to be smaller size but part of me finds it hysterical how large they are.

Seriously, the final boss is a quick time event.

Undecim: -5

Vanbergs gave me a heads up on a good deal that is active for $10 dollars off Xbox 360 games at Toys R Us. The catch is you have to ask somebody working for one of the cards as they are not advertised or openly available on the floor. Retail is not something I really like to deal with especially with gaming and ESPECIALLY being 30 years old. It’s that whole “haven’t you grown out of that shit yet” stigma.  I love getting cheap games so I said ef it I was going to go in there and bite the bullet.

Enter the 28th Street Toys R Us

Much to my surprise the guy working there knew exactly what I was looking for when I asked for the card. He went straight to the back room explained to me how the deal works and what they have been experiencing regarding the free games (it’s nerfed sadly) and that the card still works for games $14.xx and up and was helpful and pleasant. Ended up getting Halo Wars for $10.xx after taxes and when I rang out they let me keep the discount card as apparently it’s a collectable.

The guy working told me it’s a deal sponsored by Microsoft as they are biting the bullet on the discounts so I have absolutely no problem abusing this card to get a few more $10 dollar games. Toys R Us was cool and they FINALLY working on fixed their gaming section not be a plastic prison. I’ll need to start going there more often and I would suggest others to as well after today….well minus during checkout getting being asked to buy batteries I didn’t need, a protection plan I didn’t ask for, and a rewards card I wouldn’t use. The first guy was nice though.

By definition there is no redemption here.

At first I was going to completely avoid Red Dead Redemption. After not entirely enjoying Grand Theft Auto 4 and completely avoiding it’s $DLC, Red Dead was poised to be forgotten. Then I read this (at the time I read up to the spoiler warning…beware). He summed up exactly what turned me off to Niko’s plight and his write up made it seem Red Dead attempts to correct the wrongs of the past. After continuously reading and hearing good things about the game it ended being a must play…

…that I ultimately completed to 100%

Name a video game where the main character is a married man with high school aged child. I can think of one (Kaim f/ Lost Odyssey) but honestly most antagonists are blank slates in gaming. Vagabonding men driven to get the girl, save the world and assault anybody in the way. Rockstar must understand who their target audience is more then I think. For John Marston’s his past we cannot change, his present we are lightly able to mold towards his unavoidable future. His family is in danger and he’s forced to confront his past. Change is hard and the times are changing.  In Marston, for any adult, there are bits of his struggles in all of us. At the core this is the best aspect of Red Dead Redemption.

This all doesn’t come without faults. The first few hours of the game are extraordinarily drab. Everything starts really slow and the setup with your first target comes to an anticlimactic resolution that’s downright laughable. The beginning tutorials felt laborious at the time  and your initial drop in the first town I found to be boring. After playing the first two hours I had to stop and take a nap.

When the game allows you to start getting sidetracked is when things start to get interesting. Stranger missions, animal hunting, treasure collecting, sightseeing, “Red Dead X-Files”, Social Club Challenges, mini-games, hideouts. That is just scratching the surface as there’s a lot to do in New Austin and most of it memorable and slightly ridiculous.  Everything “optional” in Red Dead eclipses Grand Theft Auto in almost every way. I finished GTA4 at at 65% completion percentage primarily focusing on the main missions and events that resulted in achievements. In Red Dead the 100% requirement is much less grindish and more about exploring the world but a good way. I would say it’s impossible without a guide to hit 100% in GTA4 where as in RDR using the packaged map, Social Club tools and in-game map it’s entirely possible minus a guide. Attempting to reach the 100% goal is about more then just earning the achievement I promise.

Moving from the first territory of the game New Austin (America) to Nuevo Paraiso (Mexico) for some players is the breaking point for many. The terrain is rougher, larger and vertical. Personally it was a mixed bag. Traveling to the highest and demanding areas I found to be fun. The vista’s in the game can be breathtaking much like in GTA where voyaging to highest building in an area has the feeling they must be conquered.  The Mexico areas  have their own flair with different music, random events, and gangs but many of the missions were more of the same combat wise and felt mostly detached from the main storyline. One mission takes place right near a large bridge and starts with the promise of using dynamite to take out a convoy. Sadly this mission didn’t result in ripping off the bridge scene from The Wild Bunch. Of all the nods to movie Westerns I was hoping for more from that movie then any.

The final location West Elizabeth (a accumulation of anything Northern America) is the games smallest and most focused area. The best missions and emotional moments come in the final act. The result of the last combat mission is to be expected but still entirely haunting. By the time of the game’s primary climax I’ve spent over a day and a half with John Marston playing the devil to the worlds advocate. I’ve saved countless women from certain death but also hogtied them and dropped them on train tracks to be turned into red mist. I’ve taken down corrupt governments but possibly promoted even more corrupt men into power. I’ve attempted to absolve my past but in the process mowed down countless human lives in attempts to earn mine back. As with almost any video game rooted in violence and choice who knows if I wore the halo or the horns.

When it’s all said and done I honestly can’t think of one thing Red Dead Redemption does that isn’t an improvement over GTA4. Marston as a character is an improvement over Niko again in every way possible. He’s not perfect and most of the time hardly sympathetic but Rockstar is getting there. My hopes for GTA5 is a co-op game staring a pair of brothers that are 100% justified in their actions. RDR hits that maybe 50% of the time and that consistency  I believe will always be a problem with open world games.  I’m hoping this game doesn’t get glossed over as “Grand Theft Auto Horse’ed” or viewed as a step down form that series because it’s better.

Master of none. Darksiders is a accumulation of  everything popular in video games for the last five years. World of Warcraft, Devil May Cry, The Legend of Zelda, God of War, Prince of Persia, Fable 2, Arkham Asylum, Portal, Metroid,Panzer Dragoon, Halo 3. Doing a quick pass though Metacritic browsing reviews of trusted sites this is just a sample of  similarities noted regarding the game. Is Darksiders just plain plagiarism or a dream come true for a gamer that just doesn’t have the time to play all those games?

See, luckily (pathetically?) all those series I’m familiar with and a few are some of my favorite properties of all time.  For somebody like me Darksiders doesn’t offer much new. The ‘homages’ are so obvious. Darksiders has it’s own ‘Water Temple“. Darksiders has it’s own evil doppelganger fight. Seriously I could do this forever almost everything in Darksiders is something I’ve done before. Even the story is the typical anti-hero out for REVENGE while also saving the world. War is so badass he’s good.

And Darksiders is good. I finished the game quickly and maybe aside from not giving a rats ass about the story nothing is necessarily wrong with it. I cannot imagine not recommending the game to anybody for a reason as simple as it rips everything else off. Underworld practically has the same coup de grâce ending as Equilibrium but really it’s worth watching both movies. For the person who can only play one game from 2010 and missed the last five years in gaming Darksiders is a good way to catch up.

Statistics:

22 of 27 Artifacts
6 of 8 Enhancements
2 of 4 Legendary Enhancements
Total Game Time 20:27:56
Time in Combat 4:30:23
Total Kills 2199
Number of Deaths 100
Distance Traveled 269.38 Miles
Total Souls Collected 50849
Highest Combo 48
Demon Blood Spilled 4675.48 gallons

I did find all the pieces for the “Abyssal Armor Set” and used the code “The Hollow Lord” to unlock “The Harvester” Scythe.

After finishing the game I rode my horse in circles with a rubber band around my controller to earn the Dark Rider Achievement while cleaning cat barf and doing dishes.

35 of 43 Achievements 830g. Finished the game on Apocalyptic (Hard) difficulty with no major problems. Most bosses took me a few attempts and I think the only difference between  difficulties is the amount of damage you take. As a God of War vet knowing how to dodge is the only required ability to complete the game. One fight requires you to know the timed block. The game is also very player friendly in regards to death. If you die in combat you get returned to the last checkpoint but always given a boost of health. Death during platforming sections almost always returns you to the last safe point you were at. There are also purchasable consumables to grant any type of boost needed to get past a troublesome combat area.

Note: Thanks to Enfeugo for letting me borrow the game. He’s a true Van.

Note 2: As much as I love linking to better content then my own toase.net has a more comprehensive review then what is written here that I enjoyed.