When I last (indeed first) iterated my thoughts about Red Dead Redemption, I made a comment on the depicted realism and how this striving for realism might detract from the artistic endeavours within it's dusty bounds.
Well something magical happened yesterday. A true noir moment.
A companion and I had been chased out of Tumbleweed by the resident vagrant banditry after I committed to helping said companion in returning deceased friends from that ruined place to it's graveyard.
As we fled, the storm clouds rolled in and we parted ways. The rain began bucketing down and lightning split the sky. I decided to head to Rathskeller Fork, a small community nestled in the shelter of the cliff faces to the north. The scree and brush that littered this part of the West was being torn at by the wind and pelted by the rain. As a massive flash of lightning and crack of thunder was issued by the sky a challenge was raised by some dark creature to the side of the road.
There, kicking in defiance at the lightning was the most majestic horse ever. Dark as midnight yet strong as steel.
The rain and lightning stopped, the wind settled. At least in my mind it did. My attention was directed entirely toward that horse. I speared off the side of the road, indeed like the wind itself which lustily grabbed at my duster.
My lasoo became an extension of my arm as I twirled it above my head in some kind of strange appropriation ritual. It weaved a message in the sky "I take this horse as my own". I like to think the thunder answered in glorious assent.
The horse saw me and turned, thinking me some demon of the shadow, but it was too late, the rolling thunder had masked my approach. The lasoo flew and held, the horse became stuck fast. I held it there hoping it didn't truly bolt and drag me along, instead it thrashed and kicked in some kind of reproach.
I closed the distance carefully, wary of the slick rocks and puddles forming at my feet. I was quick. Up on it's back. Lightning crashes. Hands in the mane. Shifting weight from side to side as it continued to buck and snort.
It seemed like an hour or so but it was probably only a minute. The bucking slowed to a general jumping about, the whinnying and neighing turned into a gruff snort and I knew that I had my prize.
I set heels to the flanks and bolted into the night. Heedless now. Death could have taken me and I'd be glad because this was the moment to transcend all others.
The rain eased, the sun crested the horizon and the morning greeted us like long lost friends returned home. Our pace slowed and I turned back toward Rathskeller Fork, weary with a night of joy and damp with the rage of a storm.
Approaching the road I spied a cluster of herbs that I knew were in demand back in the towns. For the first time, I jumped off my new horse and walked over to the patch. Nearby I saw a rucksack and the remnants of a small fire. Interested, I went over to check if there wasn't anyone in need of any kind of small mercy.
With a rustle from behind I spied a man spring up from the ground itself. Spouting some kind of profanity he hauled himself up onto my horse. With maniacal glee he sprinted off away back to the place I had come from. Dejected and alone, I walked the rest of the way. I swore I would find that bastard and kill him.
******
This realistic depiction as achieved in RDR could be stylised in another manner but there would be something missing. The realism in the graphics and design with this game grounds it somewhat. This grounding is also reliant on the fact that in a lot of Westerns the environment itself is as big a character as the scarred swear-mongers that inhabit such a place. Would have RDR worked if it had taken on a Blizzard like design? No. Emphatically so.
There was a point in RDR where I had finished a mission and was introduced into a new environ. I do not mean in the manner of from the dusty plain to the frigid nordic icefields but from the dusty plain to a less dusty plain with more lawlessness and a different kind of cacti. As you enter this place the sound dims and a fantastic western song (a conjunction of words I have never used in my life) plays over the top. The sun sets and you look over the mesas and townships below. It was a really good moment. That probably sounds a bit trite considering how flowery the rest of this post is but I don't think I can sufficiently capture it in feeble words. It was as good as a really good thing that makes me think of other good things.
I guess what I am saying is that the graphics and design should be appreciated both on it's own merits but also in it's interaction with the other elements that comprise a game. If this is no amazing discovery for you then I am truly sorry to have wasted your time but I am glad that I wiped taht cobweb from my mind.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Expansion or Scorched Earth
I'm a devout Australian Rules Football fan. I employ the word devout with deliberation in this instance. Yet as a person currently residing in the ACT I feel that the rest of the Eastern Seaboard holds something of a grudge against Australian Rules and it's governing body, The AFL. The Television stations put the games on at the worst times, putting wonderful shows like The Ghost Whisperer on in favour of a game. Some games are, much to my ever thankful prayers, put on at 23.59 on a Sunday night. Fantastic.
It is not at all helped by the attitude of a great many of the populace of the cities of Sydney and Brisbane who sneer at Australian Rules on the grounds of some misplaced bollocks machismo and an attitude of thinking with your dick. AFL and League can easily co-exist, people are able, and do, follow more than one code of sport "Which is best" is an argument for people who skipped the evolutionary chain from fertiliser to person.
Hopefully with the AFLs spread across the Eastern Seaboard this type of malarky will subside, yet even this very morn, a fragile and chilled thing laying expectant, was shat upon by a member of the moron non-press which caused a stir in my heart that I can't help but try to alleviate.
Let me explain;
The morning shows that exist on the commercial networks are terrible shows. What is more terrible is when these terrible shows give terrible persons of terrible anti-knowledge a chance to pontificate upon all those unwary souls who have been cast adrift and stumbled upon a television in their morning stupor. One such collection of demi-humans were talking about the Greater Western Sydney team that are to join the AFL in 2012. Personal thoughts aside, one harridan whom I am led to believe was a former sportsperson at some stage, declared that because the Sydney Swans couldn't fill a stadium, team GWS was doomed to fail especially with the fact that the team is to be set up in the Rugby League Heartland®. She further enlightened us with the fact (a meaning of the word fact that I have struggled to uncover) that Victorian teams were on the verge of collapse and the AFL should worry about it's own backyard.
What.
Here's a clue for you harpy. The clubs in AFL may have been complacent because they get handouts from television rights and other lucrative business deals but they consistently get crowds over and above 35,000 people with the swans getting an average of 30,000 people.
What pray is the average attendance of a crowd in Rugby League Heartland®? It's waaaaaay down on the list at a paltry 16,000 troglodytes per game, that's less than the Sydney Swans average numbers! Now some clubs, namely the Broncos, have very high average attendance numbers. But hey you know what? Brisbane has both an NRL and an AFL club and the world hasn't ended, it's an example of coexistence with no loss on one side or the other.
Anyway, enough ranting on that.
As a Carlton member I was delighted when Bryce Gibbs announced his resigning with The Club. Next week I will be able to enjoy The Club versus Melbourne who have been on the up this year and then in the week following, versus North Melbourne, who I am led to believe, in watching their staccato-like progression throughout the year, have the shingles.
This pontification has gone on way too long.
It is not at all helped by the attitude of a great many of the populace of the cities of Sydney and Brisbane who sneer at Australian Rules on the grounds of some misplaced bollocks machismo and an attitude of thinking with your dick. AFL and League can easily co-exist, people are able, and do, follow more than one code of sport "Which is best" is an argument for people who skipped the evolutionary chain from fertiliser to person.
Hopefully with the AFLs spread across the Eastern Seaboard this type of malarky will subside, yet even this very morn, a fragile and chilled thing laying expectant, was shat upon by a member of the moron non-press which caused a stir in my heart that I can't help but try to alleviate.
Let me explain;
The morning shows that exist on the commercial networks are terrible shows. What is more terrible is when these terrible shows give terrible persons of terrible anti-knowledge a chance to pontificate upon all those unwary souls who have been cast adrift and stumbled upon a television in their morning stupor. One such collection of demi-humans were talking about the Greater Western Sydney team that are to join the AFL in 2012. Personal thoughts aside, one harridan whom I am led to believe was a former sportsperson at some stage, declared that because the Sydney Swans couldn't fill a stadium, team GWS was doomed to fail especially with the fact that the team is to be set up in the Rugby League Heartland®. She further enlightened us with the fact (a meaning of the word fact that I have struggled to uncover) that Victorian teams were on the verge of collapse and the AFL should worry about it's own backyard.
What.
Here's a clue for you harpy. The clubs in AFL may have been complacent because they get handouts from television rights and other lucrative business deals but they consistently get crowds over and above 35,000 people with the swans getting an average of 30,000 people.
What pray is the average attendance of a crowd in Rugby League Heartland®? It's waaaaaay down on the list at a paltry 16,000 troglodytes per game, that's less than the Sydney Swans average numbers! Now some clubs, namely the Broncos, have very high average attendance numbers. But hey you know what? Brisbane has both an NRL and an AFL club and the world hasn't ended, it's an example of coexistence with no loss on one side or the other.
Anyway, enough ranting on that.
As a Carlton member I was delighted when Bryce Gibbs announced his resigning with The Club. Next week I will be able to enjoy The Club versus Melbourne who have been on the up this year and then in the week following, versus North Melbourne, who I am led to believe, in watching their staccato-like progression throughout the year, have the shingles.
This pontification has gone on way too long.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Opening - Red Dead Redemption Review
A new slate to dirty with words of no consequence.
I am playing Red Dead Redemption at the moment. What a fantastic game. I did not get into the hype around this game at all. GTA4 was a non event for me and while I acknowledge that Rockstar are a great developer, their style of game never really spoke to my inner being as something vital to my engagement with games-media. For me Rockstar's slide away from the blissful carnage and outright embodiment of the term 'run amok' to the more serious cinematic and deliberatly artful was not as successful as most people make out it to be. But RDR really smashes that conceptual bubble I built around my idea of Rockstar. The voice acting and writing have instantly made me give three or four shits about the main character, as opposed to the usual one or none. No shit giving is not the mindframe I am in right now.
The gunplay is also what makes this very enjoyable. Almost like a elegant lifting and retooling of bullet-time from way back when. At first you have the ability to simply slow down time, aim carefully and blow some poor partner's face off, each shot would be determined by when you levered the trigger on your controller. This would have been well and good all in it's own right but it creatively then allows you, after some time, to simply move your reticule over the enemy which then get's 'tagged' showing you exactly which part of the enemy is in line smooshing. This works into the duelling mechanic too. Which I'm still getting my head around.
There is a lot of stuff to do, hunting, gambling, helping random wanderers and so on. I'm not going to go into that too much. Needless to say, despite the large size of the world it isn't as desolate as histories would have you believe.
My main concern getting this game would that it'd be simply Wild West Auto, or Grand Theft Horse, a anxiety held by a great many people. And to be honest, in the back of my mind I'm constantly seeing if any of my RDR experiences are measuring up to or are indeed mirroring any of my GTA ones. And they are there. The way the characters interact. The cinematic introductions to missions and characters. Indeed the way you interact with them, with each having a big letter on the GTA-esque minimap.
But these are all cosmetic, all in the framework and gilding of the game. The core game itself; the gunplay, the horseriding, the content is indeed markedly different.
Artistically it is also interesting. It goes for realism all the way. The animations are superb, the voice acting and music are inspired. Coming off of the back of Darksiders however shows that realism, no matter how realistic can sometimes leave something to be desired. Perfect realism is nice and all but I can't grant it as being truly artistic. Maybe I'm not being fair because the game is still beatiful.
Anyway, I'm goign to sink my teeth into it a bit more and see how it goes getting further in. Fingers crossed!
I am playing Red Dead Redemption at the moment. What a fantastic game. I did not get into the hype around this game at all. GTA4 was a non event for me and while I acknowledge that Rockstar are a great developer, their style of game never really spoke to my inner being as something vital to my engagement with games-media. For me Rockstar's slide away from the blissful carnage and outright embodiment of the term 'run amok' to the more serious cinematic and deliberatly artful was not as successful as most people make out it to be. But RDR really smashes that conceptual bubble I built around my idea of Rockstar. The voice acting and writing have instantly made me give three or four shits about the main character, as opposed to the usual one or none. No shit giving is not the mindframe I am in right now.
The gunplay is also what makes this very enjoyable. Almost like a elegant lifting and retooling of bullet-time from way back when. At first you have the ability to simply slow down time, aim carefully and blow some poor partner's face off, each shot would be determined by when you levered the trigger on your controller. This would have been well and good all in it's own right but it creatively then allows you, after some time, to simply move your reticule over the enemy which then get's 'tagged' showing you exactly which part of the enemy is in line smooshing. This works into the duelling mechanic too. Which I'm still getting my head around.
There is a lot of stuff to do, hunting, gambling, helping random wanderers and so on. I'm not going to go into that too much. Needless to say, despite the large size of the world it isn't as desolate as histories would have you believe.
My main concern getting this game would that it'd be simply Wild West Auto, or Grand Theft Horse, a anxiety held by a great many people. And to be honest, in the back of my mind I'm constantly seeing if any of my RDR experiences are measuring up to or are indeed mirroring any of my GTA ones. And they are there. The way the characters interact. The cinematic introductions to missions and characters. Indeed the way you interact with them, with each having a big letter on the GTA-esque minimap.
But these are all cosmetic, all in the framework and gilding of the game. The core game itself; the gunplay, the horseriding, the content is indeed markedly different.
Artistically it is also interesting. It goes for realism all the way. The animations are superb, the voice acting and music are inspired. Coming off of the back of Darksiders however shows that realism, no matter how realistic can sometimes leave something to be desired. Perfect realism is nice and all but I can't grant it as being truly artistic. Maybe I'm not being fair because the game is still beatiful.
Anyway, I'm goign to sink my teeth into it a bit more and see how it goes getting further in. Fingers crossed!
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