Platforming Week was Captured by Banditos

Platforming week came to a halt, mainly due to laziness, but it was also tough to write up decent posts because I was very distracted. It's hard to believe a new game could keep me from playing great platforming games, but it finally happened. I actually got hooked on a game that's nearly new enough to be considered, "relevant." I got sucked into the old west with Red Dead Redemption.

I'd like to give a little background before I delve into this one. For starters, the "Red Dead" name was not new to me at all. I had played Red Dead Revolver years before and enjoyed it as a fun, decent 3rd person shooter with an amazing soundtrack. When I first heard that Red Dead Redemption was going to be a sandbox game, I was skeptical to say the least. I just couldn't quite picture it in my head. I was excited to see the game getting nothing but positive reviews, but I had to see it for myself.

Before I knew it, I was herding cattle, breaking horses, hunting wildlife, and hogtying banditos. I'm not usually one to go for side-quests, but Red Dead Redemption is crafty and had no trouble pulling me away from the main story missions. I would ride towards my destination, and suddenly I would notice a question mark on the map. "Well, I might as well check out the stranger mission," I'd say to myself, and suddenly I was caught up in that instead of arriving at my original destination. Aside from the strangers' missions, there's also a wide variety of random happenings. These are far less involved, but distracted me from the main quest regularly. I might be headed for the next story mission, but as soon as I heard that person yelling that someone had stolen their horse, I started chasing after the thief, swinging my lasso. Because the side-missions tended to be along the way, I couldn't help but get caught up in them. Rather than just being these distant things that are out there for you eventually, side-missions usually met you head on and were in your face. If a side-quest is in some distant optional location, I tend to ignore it completely, but when it's right there in front of me, it's much harder for me to turn down an extra mission.

As is the trend of later GTA games, Red Dead Redemption has a more serious tone than say, GTA III or Vice City. With Red Dead Redemption, however, I mind it much less, as the game makes me think of Westerns, which I tend to think of as being more serious than comical. Generally speaking, I'm much more in favor of the lighthearted nature of the old GTA games, but in this case, I feel the serious nature is warranted. That's not to say the game has no sense of humor, as you'll meet some peculiar characters on your journey that offer comic relief. Not to mention the rampant use of the famous "Wilhelm scream," which, while usually giving me a laugh, also feels quite fitting for a western shoot-out.

Talking about sound brings to mind the game's music. Years earlier, Red Dead Revolver made me fall in love with the soundtracks of Westerns. From the game's title sequence featuring, "Lo Chiamavano King," to the triumphant finale with "Ballata per un pistolero," Red Dead Revolver had a fantastic assortment of songs taken straight from real spaghetti Westerns. (By the way, while those may seem very foreign, there's a good chance you've heard "Ballata per un pistolero" before.) Red Dead Redemption, on the other hand, has a soundtrack almost entirely comprised of original compositions by Bill Elm and Woody Jackson. What's there is excellent, but I almost would like to have seen a little more music in the game. That said, I did enjoy the more subdued, ambient music while riding across the frontier. I'm just being picky.

I have to be picky though, because I really don't have too many other problems with the game. I wasn't keen on the inability to swim, but I wasn't too bothered by it. I just felt they could have given some kind of warning system. Granted, you're not going to be wading through water frequently, but it seems odd that the second you tread too deep, you die instantly. Otherwise, occasionally I came across a visual glitch or two, but in a game as complicated and intricate as Red Dead Redemption, these are easily forgivable. I did, however, find myself unable to complete a mission without restarting. It happened only once, but a horse died under a wagon being driven by a computer character. The wagon couldn't drive over the carcass and I was unable to take the reigns and try to move it, so my only option was to restart the mission. It seems like a fairly uncommon problem, however, and with how much this game has to offer, it was easy for me to overlook.

Speaking of "restarting missions," I haven't played GTA IV, so I'm not entirely sure about its mechanics, but I'm damn sure that in the old GTA games, if you died, you lost ALL of your weapons, and some of your money to boot. In other words, for me, this meant re-loading my last save whenever I died. Red Dead Redemption really doesn't punish you for dying. If in a mission, you'll simply restart from the last checkpoint. Outside of a mission, dying will simply put you back at the last save point you used. This eliminates frustrating deaths where you feel as though you lose a lot of progress.

Minor complaints aside, it all boils down to an excellent sandbox experience with a lot to offer and what must be the best Western-themed video game the market has to offer. I remember thinking, back when I played Red Dead Revolver the first time, "The Western seems like such an obvious and perfect choice for a video game, why aren't there more Western-themed games?" While I do still hope more games will try out the genre, they're going to have a hell of a time living up to Red Dead Redemption. Then again, most sandbox games will too. Good luck fellow contenders for "Best game of 2010." You're going to need it.

Achievement Unlocked: These Are The Breaks

(This is how most gamers react when I start to talk about achievements.)

It's time I finally talked about something remotely relevant to current gaming. I know, achievements/trophies are nothing new, but they're a large part of what is apparently now the current standard in gaming. As someone who's predominantly stuck in the past when it comes to video games, trophy/achievement hunting was a new experience, one that left me feeling dirty, like a cheater, and ultimately unrewarded. I decided one of the only ways I could get myself to truly hunt for trophies would be with games from a time-period I'm more comfortable with, so I trophy-hunted in Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection on PS3.

While I'm generally against resorting to walkthroughs or FAQ's right from the get-go, I figured the best way to get the full experience of trophy-whoring (or "trophy-hunting" if you prefer to use euphemisms) would be to load up a trophy guide and shoot down the list. Again, I already felt dirty by this point, but I was merely getting started. Let's talk about some "highlights." Ecco the Dolphin has one of the most pathetic trophies in the entire collection... "Talk to another dolphin." For those of you who don't know Ecco the Dolphin, this means in the first area of the game, you go up to a fellow dolphin (who's very close by) and press a button near him. DONE. Bronze trophy. "I got awarded for that?" I thought to myself. I wasn't anywhere close to done yet.

While that trophy was pathetic, I wouldn't call it game-breaking. I mean, you have to communicate with other dolphins in Ecco to play the game... you just also have to do a whole lot MORE than communicate with other dolphins to actually play through the game. There are plenty of trophies in the Genesis collection, however, that ARE game-breaking. In true trophy-hunting fashion, let's go down the list. Bonanza Brothers requires you to reach a certain amount of points in the first level. My goal? Complete the level as fast as possible collecting a big time bonus at the end. Pfft, what the hell was I thinking? I'm not PLAYING the game... I'm FARMING the game for TROPHIES! Silly me... beating the level quickly and efficiently simply wouldn't give me the points I needed. Clearly the pro way to play that would earn me a trophy would have me standing in the same place and repeatingly attacking someone I would simply avoid in normal gameplay. The point of Bonanza Brothers is to rob a place... that means get the stuff and get out of there. To get the trophy, I simply stood in one place and kept slamming a door on a guard over and over for points. Oh, and by the way, the trophy guide had NO strategy for that one. I guess among trophy-hunters, a strategy so convoluted and seemingly foolish is common knowledge. (Actually, the 360 achievement guide DOES mention my strategy. I guess I wouldn't be surprised if 360 owners have achievement hunting down better than PS3 owners.)

Next on the list we have Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, which is simply Puyo Puyo or Kirby's Avalanche. Uh-oh, this one's a gold trophy... Aww man... I have to complete the game? Trophy guide, say it ain't so! ... Oh, thank God... it ISN'T so. Look up the password for the last stage in the game, pop that in, beat the stage and congratulations! Gold trophy. (Admittedly, I didn't want to play that much M.B.M. but it felt cheap and dirty.)

Vectorman 2... let's see, what do I have to do to get this easy silver... REACH SCENE 11?!? But... but... that game's hard! *consults trophy guide* ... Ohh... Phew... *Puts in level cheat, skips to stage 11.* Silver trophy.

I think I've illustrated my point in how trophies/achievements can be game-breaking, but I've got one last issue to address before I stop bashing them. There's no standard in how difficult it should be to get an achievement/trophy, which leads to some hilariously stupid comparisons. For example, that bronze trophy I mentioned for Ecco? Apparently beating MvC2 with a team of Street Fighter characters and using no continues is considered to be the same level of difficulty as pressing a button once. Oh, and beating Mega Man 10 on hard difficulty is a bronze trophy as well. Not to mention, gold is clearly better than silver, right? Why then, is beating Mega Man 10 without ever getting hit a silver trophy, and collecting 100 rings with Tails in the first stage of Sonic 3 a gold trophy? Don't get me wrong, I realize some games have stupidly hard trophies and some have stupidly easy ones, but some players work so hard to up their "gamerscore" or their "trophy level" and for what? To prove their superiority over other gamers? Sorry, but I'm still going to consider the guy who can beat Mega Man 10 without getting hit a better player than the guy who sits through Terminator Salvation regardless of the fact that the trophies would argue otherwise.

I suppose I sound like a crotchety old man complaining about these newfangled video games, but I'm not here to say that achievements/trophies are all bad. Sometimes earning a trophy that actually takes work can feel satisfying. Trophies can also allow you to discover things about a game you might not have thought of or play the game in a new light (such as clearing an area of the game without using certain common items or only using a certain weapon). In these cases, I support achievements and think they are a welcome innovation in video games. However, it's all too often that you hear about people playing through terrible games just for easy trophies or breaking a game to crack it open and reveal the delicious easy-trophy center. I did my time, I got my "platinum" trophy, but it still doesn't compare to the rewarding feeling of simply beating a challenging game. I'm not entirely against trophies... but if there was a game called, "Trophy get!" and all you did was leave it on for a certain amount of hours on a blank screen and get trophies for it, it would probably sell... and that really scares me.