Humbling River, Grand Theft Almost

After a couple days of playing around I'm about to work into the meat of Grand Theft Auto 5. Great fun and I'm sure I'll enjoy every minute of it, and all its irreverent fun... but I can already tell that it really just makes me yearn for the absolute majesty that was Red Dead Redemption.

Red Dead Redemption and still

Red Dead Aberlour

Made good on getting Red Dead Redemption. I decided to go with the PS3 version of the game, for what it is worth. Larry likey the PS3. I like the 360, don't get me wrong. We go way back, me and her. She even traveled down to Texas to get un-red ring-ed. So it might have seemed fitting to get RDR for her. But 'fitting' wasn't what I was going for. HDMI and digital sound was.

So what of RDR?

I'm hooked and I only had it in for a little over an hour. Gamers With Jobs touched on how the tables can turn on hoping to dislike a game today. Not that I stating the game is great based on just playing the first hour. But it can be a funny thing, that first hour. Especially for a game like this one. Lots of questions to be answered. How is the voice acting? Are the committed to the West? How are the controls?

Acceptable. On all three questions. That's enough for me, for now.

The American West is more then a mythical place. It is a representation of so many things uniquely American. For me it still seems so recent. My dad was born in 1938. My grandfather, born around the time this game takes place, 1911. My great grandfather lived in this world. To me, that is close even if most see it as so far away.

There is no question that the game is trying to be GTA IV set in the west. And why shouldn't it. If it can deliver on that then we've got something significant here.

As I was checking out the scenery I looked for clues on the commitment from the developers. I wasn't sure what at first, but once playing it becomes clear. Ragged clothing. A voice actor from the mid-west. Hoof prints in the sand and dirt. All there. Sunrises, sunsets. Starry nights. Makes this worn out manufacturing manager a very happy man after one of the roughest days I've had since 2005. That's where the Aberlour comes in.

And what's with the picture of my coffee table? That's the familiarity of opening a Rockstar game and getting a big old map, just waiting for you to explore. It's one of those experiences missed by folks just downloading a game or renting it. I know that sounds silly to some, and that's okay. But to me, it's fantastic. Flip it over and you have a poster. Nice artwork that will go far in my review, and something I wish art.com or allposters.com tapped more into. Alas, a quick search on the site yields nothing.

Maybe it's just me. Maybe it's just a game. But, ya know, if it hits you right? Man, right place, right time. Looking forward to taking this one in.
The above picture is something I took. I could probably find something on the web that is clear or something, but I wanted a shot that was my own, and I just wanted to be there for a while. After today at work... that's all I can ask for.

Red Dead Redemption

Been a little bit since I got excited about a new game. I've been eying this one for some time. It's yet another game that has gone way past deadline after deadline. More often then not it seems to mean the game is struggling. This one is no exception. Well, on the struggling part. It doesn't come out till next week.

I just read a letter from the wives of some of the game developers. It is pleading with Rockstar San Diego to lighten up on their husbands. Part of this seemed strange to me in that it seems to presuppose that only males are game developers. Sort of like wives of soldiers in the middle east. I'm scratching my head on this one. I don't know the game industry enough I guess. Maybe part of the issue is that there are too many males working at R*SD? I'm looking into it a bit much. But the impression here is that this studio is filled with a bunch of young males with no work experience from the QA tester to management.

Whatever the case. No one seems to address that part of the WIVES letter. If you read it you'll quickly notice the poor grammar. "To whomever it may concern," it starts out. Unfortunately, to an outsider, it makes it seem as if wives of developers are un-educated housewives with too much time on their hands. It muddles the message they are trying to get across and I do wish the had an editor. Hey, my grammar stinks, I know. I just wish theirs was cleaned up, because I know it must be bad out there for a letter to have been written.

The message I'm getting is that R*SD is a much different place then Rockstar North, the makers of the GTA games. Not different in the way that they treat employees but in creative talent and professionalism. Maybe the working conditions there are terrible, but I haven't read anything like this wives letter. In the world of 'here today gone tomorrow' game studios, this sort of thing can be devastating. I am hoping for this game to have the feel of GTA but I'm nervous about it. Man, it's exciting to think about a GTA type feel set in the West but it's hard to get hopes up with some red flags popping up.

We shall see. Angry wives, overworked employees, piss poor management... not a good combination of things.

I'm pulling for it to be good. Hopefully a labor of love type thing. Something else to take from the letter being written is that they are working their little nads off to finish it.

"Again balance is denied, as working conditions worsened with no appreciation. Working harder, longer, faster, yet there was never a guarantee of a bonus nor if there was any earned, when they will be received!"

Wrap your head around that. ugh.

So, who is Rockstar SD? It was Angel Studios (I love doing this by the way). It appears that the produced a handful of interesting games that I'll have to check out. I see that Mr. Bones is on the list, an old Saturn game that I remember. Good, creative game but alas, it was Zono, Inc that developed the game.

Back to hope for the game: Angel Studios helped develop the RAGE Engine which was the advancement of the Angel Game Engine. It's the one that GTA IV used. I thought it was pretty amazing, but only part of the success of that game. However, go back to that game and you will see just how much the environment played in the the experience. We'll see if the boys from San Diego can make this work. I'm routing for them.