@bluesforbuddha Everything that you say about P4A makes me want it even more than I want it right now. The only issue is that I’m not about to play a game like that without a new joystick, and I can’t afford a new joystick for a little bit. But, when I do, I’m going to gorge myself on Street Fighter IV AE and P4A. Does anyone else play Street Fighter here? I used to have a mean Cammy in SFIV, and I’ve been jonesing to get my fighting game on.

I’m looking forward to the story mode for P4A since, like you, I love those characters and can’t wait to spend some more time with them. I’ve also heard that Labrys is a worthy addition to the Persona universe, which I was a bit worried about. I have been trying to stay spoiler free, though, so I guess I’ll make my own judgment when I finally pick all of that stuff up. Also @bluesforbuddha, I heard that Mitsuru is a charge character. Is that true? If so, that is a shame, because I just do not possess the patience for dealing with that shit. I guess I’ll find another main, but Mitsuru is my favorite character of those on the roster. Maybe Kanji will match my playstyle…

I know I mentioned it here at some point in time, but Mortal Kombat 9 is both incredibly competent and incredibly entertaining. The fighting system isn’t anywhere near as deep as Arc Sys or Capcom 2D fighters, but it isn’t as clunky as MK games were for a while there. Also, the DLC is both spot-on and incredibly fun. Freddy Krueger could have been dumb as hell, but he’s a ton of fun to play with and matches the tongue-in-cheek tone of the game really well. And, finally, the game plays super well with just a regular controller, so it’s the kind of thing you can fuck around with without investing in a stick.

I have no idea how I got sidetracked talking about MK…

LA Noire is down for the count as is Quest for Glory IV (let the podcasting commence…). I don’t have a ton to say about LA Noire, but I’m curious as to why people who fold origami in media go psycho and do horrible things. Maybe I should keep my origami folding to myself lest anyone think I’m going to become a serial killer/arsonist/whatever else…

I came home from work on Thursday and my (much) better half had a stack of new games sitting on the couch based on the Squad’s recommendations. She picked up Red Dead Redemption, Assassin’s Creed II, and SSX. (The last one wasn’t a recommendation, but I played the demo to death and wanted to give it a shot.) AC2 managed to make itself fun outside of assassination missions, which is something the first one didn’t get right. It’s a shame, too, because the crusades are such an underutilized time period in games, as is the crazy philosophy of Hassan-I-Sabbah. I periodically flirt with the idea of getting “Nothing is true. Everything is permitted” as a tattoo.

Red Dead is a lot of fun, but I’m trying not to get too OCD about it. There is already after only a few hours of play a ton of stuff to do, and it sends my brain into that overdrive where I get overwhelmed by choice and ultimately end up doing nothing. I don’t give a fuck about playing horseshoes, for instance, but I still play it for some reason.

Dumb Fun Has a Place

THQ’s new president believes Saints Row: The Third developers Volition can “make something that isn’t embarrassing”. Is Saints Row something to be embarrassed about, and is there a place for games like this?

After finishing Red Dead, next possible setting for Rockstar open world game after LA Norie: Samurai times?

I’d at least like to see them try. Maybe a collab with Capcom since they have a certain relationship with that company.

**Finishes Red Dead**

Wait… what?!

What the hell do I do now?!

ANYWAY. I’m ranching with the Marston family in Red Dead now. Is that it for the main quest? Is this an epilogue of some kind, or is major shit still going to go down?

In case this is the end (or near to it), I kinda realized what Red Dead really could have been right around this part. As I was riding down to the McFarlane ranch with Jack, I started wishing the game had started like this.

By far my favorite parts of Red Dead have been herding cattle and breaking horses with the McFarlanes – the parts of the game that I thought were gonna be tedious as hell. It puts a very “normal” backdrop behind all the other western stuff happening. Didn’t really care much for Mexico or BlackWater and I kept wishing I’d return to “regular western area” to do more stuff with the McFarlanes and the Marshal and them.

Instead of running the gamut of everything that must have been going on in the southern United States in 1911, Rockstar could have made this a game where you’re a rancher (with a full economy behind ranching) that has to pull out a gun and deal with some shit from time to time. I guess that would end up being Bonanza the game.

I would totally be happy if at this point if Red Dead just ended its main quest and let me ranch and deal horses with the occasional gunfight now and again.

Oh, and on Recettear, I don’t need to be reminded of PlayStation-erea RPGs. I’m just now figuring out that the PlayStation is where I fell out with the genre. I’m getting all the nostalgia I need out of Golden Sun and Dragon Quest IX thank you very much.

Okay, at 30 hours I think I can put New Vegas down for now. Just like Fallout 3 I’ll probably finishing this game in on-and-off chunks over the course of the next year.

I need to get on Red Dead anyway. I’m only just now about to enter that fort for the second time.

Concerning my system, I should say that my other components are a Core 2 Quad Q6600 and 3GB of RAM. I haven’t encountered an application yet that has suggested the need for more RAM than that. I cannot overclock as my system is actually a store-bought Dell.

Only a couple hours into Red Dead and it definitely has a great chance of getting into my top three for overall GOTY. I can already see playing a mission or two per day as a background game (I still need to get back on New Vegas), but we’ll see if it completely hooks me the way Mass Effect 2 did.

Seems to have everything I like about GTA and I haven’t encountered any of the problems that constantly drive me away from those games. For one thing Rockstar seems to have finally implemented a proper goddamn save and continue system.

@RedSwirl I had an 8800GTX OC2 (factory overclocked by BFG) until it died on me, BFG RMA’d it and replaced it with a GTX280 a much faster card.

Besides that and a ram bump to 6gb when windows came out, my systems the same as it was in 2007 when I built it. Core2Duo 2.66GHZ, for the processor.

It can run FONV pretty much on high, shadows are the only thing that gives it issues.

You will love Red Dead, ive always been mixed on RockStars GTA games they are fun to a point but overall fall short of my expectations. Are you playing on 360? If so we should get a Posse together w/the squad, the multiplayer aint half bad. Undead Nightmare is also a decent expasion.

@cptcarnage Speaking of Online RPGs, I leveled up my character in Phantasy Star Online yesterday. I still love it.

Back to Red Dead though. As soon as I get back I’m gonna take a look at the wanted posters and see where that get’s me.

I am an hour into Red Dead Redemption. God. Damn.

I do want to say that I thought that KOTOR was very, very good. Definitely lived up to its hype. Kind of makes me sad that it seems like WRPGs just aren’t being made that way anymore, with Dragon Age Origins perhaps being the last of its kind.

And of course, HK-47 was the best character. I’m almost tempted to play KOTOR 2 just to see more of him. Too bad it apparently doesn’t have a finished ending.

Speaking of endings, I’m always a little bummed when I feel like games skimp out on the ending. After playing 30 hours of KOTOR, I really want some closure for ALL of my characters before the credits rolled. Instead, I got the cinematic equivalent of a pat on the back. Come on! This isn’t a movie. This at least 10 times longer than a movie. Than why is my ending as long as one for an hour and a half film?

Red Dead Redemption had one of the best endings I’ve ever seen in a game, mostly because it was so long, and really went out of its way to give as much closure as possible.

True…the ‘real’ ending does take some of the starch out of the idea, but I still think the next installment will be darker. retribution sounds about right.

I hope not. After the true ending of the single player campaign, I wasn’t interested in continuing any further with what I was given.

Haven’t beat it yet (I swear I’m going to this weekend), but I’m a big fan of Red Dead Retribution. Maybe I should finish it before forming an opinion. I’ve somehow managed to make it this long without knowing a single thing about the end.

No spoilers, but if the sequel isn’t called Red Dead Revenge, I’ll be shocked.

All of the redickolous stuff on teh interwebs aside, the “broken” things I was referring to are:

-The driving/horse-riding mechanics are terrible
-The dueling system is completely obtuse
-The targeting is ok for the most part, but finds the least opportune times to target the least opportune target
-There is a major storyline disconnect in the 2nd half of the game (no spoilers here)
-When setting up camp, it’s completely frozen on me twice

That said, one of my favorite games of the year. I just wish Rockstar weren’t such sloppy programmers.

So far, my favorite thing about Red Dead is seeing all the different ways people spell the protagonist’s name online.

I’ve been looking for a good “transitional” board game for me and my son to get into. I’d like a good dungeon-crawler like HeroQuest. Any recommendations?

I’m considering picking up that Space Alert game per @beige’s recommendation. Jonathon knows his stuff and if it’s something he digs too, I’m on board.

I completed the single player story on Red Dead Redemption yesterday. John Marsden has earned his spot as my favorite video game protagonist yet. I absolutely appreciated every minute I spent walking in his boots and cry a little tear that there aren’t more video game characters like him.

Just for you fellows high on Western themes at the moment, be it via Red Dead or Lead & Gold (seriously…this game has dragged me away from Lost Planet 2 multi!?)…some guy contacted me about his three man outfit The Sunset Park Riders and their album “Showdown At The BK Corral” – allegedly the world’s first Western Concept Rap Album. Ahem.

It’s a pay what you want kinda deal – free if you want – but well worth a couple of coins. If you imagine Beastie Boys meets Sergio Leone, quite nice downtempo stuff. Pishu might of know them, they’re from Brooklyn.

http://bit.ly/b8oIGC

@scribl Every level of the single player campaign is played with 3 Transformers. The game actually makes it seem as though it was designed to be played co-op, as the AI on the other 2 bots just sort of stand there and act like toasters. So, I guess in a sense, the campaign is supposed to be 3-player co-op, but you can play with 2 AI bots.

As for the earthquake?

I was at work in Baltimore, MD and felt the tremor. It wasn’t big (news said somewhere around a 3) but as someone who has grown up in the South most of my life, it was a weird-ass feeling. A bit like vertigo, or spending a week on a cruise ship and then stepping on dry land.

@Roc I actually enjoy skinning the horses that I accidentally steer off of a cliff edge, hurtling it toward its death.

I’m a big fan of RDR. It fixes a lot of what was wrong, technically and story-wise, with GTA IV. Plus, I’ve always wanted a Western game, and this really scratches that itch.

Knife-fighting cougars and skinning the fur from their corpses makes me giggle. Yep, Red Dead’s got what I need.

@RedSwir1 Nope.

About Red Dead guys, just tell me this: does it still suffer from the same control and mechanical problems as all Rockstar’s other sandbox games? Because if it does, I seriously question whether I’ll actually be able to play through it.

I found the PS2 Grand Theft Auto games to be completely unplayable. Great atmosphere, great writing, good characters, a lot to do, engrossing worlds, but unplayable controls and mechanics.

Not only do I find the controls unwieldy, but I also can’t stand the save and continue system. It’s great for just messing around, but as soon as I try to actually do a task in GTA, everything falls apart. Maybe you guys can put up with that stuff to enjoy the excellent points, but I can’t, and not for lack of trying.

I was able to will myself through Bully for the same merits and the fact that it focused more on polish than sheer breadth, but it is the only Rockstar sandbox game I’ve played to any sense of completion. GTA IV has felt just polished enough for me to actually be able to play it, but only with enormous frustration balanced out by the aforementioned good points. The save system was improved slightly, but is still utterly useless.

Does Red Dead suffer from the same problems? If it does I honestly doubt I’ll finish it.

@RocGaude RDR put on a massive back-order that would have been shipped…hell…I dunno, sometime in the next few months (my cost-cutting measures meant an Asian version from Play-Asia). I sadly cancelled it under the realisation that I’d heard everyone say everything they possibly could about the game so a lot of the surprise was spoiled (my own fault for not skipping through all the drivetime podcasts I listen to) and also to transfer it over to a RUSE preorder for PS3.

Maybe down the trail, though. If things didn’t take so long to get here, I wouldn’t have cancelled…although, things being what they are, I dunno how much time one has for a huge sandbox – especially in the coming months. I’ve let Squad Leader down!

@papapishu @unmanneddrone …and anyone else who has Red Dead Redemption on the PS3. Where you at?

I wanted, so much, to get into Alan Wake and put some more time into Blur, but I found myself putting Red Dead Redemption back into the disk drive and playing for four hours without ever completing a storyline mission.

I can’t quite figure out why, but I’m fine with all of that wasted time. I think Rockstar really hit it out of the park with this game and finally made the mature, adult game that they were looking for. It’s nice to play through a Rockstar-style game and not be surrounded by dick-and-fart jokes and constant death. Sure, Marston does his fair share of killing, but you can get through a majority of that game without putting a single bullet in someone.

I thought they were going down the dark path of GTA IV again when they introduced the character of Irish, but taking the setting into account, there really WERE characters like that in the “Old West”.

As for this week coming up, Transformers comes out on Tuesday, and the big-ol-Geek in me couldn’t be more excited. If anyone wants to run through the multiplayer with me, I’m on XBL (zegolf). That will be interspersed with more Red Dead and real life crap.

Also, Happy Father’s Day to any of the Dads that frequent the squawkbox. My hope is to get a crappy tie from my own kids sooner-than-later, so enjoy your day!

@papapishu: If you can wait until my back-order arrived, I’m up for some PS3 RDR posse fun.

@redredswirl depending on what mobile device you’re trying to post from, they should have an app. Android has one, and I’m fairly certain the iPhone does as well. I was able to link the Android app to this blog and post, edit and maintain from that. Sadly, the plugin associated with the theme doesn’t really turn it into a “mobile” website in the presence of a mobile browser. I guess you can’t win them all.

@beige So I haven’t left Texas yet. Are you saying you recommend actively seeking and completing the stranger missions?