I wanted this game from the first time I heard about it, and now that we've got it, I am completely hooked, addicted, and can't wait to get my hands back on it from the moment I put it down (which is usually when Dave says 'it's 1AM and we have to work tomorrow - come to bed!')
It's a cowboy game, and I'll admit, my favorite part is that you get to ride horses - a lot! It's by the people who made Grand Theft Auto, and we really enjoyed those games, running around in a free world, doing whatever struck your interest. This one is the same. There are missions to do, usually presented by someone coming up and asking you to do something. It feels very natural. I've been rounding up cattle, chasing down rustlers, and breaking wild horses - too much fun! Your faithful steed (once he trusts you) comes when you whistle :) But you have to be careful not to get horse-jacked while out wandering around in the wilderness!
The AI that controls the horses has led to a couple funny situations. In one mission, I was on a posse and dismounted and snuck up with the rest of the posse to peek over the rocks and see what the bad guys were doing, and at the bottom of the screen I see these two horse ears - I look behind me and there's my faithful horse, following right along! On another mission I retrieved a lady's stolen wagon, and brought it back to her, whistling for my horse to follow. When I got it back to her and got out of the wagon, she was about to give me my reward when my horse tried to go between the wagon and the horse pulling it and knocked it over, and so the lady instead ran off into the desert crying about how her wagon was destroyed! I love it when a game is so open that situations you would never expect happen!
Along with wandering around in the free form world, missions occasionally break into cinematic cut-scenes so pretty you'd think you were watching a movie. The graphics outside of the cut scenes are just as nice, it really feels like you're controlling a movie (if this was a movie I'd probably give it an R for violence and language). Having been raised with video games from the time of PONG, it makes me wonder how much more realistic can they get?! This game is just immersive, to the point you feel like you're living in a spaghetti western. You can play your character good and accumulate honor, or play him bad and end up with a bounty on your head, and the game is going to have different challenges depending on which way you play, so I can already see this game is going to keep me entertained for quite a long time. What more could a geek girl want? :)
When Dave plays games he always tries all the unexpected things and does stuff the game designers never intended. It will be great fun to see what he does with this one!
_
It's a cowboy game, and I'll admit, my favorite part is that you get to ride horses - a lot! It's by the people who made Grand Theft Auto, and we really enjoyed those games, running around in a free world, doing whatever struck your interest. This one is the same. There are missions to do, usually presented by someone coming up and asking you to do something. It feels very natural. I've been rounding up cattle, chasing down rustlers, and breaking wild horses - too much fun! Your faithful steed (once he trusts you) comes when you whistle :) But you have to be careful not to get horse-jacked while out wandering around in the wilderness!
The AI that controls the horses has led to a couple funny situations. In one mission, I was on a posse and dismounted and snuck up with the rest of the posse to peek over the rocks and see what the bad guys were doing, and at the bottom of the screen I see these two horse ears - I look behind me and there's my faithful horse, following right along! On another mission I retrieved a lady's stolen wagon, and brought it back to her, whistling for my horse to follow. When I got it back to her and got out of the wagon, she was about to give me my reward when my horse tried to go between the wagon and the horse pulling it and knocked it over, and so the lady instead ran off into the desert crying about how her wagon was destroyed! I love it when a game is so open that situations you would never expect happen!
Along with wandering around in the free form world, missions occasionally break into cinematic cut-scenes so pretty you'd think you were watching a movie. The graphics outside of the cut scenes are just as nice, it really feels like you're controlling a movie (if this was a movie I'd probably give it an R for violence and language). Having been raised with video games from the time of PONG, it makes me wonder how much more realistic can they get?! This game is just immersive, to the point you feel like you're living in a spaghetti western. You can play your character good and accumulate honor, or play him bad and end up with a bounty on your head, and the game is going to have different challenges depending on which way you play, so I can already see this game is going to keep me entertained for quite a long time. What more could a geek girl want? :)
When Dave plays games he always tries all the unexpected things and does stuff the game designers never intended. It will be great fun to see what he does with this one!
_
