Red Dead Redemption -- Initial Impression.

These initial impressions of Red Dead Redemption are intentionally a couple days late. I decided to jump into the online half of the game before the single-player half. The opposite of what I'd usually do. I've been playing games online enough to know that most of the time the first day's experience is going to be rife with technical issues until they've gotten the chance to work out the server side kinks. Red Dead Redemption was no exception. In fact, it was probably the worst offender I've ever seen. Or not seen, as the case may be. My character, his weapon, and horse all took turns being invisible. My character is there, but his guns aren't. Now my horse is gone. My gun came back but now my character is invisible. Other glitches included not being able to plant the bombs to end a hideout mission. Not being able to end another hideout mission because you have to kill every last guy but one of them has somehow worked his way under the game world beyond your reach. Worst of all were the constant disconnections and losing posse members. Some stranger joins the game, off goes a friend. It was not fun. It was this way for the first two days. The servers stabilized a considerable bit on the third. There are still technical issues, but they seem to be on the way out. Which is welcome news. As the game is proving to be great fun otherwise. Red Dead Redemption was developed by Rockstar San Diego with some help by Rockstar North and was published by Rockstar Games. I'll be playing the Xbox 360 version of the game. The brothers Houser are absolutely in love with twentieth century America. They've given us open world epics revolving around crime and the teenage years and this time they're giving us the end of the old west. The time where the federal government and encroaching technology finally tame the west. Red Dead Redemption offers up a free roam world heavily influenced by the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone, The Wild Bunch, Deadwood, Tombstone, Unforgiven, and more. The online offers up the entire world in a mode appropriately called free roam. Free roam comes in two varieties, private and public. You're able to join with other players in posses. You can do your own thing, which include challenges like hunting, gathering, and sharpshooting. Or you can work together to take out a gang hideout or deal with another posse. You can also try your luck at taking on the law. Rockstar is offering up everything you've ever seen in all the classic westerns. I've spent over twenty-four hours playing Red Dead Redemption online and I've yet to even touch the single-player game. It's proven great fun in spite of the hideous server issues. It's safe to say we've got a winner, and a serious Game of the Year contender. The only question for me is just how many hours is this game going to suck out of my life.

Monster Hunter Tri -- Final Opinion.

Tomorrow's impending releases pretty much insure that's all she wrote on Monster Hunter Tri. I'm just a couple hours shy of having put two-hundred hours into the title. Monster Hunter Tri is a title that you want to love in spite of the game doing everything in the world possible to make sure you don't. As I said previously, for every taste of satisfaction you get from the game you'll have to have also swallowed some serious frustration. The bad design choices and the awful collision detection start to drain on you the more you play the game until it feels like you have to fight for any satisfaction in the game. And it gets so bad that it genuinely started to feel like a war of attrition. About halfway through the online game it starts having you repeat everything you've already done. Even if it weren't for the impending releases of Alan Wake and Red Dead Redemption we'd probably would have stopped there. But as I said before, you want to love it. I mean there is something there. You don't put in two-hundred hours without something being there. I just wish it didn't feel like it came at such a cost. I will be interested in looking at whatever is Monster Hunter Next. Especially if they continue to improve it. There is potential greatness somewhere beneath the bullshit of that much I'm sure. They just haven't found it yet. They need to look into not punishing the player at every turn. They need to ditch the posing. They need to fix the collision detection. They need to balance the game so it can at least see fairness somewhere far off in the distance. A monster shouldn't be able to combo you to death from full health because of pure bullshit. Monster Hunter can be saved. But what are the odds that Capcom would mess with success in Japan? Especially when it seems that success in Japan has become very hard to come by even for Japanese developers. I'm giving Monster Hunter Tri a 7.

Monster Hunter Tri -- Update.

I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth. I've merely put in a hundred and fifty hours plus into Monster Hunter Tri. I believe I can safely say I've never played a more schizophrenic game in my life. It's split right down the middle between gratification and frustration. Tackling a monster rewards you with immense feelings of satisfaction. But it seems to be because of what you have to put up with getting there. The game has serious balance and fairness issues as well as some of the worst collision detection and design choices I've seen in a long time. The worst offender is the collision detection. It would be okay if it were at least constant. It isn't. You will take hits that clearly you shouldn't have. You can be in the exact same place one time and you'll take damage and then the next you won't. So you can't even adjust because it's entirely random. Some of the design choices come off as seemingly just wanting to punish the player. After using a potion for example, the character does a muscle man pose. Right there in the middle of battle. It's only a second, but it stops you from being able to do anything until it's over. You can't use an item if you have your weapon drawn. You can't run if you have your weapon drawn. Now imagine if you're fighting the collision detection as well as fighting a monster. So you take some cheap shot you shouldn't have. You need to heal, but first you'll have to put your weapon away, but you can't put your weapon away because the unfair aspect of the game comes into play and the creature is instantly attacking you again after its original attack. They can do that. They can string together a combo that can be fatal anytime they wish. Oh, you're supposed to be invincible during the dodge roll to avoid attacks. But that's like a third-of-a-second window. See the game is actually balanced with four player online in mind. The creature is thrashing about wildly as if there were four players surrounding it. I've seen a lot of Capcom going on about how proud they are of the game's ecosystem. They shouldn't be. It's awful. I'll give you real life example. You're in the woods and you see three of four beavers. You smile and are like oh look at those beavers. Then comes along a grizzly bear. The bear roars and begins to chase and attack you as if you had just shit in its breakfast. Now this is somewhat understandable. But it's absolutely asinine for the beavers to join in attacking you while their natural predator is on a rampage. You see, the beavers should freaking flee in terror. But that's not what happens in Monster Hunter Tri. Every little annoying son of a bitch creature in the game ignores its natural instincts and wages an all out war against you. Couple that with the hideous collision detection, the balance issues, and the unfair multiple attacks and you can begin to see how much pure satisfaction one might feel at having overcoming such bullshit. I mean, this is one of those games that can get Magus so riled up that he begins to speak gibberish. More to come on Monster Hunter Tri...