we're transitioning from new graphics looking amazing to looking worse due to rapid approach to the uncanny valley.

or maybe these are just worse.

wolfenstien sure as hell looks better.

I had a really hard time getting into the first one. I stopped playing after a few hours...I just wasn't feeling it. All the long travel times, the clumsy "random" encounter shit, the really awkward attempts at taking the GTA4 combat system and moving it into the old West. I tried it again a few years later, but yeah...I just could not play it. A friend of mine said Undead Nightmare was pretty cool, but I always envied people who were enamored with the first one because I really wanted to like it, but couldn't.

Rockstar generally has a good reputation for fixing things about their games that were heavily criticized, so maybe this one will have some improvements and other bells and whistles that I'll dig, though I'm kinda disappointed that, in making this, Rockstar probably will never release anything else for GTA5 except updates to the online. It sucks because there was talk they were prepping a big DLC that would continue the story and actually be more cathartic (the GTA5 story is pretty lame by the time you get the end, I think most would agree) and they did some phenomenal work on those stand-alone GTA4 games. I hope we get something like that, because I think GTA5s world deserves more than just that shitty online mode.

I've been thinking about replaying the original RDR since I can't find anything new worth playing at the moment. I remember thinking it was alright but nowadays everyone loves it and hails it as one of the greatest games ever made, so maybe I need to try it again.

This looks cool I guess. It's hard to make me hyped anymore without showing me some gameplay.

i feel like im the only mother fucker stoked by the inclusion of bow and arrow, that was sorely missed from the first redemption (one of the things i missed from revolver)

RDR is decent. I'm replaying it now and about 80% into a 100% completion run. There's plenty to like about gameplay: Dead Eye, the mountains of shit to do that's actually worth pursuing, and the snap-to targeting. The environments don't look bad for a 720p PS3 game from 2010. John's walking movement is slow and clunky, but the horses control nice.

Where it falters is in the writing. Rockstar's scripts suck and they've always sucked. Their idea of a theme is beating a point to death over and over. Half the cutscenes in Mexico remind me that the army rapes women. The government is bad because rape and rape and rapeity rape, and the rebel leader is a womanizing asshole who is going to be inevitably worse but we have to kill Allende because rape. Then you get up north and meet Nastas the Native White Guilt Sockpuppet, whose every line is about the atrocities that continue to be dished out by the European scourge. Finally, the U.S. government is no better than murderous bandits. The U.S. government is no better than murderous bandits. The U.S. government is no better than murderous bandits.

Anyway, after over 100 hours in single player GTA V I finally concluded that it was a huge disappointment in too many ways. I'm hoping RDR 2 is a turning point in that regard, and that hopefully they won't leave a bunch of shit unpolished/broken in single player to work on some pointless MMO.