Psionic’s PcGamer

Ah, Red Dead Redemption, you are so fantastic. All the hype this game has gotten and continues to receive is well-deserved. GTAIV is a great game in its’ own right, but RDR blows the replay value out of the water. I pre-ordered Red Dead Redemption from Gamestop for the special edition Outfit. Unfortunately for me, I had work to do, so I didn’t go to the release party and had to wait until Friday to sink my teeth into it.

There are countless blogs talking this game up, and as you can see in the previous paragraph this writer feels no different. The art, music, scene editing, storyline… absolutely breathtaking.

What I’d like to do is list my biggest pet peeves about RDR, not an original idea I’m sure, but I haven’t read any yet.

Your horse loves to go swimming!

OK, this can be funny, but seriously now. What happened, did we teach horses and cows to swim in the mid-1900s? I’ve whistled for my horse and watched him run straight into the water like he was a dolphin in a previous life or some shit. And he knows it will kill him, that bastard damn well knows. During a cutscene he walked right past me and an NPC to see what the end of a dock looks like. Me and a friend watched him take a 15-second cruise straight for the river with me chasing behind him whistling the entire time. He would not stop. We laughed for a good 10 minutes over it.

Now, the storyline is that the reason John Marsten can’t swim is he doesn’t know how… fair enough, Rockstar. But after the game is beaten, and water is not needed as a border any more, let’s get some Swimming Lessons event, ok? OK.

To Load, or not to Load, that is the question.

Being stuck at a Loading screen is never fun, this has happened maybe 10 times. Mostly, it involves switching between Multiplayer and Single Player modes from what I can tell, but it has happened in just Multiplayer. I foresee a patch fixing this in the near future.

Who on earth is talking to me?

To clarify, this is on the 360, so PS3 owners… ignore. Set up a Party Chat. Party Chat is buggy anyway I know, at least it is for me and my friends. Once you’re in Party Chat you can do a Free Roam, and you all can talk to each other. We were having dropped connections, people being removed from their Free Roam session, etc. I’d like to know if others experience the same.

So eventually, we switched to just using in-game chat. I couldn’t find a setting to only have your Posse be able to talk with each other, and I know for a fact every now and then random people, not in the posse, would be talking to us. It makes it very annoying to talk about a strategy when you’re after someone if they can hear you.

This may be easy to learn why, but this is a pet peeve article, I don’t have to be smart about it.

Achievement Whoring

That title is misleading, I see nothing wrong with achievement whoring. I just hate that, once again, there are no counters. How many bears have I killed? Have I done X event or Y event? Lots of games do this, and it may not be Rockstar’s fault at all, I’m not placing blame.

For the Flying Spaghetti Monster’s sake, add decent Achievement tracking.

You Can’t Swim

I seriously fucking hate this.

It’s like Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw said in his Assassin’s Creed review, Marsten is “hampered with a unique genetic birth defect that makes him fucking water soluble.”

“Possible Spoiler Alert”

When we left off I was on my way to the library. Well, the library ended up being a lot easier than I figured it was going to be. When I entered the library, I was greeted by a scholar of sorts and the mighty Brotherhood of Steel. Instead of just killing me and asking questions later, they pondered why I was there. I told them that I was a scholar myself and had come to bask in the fine books of knowledge that the library held. Knowing full well that after an apocalypse little if any books would still exist.

The BOS scholar asked me to collect and bring her any pre-war books that I may come across in the library as well as anywhere else. I agreed and went along to do my business. Once done there I finished that quest and headed off to Rivet City in search of an Android. In my search of finding anyone that may know anything about this android, I did happen to run across a man by the name of Mr. Zimmer. He happened to be the androids’ maker and wanted his investment back, with my help of course. I agreed and went off to find out more about this android.

Later in my search I was cornered by a lady claiming to be a part of some movement. She wanted me to tell Mr. Zimmer that I had found the android dead and to show him a piece that she provided that came directly from the android itself. I agreed and told Mr. Zimmer that I found the android dead and showed him the proof. Very displeased, Mr. Zimmer decided that my evidence was conclusive and proceeded to head back to his hometown in a mood of anger and disappointment. I never got to meet the android myself who was very much alive as you know. I hope that maybe one day I might be able to head back to that town and meet the “man” whose life I saved.

As I made my departure I remember a letter that a young lady back in Megaton wanted me to deliver to her family. I forget the name of the town but my next task is going there and when I get there, you will know. So until next time wastelanders, what adventure will unfold? Stay tuned…

I was hopefully one of the many that shelled out the mere $15 for Braid on XBLA. Well worth it.

There were several puzzles that were complicated more than you’d imagine.  There was one level that I thought was bugged cause the door would open then shut right away, waste your key, and make you have to restart the level.  As it turns out it’s the level where going backwards turns back time and back in time… the door is shut.

The last level was thought-provoking and exciting, I’ll never forget it.