During an investors call today, GameStop executive VP of Merchandise and Markerting Tony Bartel mentioned that the company's recent earnings had been boosted by a title that apparently wasn't expected to be such a powerhouse. "Red Dead Redemption has been one of the very positive surprises," Bartel explained. "It probably has outperformed as large as any title has so far year-to-date." (Redemption was released this week, so presumably Bartel is largely referring to pre-order figures.)
This is simply a beautiful game, and it's provided more than a few moments where I completely forgot where the hell I was supposed to be going while riding over golden hills at sunset or through the desert in the middle of a nighttime lightning storm. It doesn't quite convey the loneliness of the real empty spaces, but does compress the essence of all the varieties of land and weather native to those parts into a few hundred miles ride.
Arguably Rockstar's finest effort to date, Red Dead Redemption does an exquisite job of capturing the iconic essence of the Wild West, presenting one of the most engaging and enjoyable open-world climates in recent memory with the dusty plains of New Austin.
With high noon duels, lawless frontiers, and gruff leading men, the Western genre seemingly has all the essential pieces to make a smooth transition into video games. But as past six-shooters like Dead Man’s Hand, Call of Juarez, Gun, and Red Dead Revolver found out, dressing your scruffy hero in a duster and giving him a revolver isn’t enough to captivate audiences accustomed to firing rocket-propelled grenades and light machine guns...
With the hope of establishing Red Dead Redemption as a franchise as big as Grand Theft Auto, Rockstar will promote the game with it's largest pre-launch television advertising campaign and it's first-ever cinema advertising campaign.
Rockstar San Diego is kicking the dirt off its boots and returning to the American west with Red Dead Redemption. Developed using Rockstar's proprietary RAGE engine, the sequel to 2004's Red Dead Revolver promises an open-world complete with "strong plotlines in a massive vibrant, rural environment" when it pulls into town this fall for both the PS3 and 360.
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