Looks like a mod added "Video Game" to my thread title ... as if to say "STAY AWAY" to people who aren't gamers who might actually be interested in a groundbreaking title.
And I'll bite my tongue until I play it, but I highly doubt visual delights will be all it has to offer. From what's been shown, they've taken leaps to produce some of the greatest character performances ever put into a game ... and the turnout of talent relfects that. (John Noble from Fringe and Lord of the Rings looks and moves exactly like himself in the game.)
Yeah, that's definitely something that's been tempting me. What buzz I've heard about this makes it sound far less...I dunno...aimless than GTA4 and more tightly structured.
My three big gripes with GTA4 were:
1.) The controls SUCKED. Calling them "sluggish" would be generous.
2.) When playing certain missions, they were HEAVILY scripted. There was no way to "solve" the mission other than EXACTLY what the developers wanted you to do. If you're supposed to have a big dramatic rooftop showdown with a dude, he will be invincible until he gets to the rooftop, even if you manage to get off a shot at him. For an allegedly "sandbox openworld ZOMG!!11!!" game, that was a serious black mark against it.
3.) The "sandbox" element didn't even do much for me. I didn't really care that I could go play darts with my annoying cousin, nor that I could shoot pigeons and whatnot. It was fun to jack a car now and then and go drive around town randomly, but the controls still made that annoying, and after a while it just felt pointless. Admittedly, I never got creative like "let's see if I can launch this Mack truck across the screen with a swingset" or "How many hookers can I light on fire today?"
It struck me that they spent so much time trying to make the world seem "alive" (and still failed, as far as I was concerned), and giving you so many minigames to do that they ended up not doing a good job with the core of the game.
I haven't played Red Dead Redemption, so I don't know if they've progressed, but I will admit that the lure of 1940s L.A. is strong, and the cast and apparent attention to creating a real noire feel is very very tempting. I'm just gunshy from GTA4 (especially after all the ridiculous hype it received...).
