Canon Video Game Review: Red Dead Redemption (PS3)

Over the past month or so, I have found myself rather occupied by the 2010 western game for the PlayStation3 (as well as the XBOX 360), Red Dead Redemption. The sequel to Red Dead Revolver, Red Dead Redemption was developed and published by Rockstar Games, and is widely considered one of the best games to be released in 2010. After playing through the game myself, I find it hard to believe that there was another game released in 2010 that was better than Red Dead Redemption.

image courtesy of wikipedia.org

In Red Dead Redemption, you play as John Marston, a reformed outlaw who has been forced by the government to kill his former running mates in exchange for his family and to clear his name. Marston is sent to the territory of New Austin to kill his former friend Bill Williamson, but instead it is Marston that nearly dies. From there, Marston must rely on help from a wide variety of characters, from a ranch hand's daughter named Bonnie McFarlane, a snake oil salesman, an aging gunslinger now residing in Mexico, and a crazed treasure hunter who is not above digging up corpses in his never-ending search for treasure. The main storyline is quite immense, with 57 missions in all. While there is some variety in the missions, from herding cattle to racing horses, most of the missions usually end with John shooting at a whole bunch of people. It gets kind of repetitive after a while, but at least the missions have more variety than, say, GTA4. Also, there are a few 'stranger' missions, in which Marston encounters a series of random characters and tries to help them out in some way, from giving a sick person medicine to convincing a man not to cheat on his wife. These stranger missions are a nice diversion to the main storyline, and add some variety to the game.

What separates Red Dead Redemption from other western games is all the things that you can do outside of the storyline. Players can wander the great outdoors, from the deserts of Mexico to the forests up north, and hunt down a variety of animals, from wolves to rabbits to bears. Skinning those animals will give your player meat and fur to sell to shops around the area in exchange for money, as will plants that you can pick up along the way. Also, a number of random events can occur during the game, from a person having their horse stolen or having a relative captured and hung by outlaws. If you choose to do so, you can help out these people in need and build up your honor and fame ratings. Although all the random events can be a little annoying at times if you really want to go somewhere, it does break the monotony of the game outside the story. There are also a number of parlor games to play, from poker to blackjack and five finger-fillet, which I wasn't good at at all.

The controls to Red Dead Redemption are rather straightforward and easy to master. Gunfights are quite well done here, and the 'dead-eye' meter allows you to slow down time and pick apart your enemies until the meter runs out. The hand-to-hand combat in this game is a little awkward at best, and the dueling system in this game was a bit confusing at times to me, but overall the game has smooth controls. Graphically, the game is superb, as the old west setting looks spectacular and the character models are nicely rendered. The one problem with the graphics is that you will get glitches from time to time. For example, I was in the middle of the road one time and all of a sudden a chair appears. As for the sound, Red Dead Redemption features one of the best scores I've ever heard from a video game, as the soundtrack is reminiscent of an Enrico Morricone scored western. Also, the sound effects of guns, animals, and trains, etc, as well as the voice acting, are all top notch.

Overall, I have very few bones to pick with this game. Red Dead Redemption is a top-notch game with a variety of activities to do and a great storyline to boot. True, some of the missions can be repetitive, and you may not like a lot of the characters who you're forced to work with (personally, I couldn't stand Nigel, or De Santa, among others) but if you can get past those problems, then you'll invest hours and hours of time into this game and never get bored. This is easily the best western video game of all time, and one of Rockstar's stronger efforts. I'd give Red Dead Redemption a 9.3 out of 10. Well, thanks for reading, and if you any ideas for future posts, or thoughts about this post, than either leave a comment on the blog or send them to me at e-mail at KtheC2001@gmail.com.

Canon Movie Review: Once Upon a Time in the West

After watching the horror that is Red Zone Cuba, I decided to cleanse my cinematic palette and watch a movie I had wanted to see for quite a while, but for some reason I never got around to it. That movie is Sergio Leone's 1968 classic Once Upon a Time in the West. Once Upon a Time in the West stars Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson, and is considered to be one of, if not the greatest western movie of all time. Well, I can't claim that for sure, but I will say that Once Upon a Time in the West definitely should be in the conversation for best western ever, as well as for the best movie of the 1960s. A few notes from the film.

- The movie stars Henry Fonda as Frank, an old-style gunfighter whose trying to become more of a businessman, but his penchant for violence always comes out in the end. Frank, to be frank, is a sadistic killer, not caring who he kills or hurts, no matter how young or old they may be. At the beginning of the movie, Frank wipes out an entire family, including a 10-year old boy, without any regard towards his victims. This is such a shocking role for Henry Fonda, whom before this movie had never played a villain in a movie before. Fonda himself almost didn't take the role due to having to play the bad guy, but he did, and quite frankly, Fonda was the perfect choice for this role.
- Charles Bronson plays the hero in this movie, a man simply known as Harmonica. Why is he known as Harmonica, you ask? Well because he's always playing one, for reasons unknown to everyone he encounters. Harmonica is what young people would call a "bad-ass", a quick shot who often drops two or three foes before one of them can get a shot off. The introduction to Harmonica establishes his credibility right there, as he drops three of Frank's men on the deck of a train station.
- Jason Robards plays an outlaw named Cheyenne, who is framed for the murders Frank committed. Cheyenne meets Harmonica in a bar in one of the two best scenes in the movie. Even though not a lot is said in the scene, you can cut the tension with a knife, and Leone and the actors do a magnificent job of portraying the proper message and the level of emotion even though only a few lines were spoken. Just a great scene.
- Remarkably, the scene I just described was cut out of the original American release of the film, along with a couple of other essential scenes. The cutting of these scenes led the movie to feel a bit incomplete, and the theatrical release was actually a giant flop in America. Now it's regarded as a classic and essential viewing for movie lovers of all sorts, but in 1969, it was just a long, boring movie. Perhaps in 40 years time, people will look at Paul Blart: Mall Cop as a cinematic classic.
- It would be a mistake if I ignored Claudia Cardinale's performance as Jill McBain, a lady from New Orelans who had just come to town to settle with her new husband and his family, only to find out they have been brutally murdered by Frank, as it turns out. Cardinale does an excellent job in portraying McBain, a woman obviously saddened by her loss but also is a woman that will stoop to any low in order to save her own life. Unlike most westerns, which feature one-dimensional women characters, McBain is a person of many layers, a woman that tries to do the best with what she has been dealt with, even if it may not seem to be morally correct. As she puts it, she's "not a poor, defenseless widow".
- One of the most remarkable aspects of this film is the score, conducted by Italian composer Ennio Morricone. The music not only fit the movie, it lifted it to a whole other level, particularly the track "Man with a Harmonica", which plays whenever Bronson is on screen. It also is played during the climatic scene, and helps make that scene not only the best of the movie, but in my opinion, one of the best scenes of all time.

Overall, I would recommend that everyone see this movie at least one time in their lives. It is just awesome, and I can't see much that they could have improved on. I must warn you that the pace is a little slow, but to me it doesn't take away from the movie at all and serves to build up a huge level of suspense and intrigue. I'll give this movie a 9.425 out of 10.