Rockstar Asks For Favorable Reviews

[mkreku]

For me, the problem with GTA4's driving physics isn't that it's difficult (it's really not). It just isn't fun anymore. And I hate that people refer to them as more realistic now. They're not! They're still ****ed up, only in another way. Like, how every car now behaves as if you're driving it on ice.. or as if you had thrusters underneath your car that made it lose grip constantly. Try driving 30km/h and apply the brakes. Your car will slide for like 50 meters! On asphalt! Or how the cars in the game are actually physically incapable of having a less than 100 meter turning radius.. Disturbs me to no end.

 

Every driving physics can be handled by getting used to it. But some driving physics feel natural, responsive and fun from the start. Some don't. For me, GTA4 fell into the don't faction.

[GreasyDogMeat]

Red Red Redemption might lose some sales because of that (among many other things like unpopular time frame for the setting and low quality IP ).

Is the wild west really an 'unpopular time frame'? Am I the only one here who grew up on movies like The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, Fist Full of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More? I think the wild west is a fantastic setting for games. Then again, most wild west games have been average at best. The best western games I've played have been Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, Gun & LucasArts' Outlaws. Of those, Outlaws was the only outstanding game for it's time. The other two were enjoyable but flawed games.

 

From all I've seen so far, I think RDR is going to be the best western game to date. Admittedly, not a major feat considering it's competition.

[Niten_Ryu]

Is the wild west really an 'unpopular time frame'? Am I the only one here who grew up on movies like The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, Fist Full of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More?

 

Just look when those movies were made (those days it was a really popular genre). These movies are also some of my favs but I only remember Unforgiven from recent years and even that movie was made in 1992. Bud Spencer and Terrance Hill probably destroyed Wild West for good

 

Deadwood was great series on HBO but despite the awards and awesome cast, it only last 3 seasons.

[Morgoth]

Maverick (1994?) I thought was pretty funny. Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster were totally hilarious.

[Amentep]

Shanghai Noon (2000)

The Claim (2000)

South of Heaven, West of Hell (2000)

Texas Rangers (2001)

American Outlaws (2001)

Dust (2001)

Shanghai Knights (2003)

The Missing (2003)

Open Range (2003)

Blueberry (2004)

The Alamo (2004)

The Legend of Zorro (2004)

The Proposition (2005)

Bandidas (2006)

Seraphim Falls (2006)

Sukiyaki Western Django(2007)

3:10 From Yuma (2007)

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

Appaloosa (2008)

 

I stuck with westerns I'd heard of from the 2000s

Edited April 29, 2010 by Amentep

[RPGmasterBoo]

Western is practically a dead (movie) genre, which the list above shows. A few decades ago they were made in spades, now its down to what, two a year? Half of which are parodies.

 

Its hardly surprising that so few wild west themed games are made.

[Amentep]

Western is practically a dead (movie) genre, which the list above shows. A few decades ago they were made in spades, now its down to what, two a year? Half of which are parodies.

 

Its hardly surprising that so few wild west themed games are made.

 

There were 256 movies classed as "Westerns" since 2000 on IMDB. But it includes a HUGE amount of direct to DVD fare, and horror-westerns, softcore-westerns, foreign westerns and modern westerns (rodeos, pickup trucks etc). I tried to stick with films I'd heard of and that had some semblance of a national release and that were also period pieces without majorly overt supernatural elements.

 

There are only two films on that list that I know could be considered comedies - Shanghai Noon and Shanghai Knights (although arguably Legend of Zorro was pretty tongue in cheek). The rest of the films are fairly serious to my knowledge (I haven't seen them all).

 

At any rate, I'm not entirely sure what it has to do with games where the genres really haven't ebbed and flowed with movies. I think the big problem with Western games is that there haven't been very many good ones in recent years (even still, I'm pretty sure the original Red Dead Revolver did fairly well, and I've heard Gun did too).

 

Westerns used to be made in spades in movies, its true, but most of them were "B" movies (if you look at the prestige pics of the period, westerns aren't as big). The loss of double features and drive-ins, the changing market and the economy all led to Westerns being made at a slower pace (and the popularity of the genre in Italy in the 60s and 70s meant US studios didn't need to make them, just buy the rights, dub and release). The Majors still did make westerns but the Heaven's Gate fiasco slowed those productions down as well (and yet you still got the occasional western like Silverado before another boom period came in the 90s).

 

Is the genre as big as it used to be? No. But it still plugs along (supernatural-western Jonah Hex looks to be the next big release in June)

 

Of course I'm a bit biased, I'd love a Deadlands video game.

[Hurlshort]

GUN was pretty good.

 

The Western genre isn't dead, it just isn't the behemoth it once was. There are also quite a few modern Westerns out there, I'm really enjoying the new FX show Justified. There are also spades of successful Western mini-series in the last decade or so.

 

Blockbusters may be few and far between, but that has more to do with the rise of sci-fi.

[RPGmasterBoo]

Western is practically a dead (movie) genre, which the list above shows. A few decades ago they were made in spades, now its down to what, two a year? Half of which are parodies.

 

Its hardly surprising that so few wild west themed games are made.

 

There were 256 movies classed as "Westerns" since 2000 on IMDB. But it includes a HUGE amount of direct to DVD fare, and horror-westerns, softcore-westerns, foreign westerns and modern westerns (rodeos, pickup trucks etc). I tried to stick with films I'd heard of and that had some semblance of a national release and that were also period pieces without majorly overt supernatural elements.

 

There are only two films on that list that I know could be considered comedies - Shanghai Noon and Shanghai Knights (although arguably Legend of Zorro was pretty tongue in cheek). The rest of the films are fairly serious to my knowledge (I haven't seen them all).

 

At any rate, I'm not entirely sure what it has to do with games where the genres really haven't ebbed and flowed with movies. I think the big problem with Western games is that there haven't been very many good ones in recent years (even still, I'm pretty sure the original Red Dead Revolver did fairly well, and I've heard Gun did too).

 

Westerns used to be made in spades in movies, its true, but most of them were "B" movies (if you look at the prestige pics of the period, westerns aren't as big). The loss of double features and drive-ins, the changing market and the economy all led to Westerns being made at a slower pace (and the popularity of the genre in Italy in the 60s and 70s meant US studios didn't need to make them, just buy the rights, dub and release). The Majors still did make westerns but the Heaven's Gate fiasco slowed those productions down as well (and yet you still got the occasional western like Silverado before another boom period came in the 90s).

 

Is the genre as big as it used to be? No. But it still plugs along (supernatural-western Jonah Hex looks to be the next big release in June)

 

Of course I'm a bit biased, I'd love a Deadlands video game.

 

256 movies isn't much if its true US production of feature films is around 2000 titles per year. That would make it 1% of all movies made in that decade.

 

Perhaps a better evaluation would be that the Western is no longer a particularly influential or innovative movie genre (somewhat like sci fi, unfortunately) if you look at the number of influential/great directors working on it.

[Hurlshort]

I'd argue that sci-fi is the current king of movies. Star Wars, Avatar, Star Trek, The Matrix...these are gigantic properties.

[Calax]

GUN was pretty good.

Well, when you think about it, there isn't much that westerns can latch on to in the wild west. The guns don't lend themselves very well to run and gun gameplay of FPS, and there isn't exactly an RTS. A lot of Western themes are bundled into various RPGs (i think the japanese LOVE our wild west), and there are a few games like Gun and RDR that are trying to grab it, but there aren't really any beyond those mentioned here that are designed to be IN the american west, rather than borrow the aesthetic.

 

And Gun was good, just WAYYY to short.

[Walsingham]

There should be more games set in Afghanistan during the Great Game.

[mkreku]

The problem with all western based games for me is the weapons. To be able to match what you're used to from every other FPS already out there, they have to have an inventor who's come up with this totally absurd weapon prototype (for the setting anyhow). Either that or you'll walk around and feel handicapped with your six shot revolvers and Remington rifles.

[Blodhemn]

Not really. If the actual gunplay feels good and has realistic sound quality then it should be fine. But it would be cool to have a few "special invented" guns too if they're done right.

[Majek]

Mauser C96 is good enough for me. No need to invent anything new.

 

edit: As far as setting is concerned, i'll take this over modern settings or scifi future anytime, especially if they make a good game.

Edited May 2, 2010 by Majek

[HoonDing]

The only western game I'm familiar with, is Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist. But I'm wondering if this currently the only western videogame.

[Mamoulian War]

IIRC some games called Mad Dog Mc Cree with very questionable quality were set in the western setting

[Majek]

Hehehe that game was so bad i actually enjoyed playing it.

[GreasyDogMeat]

How could I forget the arcade games Sunset Riders and Blood Bros.

 

Best western games ever! Well... until Red Dead comes out...

[Blodhemn]

Outlaws was awesome. The music was such a Morricone ripoff but it just gave it that great atmosphere.

[Oner]

Best western game? Billy the Kid.

[GreasyDogMeat]

Outlaws was awesome. The music was such a Morricone ripoff but it just gave it that great atmosphere.

You know, even if Red Dead turns out as good as my wildest expectations it will still share one major blemish that all western games have... it wont have the soundtrack from the Dollars Trilogy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsMivr9zlk0

[Oerwinde]

Outlaws was awesome. The music was such a Morricone ripoff but it just gave it that great atmosphere.

You know, even if Red Dead turns out as good as my wildest expectations it will still share one major blemish that all western games have... it wont have the soundtrack from the Dollars Trilogy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsMivr9zlk0

 

After having to sit through them repeating the main theme for The Good The Bad and the Ugly over and over and over and over and over through the movie, I'm thankful for that.

[Blodhemn]

Ah those are some of the best movie theme tracks of all time. Nowadays it's just generic symphonic scores for the most part.

[Raithe]

Hey, who could forget Gun?

 

and the voice cast they had for it was amazingly western...

 

Kriss Kristofferson, Lance Henriksen, Ron Perlman, Tom Skerrit, Brad Dourif....