Internet. Serious Business.

I’m not going to get real into the technical aspects of it all. Just talk about my impressions having played through the game and done quite a bit of multi-player so far. This is for the PS3 version BTW, so I have no idea if the 360 looks better, or runs better, and I don’t care. If it is multi-platform the golden rule is that the 360 always looks better so if you are anal about minor differences go research that garbage yourself.

First and foremost, when you first start this game I’d say it is brilliant. Amazing atmosphere, some great locations, and great entertainment value. The world is very well done in that it feels like the west. Like a cowboy game. Riding a horse feels fantastic and the little towns look just like you would expect from a western. Almost all the buildings are enterable. This should be the case because towns are so small. Hotels, Saloons, etc. with old and contemporary furniture.

Comedy in this game is top notch. From the hookers in the towns commenting as you walk by with “I can’t stand to see a man with a dry pecker. Can I help?” to every other random encounter you come a crossed. There are some very funny situations in this game.

For about the first 20-30 hours the game is one you can’t put down. If you are an explorer you realize quickly that there are quite a few time killing challenges that you may want to get into. Hunting, PICKING FLOWERS (yes, this is real), Texas Hold ‘em and many casino games/mini-games. Hunting is by far the most interesting as there are a few dozen different animals you can go out and kill and skin. Cougars, Wolves, Coyotes, Armadillos, Rabbits, Elk, Bears, and even Buffalo to name a few. Early on the hunting isn’t too dangerous, but when you start running into pack so wolves, or that first cougar you quickly realize that you don’t really ever want to walk away from the game without pausing it. The wilderness is dangerous, and I can say with certainty that early on the only thing that ever killed me were the animals.

The missions aren’t bad. You have the standard R* story missions of go here, and kill everyone. You also have a bunch of side missions for “Strangers” that get rather strange at times. Beastiality anyone?

On top of those two types of missions there seem to be about 50 or so random encounters you can run into. Things such as a woman calling for help only to be a trick where bandits jump out of a wagon and open fire on you with the intent to rob/kill you. Chasing down a horse thief. Helping marshalls run down convicts. Quite a few others that are less involved, but most certainly strange.

While the missions aren’t bad they seem to go on FOREVER. This isn’t a good thing. As you get towards the end, or at least think it is the end, it feels like every mission is completely pointless. When you think you have finally gotten to the end you are sidetracked. They throw some ridiculous other mission tree in there that makes little to no sense, and then you go out and do the same thing 5 missions in a row only to be back where you started. This game definitely DRAGGED on for too long from the story standpoint IMO unnecessarily. Story was perfectly fine, just getting there was a pain.

I’m not sure how this is for everyone,b ut after about 40 hours of playing and screwing around my game became incredibly buggy. Not fun buggy either like the amazing glitches in these videos:

It just started freezing quite a bit more. Even with deletion and reinstall of Utility Data.

Online is pretty barren most of the time. Freeroam is boring as hell usually unless you start doing the challenges. There are a good 50 more challenges online that aren’t in the single player game so it is well worth your time to jump online to play these when you get a little bored. Not many fun games online at all. Of course R* is releasing a FREE Co-op this month for online for missions so that is cool. It just seems like there isn’t a lot to do. Attack gang hideouts, or play competitive matches of few options.

I’d give this game an 8.5/10. I thought about going lower since it really got buggy after a while, and the never-ending missions really got to me at the end, but the game could be patched in some areas that may help and the game is really fun overall. Tall Trees, the most beautiful area in the game looks the worst of any area. The rendering of the graphics on the PS3 are just awful. Like headache inducing awful at times. This game needs a patch BAD.

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