So I recently turned 27 and as my friends all like to point out that now means I am entering my ‘late 20s’. I’m not one of those people that worry about aging, although I do like to joke about my mind starting to leave me and all the other joys associated with old age. In reality I’ve always looked older so now that I actually am older, it really doesn’t bother me. I had to start shaving in the 6th grade and I’ve hardly ever been ID’d at a bar or liquor store. Heck, when I was 16 I could walk into a gas station in the states and buy a beer without the clerk even batting an eye. This all makes me wonder what I’m going to look like when I’m in my 40s… If I looked 25 when I was 16 I’m kind of worried that by the time I’m 45 I’ll look like I should be in a retirement home…
Speaking of beer, I love how in America you can buy alcohol at gas stations. I also like how you can buy real guns at Wal-Mart down there. There’s nothing like having the ability to hop in a Ford F-350, buying and downing a couple of brewskis while you fill up the tank at the gas station before heading to the Super Wal-Mart to buy a new shotgun. Canada is sorely missing civil liberties like this, IMO.
Thought of the day: Do illiterate people get the full effect of Alphabet soup?
As many people know, I am a gamer so every now and then I will post some thoughts on games I’m currently playing or have recently played. Today I’d like to talk about quite possibly one of the most original and engaging games I’ve played in the last 5 years, Red Dead Redemption by Rockstar Games (same people that make the Grand Theft Auto games). This particular game puts you in the shoes, or rather boots, of a man named John Marston. John used to be an outlaw who ran with some bad men committing bank robberies, train raids, murders and other various crimes across the country.
After his gang left him for dead during a botched bank robbery, John decided to try and turn his life around. He disappeared and tried to settle down by getting married and starting a family. Sadly, he could never truly escape his past crimes and eventually the law caught up to him, kidnapped his family and forced him to track down and kill his old gang members in order to rescue his wife and son. I don’t want to give away anymore of the plot than that but needless to say, there is a fair share of killing and revenge involved in Red Dead (this is a Rockstar game after all). What I was most surprised and impressed with were the non-killing related missions and moments.
I’ve never had so much fun in a game like this without actually killing anything. I spent countless hours just roaming the country side looking for buried treasure, picking flowers (that I could sell for other goods) and just riding my horse across the plains of the US and Mexico, watching the sun rise and set. Heck I even spent a few nights just playing poker at the local saloon or a game of horseshoes with a drunkard in behind the sheriff’s office just for kicks! The game is massive and has something for just about everyone.
In the end it wasn’t the gameplay, the graphics or even the voice acting (which is unreal btw) that really got to me, it was the plot and story. There’s a section towards the end of the game (that I won’t give away here) that blew me away. You think the game is over and then bam, they throw a whole other section at you to get through. At the end when everything is all said and done I actually felt really connected to this character I had been playing for the previous few weeks and didn’t want everything to come to an end.
Anyways, if you are a gamer like me this is a can’t miss title. If you don’t like westerns get it anyways and I guarantee by the end you’ll want to start watching some of the greats like Clint Eastwood in the Man with No Names series, or John Wayne and James Stewart. It’s a landmark title from a video game developer usually only known for blood, guts and sex.
