Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Red Dead Redemption goes Weird West!



Probably one of the best video games to come out in the past few years is Rockstar San Diego's Red Dead Redemption....When I say best video games, I mean it is an absolutely gorgeously executed work of art..that you can PLAY! The detail is awe inspiring, every tree has individual leaves, as do the plants, the lighting is magnificent and day changes into night in an incredibly realistic fashion. And the weather, sudden rainstorm create puddles on the roads, and flashes of lightning illuminates an entire valley of raindrops, and its all held together by an incredibly compelling protagonist and colorful cast of supporting characters.....if you haven't had a chance to play it yet you should, it stunning!

Now the good folks at Rockstar are about to make things all the more interesting with the Undead Nightmare Downloadable Content Pack. For those who dont know, a Downloadable Content Pack (or DLC for short) is newly created content that Rockstar has created for the game that that you download from the internet onto your Playstation 3 or XBox 360 console and the game seamlessly integrates it into itself. Parts of the game maps can be expanded, and new characters are added, and it will all feel as if that stuff has been apart of the game the whole time.

The Official word from Rockstar is this:

Today, we are proud to announce plans for an ongoing series of downloadable content for Red Dead Redemption.

Four packs of add-on downloadable content will be released for PlayStation Network and Xbox LIVE over the next few months, starting with the ‘Legends and Killers’ Pack at the beginning of August and culminating with the Red Dead Redemption ‘Undead Nightmare’ Pack this fall. These packs follow the recent release of the Free ‘Outlaws to The End’ Co-Op Mission Pack, which is available now on PlayStation Network and Xbox LIVE.


Undead Nightmare Pack
Ghost towns and cemeteries come alive in a West gone horribly wrong:

* Brand new single player adventure, Challenges and quests
* 8 New Multiplayer Zombie characters
* Additional animals unleashed in the world
* New Dynamic events
* More details to follow...
* Release date TBC
* Pricing: $9.99 (PlayStation Network), 800 Microsoft Points (Xbox LIVE)


Sounds Spectacular!

Theres no word yet about when it is coming out (besides Fall) but its assumed that the Zombie pack will be out around Halloween. I sure hope so, fighting undead Zombie cowboys sounds like a great way to spend the Holidays!

Now, of course Red Dead Redemption isn't necessarily a Weird West game, although elements of the Weird West have been snuck in (either intentionally or by accident). An old abandoned Mansion in the Ghost Town of Tumbleweed is said to be Haunted, voices can be heard in the Basement and, if the conditions are right, an apparition has been seen sitting in the dark (supposedly)

I will admit that last time I was there, I heard a dog barking....and there was no dog around...hmm

There is also supposedly a Werewolf in the area known as Tall Trees and an Undead Horse Mount you can obtain (by futzing with your game system...not advised)

On most occasions, however, the game tends to glitch, and it has happened often enough (and weirdly enough) that RDR glitches have become an entertaining past time. People have been seen flying in the air like birds, another person has been seen running around and attacking people like he was a cougar, and my 3 personal favorites:

Donkey Woman


The Gunslinger Dog!


So far info has been light on the new Undead Zombie Pack, but as soon as I hear something (and get my hands on some pictures) I'll post them here....but until then, get them firearms broke down and cleaned, there's gonna be some Zombie fightin' to do in the near future!

Monday, July 26, 2010

First Official Image for Cowboys and Aliens!



So, the San Diego Comic Convention is over but some good stuff came from it! Mostly, relating to this blog, John Favraeu and the cast of Cowboys and Aliens came to talk about the film. Some footage was shown (although not much since they've only been shooting for 4 weeks) and the first official image was released (which you can click on to make bigger).

The Panel consisted of Favraeu, Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, Adam Beach and Harrison Ford at his very first Comic Con ever (Apparently he was a little stunned at the reaction when he walked on stage)

Coming Soon.net was there at the panel, and wrote up a run down of the footage that was shown, and described it like this:

1) The first clip wasn’t super exciting and just featured a very grimy Daniel Craig ride up to a house on horseback, go inside and wash his face in the sink before inspecting a nasty wound on his stomach. He’s got a weird gold bracelet on his wrist. Before he could examine it closely, he’s stopped at gunpoint by none other than Clancy Brown who says only two people get shot like that: villains and victims. Craig says he doesn’t know which one he is.

2) Craig is sleeping in a jail cell when somebody spits on him from an adjacent cell. It’s Paul Dano, who taunts him and tells him he’s in a world of trouble when his father gets there. Craig pulls a very James Bond move and reaches through the bars and pulls Dano in to them headfirst, knocking him out.

3) Here’s the money scene. Dano and Craig are escorted in a police wagon and chained together, much to Dano’s terror. They’re about to ride off when a group of men on horseback arrive, led by Harrison Ford as Dano’s father. The sheriff tells Ford that they have to take Craig to see the judge but Ford wants Craig for himself, “Either you give him to me or I’ll get him myself.” Ford looks scruffy and pretty great in what little we see of him. Just as things are about to get heated, the men notice something in the sky. There’s a very skinny string of lights making their way towards them.

The lights get closer and closer, before they disappear. All of a sudden they reappear right above the small town as three or four alien ships that immediately start raining fire and blowing up everything in sight. The ships seem to beam down small circles of blue light followed by the fireballs that gave a little WAR OF THE WORLDS feel. In the midst of all the chaos and destruction we see some of the other characters; Olivia Wilde saves a small boy hiding under a house, Sam Rockwell tries to save his wife/girlfriend as escaping horses nearly trample her, and Harrison Ford looks perplexed/terrified. All of a sudden the side of the police carriage is blown open by the same blue light we see from the ships. Daniel Craig walks out wielding some sort of alien weapon on his arm (clearly the weird bracelet from the first scene). He looks down at it as if it’s new to him, then looks to the attacking spaceships and fires a blast that brings down one of the vessels on to the street below. The attack ends and the town slowly walks over to the crashed spaceship, led by Craig, who looks down at his arm as the weapon mechanically shrinks down back to bracelet size. He shares a look with Ford and the scene ends.


Sounds amazing, I wish I could have been there!

Yo can read more about the Con and the Panel at ComingSoon.net and Collider.com