We got gacha’d, even though it kicks in after a ton of great gameplay. Ryan is forced to pick his top games of the past 10 years. Justin is still making Grimmys award plans. Plus, Dungeon Encounters may be exactly what you think it is.

Subscribe

• RSS Feed
• iTunes Feed
• Spotify
• Google Podcasts
• Stitcher Feed

Show Features

Cast: Justin Lacey, Ryan Billingsley

• The Catch Up: Hawkeye Finale / Holidays vs vacation / Ping Pong Training
• Drop: Game Club: Genshin Impact
• Game Time with Justin: Dungeon Ecounters
• Drop: Grimmys Workshop
• Game Time with Ryan: Guardians of the Galaxy
• Drop: Ryan's Ten Years of Top Games
• Talkin Bout Headlines
• New Releases
• Hypetrain: Monster Hunter Rise / Genshin Impact / Guardians of the Galaxy

Ryan likes a good plan, but does every good video game plan need to be public? Justin wants to see what you’re playing so please change your privacy settings accordingly. Coop goes to War. Plus, justice for the true King of Kong.

• Horrible Night on SoundCloud
• RSS Feed
• iTunes Feed
• Google Play
• Stitcher Feed

Show Features

Cast: Justin Lacey, Ryan Billingsley, Coop

• Kinda Games: 4 Player Family, Cars 2 is on, Capture Cards
• Headliner: The Roadmaps Are Coming - Sea of Thieves, Siege, Destiny 2
• Follow-ups
• Supporting Act
  • Six more Xbox 360 games get Xbox One X enhanced updates
  • PUBG’s new event mode is team deathmatch-style
  • Billy Mitchell Stripped Of All His Scores And Banned By Twin Galaxies
  • Football Manager World Championships winner to coach real-world team
  • Elite women gamers team up to destroy online bullies and abusers in CS:GO
  • Ubisoft may be hinting that Watch Dogs 3 is on the way
  • Good Sales Updates: A Way Out, Shovel Knight
  • Dwarf Fortress dwarves to be given memories, dev shows no remorse
• Headliner: Privacy and Video Game Stats as Steam Spy shuts down
• New Releases
• Games of the Week
  • PUBG - War
  • Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
  • Shovel Knight

Two little kids can't wait to talk about their new favorite game. I mean, two grown men have prepared for a technical teardown of No Man's Sky. Ryan and Justin like space and a few other games like Doom, Overcooked, Rocket League and Red Dead Redemption.

• Horrible Night on SoundCloud
• RSS Feed
• iTunes Feed
• Google Play
• Stitcher Feed

Show Features

Cast: Justin Lacey, Ryan Billingsley

• Topic: Getting into No Man's Sky
• The Games:
  • Doom
  • Overcooked
  • Rocket League
  • Nuclear Throne
• Topic: The Future of No Man's Sky
• Up Next
  • Uncharted 4
  • Dishonored Games
  • Gran Turismo Sport
  • Final Fantasy XV
  • Destiny
• Justin's Games
  • Alienation
  • Ratz Instagib
• Recommendations
  • Deus Ex Series
  • Hitman
• Shout-outs - Red Dead Redemption

• This is an HoNight Classic originally featured on June 9, 2010. Check out over 5 years of our Horrible Night archives here.

Game purchases aren’t to be taken lightly. We all know they are expensive investments in both time and money. I am very outspoken when I’ve made a confident decision about whether or not I will be buying a game. Red Dead Redemption (RDR) was a game that I was proud to tout that I had decided early on that I would not be interested buying it. Nothing could change my opinion. That is until I bought it last week.

So what happened? Let’s examine my original reasons and why they all crumbled.

It’s too much like Grand Theft Auto

Grand Theft Auto is a milestone series multiple times over for Rockstar Games, and Grand Theft Auto III is one of the greatest gaming experiences of my entire life. However, I grew bored of the sequels after playing so much of III. I fought purchasing GTA IV, but eventually gave in only to find the game even less interesting than I feared. I vowed not to repeat my mistake, even though I knew Red Dead Redemption would be tempting.

Sure, the structure of RDR is that of GTA IV with side missions, random jobs, story missions, and a big open world to explore. I underestimated how engaging this new setting would be. It all feels new again, and I prefer cowboys to gangsters. At one time, there was something I loved about the GTA structure and freedoms, and RDR’s new setting allows that to flourish once again.

I only like ridiculous sandbox games now

My tastes have evolved since GTA III, I preferred inFamous, Crackdown, and Just Cause 2 to the the grounded-in-realism world of GTA games. At first glance RDR looks to be even more grounded and restricted by reality with its turn of the century technology and beasts of burden. How could this hold my attention when I crave superhero powers, superhuman strength, and ridiculous explosions?

All I want to do is hunt. I am fascinated by the wildlife and depth of RDR’s world. It’s not to say that I haven’t enjoyed the missions in RDR, I really have, but I have gotten lost for hours just wandering the countryside. They could turn this game into Oregon Trail 2k10 and have it only focus on hunting for survival and I’d feel my purchase was justified at this point. Hunting bears with knives trumps blowing up buildings. I’m floored by this realization, but can’t wait to mozy out of town the next chance I get.

Rockstar can’t tell an interesting story

Let’s face it, even in GTA III, I never really cared about the characters. I was so distracted by the action it never bothered me, but by the time GTA IV came around I was just annoyed by my complete disinterest in Niko. I pretty much disliked the character and had no reason to help or hurt him through my actions. The people around him annoyed me even further, and their individual stereotypes that were meant to be humorous ended up making me hate everyone in the gameworld. So even if the setting was fresh in RDR, I was certain the characters and story would pull me away from the fun.

First of all, John Marston, your character, is actually a decent guy for once. Sure he has a rough past, but the second I realized I couldn’t pick up a whore if I wanted to, I knew this game was a bit different. I like everything about John’s character at the moment, and enjoy helping out the first few people that dole out your missions. I’m sure the twists are coming, but I’m invested in this world to the point where I’m not aimlessly terrorizing it. I have no desire to, I want to be this character. This is powerful stuff.

Aside from that, I’ve even found myself laughing at the stereotypical characters. I’ve never felt like I’m in on Rockstar’s jokes in previous games, but I feel a certain level of understanding in this world they have created. I can’t wait to uncover more characters to hate, to love, to save, and to drag behind my horse.

It will flop

All good things come to an end. Rockstar was due for a failure. Others have tried to make wild west games recently, and they have only succeeded in boring the gamers who play them. It wouldn’t be RDR’s fault, but the setting just wouldn’t hold up. Word would get out that it’s only fun for a few hours, and it would be a bargain bin pickup soon enough. No reason to waste my time, I thought.

Look at those reviews. Look at those sales. Look at everyone around talking about this game and playing it nonstop. I honestly felt silly playing the games I was while everyone else seemed to be enjoying one of the assured best games of the year. There had to be something I was missing. I had too dig too far and too deep to find people complaining about RDR. Even the glitches were fun, how many games can say that?

I have too many games to play

Looking at all the games that came out around RDR, and the unopened games that I owned before the month started, there was no way I would have enough time to give RDR a fair chance. Even if I wanted to, it just could not be a priority.

Well, I finished my major story game of the month quicker than I anticipated. I found myself left with racing games that I enjoy in short bursts, and I needed a larger game experience. I started looking to my unopened games when a friend of mine came into town. I love to show new games to people for the first time, and he was about to start his residency as a doctor so it had to be something unique. It was the final push I needed to buy RDR as I knew this new wild west would blow both of us away.

I was gonna get it anyway

In my brief time with RDR, I can already say my purchase is more than justified. This is truly a great game that I am proud to own and defend more strongly than my original convictions against it. Now my only question is, will this hold up to be my game of the year? And will I stop hunting from on top of a train for long enough to give another game a fair shot?

When I loaded up the RDR on my Xbox One for the first time since it became available as a backwards compatible title, I had no idea how long I'd play or what I wanted to do. Truthfully, I just wanted to check in, tip my hat to John Marston, confirm that the game ran well while looking dated, and then go back to my current playlist. Instead, I sat there engrossed in the introduction to the story and getting lost in the gorgeous horizon lines.

It has been 6 years since the original release of Red Dead Redemption. I regularly sit down for nostalgic play sessions for a variety of my favorite games. A majority of the time the sessions are quick one-offs or I skip ahead as fast as I can to get to my "favorite part."

As I came to, I remembered how much I appreciated Bonnie McFarland taking pity on me (John), and I just had to help her with the ranch wherever I could. Hours went by and multiple sessions later I wasn't trying to blow through missions to get to some memorable scene, instead I was wandering around the desert hunting random animals again.

I didn't want to stop and I never wanted the game to end. This is a long way from never wanting to play the game in the first place.

What's so special about Red Dead Redemption?

• Ryan Billingsley - Red Dead so perfectly captured the feeling of a living, breathing Spaghetti Western. The characters were rich and meaningful, the gun fighting was fun, but nothing compared to riding on your horse through that vast wilderness, taking in all the sights and sounds of the world. So often when I would play a similar game, like Grand Theft Auto, I would eventually get derailed from the story and then mess around until I was completely bored. Red Dead kept me wanting to see more. The first time you cross the river into Mexico and have that awesome moment of ‘Far Away’ by Jose Gonzalez leading you in is one of my favorite moments in gaming. Red Dead remains one of my favorite games of all time.

• Justin Lacey - There was also something about John Marston and his story. For the first time in a Rockstar game or an open-world game, I couldn’t be evil. I couldn’t bring myself to do dishonorable things as it just didn’t seem true to the world or the character. Even though, I enjoyed hearing the dastardly stories of my friends, the game just had a hold of me and I couldn’t play it that way.

• Aaron McNeal - There's an achievement for lassoing up a townswoman, putting her on the train tracks and waiting for the train to arrive. I've never laughed so hard at an achievement while simultaneously feeling like the worse scumbag that ever did ride. RDR's Undead Nightmare was also some of the best DLC content at the time, getting in on the zombie fad well before it outstayed its welcome. Why wouldn't I want to collect the four Horses of the Apocalypse?

• Cole Monroe - I was initially very hesitant to get into Red Dead. I didn’t want another GTA even if it was in a different environment/setting. How wrong I was. Sure the game controlled very similar to Red Dead but that made it easily accessible. What hooked me was John Marston, the music, and just experiencing an open world game in that setting. Oh and straight up murdering fools left and right from horseback.

• Justin Lacey - To me Red Dead Redemption is all about the setting. There’s no other game in the last decade that evokes such an authentic western feel. I can’t think of anything else I can play that comes close to replicating it, so it’s literally the only option available. Plus, I haven’t been able to play for a couple of years so the nostalgic draw couldn't be stronger. Red Dead Redemption only gets better with age.