In Red Dead Redemption 2, it is not always easy to do the right thing — Games to Play Before You Die

In this clip from Games to Play Before You Die, panel members Jordan Minor, Alice Newcome-Beill, and Bob Al-Greene compare how Red Dead Redemption and the latest release Red Dead Redemption 2 stack up in the Rockstar Games roster.
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Red Dead Redemption takes GTA to its logical limit — Games to Play Before You Die

In this clip from Games to Play Before You Die, panel members Jordan Minor, Alice Newcome-Beill, and Bob Al-Greene compare how Red Dead Redemption gameplay stacks up against another Rockstar Games franchise: Grand Theft Auto.
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How Red Dead Redemption used music to bring the Old West to life — Games to Play Before You Die

In this clip from Games to Play Before You Die, panel members Jordan Minor, Alice Newcome-Beill, and Bob Al-Greene discuss how Red Dead Redemption took cowboy games to a whole new level with its incomparable setting and score.
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View More How Red Dead Redemption used music to bring the Old West to life — Games to Play Before You Die

Red Dead Redemption upped the standard for cowboy games — Games to Play Before You Die

In this clip from Games to Play Before You Die, panel members Jordan Minor, Alice Newcome-Beill, and Bob Al-Greene discuss how Red Dead Redemption had gamers in a fantasy wonderland thanks to its incredible caricature of life in the Old West.
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View More Red Dead Redemption upped the standard for cowboy games — Games to Play Before You Die

‘Red Dead Redemption 2’ gets blackjack wrong, but it’s a fixable problem

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Video games suck at blackjack. 

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a convenient target, being the latest and most high-profile offender. But video game blackjack hasn’t ever been done right in my recollection. And it’s because every game gets a central component wrong: The key to blackjack, the thing that makes it interesting, is the betting. Not the rules.

So let’s talk first about those rules, the absolute basics of blackjack. How each card works, what the goal is, how a typical hand flows.

Blackjack basics

The objective in blackjack is to get a set of cards whose sum is 21. Less than that is OK. More than that is a bust — a lost hand. Numbered cards, 2 through 10, count as the number printed on the card. Face cards also count as a 10. Ace can be either a 1 or an 11, whichever you choose. So if you have a 9 card and two Aces, you have a 21: 9 + 11 Ace + 1 Ace. That’s great. Read more…

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‘Red Dead Redemption 2’ review: Great art at great cost

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Before we dive in with this review, a word about development crunch. In recent weeks, Rockstar Games has been mired in controversy after studio co-head Dan Houser suggested in an interview that the final sprint to Red Dead Redemption 2‘s release sometimes involved 100-hour work weeks.

Houser later clarified his quote, noting that the “100-hour work week” comment applied only to the four guys on the senior writing team and adding that “we obviously don’t expect anyone else to work this way” at Rockstar.

On the Tuesday before RDR2’s release, Houser’s assertion fell into doubt after Kotaku published an investigation into the work-life balance and corporate culture at Rockstar. The in-depth feature paints a nuanced picture of a company filled with passionate artists who, yes, often do work above and beyond their weekly hours, at times because they want to and at times because of pressure from the company leadership — all the way up to Houser. Read more…

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Yes, there’s at least one train robbery in ‘Red Dead Redemption II’

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Rockstar Games is back with a fresh, extended look at its upcoming Wild West adventure, Red Dead Redemption II.

Where the previous video release from Rockstar focused on lots of gameplay minutiae — specific elements that shake up Rockstar’s proven formula for exploration-heavy action games — this new one is more about the ride. And I have only one takeaway: Train robberies.

The fantasy of the Wild West train robbery is something that no game has ever really managed to nail, not even the previous Red Dead. But the brief snippets we see in the opening minutes of this trailer look great. And as anyone who played Grand Theft Auto Online can tell you, Rockstar has a handle on turning elaborate heists into something playful. Read more…

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Rockstar releases second Red Dead Redemption 2 gameplay trailer

We are less than a month away from the release of Red Dead Redemption 2, the sequel to one of the most popular games of the PS3/Xbox era. Red Dead Redemption launched in 2010, meaning that fans of the franchise have waited for almost a decade to continue their adventure through the early American frontier. […]

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‘Grand Theft Auto Online’ cheat seller blocked by federal judge

It’s not OK to cheat in video games, and it’s especially not OK to sell cheats in online games.
Grand Theft Auto V’s online mode has been plagued by cheaters so developer Rockstar Games’ holding company Take-Two Interactive took one of the game’s che…

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