Red Dead Redemption: How the West was won...and my heart as well. By: Eric Colon

Let me just start this off by saying: I don't just "play" video games. I emmerse myself into them. The story, the landscape and the characters; everything. I was emotionally invested in ridding Sera from the Locust Horde. I wanted to see Nathan Drake stick it to that warlord just as badly as he did. I get into the character. So if I refer to certain characters in this game with such distain, it's because they might as well have wronged me personally.

Red Dead Redmption was a story about a man named John Marsten. A former outlaw turned family man, he is forced by these douchebag US Marshals, to set out on a mission to bring his old gangmates to justice in order to save his kidnapped wife and son. This is an epic game (in length and awesomeness). It took me about 15 hrs to beat. Some parts in this game really pissed me off, but in the process, got me more attached to the characters and the story line. This is something that Rockstar usually does in their games, and does well.

It's your basic GTA formula but with a western twist. Horseback is your primary form of travel. Strangers calling out to your in distress can bring about interesting detours from your main objective. At one point, I saw a damsel in distress calling out to me from what appeared to be her broken down horse and buggy. As I approached her to boost my honor meter, six armed bandits hopped out and ambushed me. I took them down judiciously with my six shooter as the damsel pleaded with me to spare her from the fates of her cohorts. Of course, I let her live, I'm the hero not the outlaw. Another instance there was a hitchhiker on a mountain pass that threw me off my horse as I attempted to give a lift. He didnt get too far after I implanted a bullet in his dome. And this was all on the way to my first mission....

Now I wish I could give you all the details and plot twists right now, but (in my humble opinion) I'd be robbing you all of something as equally as important as the sweet gameplay and infinetly more important than the superb graphics: the story. That's the hook that pulls me along the story as I struggle through the dangerous roads and degenerate lowlifes that I encounter in Rockstar's acid western.

The multiplayer is, in my opinion the living embodiment of the wild west. As soon as your character lands in a free roam session, it's everyman for himself as "The Quick and the Dead" meets "World of Warcraft". Upon rolling into a town, with my posse of XBL friends, and seeing other players on the map head for the hills in fear of my double barrel or Jay's sniper is a sight to behold. Clearing out gang hideouts and gunning down your fellow players is the name of the game. Leveling up gives you new steeds, guns and characters to choose from.

I had more lumps in my throat at the end of this game than the lumps of coals I got from Santa last year. Play it. For the love of God....play this game.