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Video Game Review: Red Dead Redemption

There is a lot that can be said for picking a theme and devoting all the time and effort available toward fleshing out and perfecting that simple concept. This is  precisely what Rockstar San Diego did for Red Dead Redemption. It is a relatively simple, single faceted experience that is rendered with such care and attention to detail that it is one of the most immersive and beautiful games ever created. Yet, because it is such a simple, easy, and sometimes repetitive experience, it lacks a certain amount of depth.
Best played in short bursts, Red Dead's campaign mode can come to be quite a grind to the finish. This is not a new problem for Rockstar, masters of the sandbox game format. I've played nearly all of their games since Grand Theft Auto 3, but actually finished only a few of them. I believe that this exposes an apparent flaw in the sandbox genre itself, or at least the way in which it has been presented in the past. So yeah, the appeal of the sandbox game is freedom. Freedom to go where you want and do what you want. To experiment in a living, breathing digital world. The campaign just kind of works around this already present world to give you things to do in it. This means that right off the bat, the world and all the fundamental mechanics of the game are there for you to explore. This creates a sense of wonder and exhilaration in the very beginning of the experience, which wears off long, long before the conclusion, 40 hours in. You just start to get bored when you fell like you have gone everywhere and seen everything, and at that point, if you are feeling like that, you probably have. Rockstar has tried to remedy this problem in the past by locking off certain areas of the map and gradually opening them up. Red Dead Redemption does this too. And while there is a certain amount of joy derived from seeing the new scenery of each area, there are no real new, unique experiences to be found in these new areas. Just more of the same gameplay set in a different setting.
Essentially, this is what Red Dead Redemption is. It is GTA set in the old west. Comparing GTA 4 and Red Dead just on on appearances could be like comparing apples and oranges. The vast open expanses of the old west certainly seem to be at odds with the cramped urban sprawl of Liberty City. However, when you boil it down, these games are extremely similar in terms of gameplay, tone, story, and mechanics. I would say Red Dead is the better game in the end though for several key reasons. Unlike GTA, which had an extremely annoying policy of making you restart a mission from the beginning if you failed, Red Dead has a checkpoint system, which relieves enormous amounts of stress. Red Dead also has a greater array of activities that the player can do on the side of the campaign. Some are just pointless and boring- picking herbs, horseshoes, cards. Some are quite a bit more fun- bounties, random roadside encounters, hunting, going to movies. While they are very hit or miss, at least they are there to mix things up a bit. Hunting, in particular is a blast and the wild animals found all over the world of Red Dead is one of it's very best features and something new to the Rockstar formula. Some of the very best experiences i had with the game came from being stranded in the wilderness with no horse and having to fend for my life against a pack of wolves of an extremely lethal cougar. These moments where I was truly struggling to stay alive were particularly notable because of the fact that they were mostly absent from the campaign mode. This game is pretty damn easy. Once you have the dead eye and a couple decent guns, you are essentially unstoppable. Unlike GTA 4, where if you broke the law, it could be pretty difficult to get away from the cops alive, in Red Dead they essentially have no chance of catching you. This is due in a big way to the fact that you a riding a fast, extremely maneuverable horse through open fields instead of trying to maneuver a difficult-to-control-car through busy streets.
    Red Dead's greatest strength is it's tone and atmosphere, which never breaks for a single second over its entire run time. Essentially, the game is an extremely beautiful Western, in which can control the main protagonist. The writing and acting is sharp and clever, if a bit repetitive, just how you would expect from Rockstar. The plot is a decent yarn filed with many of the conventions of the genre. It is at times very heartfelt and touching and contains some really great scenes that would be right at home in a classic Western. There is a certain underlying cynicism to be found in the story, something also present in the GTA games. Red Dead smartly goes for a more serious approach to homage though, as opposed to the borderline genre parodies of Vice City and San Andreas. You might not laugh as much as you did at older Rockstar games, but you will probably take the story a lot more seriously, as it tones down the outlandish comedy quite a bit.
    So yeah, Red Dead Redemption is essentially Grand Theft Auto set in the old west with a few minor changes. But then again, this same thing can be said about almost every sandbox game. Since GTA 3 simultaneously invented and perfected the formula back in 2001, not much has changed, Sure the games have allowed you to do more things than you could before, and the attention to detail and production values have improved drastically, but it's still the same basic idea. That being said, red Dead Redemption is perhaps the best sandbox game yet because it has the most beautifully crafted world, the most memorable story, the best (original) soundtrack and the most consistent tone of any of the similar games to come before it. It's a highly immersive experience that only the collective efforts of a large and highly talented studio can afford. A true next-gen experience.

Album Review: ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead- Tao of the Dead

After nearly two decades, seven albums, and numerous iterations of the band itself, …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead have crafted an album that delivers on the epic potential of their founding vision: a grandiose, orchestral, dynamic, and ultimately compelling heavy rock opus. Tao of the Dead is sonically and thematically closer to the oft cited masterpiece of 2002 Source Tags and Codes than any other album after. It's the sound of a band who went pretty far out and finally decided to bring it all back home and focus on the core concepts that made them amazing to begin with.
    Trail of Dead still hold a unique piece of real estate in the music landscape. There is no other rock band that is equally fixated on the sounds of punk, noise, and prog rock and has the musical prowess, sense of subtly and pacing, and artistic integrity that Conrad, Jason and company do. Very little modern music has this kind of teeth, and it's extremely refreshing to hear the band regain the vigor and ferocity that fell of at points along the way. Where previous albums sounded a bit forced and uncomfortable at points, Tao of the Dead constantly engages. It succeeds magnificently because it is the band's most consistently huge, freewheeling and ornately detailed album, helped immensely by the fact that it is very evident that the band had a damn good time recording and producing the thing. Taking only about ten days to record, it is without a doubt the most impulsive feeling Trail of Dead album, songs lingering just long enough to make an impression and then morphing into something else.
    An easy criticism to make of the album is that it is slight in the way of what we traditionally recognize as a standout song. On only a few occasions do we get a normal verse/chorus progression. More often the songs bleed seamlessly into one another like how the verse of The Spiral Jetty becomes the chorus of Weight of the Sun. Make no mistake, this album as a whole, is infinitely greater than the sum of its parts and is best enjoyed in order, the way the band intended. The sense of pacing and the dynamic ways in which the tracks meld into one another is awe inspiring. Trail of Dead have played with the idea of a reoccurring motif bridging across past albums (After the Laughter, Insatiable, Stand in Silence), but the way that Pure Radio Cosplay and Know Your Honor bookend both parts 1 and 2 of Tao of the Dead, respectively, is pure brilliance- a move that harkens back to the great concept albums of the 70's like 2112 and Dark Side of the Moon.
    As far as production goes, one thing that the post-Source Tags and Codes albums were berated for was pulling away the heavy fog that had previously shrouded and romanticized the band's sound. As the hazy production and mystery of the band's debut faded, there was a definitive point when just enough of the underlying melodic nature of the band was obscured. That point was Source Tags and Codes. When Worlds Apart was released, it was notoriously panned by many critics. I believe that this has to do with this the fact that the remainder of the obscuring noise and chaos had been pulled away in favor of a focus on a more classic sense of songwriting and a cleaner, more simplistic sonic pallet. Tao of the Dead wisely re-instates a good deal of fervor and destruction that serve as the obscuring fog. Look no further than the blaring, screeching guitars at the climax of Cover the Days like a Tidal Wave and the out of tune chords at the end of Weight of the Sun. These are among my favorite Trail of Dead moments, where the music reaches a sort of point break where there can be no turning turning back but to abruptly crash into itself. A beautiful trainwreck.
    All this being said, I'm still not sure that this album will really convert many nonbelievers as it may not be as apparent why this album is so great to someone who is not a long time listener. The thing about …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead is that they are obtuse, difficult to categorize, un-radio friendly, and overstuffed. And I love them for it. I honestly think that there is no other band in existence that can capture the same spirit of bombastic, artistic, rock grandeur and wide eyed wonder about the power of music. Here's my pick for best album of the decade.