"Red Dead Redemption has the Production Quality of an HBO Show"

Said my friend Eric, who is a video game producer, to me today, about 25 minutes after he put in his new disc.

My friend Titus posted this to FB:

Red Dead Redemption is the pinnacle of all humanity's achievements.

When he posted that, I found his statement to be a bit over the top, but. After watching the beginning of the game again with Eric, I realized I had dismissed the production at the beginning of the game as a Deadwood knock off...but it IS A VIDEO GAME. It can shamelessly knock off a TV show because it's a different art form.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/1756-Alan-Wake

Here he goes off about the shamelessness of Stephen King worshipping...again I say to you, it is A VIDEO GAME. Since when are ANY writers worshipped in console games? That used to be territory exclusively for Casual Games' Agatha Christie Mysteries. As my friend Craig teased me for not being a TRUE Alan Wake fan as I keep waffling between it and RDR, I realized he and I both have the longterm fantasy of being famous writers - now thats some roleplaying I can get behind.

And the Shadows Keep on Changing

Kudos to Alan Wake. I not only love it but after someone flipped me some grief for loving it so much, now I feel the need to champion it.

What inspired me to take a break from playing and post about it is the innovative "hold b to change flashlight types" instead of the typical FPS style "press b" which makes you change weapons/flashlight types, even when you're just trying to pick up the treasure around it. This way it's much harder to make a mistake. Good user design.

It's that kind of attention to detail in Alan Wake that keeps me coming back like a rabid dog. Don't get me started on the soundtrack, or the lighting and its use as a narrative device, or the amazing dappling shadows.

People in the industry are rolling their eyes at how long it took to make. It doesn't seem like they were goofing off in those 5 years - this is one solid game and I highly recommend it, even to people who aren't that into console or video games, but like mystery or quality intuitive, interactive experiences.