The makers of the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise on Tuesday made available the first footage from their next title, Red Dead Redemption.
Rockstar’s new game is a classic Western that draws heavily on the later films of Clint Eastwood, such as The Unforgiven, for inspiration. It has been in development for over two years, and will be available on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
Although the game will not be released until April 30 next year, Rockstar is starting to crank up the hype machine early. Unlike GTA, Red Dead Redemption is not a franchise that most games players are familiar with; the last game bearing the name was released in 2004.
Video game players are frequent visitors to deep space or futuristic high-rise cities, but the nineteenth-century Wild West has rarely featured as a setting. The main reason for this is technical: the motion of horses and blowing dust are both very difficult for programmers to reproduce convincingly on screen.
Like the Grand Theft Auto series, Red Dead Redemption will be a “sandbox” game, meaning players are free to explore and interact with the environments in which they find themselves.
Advertisement
Did someone say Grand Theft Horseback?