Anna Shears

As a prequel, Red Dead Redemption 2 is set well over a decade before the events of Red Dead Redemption , which takes players into the thick of the Van der Linde gang's story at the peak of their infamy in the great American West. Where Red Dead Redemption followed John Marston's search for vengeance many years after the gang's disbanding, Red Dead Redemption 2 instead follows Arthur Morgan, the right-hand man of Dutch Van der Linde, as he fights to protect the rest of the gang in their journey to stay one step ahead of the law, and the imminent demise of their outlaw life by modern society.

First and foremost, let’s take a look at Rockstar Games’ track record with single-player titles. Rockstar has not delivered a new title since 2013’s _ Grand Theft Auto V _ , which is ultimately a reflection of the success of _ Grand Theft Auto Online _ . In fact, Rockstar has only released two other games since the original _ Red Dead Redemption _ and _ Undead Nightmare _ expansion in 2010: _ L.A. Noire _ and _ Max Payne 3 _ . Hopefully, the _ Red Dead Redemption 2 _ team at Rockstar was fully-devoted to the title and the wait will be worth it, but a five-year hiatus from releasing any single-player title is enough to make us a bit w

Much like the details placed into the rest of the game's Open World Games Crafting Guide, the Van der Linde gang's camp always offers something new for players to discover alongside the other characters, whether that's playing a round of Five Finger Fillet with Micah, going hunting with Charles, or having some drinks with the gang around the campfire at night and sharing stories with them. Though many of these moments are surely scripted depending on where you are at in story, the way that other characters in the camp interact with Arthur comes off naturally and believable. At certain moments when I visited camp, several characters would often come up to talk to me as they passed by, whether it was Dutch commending Arthur for a job well done on a recent heist, or Uncle drunkenly stumbling his way over to speak with me.

A good crop of the games on here started out as Nintendo exclusives to the 3DS, or Wii U. How Nintendo rounded up a bunch of ambitious Western themed games I'll never know, but this one is a dud. A cowboy armadillo that rolls around fighting rock monsters while trying to protect a town is all good on paper, but the execution leaves something to be desired. I’ve never really been a fan of Tower Defense games, but I always give them a fair shake anyway. This game would be good despite that genre, but controlling Dillon with the stylist is frustrating, to say the least. Again I love the idea, and it looks and sounds good on the 3DS, but overall it’s just not fun to p

As the newest of the five films curated here, There Will Be Blood doesn't quite fall in line with the more traditional "Westerns" that you might expect. Though the film doesn't feature the gunfights, betrayals, and cowboys that mark more traditional Western, at its heart, There Will Be Blood is a dramatic and savage exploration of the American West and the turmoil it felt at the turn of the century.

No kidding, the first time I played League, I had no idea what anyone meant by "leash" and so I fumbled around. This happens to pretty much everyone and it gets you yelled at. Thankfully, you also don’t know how to use chat, so it works out nicely. This is amplified when Warwick is your jungler (happens in low elo) and you are asked to leash him. Leash a puppy? This must be a joke, ri

And that’s the story of how Graves ADC got first frag, winning them the lane and the eventual game. Of course, Graves got the honors rather than Annie since he got the eliminations, but is Annie upset? You bet

With Red Dead Redemption having had several clear references to the John Ford classic, there's no denying that The Searchers ' influences on the Western film genre have worked their way into Rockstar's work, and it will be interesting to see if Red Dead Redemption 2 continues on what Ford and John Wayne delivered with their seminal 1956 film.

While Red Dead Redemption 2 will largely focus around Arthur Morgan, the dutiful right-hand man of Dutch Van der Linde, an even more significant portion of the game will revolve around the gang itself and Arthur's relationships with each member of the outlaw gang as they try to outrun the law and survive in the vastness of the American West.

Though the heist is intended as a way for Bishop to ride off into the sunset and leave his former life of crime behind, a turn of events ends up revealing that the heist is a setup by Bishop's former partner in crime - a turn that certainly echoes that of John Marston's later circumstances in the original Red Dead Redemption .

Likewise, some interactions with characters may have effects (or repercussions) that may not immediately take effect, but pay off later on in the game. In one instance, I encountered a pair of men out on the road that had escaped from prison and let them go on their way; I wound up encountering them again many hours later in my travels, and when sparking a conversation with them, I ended up hearing about the hardships that they endured on their own since I first saw them escape.