Is there any more perfect time than summer to find ones self swept up into hours of gaming? Heck yes, any time is a perfect time to do so, at least for gamers like myself who grew up during the Pong years and, instead of falling away (i.e., maturing) have instead spent many more hours playing “video games” over the last 15 years than over the previous 25. I won’t spend a lot of time on justification here. Regular readers know that on occasion I’ll bust out the video gaming review, to great throngs of crickets chirping and tumbleweeds blowing by in the wind. That’s okay, honestly. This blog is primarily about experiencing story and art and so I get just as much joy prattling on about enjoyable gaming experiences as I do book and film, and it is okay if that is not your thing.

Although it isn’t a genre I spend a great deal of time with, I would certainly consider myself a fan of the Western, at least when it comes to film. I have no doubt that there are many novels in the Western genre that I would like a great deal, I just cannot recall having ever read one. Thus, it wasn’t a given that I would rush out and buy Rockstar Games’ latest release, Red Dead Redemption, but when I saw the lovely Jessica Chobot presenting tips with game play footage on X-Box’s IGN videos, I was hooked. Here was a game that rendered the west in all its rugged beauty and frankly riding around on a horse and engaging in gunfights looked like a great bit of fun. A couple of weeks ago I had a serendipitous moment when I showed up for a meeting that was canceled which just happened to be near a place that sold used games–a quick tour through the store landed me a barely used copy of Red Dead Redemption. Many, many….many hours were spent galloping across the arid landscape of the southern united states and northern Mexico, on the hunt as John Marston, looking to kill my former gang members so that the government would release my wife and son whom they were kidnapped, how’s that for motivation?

Yes indeed, blood was spilled, but being the upstanding person that I am, I can’t help but make the rogue hero choices in games that offer a choice and so many of the deaths, along with quite a few favors, were done to help out the good folks of the various regions I traveled through. Red Dead Redemption really is a beautiful game. The character renders are fantastic, and the horses are even more so. As they gallop you can practically see every muscle. In addition to what would be expected from a shooting game in an old west setting, you get opportunities to do things like rope and break wild horses, drive cattle, escort people safely across less than savory areas of wilderness, play Texas hold em’ and Blackjack, Liar’s Dice and Horseshoes, horse and wagon racing, even arm wrestling. You could spend hours upon hours gambling in saloons and back rooms without doing any of the main or side quests. I amassed quite a fortune before it was all said and done, and in turn learned the game of Texas Hold Em. There are also several opportunities to hunt wild game, either on purpose or because you are attacked by wild animals as you travel through their territory, or to improve your skills on the way to become a Legend of the West. And lest you think that all is blood and killing, early on in the game you are taught how to use a lasso and rewards for catching criminals, etc. are always higher if you bring them in alive, by lassoing, hogtying, and then slinging them across the back of your horse for a long ride to the jailhouse. Some of the most entertaining dialogue in the story (and some of the most colorful) comes from the poor saps you have slung over the back of your horse as they beg, barter and threaten you in the hopes that you will let them go.

I found the overall story, particularly that of a father and son, to be very touching and thus I was very pleased with a game that balanced tragedy and triumph quite well. Here’s a look at the trailer if you are interested. Unlike a lot of trailers for games, this is actually what the game looks like, only with better resolution.

Tomb Raider and I go waaaay back and I feel a great deal of nostalgia for a franchise that has put out some innovative, and derivative, games over the years. I was out with the boys recently combing the stores for used games and found a pristine copy of Tomb Raider: Underworld, for $5. Could not pass it up. My excitement over getting it was pretty strong. As I said, Lara Croft and I go way back. In the late 90’s when I bought my very first PC, Tomb Raider II was the first game I ever played on it and I enjoyed in immensely. Over the years I’ve played some, but not all, of Lara Croft’s adventures. Firing this up in the X-Box caused a wave of nostalgia to pass over me and I believe I enjoyed the game as much because of that as I did for its shiny new graphics and updated curvaceous heroine. As with all Tomb Raider iterations, there were a great deal of jumping/timing puzzles to solve in the quest of getting from one place to another. That being said, I felt like this game was much more intuitive with that aspect and other than one particularly frustrating section I felt like that part of the game was actually pretty easy.

There is a great deal about exploring ancient ruins which appeals to the adventurous spirit of the kid in me, and video games, particularly with today’s graphic quality and great musical scores, make that exploration quite visceral. There are several locales used throughout the game and I never tired of exploring ruins, be they undersea, in lush jungle settings, or deep underground. Tomb Raider: Underworld takes for its theme the Norse mythos and uses it to bring some nice supernatural elements into the storyline. Of particular joy was the acquiring of Thor’s hammer, a weapon that allowed the player to hit bad guys in a way that resembled a baseball player hitting a home run out of the park.. You could also shock people with lightning from it or perform a version of the Hulk Smash to damage enemies. Brilliant fun!

Game play was far too short, which would have been a serious complaint if I had spent $60 on the game, but for $5 I got much more than I expected out of the experience. As she has done in several of the Tomb Raider games, Keeley Hawes does an excellent job with the vocalizations for Lara Croft and the option to actually choose Lara’s outfit before each mission either gives people a chance to play dress-up or allows the player to indulge in a guilty pleasure–or both! Though I am not interested in playing the new Lara Croft and the Guardians of Light game (different format and not part of the ongoing storyline), I will certainly be looking to pick up Lara Croft’s next solo adventure if it looks as enjoyable as Underworld.