Will Ooi » Rockstar Games

Red Dead Redemption Wants You To Be Good

Will Ooi — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 04:53:29 +0000

~ * An analysis of the ending of Red Dead Redemption, strong spoiler warning * Finally, Rockstar have come up with a game that wants us to be good. Playing as a reformed outlaw in a graphically gorgeous title combining almost every aspect of the Wild West we've come to recognise through films, TV shows and folklore, the most surprising quality of Red Dead Redemption - even more impressive than the amazing attention to detail - is the enforced morality and, in line with the game's title and its central theme, redeeming qualities of the main character. John Marston, contrary to those previous incarnations of Grand Theft Auto and other Rockstar Games' antiheroes, is not seeking success and wealth through crime; he is aspiring to be good for the betterment of himself and his family. As in previous open-world games the players themselves are free to do as they wish, inevitably leading to a sandbox environment of carnage and chaos as the he/she sees fit. In Red Dead, the option to be 'good' or 'bad' is presented - do you capture criminals alive to collect bounty rewards and shoot the weapons out of people's hands instead of killing them, or decide to go renegade by robbing the innocent and, as an homage to the classic Western cliche of moustached villainy, tie a woman up and place her on railroad tracks? Despite your decisions in these situations and regardless of your own personal play-style, the most striking thing about the main story missions is how Marston always, from the start of the game to the finish, chooses the honourable route.

Real vs Imaginary, Right vs Wrong: The Australian Moral Dilemma of Game Censorship, Banning & Modern Warfare 2

Will Ooi — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:31:40 +0000

Okay then. Here's my two cents on this whole lack of R18+ classification in Australia and, since it's the popular topic at the moment and will doubtless prove even more controversial once the game is officially released, the Modern Warfare 2 airport stage. Warning: long rant ahead.

GTA IV: The Lost and Damned: Sydney

Will Ooi — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 14:00:00 +0000

Art imitating life imitating art. No sooner has The Lost and Damned DLC been released that GTA IV has come to Australia; and this time I’m not talking about game release dates. Witnesses have up to this point neither confirmed or denied rumours that Niko Bellic and/or Johnny Klebitz were at the scene According to [...]

Saints ROWned? Why Saints Row 2 Might Well Be A GTA IV Killer

Will Ooi — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:00:00 +0000

“Pompous” comments regardless, there’s a reason why Volition, the developers of Saints Row, are feeling so confident even if they delayed the release of the upcoming Saints Row 2 to steer clear of the GTA IV effect. Having played through Rockstar’s epic twice and enjoyed every minute of it, I needed another sandbox hit of [...]

Semi-Retro Review: The Warriors (PS2/Xbox/PSP)

Will Ooi — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 14:00:00 +0000

“Warriors…come out to play-ay-ay!” Another underrated Rockstar game, The Warriors was of course based on the 1979 cult film classic by Walter Hill adapted from the novel by Sol Yurick. I must admit that prior to playing the game I had NO knowledge of the existence of such a film, so I decided to borrow [...]

Semi-Retro Review: Red Dead Revolver (PS2/Xbox)

Will Ooi — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 14:00:00 +0000

Original post on 1up ~ This third person shooter from Rockstar Games had all the ingredients to become a massive hit: great graphics, gorgeous environments, smooth controls, the by-now-obligatory “bullet-time” mechanics, and absolutely brilliant sound effects and music (think of that old-school “PEW POWW!” Western gunshot-ricochet-sound plus the classic Ennio Morricone theme songs with the [...]