Review: Dragon Ball Z – Ultimate Tenkaichi (PS3)

One of the first PS2 titles I remember tracking was a bit o’ cowboy vaporware named Gunslinger. I was very excited for a Wild West video game, the nearest PS1 offering being the bizarre (but fun) Rising Zan: Samurai Gunman. Gunslinger disappeared circa 2002, but Rockstar filled the void with Red Dead Revolver in 2004. This was after GTA went to Vice City, so the expectations ran pretty high for RDR.

For better or for worse, Red Dead Revolver was not a GTA game. It was a linear adventure with a moderately kickin’ splitscreen multiplayer mode, plus a ton of unlockables and a dark, moody style. The soundtrack was entirely actual compositions from classic Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns. Unfortunately, the storyline was short short short: about six hours. That fact, plus the unabashed cribbing of modern Western films like “The Quick and the Dead”, may have contributed to the game’s mediocre sales and reviews. I, for one, loved it. I even place RDR above the more-GTA-ish frontier adventure Gun, which arrived a year later.

Perhaps Rockstar is seeking to answer the critics who expected Red Dead Revolver to be a pioneer days Grand Theft Auto with Red Dead Redemption, coming this fall to PS3 and 360.

Not much is yet revealed, other than a placeholder website with some screenshots. Rockstar says the game will be open world enivronment with the ability for players to forge their own path in the Wild West. The game will also be set “at the turn of the 20th century,” which indicates to me that it will focus on the unhappy sunset of the days of the Wild West, as anything above 1890 is not usually what we think of when we think of Westerns. HBO’s Deadwood, for example, is set in the 1870s. As is the excellent tabletop CCG/RPG Deadlands.

Regardless, I’m super-psyched for this one.

And yeah, I totally name dropped Rising Zan up there. So there’s my excuse to embed the super ultra sexy open to Rising Zan:

Press Release follows:

Rockstar Games announces Red Dead Redemption for Fall 2009

New York, NY – February 4, 2009 – Rockstar Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), is proud to announce that Red Dead Redemption is scheduled for a fall 2009 release on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system. Developed by Rockstar San Diego, as a follow up to the 2004 hit game, Red Dead Revolver, Red Dead Redemption is a Western epic, set at the turn of the 20th century when the lawless and chaotic badlands began to give way to the expanding reach of government and the spread of the Industrial Age. The story of former outlaw, John Marston, Red Dead Redemption takes players on a great adventure across the American frontier.

“The team at San Diego have massively exceeded our expectations with the sheer depth of experiences in Red Dead Redemption,” said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. “The seamless combination of breathtaking beauty and intense action, all woven together with strong plotlines in a massive vibrant, rural environment is mind-blowing. We think this game helps to push the limits of what an open-world gaming experience can be.”

Utilizing Rockstar’s proprietary Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE), Red Dead Redemption features an open-world environment for players to explore, including frontier towns, rolling prairies teeming with wildlife, and perilous mountain passes – each packed with an endless flow of varied distractions. Along the way, players will experience the heat of gunfights and battles, meet a host of unique characters, struggle against the harshness of one of the world’s last remaining wildernesses, and ultimately pick their own precarious path through an epic story about the death of the Wild West and the gunslingers that inhabited it.

Red Dead Redemption will be available in fall 2009 for the Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3 consoles. For more information please visit www.rockstargames.com/reddeadredemption

About Take-Two Interactive Software

Headquartered in New York City, Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., is a global developer, marketer, distributor and publisher of interactive entertainment software games for the PC, PLAYSTATION®3 and PlayStation®2 computer entertainment systems, PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system, Xbox 360 and Xbox video game and entertainment systems from Microsoft, Wii, Nintendo DS, Nintendo GameCube™ and Game Boy® Advance. The Company publishes and develops products through its wholly owned labels Rockstar Games, 2K Games, 2K Sports and 2K Play, and distributes software, hardware and accessories in North America through its Jack of All Games subsidiary. Take-Two’s common stock is publicly traded on NASDAQ under the symbol TTWO. For more corporate and product information please visit our website at www.take2games.com.