Grand Theft Auto IV is, in many ways, the best game I have never been able to fully appreciate. The lighting, atmosphere, acting, and open world appealed to me on levels very few games have, before or since. Unfortunately, the physics-based control scheme presented a significant barrier between me and my intentions within the game, and Liberty City. They prevented me from doing exactly what I wanted, when I wanted, serving only to push me away from the game. Gradually, I reached a point whereby placing the disc in the tray was no longer appealing. The controversial controls were a by-product of an otherwise brilliant physics engine, of course, which itself was largely responsible for many of the procedurally dynamic happenings of randomness that underlined the unobtainable brilliance of this otherwise wondrous game.

So, with that in mind, understand that my attitude towards Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar Game's newest open world offering, was less than it could have been. Being a child of the late 70's and early 80's, my childhood fantasies were wholly about space, spacemen, aliens, and starships - certainly not Westerns, John Wayne, and hunting Buffalo. But then I got to see the game, and everything changed.

At a glance, Red Dead Redemption appears to be nothing more than GTA IV in cowboy clothes. A somewhat accurate, if a little misinformed view, to be sure. My time with Mr. Marston during my time at PAX East was brief - about 15 minutes in all - but with the guiding hand of my lovely lady Rockstar demonstrator, I got into the action quick, and managed to sample a lot of the game's mechanics.

The private demo booth - complete with mysterious black curtains and security guards preventing photography - offered two types of gameplay for attendees to sample: Open-world exploration, just to see what was out there in the big great yonder; and a more tightly-focused and objective-oriented mission. The man in front of me, a really friendly guy who apparently was more into this game than even the developers could have been, opted for open-world running about. For some odd reason, the demo lady started him off on the roof of a building in a town, which he immediately fell off of and died. Once he got back on his feet, he wasted no time in shooting a dog and then a nun, sending the red gauge of his notoriety meter up to max almost instantly. This in turn put him in "WANTED" status, and within a couple of minutes he was in a vicious firefight outside the town store with a local posse of righteous do-gooders. Needless to say, the gunfight did not go his way and he was killed again.

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When my turn came, I opted for the single-player mission. A simple affair of locating a drunken and washed-out old geezer and helping him rid bandits from an old mansion. Starting off in the middle of nowhere, the first thing I noticed was that the draw-distance in the game was staggering. No fake unreachable mountains rendered in skyboxes here. The mountains, some 8 miles away from where I stood, were rendered in-engine. They existed in the game world and could be reached simply by heading in their direction. The heat haze rising from the ground was a very expertly realized effect, making the place feel palpably hot. I asked the Rockstar lady how big the game world was. "Oh it's huge!" she replied, explaining that it is broken up into three areas, which altogether are bigger than that in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

The first order of business, I'm told, is to go to the world map, done by pressing the Back button (the demonstration was playing on the Xbox 360). The world map was very authentic-feeling. Drawings of horses, barns, towns, and trails punctuated an otherwise very sparse piece of crumpled paper. To the top-right of the screen was the game clock in the form of an old timepiece. We were looking for a specific side-mission, which was punctuated on the world-map by the initials of the person we were to meet, in the same way GTA IV highlights mission trigger-points.

Continue to page 2 to read more about our impressions with Red Dead Redemption!

Once we located it, I pressed A to select this waypoint, which then painted a red line from my location to it. Backing out of the map, I realized I was miles away from anywhere. I began to slowly walk around this desolate hill, and - yes - there's that control scheme again. As in GTA IV, the physicality of Marston was what informs the control. The sensation of "pushing" him around rather than having point-for-point direct control is noticeable. With this said, I did feel that the controls had received something of a speed injection. John Marston strides around like a badass, but not comically so. His swagger informs us that he is deadly, sure of himself, and powerful. According to the lady, his trusty irons are physicalized, being separate objects to his character mesh, and I noticed they rocked around in their holsters as his hips swayed. In this moment, I realized GTA IV's failing: Niko Bellic's shuffle was exasperatingly slow, almost as though you were steering him to places against his will. Marston's stride felt to be just the right speed for those situations where you walk because you need to get somewhere and take care of business.

But where was my horse? The lady instructed me to press Y, which I did, and Marston whistled. Not 5 seconds later, my trusty horse magically arrived with a friendly whinny. Pressing Y next to the horse made Marston jump on and slowly start to maneuver around the landscape. As was also the case when controlling Marston, pushing the directional stick moved the horse around at a trot. Steering left and right showed Marston pull the reigns in the respective direction and the whole thing felt very physical. Pounding A to gallop, I headed off toward the waypoint, following the red line on my mini map to the bottom-left of the screen. The horse's stamina was conveyed by a blue vertical bar that wrapped around the right side of the mini map. Impatiently pounding A to get there quicker, my horse suddenly stopped and reared up, throwing me off its back. "Go easy on the horse," the lady chastised. I climbed back on and made a quick mental note to go a little easier on my steed from now on.

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I found my contact on a hill by a pile of stones next to a ramshackled house. I climbed off my horse - who in my mind was now called "Quicksilver" and the in-engine cinematic kicked in. The noise of the convention center prevented me from hearing all of what was said, so I strapped on the available headphones for a minute. "uhh, h.. howdy, Mr. Marston," said the drunken, withered geezer, "I ain't seen you around for quite a while, partner."

"That right, partner?" asked Marston, in the world's coolest cowboy voice. They discussed that a house across the ridge was infested with bandits and we needed something located in a chest on the top floor. Pushing the geezer's shoulder in a rather antagonistic manner, Marsten says, "Well, why don't we go take a look-see, partner?" The intimidating way in which Martson said "partner" was enough to convey their relationship. This guy wasn't trustworthy on account of his alcoholism, but Marston needed him for the moment, though he didn't respect him in the slightest.

When the action resumed, I was advised by the Rockstar Lady to hold down the left bumper. This brought up a radial dial HUD housing my inventory, which consisted of guns, a lasso, a knife, and a lot of empty slots. I then placed my cursor over a lever-action shotgun and selected it. While running down the hill from this drunken man's house into the town below, I heard the game's music kick in - all trumpets and Spanish guitar - and alarmed shouts coming from the bandits. They've seen me and are already taking cover in various buildings between me and the house to which we needed to go.

The subsequent gunplay was visceral, strategic, and, most of all, satisfying. I held down Y to run at medium speed and hit the right bumper to take cover, echoing the GTA IV method, but again everything felt smoother and less like hard work. On the mini map, several red dots - signifying enemy bandits - appeared and converged on my position. I took cover behind an overturned wagon, instinctively squeezing the left trigger to aim around the cover. I took a few pot shots but none found their target While holding down the left trigger, the Rockstar lady told me that pushing in the right thumbstick initiates Redemption's version of bullet-time. This bathed the screen in a sepia-toned wash, slowed down the action, and allowed me to swing my reticule over enemy appendages, essentially lining up multiple targets in one move. When I released the thumbstick, Marston unleashed a barrage of rapid-fire gunshots to each of the bodily waypoints I targeted. Each bandit dropped in a satisfying spray of blood with the physics engine taking over their fall once they were hit.

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I neglected to pick up any of the dropped ammo, which were shown onscreen by shining dots at their locations. Instead, I made my way to the house sitting atop another hill. The firefight uphill was grueling, but extremely satisfying, and involved more mid-range to long-range combat and weapon switching. At this point, I already felt at-one with the control scheme, and Marston was doing everything I wanted. By the time I entered the house - through a basement entrance since the front door was barricaded - I had switched to my trusty side iron and the battle became a close-combat affair. An enemy rounded a corner and I bumped into him as we reached it at the same time. I quickly hit the right trigger to fire, but this time the camera switches to a side-on view and slowed down just a fraction as Marston grabbed the bandit's shoulder to pull him close, and fired his pistol into the guy's chest at point-blank range. The gathering crowd behind me shouted, "Woooaahhh!" and so do I. For it was good. After making my way up the stairs and dispensing with the remaining bandits, I reached the chest and hit X to open it, which ended the gameplay and my time with Red Dead Redemption.

To say that Red Dead Redemption is GTA IV in a cowboy hat is understandable, but ultimately unfair based upon my experience with the game. As I walked out of the booth and into the migrating waves of convention-goers, I couldn't wipe the beaming smile from my face. Rockstar has done it again, but better. If you were in love with Grand Theft Auto IV, but were frustrated with it because of the control scheme, as I was, you may want to give Read Dead Redemption a try. I did, and I can tell you with conviction that this game has everything it needs to give you the immersive experience you wanted in GTA IV.

Red Dead Redemption releases for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on May 18, 2010.