Red Dead Redemption Shakes Up the LIVE Charts


For a game that many thought would be a complete miss in the world of consumer reception, Red Dead Redemption has been doing very well. It’s been in short supply at retailers and it’s received all sorts of critical fanfare. Though there are still those among us that always viewed Red Dead as a definite home run.

The results for last week’s Xbox LIVE activity have been posted by Major Nelson. Red Dead Redemption isn’t exactly where must gamers thought it would be.

Straight from Major Nelson:

Xbox 360 Top LIVE Titles (based on UU’s)
1 Modern Warfare 2
2 Red Dead Redemption
3 Halo 3
4 Call of Duty: WaW
5 FIFA 10
6 Call of Duty 4
7 Battlefield Bad Co. 2
8 GTA IV
9 Gears of War 2
10 Left 4 Dead 2
11 Halo 3: ODST
12 Forza Motorsport 3
13 UFC Undisputed 2010 Demo
14 NBA 2K10
15 Backbreaker Demo
16 Splinter Cell Conviction
17 NHL 10
18 Borderlands
19 UFC Undisputed 2010
20 Madden NFL 10

Red Dead Redemption has rustled its way up to the second spot on the chart. It’s managed to topple Halo 3. Bungie’s latest shooter has been locked in at the #2 for literally months without budging. Yet Red Dead comes out of nowhere and does the unexpected…according to people like Pachter.

But why? Is Rockstar’s new multiplayer styling really as innovative as all of the trailers promised? In a word, yes. Speaking from personal experience, a bunch of the Kombo editors have gotten together on several occasions simply to hunt cougars with knives and pick flowers in fields. We do it all the time, and normally until absurd hours of the morning.


Image courtesy of Virtual Shackles. Make sure you check them out!
Yes, Red Dead Redemption is a shooter of sorts. It has standard gametypes that shooter fans are all too familiar with. In that aspect, its the same game that gamers have been playing for years. But it also offers a unique set of challenges, opportunities and generic goof-off moments that separate it from the rest of the console multiplayer titles out there. In fact, one might be better off comparing the Free Roam in RDR to the MMO aspects of the PC world.

Look to the top 20. Aside from Red Dead and maybe Borderlands, the games within feature the same host of gametypes and content that fans are used to. But Rockstar’s latest offers, like its setting, a different way to approach those familiar gametypes. And that’s probably a big part of why it’s doing so well.