I?m normally pretty good about judging games. Honestly. I?ve been playing them long enough that I can tell if I?ll enjoy a game or not. But I?ve made two mistakes recently. The first one was Borderlands. Everyone was so hyped about this game and kept trying to get me on board, but I just didn?t see anything interesting about it. It didn?t look like a bad game, just not my styles. One day I found myself playing it and within a few hours I purchased it on Steam. And since that day I?ve bought every DLC for it. In fact, because of Borderlands (and their role in Duke Nukem Forever) Gearbox has become one of my favorite developers.

My other mistake was Red Dead Redemption. I didn?t even care enough about it to follow the media hype prior to its release. But recently one of my friends purchased the Undead Nightmare DLC (which is a standalone playable game) for my son, but he was afraid of the zombie on the front cover. So being the good dad I am, and not wanting the game to go to waste, I plopped it in my Xbox.

Ho ? ly ? shit. Dude this game is amazing! I have played very little of the single player story (which is cool), but I?ve played a bunch of the multiplayer. I?m gonna go out on a limb here and say this is one of the most entertaining free roam games I?ve ever played. The environment is so well done, the gameplay mechanics work perfect and the graphics and ambient music keep me in awe. This is the first game I?ve ever taken pictures of with my phone just to save a moment (I wish consoles supported screenshots).

Its like GTA IV but way better in many ways. I thought the old western theme would be boring but its actually the best part about it.

If you get a chance to play either of these games, do it now.