The Wild Wild (Virtual) West

The twin concepts of “the west” and the “the frontier” are endlessly interesting to me because of how often they are re-purposed, re-visioned, repackaged, and resold (in all mediums). I have been playing a LOT of Red Dead Redemption 2 lately, which is the latest take on a re-visioned west in video game format. Its predecessor remains my favorite video game of all time, and so far this one is living up to expectations by being even bigger and more complex. Its attention to detail is also on point and the game is simply stunning to look at. Video games in and of themselves are a fascinating method for interactive storytelling, and it is doubly fun to pick out all of the cultural influences that have made their way into RDR2. And, because it is a big, complex video game it still has some glitches that need to be ironed out. The internet being the weird (and periodically hilarious) place that it is, people have been compiling these glitches into a YouTube video that is well worth the watch…