Red Dead Redemption II

Rockstar slows down, makes a campfire, and contemplates the prairie.

Then quick-draws, shoots six bad guys in the head, and helps a nice lady find some dinosaur bones. Less frantic than GTA, with a good line in characterdriven action and some of the best sunsets we’ve yet seen, it was tough on PC hardware in 2018, and GPUs are only just catching up in 2021. A game of long horseback journeys punctuated by graphic violence, poker games, train robberies, and just about everything else you’ve seen in a Western, it feels, unusually for a videogame, as though it comes from a place of love.

Released: 2018 www.rockstargames.com