Home Of The Brave

I’ve never been to America. I’ve always wanted to go although not to the places most people would immediately think of. I think New York must be an incredible place but it’s not the America I see in my mind. Florida, LA, Vegas I’m sure they are all fab but they aren’t the America I’d like to see. For me America’s mountainous regions, its deserts and rocky landscapes have always lived large in my mind. I want to see Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park, I want to visit the Grand Canyon, I want to drive through Monument valley and traverse the Mojave desert. The US is a country of great beauty. Quite rightly Americans don’t just see themselves as citizens of huge noisy sprawling metropolises. They celebrate their beautiful land and their movies, books and art often remind us of the dramatic geology that surrounds their cities.

Despite primarily being about desperate struggles for survival two games have recently proven to be tremendous love letters to the land. I adored Alan Wake’s loving depiction of the Pacific Northwest. The towns and mountainous forest backdrop of Washington State are painstakingly recreated and utterly breathtaking. Likewise the time I’ve spent in New Austin in Red Dead Redemption, based on New Mexico, Texas has ‘done a body good’ as they might say in the old wild west. Rather than satiating my need to see the great outdoors though it’s only made me all the more determined to hire an RV and go see the mountains and prairies for myself.