As the Sun rises in the east, a showdown will be brewing between two highly anticipated titles. Red Dead Redemption and Alan Wake. The summer is usually void of AAA game releases, but publishers are forging new paths in hopes for big returns. For those who are on limited gaming budgets, here are some reviews summaries that might help in your purchasing decision;

Red Dead Reviews

The side missions and quests range from the little things like playing horse shoes or poker to big shootouts at bandit hideouts. There are even some that are fleshed out enough to be a part of the main storyline. You could spend hours just riding around trying to track down all of the components of a new outfit for Marston, or hunting wild game and picking herbs and desert flowers. The Rockstar Social Club, a free online community that connects to the game, offers additional challenges and leaderboards to encourage even more replay. If you’re looking for one game to occupy you for months, this is it.  -  IGN

That said, life is perhaps a little easy in the old west. Some in-game systems get a touch lost along the way. The focus on skinning animals rarely comes into play outside of specific missions and pursuing character upgrades. A hint of an economy – pelts sell better where those animals aren’t readily available – seems redundant in a world where money is rarely a problem. The same goes for morality. Helping strangers earns you store discounts; murdering innocents lines your pockets faster. Echoing Fable II’s similar reputation system, nothing is permanent. Shoot a train driver and murder his passengers as they spill out into the desert, and you need only give rides to three old ladies for all to be forgiven. Flexibility allows Marston to have his ‘off days’, but the easy sway makes it rather pointless. -  Edge-Online

To succeed where other Western games have failed, Red Dead Redemption deftly recreates a sandbox playground of a tumultuous historical period swept away by technological progress. The game perfectly captures the expansiveness of frontier life and the gritty gunplay of spaghetti westerns, rightfully earning its place alongside the great Western films and the best Rockstar games. – Game informer

Click on the Jump to read the Alan Wake Reviews

Alan Wake Reviews

Alan Wake suffers from a few odd pacing issues, but for the most part its story unfolds perfectly as the game progresses, driving you further and further into the darkness. By the time you find out the truth of what happened in that cabin, you’ll be so far in that you’ll have no choice but to push on through to the other side. And you won’t mind one bit.
Bottom Line: A brilliantly told story, excellent voice acting, and an atmosphere so unnerving you’ll sleep with the lights on for a month. If only it came with a bottle of instant amnesia so that you could play it for the first time more than once.
Recommendation: Unless you’re allergic to excellent storytelling or have an unnatural fear of pine trees, play this immediately. – The Escapist

If anything, Alan Wake reminds me of the first Uncharted. It is a great, but flawed work (hello ugly daylight, quirky animations, and a script that mocks the viewer even more than Lost or Twin Peaks) that lays the foundation for what could be an absolutely amazing follow-up. I just hope it doesn’t take another five or six years. – 1up