Red Dead Redemption: The games posse ride the Wild West

I don't own a PlayStation 3 or an Xbox 360. And I never thought I'd enjoy ride-by shootings in the Wild West. But everything changed on a recent trip to New York when I caught up with Sam Houser, founder of Rockstar Games, at his home in Brooklyn.

I knew Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto series was one of the most innovative and successful games ever made. But when Houser showed me their latest Top 20 action-adventure Western game, Red Dead Redemption, I was utterly blown away.

The sweeping cinematography of the game, and its original music, led me to feel as if id I'd been plonked right in the middle of a Clint Eastwood movie. "It's a work of art", I announced.

I should have tried these games before, especially as Houser was a childhood friend of mine. But my only experience of computer games had been a flat-screen table-top Space Invaders machine we had played together at home when I was a child. How times have changed since then.

"What I'm most proud of is that everyone in our industry said this game could not be done," says Houser. "That cowboys would not sell. So even though we have games that have sold more, this one feels good, because literally everyone wrote it off."

This particular Western had the budget of a Hollywood movie – and even outsells them, though that's not really surprising. There's no doubt that the game does justice to the Western genre.

It has even sparked a computer-animated mini-movie directed by The Road director John Hillcoat, starring the game's protagonist John Marston, and which is currently downloadable through Rockstar's website.

There's nothing like becoming a cowboy in your own virtual world – especially when it feels so real. Even as a novice it feels like my world has opened up. I'm not into bloodbaths but, as I roam freely around the Wild West, I can admire the beautiful horses and scenery – the vast expanse of wilderness and living ecosystem – even without shooting everything in sight. When events unfold in front of me, I can choose how to respond. "Artistically speaking, I don't think there is anything close to as progressive as what goes on in making these things," Houser says. "It's not even a competition."

'Red Dead Redemption' is out now (www.rockstargames.com)