Red Dead Redemption

- About a third of the way through the game, you'll be dumped in a new region. Get on the horse provided and ride to the map marker, don't quick travel or get off until you get there.

- Do the missions for the chick at the ranch first, at least up until you get the Lasso.

- If you are challenged to a duel and want to keep a good reputation, shoot the guy's hand and you will win (note: may not work with mission-scripted duels).

- Water is an instant death the second so much as a toe goes in.

- When you get a horse deed (normally used when your horse dies to summon another) you can actually use it any time you like and the game auto-saves when you do. This is much more convenient than finding a spot the game deems viable for a camp site and saving that way.

- You can skip the skinning animation if you park your horse over top of the dead animal in question. If the animation can't go off without clipping, it'll skip.

- If you fail a side mission by letting an NPC die and it doesn't give you the option to retry, don't worry. The mission will usually respawn in a few (real-time) hours like nothing happened.

- Make sure you play allll the way until the end. You'll know when you get there.

- Undead Nightmare is great and totally worth playing but you should leave it until after your first playthrough of the main game.