Red Dead gets the Social Club experience

Rockstar Games has unveiled the Social Club (Rockstar’s members only community) features of upcoming Wild West action title, Red Dead Redemption.

“Red Dead Redemption takes the Social Club experience to an entirely new level with seamless in-game integration and the introduction of Social Club in-game challenges to unlock exclusive members-only cheats and content,” says the blurb from the game’s official website.

Social Club Challenges

Rockstar’s stockpiled a collection of exclusive cheats that will only be accessible by Social Club members who complete a series of special Social Club Challenges. The first of which, available at launch, will be the Pike’s Basin Challenge. To unlock this challenge, Social Club members must beat the “Justice in Pike’s Basin” mission early in the game and complete the “Pike’s Basin” gang hideout by helping rancher Errol Hewitt defeat a gang of ruthless cattle rustlers. Social Club members can then take on the Pike’s Basin Challenge – face off against the rustlers and:

– Kill 3 enemies in one Dead Eye burst

– Drag a gang member through the basin (by lassoing him on horseback)

– Kill all enemies while on horseback

Completion will post your best time and medals attained to a special Social Club Challenges leaderboard – and garner you the exclusive “Guns Blazing” cheat (ability to shoot bullets that could set your enemies on fire). Many more Social Club Challenges will be revealed at the Social Club after the game’s release.

Rockstar Challenges

Pitch in with everyone else playing online to cumulatively accomplish a grand challenge and unlock a special reward. Look for the very first one, The Strike It Rich! Rockstar Challenge, to kick off in late May after enough people have made their mark in the world of Red Dead Redemption. Whether you earn it, win it or steal it – grab as much money as you can to reach the grand total bank cume and unlock the exclusive Posse T-shirt for your Xbox LIVE or PSN avatar. At the Social Club, you’ll be able to keep track of the current community progress towards this goal as well as get information on special inside tips and tricks to help get there. The Social Club will inform you of more Rockstar Challenges to be announced after game release.

The Blackwater Ledger

A special and dynamic Red Dead Redemption community edition of the in-game newspaper keeping community members apprised of all the latest goings on across the game world – from New Austin to Nuevo Paraiso to West Elizabeth. The newspaper will report daily news from the frontier including who’s earned the highest bounties, a business column on what products are most purchased from local merchants, and a blotter of which weapons are being used the most. Registered members will also see a snapshot report of their own latest status of Honour and Fame, as well as Experience, Rank, Game Progress and more.

The Social Club also promises the “most robust and easy-to-use leaderboards and stat tracking pages yet” and official multiplayer events.

There’s more info on the game’s official website.

Read Dead Redemption is scheduled for release on May 21.