Red Dead Redemption to get Rockstar Social Club exclusive challenges and more

Rockstar Games has unveiled how it will be using the Rockstar Social Club service for Red Dead Redemption, and cowboys (and girls) looking for a little extra horsin' around won't be disappointed. The Social Club is offering achievements and challenges on top of the game, so, for example, one early mission that has you horsedragging an outlaw around will have a target time, and Social Club members who beat that time will get access to a special "Guns Blazing" cheat that gives your shots the chance to light enemies on fire. There will also be game-wide challenges, including one later this month that will require everyone playing the game to hit a certain amount of money raised, with an Xbox Live or PlayStation Home avatar T-shirt as a prize.

There will also be community news, multiplayer events, special leaderboards and lots of stats tracked on the Social Club website. 100% completion is even "exclusively" in the Social Club, so presumably the only way you'll be able to know that you've done everything the West has to offer is to log on with a Rockstar Games account and find out. Kind of peculiar that information isn't in the game itself, no? At least signing up for the Social Club is free, so if you're planning to ride the plains next week, might as well do it now.