Red Dead Two [split topic]

[AngryGazelle]

Replaying Red Dead 2 and it's a fucking joy.

I just love the world Rockstar have built. Load up your horse and go, something cool will happen.

I loved this when it came out but somehow am enjoying it even more now. Arthur is definitely Rockstars best protagonist.

[samadriel]

Spent a little while playing Sea of Stars on my Steam Deck. Just from the starting stages,  I get the feeling the locations are massive on size, but thin on interactivity; I'd rather have smaller areas with lots of stuff to click and learn about. I also find the pixel art a little... dry? The colours are so muted compared to, say, Chrono Trigger; a bit too tasteful for my blood.  We'll see how it goes though,  the combat system seems fairly pleasant and balanced, even if some of the timing aspects are initially off-putting.

[The Crumb]

Replaying Red Dead 2 and it's a fucking joy.

I just love the world Rockstar have built. Load up your horse and go, something cool will happen.

I loved this when it came out but somehow am enjoying it even more now. Arthur is definitely Rockstars best protagonist.

It's an incredible feat of virtual world building. It's kind of wild that in spite of everything it does, there's still a feeling of untapped potential there. Just getting into unscripted chaos in the cities has such a different feel to anything in the missions.

[Cerys]

I really need to play some Red Dead one of these days.  As it is, right now I'm wandering through the Pixel Remaster of the original Final Fantasy, and loving it.

[Ferris]

I'm replaying the first RDR strangely enough, and am really enjoying it. Some of the systems work better than in RDR2, and the game is much more streamlined and focused while still feeling massive.

Maybe not quite as a good a game as the sequel overall, but I prefer the pared down nature of it. You are directed to certain bits of the map a lot, for example, and the devs have clearly spent a lot of time going "right well we'll have to come up with loads of stuff for those bits" and as a result it feels every bit as immersive as the sequel.

[AngryGazelle]

Just getting into unscripted chaos in the cities has such a different feel to anything in the missions.

Playing last night, and I took down an enemy camp, looted the area and then I heard dogs barking... Bounty hunters had tracked me using bloodhounds and I made a desperate escape into the forest.

Couldn't shake them off so I killed them all. Kicked a dog to death with my boots, Mark Corrigan style, too. Felt a bit bad about that, I tried walking away but the fucker bit me.

That kind of stuff just makes the world feel so dynamic and alive. Played for about 3 hours and only did one short side mission.

[Utter Shit]

Playing last night, and I took down an enemy camp, looted the area and then I heard dogs barking... Bounty hunters had tracked me using bloodhounds and I made a desperate escape into the forest.

Have Rockstar added things to the offline game? I don't remember bloodhounds being used to track you.

[AngryGazelle]

Have Rockstar added things to the offline game? I don't remember bloodhounds being used to track you.

I don't think so - I did have a $300 bounty, if that matters - every other group that tracked me didn't have dogs with them.

[Inspector Norse]

What do you have to do to get that high a bounty?
I remember spending about two hours getting chased by literally hundreds of police through St Denis and the bayou and just never being able to shake them or find a hiding spot. Finally realised it was because I'd done the mission wrong and you were supposed to follow John and sneak past the police out of the cemetery, where I'd just hopped a wall and legged it.

[Ferris]

RDR1 playthrough continues, blasting my way across Mexico as we speak.

It's definitely smaller and I've been spoiled by more modern massive games, but I quite like the compartmentalization. "Get to know this bit of the game, properly, then we'll let you have a bit more game".

[AngryGazelle]

What do you have to do to get that high a bounty?

I think it was during the mission where you have to free Micah in Strawberry.

The only time I've earned a bounty higher than that is after a killing spree - but I do those after saving and then reload as I like to have high honour, and don't believe Arthur is that psychotic!

[Alex79uk]

I played RDR2 on PS4 originally and absolutely loved it, became my favourite game of all time. This year I replayed it on Xbox and it just cemented it as the best game ever made. I decided to do a 100% playthrough and just finished a couple of weeks ago after 240 hours. I could easily spend the same time again in that world, just wandering, fishing, exploring, hunting. It's incredible.

[Gambrinus]

I did a 100% play through in lockdown, about October 2020. The blackjack gambling missions were hateful.

Great game though, if I had stupid money I'd buy the rights to it and make them do it again, but bigger.

[kalowski]

It we as one of the first games I got on the PS4 and therefore spoiled virtually everything for me as no other game is as immersive or varied.
I fucking love it.

[Utter Shit]

Same, I've been chasing that same immersive, contemplative joy ever since and nothing even comes close. The number of games I've bought  hoping it might scratch that itch, only to realise very quickly that it isn't even trying to, is ridiculous. You could just "exist" in the RDR2 world without trying to progress or achieve anything in particular. That's true immersion.

[Goldentony]

just started this, how long before I can get enough money to dress like a posh adam ant type bloke with lace and stuff

[Rizla]

I did a 100% play through in lockdown, about October 2020. The blackjack gambling missions were hateful.

Pretty sure I got 100% on all those challenge things, but I don't think I ever managed to collect all the mad feathers and stuff for Algernon Hiss.

Did anyone else get as far as playing hide the squirrel statue with Abigail?

[Alex79uk]

I did a 100% play through in lockdown, about October 2020. The blackjack gambling missions were hateful.

Great game though, if I had stupid money I'd buy the rights to it and make them do it again, but bigger.

Oh yeah, those last few gambler missions were a pain, that was easily the worst one, the win three Blackjack hands with 5 or more cards.

[Ferris]

Did anyone else get as far as playing hide the squirrel statue with Abigail?

Bit of a personal question mate

[Gambrinus]

Pretty sure I got 100% on all those challenge things, but I don't think I ever managed to collect all the mad feathers and stuff for Algernon Hiss.

Did anyone else get as far as playing hide the squirrel statue with Abigail?

I did all the feathers and the orchids. I didn't bother the first time I played it and to be honest it's a right grind.

Did a bit of the squirrel but to be honest wasn't that arsed about the epilogue or John. I've never played the first game though, which may have made a difference.

I loved early on just fucking the camp in Valentine off and going off hunting in the hills for days upon end. Stunningly beautiful game.

[Ferris]

RDR1 playthrough continues, blasting my way across Mexico as we speak.

Still in ruddy Mexico! Turns out military dictators aren't as nice as they make out to be.

All a bit heavy handed, but still quite a nice bit of storytelling.

[Noodle Lizard]

I just loaded up RDR2 again for the first time in a couple of years. Still good. I'm mostly spending my time doing the meditative, exploratory stuff, since the combat still feels (deliberately) clunky and it all escalates far too quickly.

A part of me wishes there was an option to go properly rogue without the police descending on you, since even accidentally knocking someone over will put an end to whatever it was you were trying to do. On the other hand, I think it was a pretty admirable and bold design choice from Rockstar to essentially force their players away from that kind of behaviour and embrace the more curious side of the world they built.

If they try that in GTA6 though I will lose my fucking temper.

[Noodle Lizard]

Same, I've been chasing that same immersive, contemplative joy ever since and nothing even comes close. The number of games I've bought  hoping it might scratch that itch, only to realise very quickly that it isn't even trying to, is ridiculous. You could just "exist" in the RDR2 world without trying to progress or achieve anything in particular. That's true immersion.

Breath of the Wild and Elden Ring come close, although I keep bouncing off BotW and Elden Ring is rarely relaxing.

[Ferris]

Cleared the RDR1 mission where I deal with the main baddie (no spoilers here), and just when you feel like you should be able to pause for breath and rethink what that all meant, it immediately chucks you into a boring cattle rustling mission with your tedious son.

A rare miss. I would have a liked a few minutes pottering about before leaping back into advancing the story, but I didn't get a chance.

I was also tired and wanted to go to bed.

[AngryGazelle]

Finished the Guarma chapter last night; it's not bad it just feels a little pointless.

The amount of dev time it must have taken for the sake of a few shooting gallery missions is nuts.

[Inspector Norse]

Finished the Guarma chapter last night; it's not bad it just feels a little pointless.

The amount of dev time it must have taken for the sake of a few shooting gallery missions is nuts.

I felt like that with New Austin. Definite "built for abandoned DLC" vibes. So much of it was empty. Shame the rumoured DLC remaster of the first game never materialised to make use of all that space.

In fact there was so little to do there that when I reloaded my original playthrough recently just to have a look round there, I found that I hadn't actually completed the epilogue because I had thought it was just aimless radiant missions in a dull landscape, but after completing a bounty now I got a new Evelyn Miller mission marker.

[Utter Shit]

Finished the Guarma chapter last night; it's not bad it just feels a little pointless.

The amount of dev time it must have taken for the sake of a few shooting gallery missions is nuts.

It's really frustrating that they've never set up a way of allowing you to go back there. I know there isn't much to do there anyway, but it's such a beautiful, colourful setting, so different from everywhere else in the game...and they give you no time whatsoever to explore it at leisure, your entire time on the island (IIRC? It's been a couple of years since I played that chapter) is basically one long firefight mission.

I know that you can technically get back there by spending hours and hours following a long path just outside the map, drinking yourself into unconsciousness at a certain point so that you wake up outside the map and then eventually arriving at Guarma via a swathe of polygon nothingness, but it's a massive undertaking.

It's just baffling really - they spent all this time making this completely separate environment, make it as different from the rest of RDR2 as possible, and then rush you through it with no opportunity to take it all in. From what I remember, the island is essentially liberated at the end of that chapter, so why not allow players to fast-travel there by boat? It feels like a total waste to me.

[Ferris]

The fast travel by boat was (bafflingly) cut content, I think the original plan was to have it linked to St Denis.

Presumably it was slightly too much work to add in a couple of NPCs and a stranger mission or three, so bin the lot of it off. Madness but there you go.

[Noodle Lizard]

I felt like that with New Austin. Definite "built for abandoned DLC" vibes. So much of it was empty. Shame the rumoured DLC remaster of the first game never materialised to make use of all that space.

In fact there was so little to do there that when I reloaded my original playthrough recently just to have a look round there, I found that I hadn't actually completed the epilogue because I had thought it was just aimless radiant missions in a dull landscape, but after completing a bounty now I got a new Evelyn Miller mission marker.

There are a few things to do there, in case you missed them. If I remember correctly, there's a little storyline in Armadillo with a few missions, and all the legendary animals/fish of course. But yeah, it's a shame they didn't manage to load RDR1 into it. I do wonder if RDR Online hadn't been the focus whether we might have got some DLC, same with GTAV - I could swear they were talking about introducing a Vegas and San Francisco map like San Andreas had.

[Inspector Norse]

It was five years ago (Jesus!) but I think I did most of the "real" missions there. Just didn't seem to be much else going on when exploring.

I don't think I ever caught a legendary fish. It was only recently I discovered that the game does actually tell you what weapons and ammo are best for hunting each kind of animal. Got through the whole thing just guessing and wondering why I never got a perfect kill...