Red Dead Redemption 2

[prinnysquad]

My mate says he keeps accidentally punching his horse.

Is he a fan of Newcastle United?

[Brad]

I helped a woman trapped under a horse. She thanked me and asked me to take her home. On the way home she complained I was going too slow. I sped up to max speed and 30 seconds later said this was far enough, she’d walk the rest whereupon she jumped off while I was still going full pelt sand walked off in the opposite direction to where she said she lived. Did Bethesda help out with this game?

I spent 2 hours on this earlier, most of which was just holding A down. So far it’s a technical marvel with not enough gaming in it for my liking.

[Yakumo]

Agh! F*ing Amazon. They've just delayed my order to December 2nd. Sod that. Ended up reordering it from Play Asia although that has cost an extra 1000 yen.

[hudson]

I've got to the first town and I feeling like looking after my group may become a bit of a chore... I just want to go Larry David loner style on this. Only thing stopping me is that I bet I very need this group.

[MartyG]

A lot of the game is a chore tbh. On first glances the game looks fantastic, but drill down into the nitty gritty details, as neat as they are, and I'm finding that they add frustration rather than enjoyment.

Do you really need to constantly wash and clean your horse?
Do you really need to have to manage food and water so much?
Do you really need to have to manage bathing and shaving?
Do you really need to make the hunting and thus money making such a grind?
Do you really need to massively limit what you can hold in inventory or carry with you?
Do you really need to have a hot/cold weather system that impacts on your character?

It's almost as if it was designed to be a deliberate grind in order to shoehorn in a microtransaction game loop as part of it, which could then have a pay to make things easier/quicker element to it, removed due to BF2 shenanigans but not properly balanced.

The storytelling and environment side of things is excellent, but the extent to which the micro-management elements irritate you will determine whether you see this as a 10/10 game and for me, the core management particularly saps away at really being able to enjoy the vistas without in-game nags - I just want to go exploring the world without this getting in the way.

I don't think it's a bad game (the attention to detail in the game world is something else) and others may well find these things a boon to the gameplay - in this aspect, I think YMMV quite considerably.

[hudson]

I'm not sure but doesn't the washing mechanic have it's pros n cons on both the clean and dirty side? Like get yourself all mucky if you want to submerge yourself into the hunt ala Predator style. But then you need to clean up if you want to charm some information. I'm guess, but I may have read this somewhere?

Also, you may want your horse to get cold so his balls shrivel so you make less bongo noises on hunts.

[QualityChimp]

Also, you may want your horse to get cold so his balls shrivel so you make less bongo noises on hunts.

This'll be me on the first 24 hours on Red Dead 2:

"Are they smaller yet? Are they smaller yet? Are they smaller yet?"

[hudson]

Ball watching lol - Now not just a football term.

[Neon Ignition]

I've done little of this so I'll stress that point as the next few hours of the game may be enough of a response to my initial thoughts on it.

At the moment I'm finding the game to be good. I'd say exactly at that bar.

Visually it's strong, the snow deformation has had a ton of time put into it making it a small distraction itself to see how objects carve their way through it. I'm playing on Pro and I won't lie, the game has a soft Vaseline sheen to it that weakens the impression they make but it's still sitting amidst the stronger looking games on the system. In terms of the few missions I've completed, I can't really describe them as anything other than what they come across as - one of the worst openings to a Rockstar game I can recall. It's drip feeding new systems such as hunger, health, horse stamina etc but immediately it feels like the focus is on these systems I've no interest in and not on gameplay which has been mostly absent beyond seeing how long I can hold X and not nod off in my chair for. I don't need trains exploding etc but faster paced intros like GTAV had pull these mechanic intros off much more effectively.

I can feel the bones to a strong game underneath already though and I assume it's going to take off the unnecessary training wheels at some point but what little I've been allowed to actually move about and play in has already raised a couple of control niggles that I'm hoping wont be common place. Still very, very early - It's... good.

[cutmymilk]

I have opened up so many missions, all of which seem like fun, that I am overwhelmed in a good way. This is my new Breath of the Wild. Spent some time hunting two legendary animals earlier. It is almost a game in itself. And I haven't even looked into fishing.

Also played some poker. This is gonna take some time!

[Brad]

I’ve accepted what rockstar have delivered now. Ignored the camp stuff and all that. You don’t have to do it it seems. Currently hunting treasure! Why is every fist fight a fight to the death!?

[fishbowlhead]

So I’ve had a couple of hilarious riding wipes.

1: chasing a massive elk over hills and I go over this ridge and have the camera down, I failed to notice a lone grave stone atop one of the ridges and my horse goes smack bang into it, sending the character flying about 100 yards down into the gully.

2: chasing some guy that tried to rob me who I took exception too. Chased the guy for about 5 mins through the country side, go through a patch of trees and a branch close lines me clean off my horse.


This game

[Adam]

When this game comes to PC, I hope someone makes a Back to the Future mod.

[QualityChimp]

This is what I'm enjoying hearing - everybody's little anecdotes.
My mate said he had a productive night. He killed a bear and paid a lady to bathe him.

[Colin]

Threads like this are one of the great bonuses of Bordersdown. Since everyone tends to give honest opinions I know I would've played this for an hour and gotten royally pissed off with it and chucked it in the sales forum.