Red Dead Redemption 2

[Sulphur]

That thing about the two different things on one button isn't entirely accurate, though, and it's been misrepresented in a few things I've read. You generally use L2 both to talk and to aim your gun if it is drawn, but not to shoot (unless I misremember - but at least in the vast majority of cases you're unlikely to shoot someone you wanted to talk to by accident). It's a detail, but I think it's a relevant one.

Fair. I'm going to shut up about it now until I actually play the game at some point.

[scumble]

I grant the points of FCH and it was well written if a bit rambling - Thirith mentioned that tendency. It goes off on a few tangents and kind of concludes as I might - it’s still a good game but not a revolution either. He’s got a similar overall opinion to Jim Sterling. I don’t know if it’s “realism” or redundant detail that people have trouble with. I was quite happy to flick through catalog pages in the shops or just find what I wanted on the shelves. It’s a bit hard to sustain the realism argument when Arthur can down a tin of baked beans and strawberries in two seconds. It’s more - where do you put the detail to create the feeling of immersion. Do we need the horse poop and simulated testicles?

[henke]

I've been playing a lot of RDR2 Online over the past few days, and I'm gonna do a write-up on it soon, but right now I just wanted to share my first victory in an Open Target Race.



I finally get what people saw in that The Club game now. The concept of racing+shooting didn't appealed to me, but on a whim I tried out this mode and was instantly hooked by the combination of accuracy and planning required for success. I probably played the above map 10 times before I worked out the optimal route and executed it well enough to get the gold medal.

[henke]

RDR2 Online does a lot of things I was wishing the singleplayer game would do. It's a more user-friendly, unconstrained experience and it actually remedies a lot of issues pointed out earlier ITT and in the FCH article. Its missions might lack the production value of the singleplayer, but they make up for it by actually letting you play it your way instead of directing your every goddamn step.

There's also something about the increased difficulty and scarcity of money that forces you to get more familiar with the game's systems and content. By the end of the main story I had a dozen guns in my inventory and I could barely tell them apart. They were cheap enough to procure that I picked most up on a whim, and the game was easy enough that I never had to think about my equipment. Just pick a gun, any gun, it'll do. In Online, money is so hard to scrape together that when time comes to spend it on an expensive gun you can bet I'm reading the stats for each one before deciding, and thinking carefully about which extra components to install. This makes me feel a much stronger bond to my bolt-action rifle, my horse, and my thick coat I bought so I can travel north and explore without freezing my ass off.

There's also plenty of user-friendly changes here. For instance now you'll always have your last-used rifles with you when you get off your horse. Y'know, unlike the single player game which frequently un-equips your rifles for no reason so you always realize you're about to wade into a shootout naked and then have to turn around and painfully slowly waaaaaaaalk back to your horse for your rifles because the game has decided that it would be out of character for you to run in that particular moment.

Other user-friendly improvements include:
-your horse appears nearby when you whistle for it (Roach-style). It'll never be out of range.
-some character animations, like getting rifles from your horse, have been removed to speed things up.
-you always have a store-catalogue with you so you can order equipment at any time(tho you still need to pick it up at a post office).
-fast travel posts are much more plentiful.

Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of flaws in the Online as well. I never got into RDR1's Online because of how skewed it was in favor of high-level players, and that same anti-handicap bullshit is present in the deathmatch modes here. Higher level players who already are much more familiar with the game than noobs like me ALSO have the benefit of perks which increase bullet-resistance AND better weapons. Wonderful. However I did find some of the other modes remarkably doable. Even the races I did ok at despite having a starter horse VS some people rididng around on the kinds of horses you only get when you reach rank 80. My free roam experience wasn't particularly mared by high-level assholes tho, most people mind their own business, and thankfully at least on PS4 barely anyone speaks.

Another big drawback is that, if you're playing on your own like I am, you do kinda have to make your own fun. There is a story here but it doesn't seem to be particularly strong, tho I haven't done many of the story missions yet. Mostly I've been setting my own goals to work towards, hunt certain animals, rank up enough to buy a fishing rod and bandana, explore the northern areas. Truth is, after a week with this the charms are wearing off, and I think I might be done with it soon. Still gonna do the remaining story missions tho.

Anyway here's a video.

[Malf]

I've been slowly but surely getting back in to this, but then last night it did one of those things that is just so damn infuriating.

I noticed that I only needed a perfect cougar pelt in order to get the best satchel upgrade, so I dutifully went out in to the wild and spent a couple of hours hunting waiting for one to show up.
First one did and mauled me as I panicked, but the second one I took down with an improved arrow (progressing the Master Hunter task as well).

I subsequently skinned the cougar and sold its corpse to the nearby trapper, then started the long ride back to camp to hand it in to Pearson and get my lovely new satchel.

On the long ride back, I got ambushed by the largest pack of wolves I've ever had to fight off. There were six of the buggers, but I managed to get all of them, and as I had a spare horse with me, I grabbed a couple of them to heft back to camp too. There were a couple of perfect specimens amongst the dead.

A bit further along the road, I got distracted by a shack I regularly get distracted by.
There's a little farmer on the coast south of Valentine who keeps pigs and chickens. I wanted to see if he remembered me. However, the results were... inconclusive.
See, he didn't like me the first time I met him, telling me to get off his land, and just being downright ornery in general. So I hogtied him, and killed his pigs and chickens, knowing they were good for some more perfect pelts. And ever since then, I've stopped by to do the same.
So I dutifully stopped off to chuck a quick "Howdy!" his way last night, and to no-one's surprise, he took umbrage to my presence.
And once more, he ended up face-down and hog-tied while I rode off on my way back to camp now with yet another horse (a pretty little Palamino Morgan he had stabled), laden down with even more dead animals.

I finally rode in to camp feeling well-chuffed that I'd gotten back with so much booty. And I was really looking forward to getting my new bag from Pearson... who wasn't there.
Only Javier, Uncle, Lenny, Hosea and Dutch were there.
I hung around for a bit to see if he would show up, but nope.
I did the chores around the camp in the hopes he's show up, but nope.

And all the while, Dutch and Hosea were nattering in the house about some bank job Josea had planned.

So obviously, the game wanted me to progress the story before granting me access to the camp regulars again.
Feeling already pissed off that I was being rail-roaded in to doing a mission before being able to get my bag, I took the mission.

Only to end up in fucking GARMA.

I strongly suspect that by the time I get back to a stage where I'm able to interact with Pearson again, my cherished perfect cougar pelt will have magically disappeared.

Like I said before, it's an easy game to admire, but a hard game to like.

[scumble]

@Henke - quick question on RDR2 online - from what you said it seems fine to play online solo, although I was wondering how PVP elements work. In brief solo experiences on GTA5 online I recall just getting shot by other players for no particular reason. I'd find it irritating to be shot up by other players constantly but you haven't mentioned anything like that so far.

[henke]

I did mention it briefly

My free roam experience wasn't particularly marred by high-level assholes tho, most people mind their own business, and thankfully at least on PS4 barely anyone speaks.

I did get shot by randos a few times, but thankfully I always respawned far enough away that I could get on my way before they came around for seconds.

Player icons also indicate their karma, blue icon = Honorable, red icon = Dishonorable. Don't turn your back on those red icon folks.

[scumble]

Ah, ok - I guess that was their solution to being repeatedly harassed. I’d say there should also be a timeout on killing the same player. Or temp bans for repeatedly killing players as a troll.

[Thirith]

Does it have the kind of options that GTA Online has, e.g. private/friends-only sessions or passive mode?

[henke]

No idea about private sessions but you do get the option to Parley or Feud when a player kills you. Parley is basically passive mode.

[scumble]

Is that essentially making you untargetable again for the player that killed you?

[Thirith]

I'm now in epilogue 2 and am greatly enjoying it - after the oppressiveness of chapter 6, it feels like a necessary release, even if the dramatic irony of knowing what will happen (in RDR) is always in the air.

Talking of which, I'm wondering: if there was a story DLC that was a retelling/remake/remaster of the original Red Dead Redemption, would you be interested in it? They've already laid the groundwork for it, after all.

[henke]

No, hopefully if they do any singleplayer DLC it'll be something more interesting than that. Like... The New Adventures Of Sadie Adler!

Anyway, get on DAT MP, Thirith! There was a big update last week that apparently added new co-op missions.

[henke]

also

[Malf]

I need to finish this off too. I'm currently at the stage where Arthur's been diagnosed with tuberculosis

And I'm looking for a sodding Opossum, because my next hunter rank is to kill an opossum playing possum, which is a dick move, as five minutes before I reached this level, I'd killed two playing possum, and now I can't find one for love nor money >:E

I'm at the stage now where I antagonise both Micah and Dutch whenever I'm back at camp, because seriously, fuck those guys. Whenever I go back, Micah's doing the whole "Serpent in the Garden of Eden" thing and whispering to Dutch in the cave, and they break it off when they notice Arthur.

I miss Lenny

I may see if I can hook a stick of dynamite in to camp. Even if it ends the game prematurely, at least I'll have the pleasure of knowing I've offed them.

[Thirith]

Anyway, get on DAT MP, Thirith! There was a big update last week that apparently added new co-op missions.

One more mission, I think, and then I’m done with the story and can check out the MP. I’m afraid I’m not very good re: coop commitments on the PS4; my usual console gaming times are evenings just before going to bed, since the PlayStation is installed in our living room.

[EvaUnit02]

One step closer...
References to Red Dead Redemption 2’s PC Version Found on Rockstar Games Social Club Website

[demagogue]

Good news people!
Red Dead Redemption 2 PC Announced


"Rockstar's cowboy adventure out November 5, but the Steam version won't arrive until December."

[icemann]

Yay . Can't wait to play it.

[Renzatic]

also

All these months later, I see this, and laugh my ass off.

It is a good thing.

[EvaUnit02]

Bought it in the recent Steam 25% off sale. This PC version is hella good for me, constant 60fps and it looks marvellous. FPS gunfights are godly on mouse, I wish that I had this precision control in the first game. You pretty much had to use the lock on camera because the free aim was so, so bad with stick aiming.

The pacing of the early hours in this game is much, much better than the first. It took about 6 hours for RDR1 to pick up after doing a bunch of menial shit like herding cattle and night watch. 3ish hours in and I've already experienced a train robbery, hell yeah!

[Thirith]

I wonder if they've tweaked the deadliness of the legendary bear. When I first played the game on PS4, I killed the thing right after the mission with Hosea ended. When I had to restart because my savegame had that bug where a number of characters just don't turn up at the camp, I was killed when I first tried but then managed easily when I made my second attempt. Yesterday and today I was mauled by the bear pretty much instantly; a rifle hit to the head and two shots from my shotgun didn't do the trick, apparently.

[Malf]

In my PC run-through, the Legendary Fox fecked off while I was hunting it and never came back.
I shot it once before it scarpered, so it must have died out of line-of-sight. Apparently, when that happens, the goods are supposed to eventually turn up at the Trapper, but they never did for me. Fox is crossed of on the map, and I don't have the lovely clothes to show for it

[EvaUnit02]

Back playing this because Cyberpunk 2077 lately keeps giving me corrupted saves that CTD upload trying to load them.

I happened upon a KKK meeting, interesting occurrence, I had never seen this random event before. I put on my bandana and then smoked all of them akimboed revolvers. The lawmen came after me, I capped them too.

Anyway, enabling HDR has been broken in recent patches. It will display a black screen instead of the main menu (fortunately you can alt+F4 quit the game).

The fix:-
1. Go to C:\Users\YOUR USERNAME\Documents\Rockstar Games\Red Dead Redemption 2\Settings and open system.xml.
2. Search for the line <hdr value="true" /> and change true to false.
3. You can now turn on the HDR from the graphics menu. Make sure that you use Fullscreen and not Windowed or Borderless Windowed, otherwise the HDR won't display properly.

[henke]

PSA: Red Dead Online is only 5€ on PC, but that price will go up to 20€ on February 15.

Yes, this standalone thingy is the same as the MP included in the full game. But for folks like me who already finished RDR2 on the consoles and is only interested in getting it on PC for the MP, it's pretty ideal. You can't transfer your character from PS4 to PC, so I started up a new character today. Stole a horse, did some hunting, did some MP matches, made a little bit of money, then lost it playing poker. Good times.