So there's an official trailer out now, you guys seen it yet, what do you think?

Love the first one. I didn't exactly achieve much, apart from exploring and instigating fights. I'm sure that's all I'll do in this one.

I cannot wait to see what the masters of the over-world genre have in store for this game. Edge's preview made it sound like Breath of the Wild on steroids with crazy amounts of detail. Not only do you have to dress appropriately for the conditions, if it gets too cold they even programmed horse shrinkage. Why they would go to such a length, I have no idea, but now that it's out there I won't be able to unsee it.

Getting immersed in horse testicles, god I love gaming journalism.

Surprised by how much hype this game has, with huge games that have guaranteed sales moving their dates to avoid it (like CoD). I know Red Dead Redemption was popular but i didn't realize by how much. I just don't have the discipline for Open World games, but i might check it out somewhere down the line.

That's the draw of Rockstar North. Grand Theft Auto V sold 95 million copies and Red Dead Redemption was one of the most celebrated games of the previous generation.

I find it's one of the few 'socially acceptable' games like FIFA, NBA 2K, Madden etc.

Well hell, seems supply/demand for RDR2 at the moment is so tight, Gamefly won't be getting it until November 7th, first time I've ever seen that happen in the 10+ years I've been with them. I lack the funds right now to outright buy it, so, a wait it will be.

I’ve noticed supply of physical games now has decreased a lot, Crash Bandicoot Trilogy, Monster Hunter World and God of War were all unavailable for physical purchase in my area shortly after they came out.

My gf’s dad is getting this, she’s going to the midnight launch to pick it up for him and install it for him so he can play it after work the next day. I wanted to see him have a meltdown on how long it takes to install 😂

Never really preorder games but seeing that file size, I wanted to have that preload for sure.

One day down and I'm part-way through chapter two. I actually did make it a little further, but a simple misunderstanding involving a horse turned into a killing spree and I didn't want that blemish on my Arthur's record.

Even by Rockstar's standards, RDR2's opening is slow. Most of the opening missions comprise of long horse rides where NPCs fill you in on everything, you hunt down a deer or rescue a young John Marsden, then it's a long horse ride back to home base. Chapter 2 appears to be more open, but so far the missions have mostly involved learning about bar room brawls and how to defuse situations in public without having to murder somebody.

I expect the game will pick up relatively soon, but for those on the fence, don't expect this game to knock your socks off in the opening couple of hours.

Yeah, I felt that too. Also I feel that there is just way too many characters at the beginning. I really liked RDR1's approach to settle in the with Stoakes family (which was just a father and his daughter) and worked into meeting people little by little. Makes getting to know them easier. Not gonna like, I got my horse killed cause I thought I could explore when they arrived at their first settlement. My horse died super quick due to the cold. I just really wanted to explore. Good thing I made a manual save before that.

Started playing this, and into chapter 2. These Rockstar games bring out the absolute worst, darkest parts of my personality. I can't remember how many people have been killed, but there's been a lot, including sheep. I murdered a flock of sheep.

Oct 29, 2018 10:25:23 GMT NATH45 said:

Started playing this, and into chapter 2. These Rockstar games bring out the absolute worst, darkest parts of my personality. I can't remember how many people have been killed, but there's been a lot, including sheep. I murdered a flock of sheep.

How do you sleep at night?

My gf’s dad seems to hate it so far because of auto save playing up 😂

Definitely a slow start, even slower than the first. But once you come down off the mountain and it opens up, it's almost overwhelming all the little systems and touches to figure out. Barely touched anything so far, mostly just hunting and scavenging.

Two weeks later, and business has picked up.

The missions heat up in Chapter 3 as the game spends less time teaching you it's system and puts together more interesting set-pieces. At times certain missions felt like padding, but the way the story would ramp up made sense of all the new characters you'd meet and it eventually wrapped itself up into a nice bow.

I feel like Chapter 3 was the first time I had serious money to play around with. In Chapter 2, there is enough money to get by, but you have to be thoughtful with your cash. In 3 I was able to upgrade the camp, upgrade my guns and do everything that improved the quality of my gameplay experience. Chapter 3 also introduces the 'Fence', a shop that allows you to pawn off stolen goods and make trinkets and talisman that improves Arthur. I've only used it to earn extra cash, but the rewards seem tempting enough to go through all the hubba baloo.

Similar to the Yakuza series, the side-quests have been the highlight of the experience so far. Whether it's hunting down famous gun-slingers, tracking down serial killers or hunting legendary beasts these have usually made for the more enjoyable moments in the game as they usually provide the most freedom.

As far as grievances go I have a couple. Firstly, the open-world genre has this weird push/pull design when it comes to advancing the story. If you advance the story too far, you run the risk of missing out on a lot of highlights. However if you take your time, the game punishes you by making a lot of menial tasks harder than they ought to be. There have been so many instances in RDR2 where I've spent an hour trying to get everything together, only for the next mission to either give me that item straight away or unlock something that would have made the process 10 times easier.

The other complaint I have is the general lack of direction in the main quest. You're outlaws and everything so I can understand being kept in the dark to an extent, but it just seems like you're raising money all the time without a goal in sight. Then everytime things get too hot, you move to a new outpost. If the game had have provided with the player more freedom in terms of getting the money it would give the game a greater sense of purpose. Instead I just feel as a player I keep getting dragged into all these messes and I have to dead eye my way out of everything. It comes back to a formula Rockstar started in 2001 that is showing it's age.

One thing that really annoyed me, finally track down 3 star rabbits for the hunter challenge...you HAVE to use the varmint rifle, a perfectly placed arrow still takes down the quality. Elongated the annoyance that is rabbit hunting.

The animal markers in this game are just the worst, any time I go to a spot visually designated to a specific animal...I find just about every animal EXCEPT that animal there. I was looking for a badger in the badger territory, and saw: foxes, does, bucks, rabbits, possums, skunks, coyotes, wolves, pronghorns, vultures, even the first snake I had encountered in the entire game. But no fucking badgers.

If it makes you feel any better, I couldn't find any badgers either. A guide pointed me towards a bunch of alligators towards Saint Denis, which is about all I could find.

I'm all wrapped here.

SPOILER: Click to show

SPOILER: Click to show

{Red Dead Redemption 2 Spoilers}
After messing around for a week, I decided to zero-in on the story just so I could participate more in active discussions without the fear of being spoiled. Sadly anytime I wanted to check something out on YouTube or find out a specific piece of info, I'd have certain pieces of the story spoiled. While I shouln't have been surprised, that's how I found out about John Marston, Micah being the traitor and Arthur suffering tuberculosis, so only the biggest spoilers in the game.

So I'll take it from the top, RDR2 was one of my most anticipated games. I never played the original, but I loved GTA V and couldn't wait to see what innovations Rockstar could bring to the open world genre with more time.

The answer is that they could put together a more compelling stories, with fully realised characters and plenty of well written dialogue. This is a game that's proud of it's story and isn't afraid to compromise it's gameplay to effectively tell it's story.

At times it can be really off-putting. There's a really harsh transition in the epilogue where there's a series of intense missions and when it's all over you're stuck doing a bunch of chores. The intention here is to put you in the shoes of the character, settling into honest living after a few near scrapes. It certainly succeeds in that regard, but after playing through 80 odd mission it kind of makes the experience a blur. I can't recall too many missions from a gameplay perspective and usually have to rely on story elements to distinguish certain missions.

For instance, I recall the storming of the Braithwaite manor fondly, but it's a relatively similar mission to everything else where your taking cover, consuming tobacco and dead-zoning every guy in sight as waves and waves of enemies spawn. The only real choice you have as a player is whether you'll spend time looting each body while you ignore all the NPCs around you.

From a pure gameplay perspective, I'd say the game peaks in Chapter 5 where you're in Guarma and have to take down a local army. The set pieces are the most action packed and at times it feels like you're playing CoD or something along those lines. Everything else plays similarly, except usually you have a horse for transportation so NPCs have time to spout exposition.

At least, that's from a mission perspective. If you choose to ignore the storyline and focus more on the world itself, the game is at it's best as each session tosses up a new random encounter to mess around with. I started ignoring these in Chapter 4 when I just wanted to focus on the main campaign, but I'm seriously considering starting a new save and waiting until all the guides are up to date so I can make sure I experience everything the game has to offer.

When the game was all said and done, I made sure to sit down and watch the 30+ minute end credits sequence. Not only was it interesting to find out what happened to a bunch of characters, it was amazing to see how many people worked on the game and what departments they were in charge of. Every little detail the game had featured a huge team working behind it. It really makes you appreciate the scope of the game and the amount of sweat and tears went into developing the game.

In short, while I feel like Rockstar can improve missions, from a pure technical standpoint, RDR2 is a fantastic game to play and the cast of characters are among the best I've come across in gaming. Not only is it my GotY, it might also be my favourite TV series as well.

At least after completing the game, I feel like I've come off a huge TV binge.

Also, the predator bait might as well be called coyote bait, I swear, every last time I put it down, no matter where...I get coyotes. I haven't once NOT gotten coyotes.

I did eventually get the 3 star badger...but it toook FOREVERRR.