Red Dead Redemption

Yeah there were some seriously long games on the ZX spectrum too, like Everyones a Wally required a heck of a lot of wandering about a town finding items.

Also remembering Robocod on the Amiga, can't believe I played through that entire game in one sitting but looking at longplay times on YT it's only 2 hours. Seemed like a lot more.

James Pond, Robocod! Wow that's something I haven't thought of in years

OK, hooked up with Hosea to hunt a bear and that's already opened a few doors. Sold a horse, got a new horse (I didn't want another goddam horse!), got a horse brush, and got a map of legendary animals when I was hunting the mean bear. Which I wounded and scared off, which I assume I was supposed to do, since I never had a chance to get a bigger gun.

you could have used eagle eye to scout out the bear and hunt it and make a dumb looking hat out of it. the 'legendary' animals on that map aren't affected negatively by the weapon or type of gun you use like normal animals

https://preview.redd.it/5v26rtlv7kw11.jpg?auto=webp&s=c094a2d26b75297ef6644ad80bcfa5de0b443577

sorry for big image

Hah. Small on my phone! I've never really cared about how my character looks or dresses in any of these things. I can't even remember what gender I just played as in Bloodborne. If there's some property that makes a bear hat special, I will totally go for it. If it's just a big dumb hat, well, I don't need any help looking dumb in this game.

found a creepy pig mask last night. people don't like it when you wear it

the hat has no attributes, just dumb looking. a lot of the community is into the fashion stuff, which i'm with you on. don't care

I decided from the start I'd be the dandiest bloodthirsty murderer in town. Currently working on how long I can grow my moustache

An eventful hour today. Decided to go on another mission, so tormented the guy tied to a tree. Next thing I know we're off in search of O'Fodder folk to kill. I think I was supposed to use my throwing knives, but instead we just shot everyone pretty easy enough. Took so long searching for things that everyone else went back to camp, then saw on my map approaching red skulls. I knew that couldn't be good, but approached to investigate all the same, and hey, it's bounty hunters, and they kill me. So: is there still a bounty on my head? I didn't notice. Anyway, after that I ride back toward camp and come across a guy riding on the road. I opt to call to him, then notice he stopped and asked what I wanted, kind of like a dick. It gives me the option of robbing him, but he rides off before I decide what to do, calling me a coward over his shoulder. No one calls me a coward! So this time I put on my mask, ride back to him, and before I can decide what to say or do he tries to shoot me! So I kill him. I loot the body, remember I should hide it, but a witness comes by, sees me, and he rides off in search of help. So I race after him and shoot him, too. While I'm hiding that second body a *third* guy driving a wagon comes by, sees me, then *he* rides off in search of the authorities. So I ride after *him* and shoot him, too. But now there's a wagon with two horses and another couple of random horses without riders all around this stretch of road. What am I supposed to do with all these horses? If I ride off on one, what happens to *my* horse? Anyway, loot the bodies, leave the horses and head back after my killing spree (at what cost?), then come across a guy hunting something. This could be good, I figure, so tag along and ... he kills and skins a coyote. Um, ok. I take the carcass he left behind back to camp.

It really does descend into chaos very easily

Question: is there just an infinite population of NPCs that regenerate every time you play? Like, there are clearly some NPCs that are one-offs, or plot/mission events that only happen a single time, too. But just the random strangers you rob or kill on the road, they're nobodies, right? You can't just systematically kill everyone in this world until there is no one left, because I assume it repopulates/resets, right? Similarly, dead bodies or horses or wagons or other stuff you just leave behind, I assume it resets and disappears, too, right? How about homesteads? There was a house I found a few plays ago with a jerk tending to his pigs. He kind of picked a fight so I shot him, but if I go back to that house, he's not still lying there on the ground, is he? If not, does that house just stay empty for the rest of the game?

if you could kill everyone in the world, a'la dark souls, i might pick this back up again.

I mean, there seems to be an endless supply of O'Driscolls. That's a big big family

what's the name of the big family in GTA5 that Trevor keeps killing?

o'neils

Today, stole a (stolen?) carriage and unlocked the fence. Then, before I had a chance to rest, accidentally started a new mission, which was ... to get really drunk? It was pretty funny. And now I'm sleeping in a hotel next to the jail where they are keeping ... Micah?

In the meantime, robbed a few empty houses, shot a bunch of folks at a house (and I think got away with it), and came across a bunch of O'Fodders who killed me so fast it made me wonder if I was supposed to even engage.

ha I love that drunk mission

OK, I think the key was to actually play some of these missions, a few of which don't seem to be about advancing the story so much as unlocking abilities, which in turn give me something to do if I don't feel like doing missions (like selling stolen carriages, or ... brushing my horse). Speaking of which, early on I had a mission where I had to sell a horse, which I did, but then that left me with no horse and I was forced (I think?) to buy a cheap horse. It turns out I could have kept that first horse, which was apparently a pretty good horse, and now I have this little horse, which admittedly seems to get me where I'm going but may be ultimately not the best horse to ride around on while doing deeds both ill and good. And come to think of it, what in the world happened to my *first* first horse? It seemed fine, too. Anyway, what should I do about these horses? Should I feel bad abandoning horses? If I bond with and build up the stats of a horse, is that horse good enough? Back when I played Breath of the Wild there was a bunch of, er, horse shit to manage, too, and I got so tired of it I eventually just abandoned using a horse at all, unless I literally had to use one, but this game seems to require horses.

Oh, should add that I just learned/realized/was reminded that I can and should take cover when shooting it out with a gang or group.

once you build up the stats of a horse you're good to go. they don't vary much

Today's play included learning how to fist fight (which I hadn't really done?) and then chasing down a witness when I was trying to recover the drunk Rev. Once again, some mixed messages. Seemed to be impossible to catch up to the fleeing witness on foot, didn't seem to be letting me use my horse, seemed to have no recourse but to shoot the fleeing witness in the back, which once again the game conveyed was a Bad Thing. And yet, fleeing the law after rescuing the Rev from the train tracks felt like it was built in, so maybe I was supposed to shoot the fleeing witness? I think next time I play I may head back to the fence and sell some jewelry, or at least go off in search of more stuff to steal. Though to be honest that doesn't seem to get you as much money as missions.

Today I went on a big shoot out with Sadie to execute some O'Driscolls.
I decided to stick around and loot the bodies after the gunfight. I'd only managed to look around for a bit before the police came to investigate. So I hid up on the top floor of the house. I could hear the cops talking and telling each other to comb the place. It was all very tense, waiting behind a wall, ready to jump out all guns blazing if anyone came up the stairs. But no one came. They searched the area for a good while before calling it off. Everything about the way it happened was really well done.

Every time I get a decent pelt from hunting I somehow end up losing it before I can get to a trapper to sell it.
What happens to Legendary stuff when you drop it? I've done a fee of these but seem to get attacked very soon after and somehow the thing falls off or disappears every time.

Got distracted today collecting a few debts. Helped a guy bitten by a snake, gave money to a blind guy, helped a lady with a broken down horse get to town. Once in town got roped into getting some snake oil salesman, but because I forgot the controls I had to chase him down by foot, which was ... boring, especially since I forgot how to lasso. Meanwhile, when I got to town I decided to pay off a couple of bounties on my head, one a mere $20 or so but the other $240! I wonder if that is because while racing away from a debt collection I ran over a couple of people on my horse? Anyway, that's lot of money for me right now!

xp yeah not sure what happens to the legendary stuff if you lose it, the anxiety that's caused just from thinking about this makes me too feared to even look it up on gamefaqs and instead I'll try my hardest to get those pelts sold before any trouble starts.

it doesnt matter if you lose the legendary pelts, crafting with them at the trapper is unlocked as soon as you kill the legendary animal

Today I tried to fence a stolen wagon, with four horses, but somehow got the wagon stuck (before I learned how to "reverse"). I blocked an entire road, and not only did it piss people off, I ended up killing multiple folks with my horse and then got chased out of town by the law. I went back and sold the wagon for $25, which seems ... low?

Yeah the amount of effort to award ratio for these kinds of gambits can feel pretty unfair. I've gotten myself into some pretty hairy situations for a few cents and some ginseng

convert it to "today's money" and 25 bucks is like a couple of thousand

True, but I've had bounties of up to $900 before and by that point it feels a bit "well what's the point?", especially when certain chapters appear to reset your bounty anyway

Pro tip for bounties: give all but a dollar of your money to your camp then go turn yourself in. Youll get a sad Arthur cutscene in jail then you're free of the bounty.

whoa, i didn't know you could do that?

It'd be hilarious if after you turn yourself in you had to work off your debt busting rocks for the railroad or something. Like, make you pay *some* price. As I explained it to a friend, you can die in this game, get caught, etc., but there really are no real consequences. Anyway, good to know, since I just spent/wasted $250 paying off a bounty because I got sick of being stalked by hunters while I was busy goofing around.

I've also found so many folks in this game are really short tempered. It doesn't take much to make them pull a gun on you. Another thing that surprised me, I thought when you were running/traveling in cinematic mode it sort of steered for you, but yesterday cinematic mode ran me into a tree at full speed. Which was pretty funny, but I think I lost the pelt I was carrying.

ummm, so i might be being thick, but how does one turn oneself in?

if there's no shooting going on, i think you can use L2/interact on a bounty hunter or police and either antagonize or surrender

Yesterday I started I think the/a train robbing mission that begins with stealing an oil tank wagon. There are two places to find the carriage, one in Valentine and the other at the oil well. I first go to Valentine, and after stalking the guard a bit decide that killing or otherwise taking out an NPC in full view of everyone in Valentine was probably a bad idea. So I head to the oil well, where there are like a million guards, and after getting killed a few times (my biggest problem is remembering the right button to press to climb up on a wagon) figure the other wagon is easier to steal. I remember I have a lasso and can hog tie NPCs and decide that must be the best way to do it. I head back to Valentine and find the wagon again, and this time it's completely unguarded. Easy! But because I can never remember the button to climb up I accidentally punch a horse, which freaks out and pulls the wagon further into town. Um, ok, at least there's still no guard. I head to the wagon, figure out how to climb up, and am immediately witnessed and branded a wagon thief (fair enough). Except I'm in the middle of town and the damn things are so unwieldy they take forever to make a u-turn, getting stuck every few seconds, which leaves me no choice except ... awkwardly race the stolen wagon straight through town, running over several people, earning a big bounty, and getting trailed by like dozen lawmen, who inevitably catch up to and kill me a couple of times until the game has mercy and has me restart the checkpoint without being chased. Except I miss the slight turn to stow the wagon at its destination and it takes me like 10 minutes to turn the stupid horses and carriage around and get them to the right spot.

sounds like you are getting the hang of it

well... i sort of completed this today, except no! i didn't!

xpost I am getting the hand of it: the game is simultaneously fun, boring and silly. Sometimes it is fun because it is silly, sometimes it is silly because it is boring, sometimes it is boring just because, which is both fun and silly. I went fishing today with a kid, and it took me forever to realize I was winding the reel the wrong way (silly), all while the kid complained how boring it was, which was funny.

Next up: I still haven't figured out the food system. Do I need to eat? Does it really matter what I eat? Do I need to feed my horse? Does it matter what I feed it? Do I need to hunt and give food to my bandit pals? Do I need to hunt for myself? Do I need to cook my food? Seems like there is some crafting to do, too, but I'm not sure what to craft and why. Is it just for fashion? (Snooze.) Is it a quality of life enhancement? I guess I'll find out eventually.

So I think with food, you have those different health circles, a heart which is like your HP, a lightning bolt which is your stamina, and an eye with an x on it which is your dead eye. Each has a ring around it which slowly depletes depending on what you're up to. You can drink potions and tonics to fill those up.

Then you have the core of each one which also goes down but is replenished by eating different foods. I think the core relates to how quickly, for example, you use up energy.

So yes, you should eat. There's something in the instructions about how these different things work depending on if you're under or over weight

Good to know. At least (like everything else in this game) there doesn't seem to be a significant cost for doing it wrong.

I am now at the precarious stage of play where the weather outside is getting nice and I need to justify staying inside playing a game where I spend most of my time in pretend outside admiring the pretend scenery.

Today's adventures involved some robbing. First I robbed the doctor's office in Valentine, which ... was not worth it? I got $50 in cash, I think $50 from the safe, a nice new gun, but killed so many people getting out of there that I landed a $200+ bounty. Actually, the first time I tried I missed a lot of the goodies (though still got a bounty), but I went back after some of the heat went down. The doctor was closed by then, so I walked toward the hotel. On the way I tried to loot a body in the street, which counts as ... robbing? I was witnessed and chased out of town, and by the time I got some distance it was dawn, so of course I just went right back, where I got to deal with some glitches. First, I went back to the guy working the doctor's office (the doctor?) and had to rob him again to get the mission going. Except in the middle of it I accidentally shot him, which at first I thought meant no one could let me back in the back room. But when I went back there the doctor was alive again and let me in ... where I was met by the same gang I killed before. How did that happen? Are they always there, regenerating? I killed them all, took everything that wasn't nailed down, used a stick of dynamite to open the safe (how else was I supposed to do it? I have a lock picker but I didn't have the option), then just kind of ... waited, listening to the law, watching them move about on the map. Only one or two of them came in after me, though, and I killed them, which landed me my big bounty. Escaping wasn't so hard, but if I pay off the bounty I don't really see the point. To get the gun?

The second robbery was a train job at night, which was mostly pretty scripted (it was a plot quest, I take it) but wasn't too bad, and I think got me a good deal of cash.

I've also taken to occasionally lassoing strangers off horses, tying them up and taking their money, but they rarely have much of value.

Most of today was being a farmhand and learning how to milk cows etc. Pretty tedious but somehow I don't mind it

Some satisfying robbin' and stealin' yesterday. Came across a guy panning for gold, so I just stood around waiting for him to find something and then robbed him. Found these other guys later opening a stolen safe in the woods, so waited for them to succeed and then robbed them, too. Honestly, I would be less inclined to rob and steal if these people weren't such dicks. You kind of approach them and they're almost immediately jumpy. "You better get out away from me, miscreant!" or whatever. But when you back away they're all "that's what I thought, coward!" They're really just asking for it.

Also, got jumped and killed by some bandits on a bridge, since I was too slow to react to what was going on and was armed with my bow, anyway.

Hah, yeah. It's always a bit of a lottery as to whether approaching people in the woods is going to have them offering you a tasty quest or whether they're going to reach straight for the revolver. I had three strangers jump out of me from nowhere and just start shooting at me. Obviously I killed them all, but there was no meaning behind it. I'm assumign they were just robbers, but they didn't belong to a gang or bounty crew or anything, they just started shooting

In other news, I literally forgot Dead Eye existed, so ... yeah, I should probably use that more often.

I find Dead Eye quite hard to use. It's okay if the target isn't moving too much but I generally find the regular auto-aim is better for me.

hats off to anyone who remembers to use Dead Eye imo

dead eye is my best friend when I'm out hunting

Could be why I very rarely get a perfect or even good pelt even if I use a bow. Still find the dead eye thing a bit fiddly on moving targets though. I tend to panic because I know I've only got a few seconds till the dead eye runs out.