Red Dead Redemption

at the time i thought the lidell track worked really well. don't think i ever heard the gonzalez track in the game, that's a shame

I turned off the music and started playing my own about halfway through, so never noticed.

Had one of those hugely depressing sandbox sessions last night, where you turn on the xbox to do just one mission, and set off across the map to the marker, but get distracted by a few of those cougar you need to shoot, and a few of those prickly pears you need to pick up, and so you potter about and rack up some challenge points/cash/etc, and then lasso a new horse and stuff, and actually get close to your mission marker about 50 minutes later, then some random guy who's having a fight with some other random guy gets his gun out, and you can't tell whether he's about to start on you so you run him over on your new horse and then suddenly you're surrounded by lawmen and you don't have a rock to hide behind and when you try to fight them you realise you're still using your lasso and you think "oh shit, I haven't saved" and you try to save but you can't camp when people are shooting at you and then

DEAD

and that's an hour of your life down the drain so you just turn the console off again and go to bed.

^^^^^^^^^THIS IS WHAT I DID LAST NIGHT TOO

bad isn't it.

But i picked myself up again, managed to finally get my beaver furs and red sages and feathers for the fly guy.

Ended up a sweet relaxing session after that, realising that if i called up my horse deed it auto saves (i think?).

another small complaint, there really is not much to buy in the stores is there which seems odd seeing as there are plenty of ways to make money and basically loot is one of the main focuses of the game.

just sold this. once i got to the last area, it became clear that there was not much more excitement to be had and i lost interest.

one thing that lets this game down is that there is really no story. there's a PREMISE but there's no narrative, just roughly sketched scenes threaded together like beads on a string. which has really made my investment in finishing it fall through the floor. i don't give a shit about reuniting marsten with his wife and child tbh especially given that i've never even seen or heard them in the game.

the other thing is that after the first several missions, you have experienced all the different types of gameplay that there are. (i think i've been a little spoiled by "beyond good and evil", which kept opening up entirely new types of gameplay as you went on.) the mine mission was good because it was a little tougher, and you could really use the environment in interesting ways. but i keep wanting to see new stuff, excitement on the level of breaking a horse in for the first time, or the first time you play poker, or the first time you do a nightwatch job. all that stuff is over and done with in the first few hours of play and afterwards it's just more of the same. really sympathize with Ste's comment about nothing to buy in the stores. surely it is bizarre that a north midwestern town has the same stuff to buy as a small mexican village??

it's been fun no doubt but i am going to give this a nice little break for awhile i think.

the other thing is that after the first several missions, you have experienced all the different types of gameplay that there are

I think it's a fair criticism but then are there that many games that introduce new gameplay elements late on in games?

You'd think with the story thing they'd at least throw in a dream/flashback sequence to the wife and kid to give you a bit of investment in the outcome.

I have still to buy this and it's interesting to see the slight tail off from the initial Best Game Ever euphoria.

the other thing is that after the first several missions, you have experienced all the different types of gameplay that there are

I think it's a fair criticism but then are there that many games that introduce new gameplay elements late on in games?

i was thinking about this the other day, while reading this thread (haven't purchased RDR yet, too broke): back in like Atari times, we'd totally be down with playing a game that was essentially screen after screen of the same essential gaming dynamic, with variegated difficulty levels, and never complain. obviously technology and gamers have both progressed in terms of sophistication, but i guess even the more sophisticated games (GTA4, RDR) and still going to boil down to basic repetitative gaming formats eventually.

I do agree that the missions end up being repetitive, but it's not as bad as GTA IV was for that, and also the various challenges do add a bit of spice; ok picking herbs gets a bit dull but i had fun trying to find all the different critters to kill, searching out the treasure, etc, so overall i'm pretty happy with the depth in the gameplay.

i've completely lost interest in this.

sometimes with these sandbox games the fun comes when the different elements of gameplay come together at the same time. like for instance picking flowers may be dull, but whilst your doing this you're watching your back for cougars and wolves etc.

Can't believe they've got cowboys picking flowers ;_;

also isn't there a problem with introducing new types of gameplay later on when you, i assume, want to be free to do whatever possible basically from the start? i was pretty bummed just when i found out i could have gotten the lasso even earlier

Can't believe they've got cowboys picking flowers ;_;

this is pretty much all i did in oblivion too

just played a random encounter mission where some lawman and myself had to carry two crims on horseback back to jail. the stupid lawman decided to take the huge railroad bridge over the river instead of the correct road route, and of course rode straight into the drink. mission failed.

that is fucked, considering the map wayfinder always sticks to roads even when it goes miles out of yr way

haha one time in the mine mission, my treasure hunter companion was like "let's go up yonder!" and starts climbing a ladder. i'm like OK, so i climb up after him. then there's another ladder, and we climb up that one. we get to the top of this structure, and.. nothing. no baddies anywhere, no further place to go. no vantage point, no extra angle on some TNT or anything. wtf? so i'm like fine dude, i'm climbing down. i start climbing down the ladder and he falls off the platform and dies.

JEEZ TRACE STOP BANGING ON ABOUT THE MINE MISSION

i'm still not very far at all but i'm having fun. gonna keep expectations low, i like thinking of this as a basically chill & easy game. also, fuck picking a flower.

i keep forgetting how to stop when riding horses, and last night i stole a horse to distract the deputies in the first seth mission, rode around the mountain, and then rode straight into seth, killing him. :/

i like how they've given the horses a little bit of direction intelligence, like when you ride close to a stagecoach they veer slightly away. at first i thought my control pad was goosed.

also i'm riding stagecoaches more lately, i'm under the impression it keeps me safe from fierce creatures but i haven't put it into full practice just yet.

JimD i'd bang on about other ones if i could even remember them :/

Naw that's harsh, I loved the train missions, and the Presidio stuff was pretty cool

I'm sure I'll be blown away again once I give it a break, lookin forward to the big game in the snow, and Tall Trees

Anybody else notice differences in the horses? I've been riding my Kentucky Saddler the whole game and he is very easily spooked - whinnies at snakes and gunfire - and he ALWAYS wanders away..

I accidentally firebombed the mexican army and got slaughtered

It is weird how if you go "off script" the game totally puts the clampdown on you

i've been too chicken to try and kill story characters or complete the missions in non-specified ways. :/

(i assume it will just end the mission, like when i accidentally killed seth with the horse)

I will be playing this game until I get to 100%, you wusses.

I mean, at least you guys should finish the treasure hunter missions. So fun!

haha i haven't even tried one, i figured it would be "ride around some fucking gulch looking for a weird rock for like three hours"

I mean, that is basically what it is. But so far only one of the maps has given me any trouble.

haha i haven't even tried one, i figured it would be "ride around some fucking gulch looking for a weird rock for like three hours"

― progressive cuts (Tracer Hand), Thursday, June 24, 2010 12:16 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark

dude they're not that hard to figure out. they're made to be solved, it's a game! some of them are really clever.

i got the first one and i don't know where to start. all rocks look the same to me, i think i'm a rockist.

(i'm suggest b'ing myself for that btw)

the first one was tricky to find, it took me a bit of trial and error (and hints on this thread)

just finished all the treasure maps tonight. one of my favourite parts of the game.

attempting more random encounters too, and finding them to be pretty varied which is cool.

also, got a much better sniper rifle now.

My favorite treasure map so far was #3, which I solved by heading to a nearby high point and using my binoculars, which felt fucking awesome for some reason.

?!?! how did you get the binocs so early??

or wait did you just do the maps really late in the game

I just started them last night!

Binocs! where?!

^also totally missed those, wtf

I just got the binoculars, doing one of the first few missions after you get to Blackwater.

you get them as a gift during on of the very late missions. i thought they might be available earlier somewhere.

xp

ah, only just got into blackwater and haven't done their missions. been tidying up all the other stuff.

(and dicking about)

yeah i'm hella anal about doing all the side stuff before doing the story missions, so i got to the mission with the binocs at like 90%

yeah, i was the same in gta. particularly vice city where finishing the side missions and collecting hidden packages gave you valuable free stuff that you could then utilise and then make some missions easier.

I had been pretty anal about the other ones but I saved the treasure missions for post-game because I thought it would be a fun postgame activity.

well i i'll give them a shot! CONVINC'D

one of the things i've noticed about this game (and the PS3 in general actually) is that it's clearly designed to be played on a much larger screen than the 26" one i've got. a lot of the text i really have to squint to read. and many times i've been hit by dudes that i'm pretty sure the game expected me to be able to see. i just hope it doesn't make the treasure stuff too hard.. (i have actually taken to playing this about a foot away from the TV, which makes me feel like some kind of cretin)

They are really nothing more than deciphering a map and then searching for a tiny pile of rocks, but if that appeals to you then do it.

I think the maps will be fine since you can zoom in on them pretty far.

aren't all games these days designed to be played on 40" tvs though, i always have trouble with reading text and stuff

I killed van der Linde. I actually really like the idea of the game keeping going after that, it's like the idea of what happens after the "happy ending" of a movie, when the hero and love interest have to get back to everyday life. But I don't know why the first mission for this section is a fucking cattle herding mission, I hate cattle herding.