Red Dead Redemption

It's pretty safe! (Covid-wise.)

Apropos of nothing, I started watching Clint Eastwood's "Pale Rider" today, which I'd never seen but remembered seeing the ads for as a kid. The opening scene was essentially like watching a RDR2 cut-scene. The rest (that I watched) was pretty corny, though, not Clint's best work as director. Still ... felt like watching the game!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRuBhDmn6_s

I love how this game balances realism and drama with all this goofy stuff. Like, even the way Arthur says hi to people or pats his horse makes me kind of chuckle. Yesterday I did the quest retrieving the "Zebra," which I found really amusing. First I couldn't figure out what to do, so ended up lassoing it and dragging it several miles to camp, where the game totally glitched, the zebra disappeared, the quest sort of froze, and every time I got on my horse it immediately popped me off my horse. Weird. The next time, trying to remember how to calm an animal, I accidentally jumped on the zebra/mule and rode it back to camp, which was pretty silly. A bit before that I lead a women's suffrage parade, which I was convinced was going to end with a melee or town brawl but was pleasantly surprised to see turned out to be just a bunch of local color and character beats. Good stuff.

Yes, I really love just going around and saying hi to people. I like insulting people too, but it gets me in trouble quickly.

OTM, I frequently chuckle at Arthur’s bemused resignation in the face of the sillier characters.

SPOILER FOR UP TO BEGINNING OF CHAPTER 6 (in case I screw up the hide text tag).

The game has been pretty good balancing the drama/narrative but I was let down by Hosea’s death. Arthur sees one of his surrogate fathers killed in front of him, yet the game spends little time on his reaction—we’re immediately put into tropical island hijinks. I understand it would probably drag down gameplay to spend a chapter on the Wild West version of Depression Quest, but it does seem odd that we get little more than some grumbling about missing him from Arthur during the “ride to the mission checkpoint” chatter.

I think I met the time traveler today! Also, went fishing a lot.

it becomes cowboy depression quest fairly quickly don't worry

How much older is Dutch meant to be than Arthur?

Dutch is 8 years older, making him 44 at the time of RDR2. I thought the difference would be greater, considering he’s talked about as a father figure more than older brother figure.

Been trying to speed things up a bit, since I think I'm still early on in Chapter 3. There have been a few more fun character beats in this I've enjoyed, like playing deputy, giving out free shots and the sometimes subtle, sometimes not ways the game has addressed race and gender; Arthur can be a pretty good listener, when he wants/has to be. Some of the animations still really impress me. I hopped on a wagon with someone, and there was a special character animation that transitioned me from the wrong side of the wagon to the correct one. I love that someone had to program that.

sometimes i can't believe the same people that wrote GTA 5 also wrote this story. GTA 5 was riddled with putrid misogyny. maybe they're just adapting to the times

I'm up to chapter 4 now. Definitely some cognitive dissonance to the plot. Like, what kind of threat is Pinkertons warning they'll send 50 men when me and my dudes basically effortlessly killed dozens of people the last two missions alone? And what is this constant scramble for money, when we all live in tents and I alone have thousands in my wallet and literally nothing to spend it on?

Still, good fun. I wish I could have beat up those kids in Saint Denis.

I had that same thought last night when I finished a mission in the first RDR, some old gunslinger mocking my skills and offering to teach me how to shoot. Stuff it, gramps—I’ve killed over 100 people since coming to New Austin, according to the stats screen.

It’s been a bit jarring going from RDR2 to 1, which I started a few years ago but wasn’t able to finish. It’s plenty fun but broader in tone—I wouldn’t go so far as to say “goofy”, but certainly characters like Seth or Irish feel more exaggerated than would fit into the world of 2. I suppose that’s a difference in approach—2 is going for immersion/real world simulation (obviously not completely, still some fanciful stuff in the stranger missions) whereas 1 feels more an emulation of western films, with all the unreality that comes with it.

Incidentally, this game remains one of the best written I've ever played. Not really the plot - there's not much plot, per se - but the characters and the things they say, and to each other. I wonder if there is much crossover between video game writers and, say, TV writers? Or do they both exist in their respective worlds, more or less independent from the other?

I was reading some forum where someone asked if they should hold off on RDR2 until it gets a PS5 patch, and a bunch of people were all, yeah, for sure, it will really benefit from better frame rate/graphics/etc. But having played hours and hours of this already on PS4, I (as usual) have no idea what they're talking about. It looks great on my system, and as far as I can tell plays great, too. There's not much loading, period, so I'm not sure what faster loading times would gain. The graphics are sharp and gorgeous, and as far as fame rates go, this ain't no precise platformer or whatever. So weird what certain gamers get fixated on. It's all so very much
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/06/Spinal_Tap_-_Up_to_Eleven.jpg/330px-Spinal_Tap_-_Up_to_Eleven.jpg

i think it's PC gamers getting used to a level of clarity then noticing the difference
like i didn't have any issues with standard definition as a kid until i saw my first HD screen

Yeah, I get that, and I remember that. But I think I've seen HD clips of stuff on the PS5, and it looks good, but not, like, mind-blowingly better than my PS4 on my TV looks. For that matter, this game specifically, any problem I've had with it has been related to bugs, glitches and clipping (?), not a lack of clarity, and I don't think those elements would be fixed by a faster processor. Different strokes, I suppose.

Today in RDR2 hilarity, I finally noticed that my regular steed, My Horse, made a return to whichever far flung place I'd been hanging out, somehow paired with a different horse (whose origin I forget), but after switching back to my usual horse the other horse basically followed me around on missions like a puppy. I'd race off on My Horse, then realize I left behind My Other Horse, and have to turn around and coax it to follow along. I must have done two or three or four little missions or quests with two horses before I realized I could just tie it up back at the swamp mansion and stick with my usual horse. made me wish I could have, like, a dozen of horses following me around, like the Pied Piper of horses.

is rdr2 worth buying a cheap ps4 for? finding myself very curious about it. i could see this and spider-man maybe being enough to justify a really cheap console if i can find one

Get RDR2 and Witcher 3 and you'll be entertained for hours

games are so cheap for PS4 right now, I could probably name five that would keep you occupied entertained for hours. Red Dead, Last of Us, Spider-Man ... I haven't played Witcher 3 or horizon zero Dawn, but I bet both of them would keep you busy too.

like, with no exaggeration, pretty much the sum total of every game you want at this point could be less than the cost of the console.

I think you've got a week left to get Horizon Zero Dawn for free.

Imagine you could create a PSN account to 'buy' the game even if you don't own a PS4 yet?

Yesterday I was wasting time in Saint Denis. I gave money to a drunk, and in return he told me about a secret gambling site I can rob. So I went there to rob it, successfully, then hid on a roof to evade capture. The red dots kept multiplying, and eventually I remember that I can apparently jump off the roof onto my horse. Which I try to do, but instead land on the street, very hurt. I eventually get on the horse and try to gallop away, but the law is coming at me from all directions. I try to slip past a wagon but instead hit it head-on and flip over my horse handlebars. Then they kill my fucking horse, and I die after reviving it. I wake up down the street and decide to just pay off my bounty at the local post office, but as I do it, I accidentally press the wrong button and threaten some patron into giving me his money, and unable to defuse it immediately get a witness to the crime, a new bounty put on my head, and then a bunch of lawmen after me. Again. This time I escape off into a swamp, where I am promptly attacked by an alligator. I take out my vengeance on an alligator snapping turtle, which takes as many shots to kill as the alligator itself.

sounds like some classic red dead action there

Yesterday in some NPC fun I was riding my horse around when I heard the familiar bickering of two NPCs trying to blow up a safe. I turn around and head back, planning to rob them, but before I got there they blew themselves up and die! And leave the open safe for me. Another time I found a guy panning for gold. Last time I waited, the gold panning NPC found some and I robbed him. This time, he came up with nothing and walked away, dejected, so I consoled him. A third NPC around the same area was tracking an animal, so I decided to walk along and keep him company. Next thing I know, a big grizzly comes running out of the woods and kills him! So I kill the bear (win/win).

Now I've finished the game, is there much left to do other than explore the wilderness and look for cigarette cards? A whole new area has opened up but aside from the odd Dell Lobo gang, it seems pretty empty and a bit depressing to walk around what with that cholera town and stuff

I didn’t find much. Strange that they went to the trouble to recreate so much of the first game’s map, but didn’t put much to do there. It’s too much for an epilogue but not enough to be its own thing. I wish they’d use all that to do a port of RDR1 that you can start when the epilogue ends.

"I wish they’d use all that to do a port of RDR1 that you can start when the epilogue ends."

really second this, apparently it was a miracle RDR1 functioned at all, so a long shot though. and R* won't even patch the most basic glitches in RDR2 from months ago, so. frustrating how they handle this compared to GTAV, but i guess it's obvious why

RDRO uses the old map area better than the main game does.

word on the street is RDRO is getting heists? no doubt will be sort of clunky and repetitive like the rest of RDRO but it might be worth reloading to check it out

really? i'm honestly shocked, seems like they completely abandoned RDO

RDO was just added to Game Pass so it's a good time to add some new content.

Playing the real game today, I think I wrapped up both hanging with the pervy French painter and witnessing an execution by electric chair gone wrong, two very divergent digressions.

One of the reasons I think the writing of this far surpasses any GTA is that the remove from modern times prevents them from doing the standard lazy riffs and dick jokes/mob gags on whatever current pop culture they dislike. They can’t use billboards and radio jingles to communicate 2001-era humor to the player, so they actually have to work at it.

Though of course, there are still dick jokes and mob gags, somehow! But they're pretty subtle and far between, and only in context.

Yeah, I’ve been slowly trying to finish RDR1 and while it’s also better in that regard than GTA, it still seems cruder/broader than RDR2.

Just did the mad scientist/robot side quest, and it really underscored what I love about this game, namely that the storytelling and details are such that they alone can be a selling point rather than gameplay. That is, this side mission had next to nothing for me to do, but it was so colorful and fun and funny that it didn't matter.

Today's adventures involved a lot of things blowing up. First there was an escape from Saint Denis after a dumb robbery that went awry, resulting in the death of untold lawmen (and a stupidly crashed cable car). Then came me and Micah robbing a stagecoach, where I was distracted by something else and didn't see (the first time) where to blow up the coach and then (the second time) blew up the dynamite too early, and either way ended up chasing down the wagon and killing everyone. And then there was the KKK rally I came across where, while I tried to decide the best approach, all dozen of them caught their robes fire and died. Lastly, I came across some southerners in the midst of some transaction in the woods, and as I investigated they just kind of walked by me like I wasn't there, and the other dudes just got on their wagon to ride off. So I pulled out a gun, which of course aggro'd them, and the next thing I knew I blew up something in the back of the wagon (dynamite? moonshine?) and killed myself, and apparently my horse for good. RIP My Horse. I replaced her with the best horse I could buy in a stable (since money means nothing in this game, and I have thousands), named her My Horse (in honor of its predecessor) and am now in the process of bonding anew. Thank goodness you don't lose all your belongings and stuff when you put the saddle on a new steed. Also, I did some cattle rustling.

Shipwrecked!? What the heck, this game took a surprise turn. Serves them right, Dutch's latest plan was the worst yet. "Let's rob a downtown bank, then hop on the first big boat we find to wherever it takes us, then come back at some point to collect the rest of the gang, who will just be there waiting for us."

oh yeah that point in the game is pretty cool

lots of people apparently hated that section, i didn't mind it, plus the gfx are extra pretty. i like it as a story element because it's a counterpoint to dutch's conception of an island paradise

Yeah it's good. Breaks things up and it's where the story really starts getting somewhere

Wow, that tropical detour was fast. Things seem to be speeding along here, given how few built-in breaks I'm getting. D'Angelo song ruled.

"Arthur, you have tuberculosis and need rest or you're going to die."

(one minute later)

"Arthur, take over this hot air balloon while we try to break John out of prison!"

Looks like I've just begun Chapter 6. Living conditions keep getting worse and worse, I've got a cough I can't shake, the neighbors are monsters and people keep dying. But Dutch is planning something! Still, I'd say there have been some subtle hints that maybe this will all not end well. I dunno, just call it a hunch.

make sure to do the optional side missions during chapter 6, they open up arthur's character a lot

I don't skip any of the side missions, save for the more busy work find me every flower kind of missions. But the very fact that not only does playing side missions in a video game help you learn more about the character you are playing, you *want* to learn more, really underscores the quality of the writing.

the new RDO update is half decent. the overall reception has been outrage but i seriously don't know what those weirdos are expecting