Horse Sense

Red Dead Redemption 2 is such an epic game that there's no way I'm done playing.  My adventures as Arthur Morgan have taken me from the beauty of the wooded lands around Valentine to the murky swamps and dirty streets of Saint Denis.  Poor Arthur is marching toward his inevitable end but I'm still having fun.

Since I've largely completed much of the side content I've been advancing the main storyline.  I did spend some time doing something that I said I wasn't going to do...but inevitably always end up doing.  Usually one of the first big adventures that Arthur takes is to find what is arguably the best horse in the game--the white Arabian that spawns in the snowy expanse outside Lake Isabella.  This time I told myself that I would organically find Arthur increasingly better horses--basically I would keep an eye out for different horses roaming around and if I saw one that was an upgrade, I would tame it.  This worked out pretty well, there's one random thoroughbred that roams around in the area outside Emerald Ranch and I managed to track it down and tame it.  It's a good horse--decent speed and it doesn't scare extremely easily.  I stuck with that horse for awhile and then stumbled across a random Nokota in the hills outside of Valentine.  Once again, I tamed it, built up the bond to level 4 and kept my eyes peeled for other horses.

My own stupidity doomed my "organic discovery" plan.  I decided that I should sell one of my previously stabled horses and thought I had selected JUST that horse to sell.  Instead, I stupidly sold ALL my stabled horses and didn't realize it until way too late (basically I noticed the stable icon was no longer showing a number for my stabled horses).  All those horses that I had worked so hard to find were gone.  There's no way I couldn't have a backup horse, so I decided to just pursue the normal path of tracking down the best horses.

My favorite of the horsies!  The coat pattern is so unique.

This time around I decided to check out the other wild Arabian that can be tamed.  Its stats are slightly worse than the white Arabian, but it has my favorite look of all the horses in the game.  You can find this horse wandering around the rugged terrain just west of the Wapiti Reservation.  The biggest challenge in taming this horse is the rocky terrain--the horse kept positioning itself on top of rocks or close to the edge of dangerous looking drop-offfs, so I had to chase it around a bit to get it in a place where I felt confident that it wouldn't buck itself into an early death while I was trying to break it.  Behold, the brindled Arabian!  It truly is one of the prettiest horsies.

Now I had my backup horse, but I wasn't content with just one, so I decided that it would also be worthwhile to go grab the white Arabian.  In previous playthroughs I've never had a problem finding and breaking this horse.  This time around it turned into a real chore.  It took me three different tries to catch the damn thing!  The first time was completely my fault--it was kind of blizzardy and I lost sight of the horse and accidentally rode too close to it and spooked it off.  Generally I could track it down using eagle eye, but this time it decided to take off on a bonkers path--it swam across the open part of the lake and made it to the small island in the middle and then just disappeared.  I rode fully around the lake multiple times and could not find it.  I gave up and decided to come back later.

The classic white Arabian.

Round two also turned into a disaster--I bundled Arthur up and ventured back up into the snow.  This time the horse spawned right next to two wolves that were playing (but not scaring the stupid horse...).  As soon as I got close enough the wolves turned to attack and I had to kill them.  The shooting scared the horse off (thankfully this time it didn't take off into the water) and I figured I could still track it down.  Unfortunately a random rider also decided to come by and scared the horse off even more (honestly, I never see riders up there so it was very oddly timed).  I wasted a bunch of time riding around and trying to find it to no avail.

So I waited, did a few missions, and then decided to give it another go (which is truly stupid).  Again, the wolves had respawned, but this time I was ready and quickly dispatched them while keeping an eye on the horse.  I was finally able to track it down and break it.  I probably wasted well over an hour on the pursuit of this dang horse.

I previously wrote about irritations I have with certain aspects of RDR2 and another one (sort of two) popped up with the taming of the Arabians.  NPC's love to comment on how awesome the Arabians are, but then I took them into the stables and the stable master stated that the horse was starved.  What?  I feed them whenever their health starts to dip.  That's when I remembered the whole "body condition" aspect of gameplay that is never explained well.  It's a counterintuitive mechanic where Arthur and horse companion need to eat at a certain regular pattern to maintain their weight (rather than the traditional RPG way of whenever health gets low).  It supposedly has some effect on stats (like stamina).  The game never explains much other than the fact that Arthur and horsey need to eat from time to time.  I'm pretty sure that there are guides out there that explain how to maintain body condition, but I don't know how much time I want to expend on this aspect of the game.  It's poorly explained and difficult to monitor--the only way to see the condition of your horse is through a pause menu option.

Even though I know exactly how Arthur's adventures will end (sad face), RDR2 is always a magical, western-style good time.  I forgot exactly how many people you shoot--it's staggering (maybe more than GTA V?).  Maybe someday I'll do a bandit playthrough...probably not though, I just don't like bad Arthur. 

Horsey Time

Recently I saw a social media interview where they asked gamers about a game that simply lives on their PC/console--the type of game that you never uninstall because you just might want to pick it up.  For me, one of those games (because I definitely have more than one) would be Red Dead Redemption 2.  I finally caved and built the new PC that I had been fantasizing about and it was the first "big" game that I installed.  I've been happily engrossed in the various activities that Arthur Morgan can engage in (and mostly neglecting the main storyline).  As I play through RDR2 and enjoy so much about it, there are still a few things that irritate me.

Irritation #1

Why must we still have the launchers within launchers in the year of our lord 2025!  I downloaded all ~130 GB of game only to go to launch it and be prompted to install the Rockstar Launcher.  And yes, the Rockstar Launcher installation isn't a big deal...except I got a weird error where some of the "prerequisite" items weren't able to properly install.  I shrugged it off, but have felt like I've had a bit of an unstable experience with some crashing and some weirdness related to graphics settings (I've moved up into the world of 1440p).  I attempted to fix the issue by verifying my game files on Epic (but it's not a game files related issue) and also uninstalling and re-installing the launcher.  I've still had some issues which might actually be related to an AMD graphics specific setting.  Look, all I want is to be able to sign into one thing and not have remember another password or mess with another program.

Wendy the horse.  A beautiful Nokota.

Irritation #2

I'm grateful that we did actually get RDR2 on PC because it is definitely one of my favorites.  Yes, the PC version of Rockstar games is generally an afterthought (who knows when we will see the PC version of GTA VI) but they did actually throw us a bone in the form of photo mode.  I love a good photo mode in a beautiful game like RDR2 and enjoy stopping to snap a nice screenshot of something scenic.  However the way that screenshots are stored and retrieved is stupid.  Screenshots are actually saved locally on your PC...just in a weird format that requires using a special program or doing some strange editing using notepad.  The other method is to upload your screenshots to Rockstar Social Club (which has apparently gone the way of the dodo) and then log in to the website and retrieve them from your personal profile by downloading them.  This is entirely too onerous and turns what should be a fun additional feature into more of a chore.

Horseshoe Overlook is one of my favorite scenic spots.

Irritation #3

I'm a completely unashamed save scummer in games that allow the constant mashing of the quicksave button.  Rockstar games are not those games--the autosave system is a bit of a mystery.  There's no message at the beginning of the game to look for a tiny spinning symbol to indicate that the game is being saved.  I like to assault a gang camp whenever I stumble across one--occasionally those assaults can go a bit sideways, so I thought I could simply save pre-assault (manually).  I thought wrong--when I loaded up my save Arthur was in a totally different location and the camp had disappeared (a sort of minor annoyance because the camps do respawn at different points).  I guess I just have to live with the consequences of my actions (I accidentally shot the dude chained to the bed in the basement of the gun store in Rhodes in one playthrough...it was stupid, but completely undoable).

Even with these faults, I still love RDR2.  The world is amazing and it's easy to spend countless hours exploring, hunting, or taking on the numerous challenges.  I guess the story and characters are okay too...jkjk...we all know that in true Rockstar fashion they are great.  I have no idea when my current playthrough will end, I'm just biding my time with Arthur and trying to find things I've missed in other playthroughs.  I've had some mixed success--I think I'm up to 4 found dinosaur bones and I've been on a search for those damn cigarette cards (I've never completed a single entire set in any of my several playthroughs).  RDR2 lives on my PC and always will--irritations and all.

All the Small (Annoying) Things--RDR2 Edition

I've pretty much always been a big fan of Rockstar's games--heck, I even remember playing the OG Grand Theft Auto on my brothers PlayStation (if you're a young'un, look up some videos of it--seriously, because it's kind of amazing to realize how far that series has come).  I've played all the Grand Theft Auto games and they're definitely very memorable and were some of the early masters of the more open world style of game that we see today.  Although I haven't played Red Dead Redemption (and woo boy was there some strange/disappointing news about it this week) the third game in the series follows Rockstar's game style to a T.  As much as I do enjoy their games, I don't want to get too fangirl-y--no one is perfect (woo boy!  That news this week!) and as I've been working through RDR2 I've encountered some aspects of the game that do detract from what is an otherwise fabulous experience.

Before I get to that though, let's not avoid the hot RDR related news that dropped this week.  Rockstar announced this week that they were going to be releasing a remaster of Red Dead Redemption!  For about .25 seconds I was pretty stoked before my brain kicked in and reminded me that it took a very long time before Grand Theft Auto V and RDR2 came to PC (5-7 years?  I think somewhere within that timeframe).  Then things got even weirder because it turns out that this "remaster" is basically only for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch--not even current gen consoles (*although apparently people with the newest XBOX can still play it because it's backward compatible) or for PC.  The PC part isn't too surprising (but nonetheless disappointing), but not even for PS5?  Things only escalated from there when the price was announced--$49.99!  The internet reacted exactly how you would expect--anger, puzzlement, and tons of videos/articles analyzing this strange move.  People with XBOX's were happy to point out that you can currently buy it for $30 (+$13 for some big DLC that's going to be included as part of the remastered version)--that price includes nice graphical updates as well as access to multiplayer--both things that aren't included in the upcoming remaster.  Many articles also pointed out the disastrous GTA remaster as a reminder that maybe people shouldn't put too much stock in this whole "remaster" thing.  The whole thing just seems like another shameless cash grab to me, but maybe I'm just being too cynical.  (*If you missed this entire debacle--here's a link to an article: PC Gamer)

Anywho--back to RDR2 and those small, obnoxious things that drive me a tiny bit batty.

1.) The "weight/body condition" dynamic for Arthur and horses.

Early on in the game it is explained that Arthur needs to eat or else his body condition (which apparently contributes to how full his health and stamina gauges can be--like if you've ever wondered why there's a fragment that just never becomes available even after you've fully levelled it up--I'm guessing that's why) will decline.  "Realistic" you might think--but, unfortunately, I hate how it works.  Most games teach us that you use items when you need them--therefore if Arthur's health isn't low, I'm not having him reach for that delicious can of kidney beans.  Why would I waste an item when I don't need to?  Well, because you sort of need to!  The truly crazy part of the whole thing is that the amount that Arthur needs to eat to maintain "good" body condition is pretty insane (here's a link to a Reddit thread with a recommended "meal plan" for perfect body condition:  Tips for Arthur's Weight).

I wish this mechanic worked slightly differently and that Arthur would actually lose health/stamina and it would make eating more necessary.  This same dynamic is true for horses--if you take your horse to a stable, the hands will comment about how your horse is so skinny--even though it looks fine!  

2.) Having NPC's comment on Arthur's dirty/bloody state.

Arthur can get a little grimy from his activities.  Sometimes the level of filth is completely obvious--if you're carrying around bloody, skinned animal carcasses (or humans who might have met an unfortunate end) there will be a very obvious bloody splotch.  If you've simply shot...say, a rabbit, and then skinned it, Arthur's hands will be bloody.  Occasionally though, there's no obvious blood and NPC's will still comment "where'd all that blood come from?"  In order to get "clean," you can plunge Arthur into any available body of water close by and watch as blood floats away on the surface.

Again, you could easily say "realism," but why, oh why, can't there be an option for Arthur to wash up in camp?  Why do I need to fully plunge him into a river when his hands are a little bit gross?  I wish that his little shaving station had an option for cleaning up.

3.) Death...and horses.

It's just a fact that sometimes Arthur will die.  For me, most of those times happen at the claws of panthers/cougars who can creep up on you pretty easily.  If you're caught totally off guard, you're basically a goner--RIP Artie.  It's also a fact that your horse can fall prey to unfortunate circumstances.  In my case, those circumstances are typically due to my own stupidity (FYI, you do not have to fish for one of the legendary fish on the railroad bridge near Saint Denis and you should, in fact, not do that because it will likely result in the death of at least Arthur, but potentially your brainless horse too--it cannot control itself from running on to the tracks once you've caught the fish.).  Having Artur die costs you some cash...but having your horse die sucks even more.  One of the first things I do every playthrough is have Arthur trek up into the mountains to tame what is basically the best horse in the game--the white Arabian that wanders around near Lake Isabella.  You should do that too because it's a great horse and it's only slightly difficult to tame.  Then, it's just a matter of building up your bonding with the horse--and that does take a little while.

The panther saddle has good stats and looks nice.
(not my screenshot, sadly)

If your favorite, fabulous horse dies...well, then it's an issue of either 1.) returning to the snowy reaches of the mountains to find another white Arabian, tame it, and then bond with it--a somewhat time consuming process OR 2.) heading to the stables and finding an equivalent horse--which will be somewhat expensive.  I had this situation arise when poor Arthur was randomly ambushed near Catfish Jackson's.  Most of the time I'm able to head off any ambushes, but this time I don't know what happened--before I even had time to select my handy repeater from the weapon wheel poor Arthur was dead (I think he took a shotgun blast from short range...somewhere?  It was pretty confusing).  Dying happens, so I wasn't too concerned, but when I saw a totally random horse I was like..."nooooooooooooooooooo!  Not my beautiful Elsa!"  Then I had to seriously contemplate if I really wanted to go through the whole taming process again.  Nope.  Luckily, if you have the cash, there's a very nice black Arabian available from the stables in Saint Denis that is slightly better than the white one.  Due to my previous cheating (AKA looking up a guide to find a hidden treasure--something I usually try to avoid), my Arthur was pretty flush with cash, so I purchased said horse.

About 99% of the time your horse is pretty indestructible....it's that 1% that sucks.  And really, does your horse matter that much?  It's nice to have a speedy horse for quick getaways, but the default horse would probably be just fine.  But oh no...gotta have the best horse!

4.) I just want to take screenshots!

I've complained about this before, but I'm gonna bring it up again because I think it is one of the dumbest parts of the game.  The game includes a nice photo mode and it's a visually gorgeous game.  Personally, I like snapping some nice pics of my adventures.  In fact, I wanted to snap a nice pic of my new black Arabian horse with its snazzy panther saddle.  (In past playthroughs I haven't done the trapper crafted saddles, but I would highly recommend the panther saddle--it's probably the best of all of them stats wise and it's cosmetically a pretty saddle)  Then I remembered that even if you upload your screenshot to the social club then it downloads in this stupid file format.  I even thought I could use the Windows screenshot--no dice there, it saves a black square (*if you're playing on Steam, which I am not, you can use their tool or the NVIDIA overlay screenshot tool).

I just don't understand why they feel the need to make this such a headache.  Wouldn't you want players to be able to easily snap screenies and share them?  It's like completely free publicity!  Yeah, I know that they undoubtedly want to draw people into the social club and Red Dead Online, but it just sucks.

I'm getting close-ish to finishing up my current playthrough of RDR2.  It's a fantastic game, even with these minor annoyances.  Due to the screenshot nonsense, I would recommend buying it on Steam.  

Banditry in the Old West & Medical School

Lately I've been spending my gaming time replaying Red Dead Redemption 2.  If you haven't grabbed RDR2, you definitely should.  It's an open world, old West masterpiece that always amazes me when I start getting back into it.  There's just so much to do!  And, to top it all off, the characters and story are both great.  It frequently goes on sale for around $20 and that's a real steal for the amount of content that you get.

On an unrelated note, it was announced this week that there will be a new DLC for Two Point Campus.  The Medical School expansion is the perfect tie-in between the Campus and Hospital games in the series.  It releases on August 17th for $8.99 and looks similar to the other DLC--three new campuses with new courses and challenges.  I love Two Point so I will definitely be grabbing it.  Here's the trailer:

Back to those rootin' tootin' cowboys in RDR2!

For some totally explainable reason I get a lot of these kind of "gaming secrets" videos in my social media feed and they're of RDR2.  I love watching those vids to see all the random, sort of secret-y stuff that I miss--if you've ever played a Rockstar game, you know that there are tons of little cool things tucked away inside the massive worlds.  Here's the best part though...I usually can't remember where half of them are located after I've watched the video.  Watching these videos made me want to do another playthrough and I've been enjoying the hours spent in the saddle with Arthur and crew.

This time around I've decided to be a bit more exploratory (thanks to all those vids) and to take time to check out the nooks and crannies on the map.  I've stumbled across a few hidden items and locations that I've managed to miss in previous playthroughs--I found a broken pirate sword on a swampy island and several hatchets that I had somehow missed before.

In the past I've largely ignored some of the more obnoxious "collector" type of tasks--namely looking for dinosaur bones or petroglyphs but have weirdly managed to find more than I ever have before.  (Sure, I could look up a guide, but I hate doing that)  I have found that a lot of objects that I took to be animal bones are actually dinosaur bones.  So, if you were blithely riding past an obvious pile of bones...throw on Eagle Eye and see if they're glowing orange because there's a good chance that they're actually dinosaur bones.  I've had no success with the petroglyphs--they must be really tucked away.

The one guide I did look up was for a treasure hunt that I've somehow managed to miss in previous playthroughs.  When you go to confront Flaco in the Grizzlies be sure to fully check out the cabin he comes out of--I think I ignored it in the past because I thought it was locked, but once you've killed him you can enter it and there's some decent loot inside.  This includes a hidden lockbox under a bed that has a map for the "poisonous trail" treasure hunt.  I decided to look it up because I would've never figured it out--in particular there is one part that takes you into an extremely hard to reach part of the map.  It's totally worth it too because you find 4 gold bars worth $500 a piece!

This time around I've also chosen to focus on sprucing up the camp rather than crafting a bunch of clothing for Arthur.  I'll admit to being a fairly pathetic hunter and I definitely don't have the patience to do the collector mission that requires you to hunt down perfect carcasses for random birds and small animals (which are probably the most difficult to hunt).  I always do the legendary hunting and fishing tasks--they're kind of fun.  Typically I get bored with hunting after awhile, so we'll see how much progress I make.

As I've had my Arthur spending some time in camp, I have realized what a total d-bag Micah is.  He's constantly hitting on the women in the camp and generally being a total jerk to everyone else.  I also witnessed him do something that made my skin crawl--at a certain point a stray dog turns up in the camp and Dutch agrees that it can stay.  Jack, the one child in the camp, is elated and excitedly points out the dog to Arthur.  It's a cute scene that I had somehow missed previously.  The dog, who Dutch names Cain, walks around camp and you can find him and pet him.  The bad part--Micah, is a bully and an asshole and at one point I watched as Cain was innocently laying on the edge of camp.  Micah saunters over and kicks poor Cain!  I already hated Micah (I mean...if you know, you know!), but this made me hate him even more.

If there's one major gripe I have with RDR2 it is the way that photo mode images are saved.  They don't get conveniently located in a random folder that you can Google...you can only access them through Rockstar's Social Club.  I've complained about this before, but it's an additional and needless step that turns me off from snapping pics of what is a very gorgeous game.

Am I making different choices for my Arthur this time around?  Nope.  I just can't play him as a ruthless bandit, it breaks my heart.

It's back to the old-timey sort of West for me!  Happy gaming folks!

My Favorite Open World--RDR2

I've played an absolutely insane amount of Cyberpunk 2077 (and will continue my weird obsession with the game that the entire internet loves to hate on), but after four full playthroughs, I decided that it's time to give Night City a break.  Of course, then I was confronted with the age-old panicked feeling of trying to figure out what to play next.  Since I found the open-world aspects of Cyberpunk to be one of the weakest parts of the game (it's a beautiful world, but it just lacks depth), I got to thinking about my longstanding issues with many open-world games.  Nowadays, it feels like every major RPG is centered around a massive world.  The challenge for developers/game designers is to figure out how to effectively fill up that space and make it engaging for players.  I often find myself getting bored in open world games--since I'm a completionist, it's very easy to get caught up in what I like to call the "map marker elimination" task.  I just want to clear my map of all those obnoxious symbols!  However, focusing solely on those symbols becomes the definition of drudgery--there's not much fun in stabbing your 10,000th guard in Assassin's Creed or diving for another obnoxiously located set of treasure chests in The Witcher 3.  There's one game though that manages to have a massive, open-world and somehow avoid many of the other common missteps from other games--Red Dead Redemption 2.

RDR2 is a true masterpiece of the open world.
(*Not my pic--credit to the NY Times)

What works well in RDR2:

1.) They don't drown players in a jillion map symbols.  As a completionist, it can be very overwhelming to see all the myriad tasks just waiting to be completed.  By having players find and use maps for certain objectives (legendary animals/fish, treasure maps) it eliminates much of the clutter (although, I'm sure some would argue that having to access your inventory and look at those maps as opposed to simply punching the map button can get annoying).

2.) By using a "blank map" they encourage players to explore.  I've always enjoyed the fact that as you find animals, pick herbs, and explore unique locations new details are added to the map.  It's fun to see a blank square and then set out to discover exactly what's there.  Rockstar is good at rewarding exploration with unique encounters and strange events (my favorite random building in RDR2 is the scene of a bizarre 19th century suicide cult).  Plyers are also encouraged to explore by the fact that fast travel takes some time to unlock.

3.) A wide variety of tasks for players to choose to complete.  There are legendary animals to hunt, legendary fish to catch, several sets of hidden objects/locations to find, collectibles to find, gangs to track down, a variety of criminal activities to participate in (robbing homes, robbing stagecoaches), garment sets to assemble (requiring a number of various perfect pelts...so, even more hunting), items to track down for gang members....and I could go on!  I find this variety to be the biggest strength in RDR2.  In way too many open world games the same 3-4ish tasks get recycled in different locations (I'm looking at you random military bases in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey).

4.) Random encounters.  Every time you set out, there's always the chance to come across something unexpected.  It could be a stranger asking for help, an ambush by enemy gang members, or simply a drunk person who has become lost (or many more--there are definitely opportunities for events that range more on the bandit side of the morality spectrum which I usually avoid).  These random encounters help maintain interest...even if you are frequently doing many of the same activities.

5.) The game mechanics give you a good reason to return to camp periodically.  Camp supply levels are dependent on purchases or donations made by the player.  This gives you a good reason to periodically return to your camp--many games give you a camp/base and then no reason to ever return to it.

6.) Throughout the story, the gang camp moves around the map.  This allows for players to focus on a particular area and not get too consumed with trying to venture to every far flung corner from a single location.  It also provides variety, which is nice.

7.) Somehow, the side content/open world activities don't distract from the main story.  I'm not sure exactly how they did it--if it's the pacing of the missions, the strength of the main story and characters, the freedom of choice players have (in the open-world activities they can pursue).  I've found that in many large, open-world games the main story can get pushed completely into the background as players focus on eliminating map markers.

I think Rockstar makes some of the best open-world games and they've really come up with a fantastic formula.  While other games can't exactly copy this formula, I think they can and should try to come up with a greater variety of engaging tasks for players to choose to complete (Cyberpunk's open world could greatly benefit from variety--I think part of the challenge lies in having a mostly urban environment--gotta come up with some "city" types of tasks).  

    

Outlaw Adventure--Red Dead Redemption 2 Review

After many, many hours of horse riding, bank robbing, and stupid deaths, my adventure in the epic Red Dead Redemption 2 came to an end.  Rockstar has created another great world and story that will undoubtedly remain a steady, top seller for many years.  I really enjoyed my time with RDR2 and am a little bit sad to have wrapped it up (I might experiment with the online portion, but multiplayer generally isn't my bag).

I was unfamiliar with the Red Dead franchise prior to this game but kept seeing high praise from console gamers.  When RDR2 finally made the transition to PC, I was excited but also cautious--many PC reviews cited optimization issues and issues with connection via the Rockstar Games Launcher.  So, rather than jumping immediately on the RDR2 train, I decided to wait it out and see if some of those issues were patched and if reviews improved (and also, for a sale price, because I'm cheap).  The reviews did eventually improve (although some of them are very centered around the online portion of the game) and with a snazzy $10 off coupon from Epic, I decided it was time to mount up on my figurative RDR2 horse.

The story in RDR2 follows the Dutch van der Linde gang--a diverse set of individuals who use their unique talents for acts that aren't exactly legal--and is set in a late 19th century version of a pseudo-United States.  The story opens on the gang as they are in full flight from a robbery gone wrong and are looking for a new place to set up camp.  You play as the rugged cowboy/outlaw Arthur Morgan--a loyal member of the gang who is perfectly content carrying out the orders of its leader, Dutch van der Linde.  The story follows the gang as they try to figure out a way to flee from their past and work toward a potential new beginning that doesn't involve constantly running from the law.  Unfortunately, things quickly start to go wrong and the gang finds itself questioning everything they've worked for (no spoilers!).

A frame of reference for this review:  I have only played the story potion of the game.  I don't know my exact played time (because I bought it on Epic Games and they don't have a play time tracker like Steam) but I would estimate it close to 100 hours.  Even though I like to complete things, the epic scope of this game is insane so I quickly gave up on trying to complete everything.  I mostly stuck to the main story missions and side missions.

Pros:

+ Gorgeous, amazing world.  Rockstar always creates magical, massive playgrounds and RDR2 is no exception.  The open world is a reflection of various regions in the United States--the story begins in the snowy, mountains and quickly moves down into a somewhat wild, western frontier area.  As you explore and advance through the story the world varies--there's the southern inspired, plantation region around the city of Rhodes; the swampy, Bayou Nwa; the Appalachia-esque Roanoke Valley; the sprawling, dirty city of Saint Denis and later in the game the open, Great Plains area as well as the southern deserts.  There's a ton of variety and it's all beautiful.

The open world bustles with life--various species of animals populate their own specific zones and simply identifying all of them is a challenge.  The world is dotted with various cities, farms, cabins, and oddities.  The simple act of trying to uncover the entire map could be quite time consuming, but is a lot of fun.

A beautiful view of the open world in RDR2.

+ Great story filled with plenty of ups, downs, and memorable shootouts.  The van der Linde gang is working toward an ultimate end game--making enough money to leave their pasts behind them and escape to a lush retirement on a tropical island.  In order for that to happen the gang needs to figure out how to set aside enough cash for everyone to get out--this will require more high risk robbery, rubbing elbows with the elite who can help facilitate high paying opportunities (and who often end up victims themselves), and lots of crazy plans.  The road to the ultimate out turns out to be fraught with problems.

+ Challenges, side tasks, and enough activities to keep you busy for a long, long time.  Challenges are molded around various activities in the game world--bandit challenges require players to perfect their skills at robbery; the horseman challenges test your ability to master riding skills--there are many other challenges and each set rewards players with uniquely styled gear.  One of the side tasks I spent a lot of time on was hunting legendary animals and then fishing for legendary fish.  Both activities take you to the far flung regions of the map (there's an aspect of exploration) and killing legendary animals rewards you with unique pelts that can be combined with other hunted pelts to create themed gear sets.

If completing challenges isn't your thing you can spend time trying to find the various stranger activities scattered around the game world or on side missions.  If you really want to dedicate yourself to a life of crime there's the option of robbing trains, stagecoaches, or grand theft auto circa 1890's--stealing horses and wagons to sell.  It's your world!

+ A gang of great characters who you get to know and love (or hate).  The van der Linde gang is a band of misfits--Strauss, the bespectacled Austrian loan shark; Javier, the Mexican gunslinger; Charles, the half-African American, half Native American pal of Arthur; Uncle, the layabout whiner who spends most of his days drunkenly avoiding any work; Miss Grimshaw, the matron and camp boss who keeps everyone in line; Pearson, the former Navy sailor and camp quartermaster; the Marston/Roberts family....and all the others.

+ Riding your horse is weirdly relaxing and enjoyable.  Finding the best horses in the game is another fun way to spend time.  I vote that RDR2 has the best horses--they are beautiful, your character has a relationship and bonds with their horse, and their movement is really well done and feels fluid and natural.

+ Tons of customizable weapons to choose from.  Pistols are your stock sidearm, but throughout the game you find/unlock/can purchase repeating rifles, bolt action rifles, shotguns, a bow, and a wide range of melee weapons (knives, tomahawks, and a machete).  Almost all the weapons can be customized to make them really feel like your own--you can improve a weapon with better rifling, various scopes, metalwork and engraving, custom varnishes and leathers....you can really turn them into personalized works of art (it does cost, but once you're flush with cash you can start adding in these features).

+ Signature oddities hidden in the game world.  Rockstar likes to sprinkle a bit of weirdness into its games and RDR2 is no exception.  I found a cabin that belonged to a cult who had apparently committed suicide while waiting for alien abduction; another cabin fell victim to a hunk of meteor that fell through the roof and killed all the occupants--those are just two examples that come immediately to mind, but checking out the various structures in the game is definitely a fun way to spend time and find all the weird little stories.

+ Combat means shooting a lot of people...and it's really fun--the best part is the Dead Eye ability which greatly slows time and allows you to line up the perfect shots.  As you earn experience by using the Dead Eye ability it improves to include highlighted kill zones on your foes--an even better way to one-shot slay your way through encounters.

I felt a bit mixed about the cover system in the game--you can take cover behind various objects, but you will still get shot through those objects.  Rocks are irregularly shaped and using them for cover is sketchy at best.

+Photo mode.  A beautiful game world naturally lends itself to amazing screenshots which are facilitated by the built-in opportunity to snap a pic.  There are plenty of options for capturing the perfect screenie.

+ A jillion graphics settings to help (confuse) you figure out your perfect setup.  

+ Some of the best weather effects that I have seen in a game.  Blankets of dense fog that make seeing anything difficult, brilliant flashes of lightning, blowing blizzards--each weather effect helps add to the uniqueness of specific regions.

Cons:

- Launchers within launchers.  In order to play RDR2 (regardless of your digital service of choice--Epic or Steam) you have to use the Rockstar Games Launcher.  This means downloading said launcher, trying to remember log-in information from the time you setup a Social Club account (which, by the way, the e-mail account that you used for your initial Social Club account CANNOT BE CHANGED ONCE YOU CONFIRM IT!  Be extra cautious about this!).  I had numerous issues with initial setup--the Rockstar Launcher couldn't find the game files...then I found a fix for that; then (and this was a fluke thing) the Epic Games service couldn't authenticate the files (due to server issues related to a massive number of people trying to activate their free copies of GTA V).  It took me well over an hour just to get the game started!  I was on the brink of hitting refund (I'm really glad I didn't).

The reality is that you need to have an always online connection--I don't even know if playing offline is an option (and that's for the singleplayer story mode).  After my initial issues with setup I think I only had one log-in related issue (many reviews will mention the sketchy nature of the Rockstar Games Services--those issues seem to have been largely fixed).

- Morality system and a handful of choice-based opportunities.  I feel mixed about this aspect of the game.  Players have the ability to mold their version of Arthur into a ruthless criminal or a generally honorable thief--this is mostly facilitated through activities that take place in the open world.  You might encounter someone who needs help and offer to aid them (earning honor points) or you might turn a blind eye and then rob their corpse (earning bandit points)--but, the main storyline is largely linear--Arthur will still be participating in the illegal activities of the gang regardless of what kind of person you've shaped him into.  It just felt disjointed to me.  There are a handful of opportunities within the main storyline to choose Arthur's path of action and I'm not really sure what impact it has on the story.  It lends itself to replayability to choose a different path and witness the impact of those choices.

- Crashes and graphics settings.  I mentioned this as a pro, because the graphics settings are exceptionally detailed and were specifically made that way for the PC version--but finding the perfect settings can be chocked with trial and error.  The initial setup for me defaulted to very high settings which, once I figured out how to change them, I quickly turned down (the game looked absolutely great on ultra but my PC was a bit toasty).  I had numerous crashes (and generally at weird times....like during table games) until I finally settled on what must've been the goldilocks level of settings--"prioritize performance."  If you're experiencing crashing, I would recommend lowering the settings--the game still looks great.  It's worth being aware that that the game will want to leave texture settings on ultra even as you turn down the level of detail.  The downside of the highly detailed graphic settings is that you will need to play with them to figure out what works for you and will result in no crashes.

- Save system is a bit weird.  The game largely autosaves which works well.  You can manually save, but it sort of messes up the autosaves.  I manual saved before a store robbery that I wasn't quite sure I wanted to commit to.  In the course of the robbery there was a weird situation and I accidentally shot someone (I would explain more, but it's kind of spoilery).  I went to reload the save I made just prior to the robbery but found that the autosave had basically overwritten my manual save and I couldn't go back.  I don't think there are any quick saves either.  You're basically stuck with autosaves--I still don't fully understand how it works.

- Some side tasks are quite tedious.  100% completion in RDR2 is a true testament to patience.  It still boggles me why games continue to include laborious collection side tasks.  One set which immediately comes to my mind is given to you by a gentleman who makes fancy hats in Saint Denis and tasks you with gathering rare flowers and Egret plumes.  The flowers only spawn in one very specific set of locations and in a limited amount (same with the Egrets) and collecting the number that this individual wants is not enjoyable.  I completed the first round and then said eff it to the rest.  I also found the table games to be pretty boring and they felt like a chore to complete (which you have to do for the gambler challenges).  I'm also strongly opposed to looking up guides and would rather accomplish things organically--that takes way more time and patience.

- Screenshots taken through the in-game photo mode are not easily accessible--they are physically saved in a strange format that requires special file conversion or they can be uploaded to your Social Club account and downloaded from your page.  It's an extra step that feels unnecessary.

Recommendation:

I had a great time playing RDR2 and would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys open world games with a strong story core.  The cons that I mention were mildly irritating, but the quality of the game and world are definitely worth it.  It is a game that is worth paying full price for.  I wished that I had bought it on Steam due to the fact that its built-in features are definitely better than Epic's (the web browser and screenshots namely).  

How to Die Like an Idiot in Red Dead Redemption 2 (and Other Failures)

I'm still riding and shooting my way through the massive Red Dead Redemption 2.  My focus has finally shifted over to advancing the story (something that I should've done earlier) and Arthur has transitioned to the culturally jarring world of Saint Denis.  Arthur isn't made for the big city and riding through its narrow, dirty streets is unpleasant when compared with the open plains and forests of the earlier zones.  The big city has offered several very memorable shootouts though--notably one involving a high speed chase on a trolley.  When I'm not busy guiding Arthur through the story missions, I've been really good at guiding him (and several times, his poor, amazing horse) into stupidly apparent traps and obvious areas where death is implied (mostly through my own dumbness).

The Night Folk are super creepy.

I've made it my mission to mold Arthur into an honorable thief--I will stop when a stranger asks for help (and most of the time helping people does pay off--I've managed to get several free items as a reward).  Unfortunately, having these "good guy" instincts can yield negative results thanks to the deviousness of the other inhabitants of the RDR2 world.  The creepiest death (so far....) of poor Arthur occurred at the hands of a group known as the Night Folks--denizens of the swampy Bayou Nwa region who enjoy silence, creepy skeletal face paint, and slaughtering people.  The situation was an obvious setup--a woman was crying for help in a very remote area.  I trotted Arthur over to the lady, twice asked her what was wrong (to which she wouldn't reply.....derp), and rather than just ride off and ignore the death trap, I figured that Arthur could fend off any stray attackers.  I armed Arthur with the big guns and prepared for whatever was going to jump out of the bushes.  My preparations weren't good enough though and the Night Folk don't mess around with normal weapons--poor Arthur was promptly hacked to death with a tomahawk (yeah, you really want to kill any Night Folk at range because melee weapons are a guaranteed one-shot).

In case you're wondering, there are other very obvious traps that you should avoid.  Poor Arthur also died at a location in the far Northern area around Annesburg when I stupidly stopped to inspect an oddly positioned hanging corpse (I can't resist looting a good corpse).  Upon shooting down the corpse, Arthur was ambushed by the hill people known as the Murfree Brood and died at the hands of a knife wielding redneck.

Arthur has also had a number of tragic run-ins with wildlife--namely cougars.  Cougars are probably the trickiest animals to track (that I've encountered so far).  Every time my HUD lights up with enemy movement I always try to figure out exactly what's causing it (a snake?  A bear?) but you don't have the time to pause when it comes to cougars and they're difficult to detect with Eagle Eye.  At one point I dumbly got Arthur killed in an area where I knew there was a cougar only to have him respawn and then promptly get killed again!  It was crushingly stupid.  I would also partially attribute the deaths of Arthur at the hands of cougars to a challenge that requires killing five cougars with a bow and arrows--I never have the bow equipped and taking the time to cycle through numerous weapons to find it generally results in the gnawing doom of the cougar.  I have developed a healthy desire to slay all the cougars in revenge for Arthur's numerous deaths.

Keeping Arthur alive has obvious financial benefits--it seems to cost an increasing amount of money every time that Arthur dies--but keeping his horse alive has been an overriding focus for me.  Thanks to my obsessive desire to fish and hunt all the legendary animals early on, I stumbled across a very excellent horse--a white Arabian that spawns in the snowy region of Lake Isabelle.  Even though I anticipated that taming this horse would be difficult (because I hadn't encountered another Arabian horse, so I knew it was rare), I managed to help Arthur wrangle it and tame it.  The white Arabian is an amazing horse--great speed and handling!  The only downside that I've encountered is that it does seem extremely skittish and tends to buck you off rather easily at the first sign of trouble.

A majestic beauty.

The real tragedy of the white Arabian is the fact that if it is somehow killed, I have to trudge Arthur all the way back into the mountains and re-break it (and then spend the time increasing its bonding).  Sadly, I've had several versions of the white Arabian thanks to similar stupid death situations as previously described.  The first time I lost it was when I thought that I could possibly gallop quickly across the region of West Elizabeth (an area that is currently completely off limits thanks to the bounty on Arthur's head) to reach an area I wanted to fish--the short answer is no, you cannot do that.  An army of bounty hunters armed with devastating weaponry made quick work of Arthur...and unfortunately, his horse too.

So, I trekked him back up into the mountains to re-break the white Arabian version 2.0.  This horse lasted much longer, but fell victim to the stupidest death at my hands.  One of the survivalist challenges requires you to catch fish from some unconventional and dangerous areas--one fish must be caught by boat from the alligator infested waters of Bayou Nwa and the other must be caught from the railroad bridge close to Saint Denis.  It goes without saying that fishing from railroad tracks is an obvious ploy to force you into a ridiculously dangerous situation.  I was prepared for this situation and dismounted my horse well back and well clear of the railroad bridge...just in case.  I had Arthur hop off and make his way to the (very dangerous) middle of the bridge and was prepared to listen intently for any signs of oncoming trains and to be ready to dive Arthur off the edge.  Well....planning is all well and good until real life distracts you!  I had just started fishing when I got distracted by a text message and lost my attention on potential oncoming trains.  Fast forward to a few minutes later, I completely forget about the train and start fishing.  I catch a very large fish and hear the ominous toot, tooting of the train whistle!  The situation becomes doubly tragic when my horse automatically runs from its safe position at the end of the tracks right onto the middle of the bridge to help facilitate transporting the large fish.  I could do nothing but watch as first Arthur was rammed by the train, dragged up the tracks, and then his poor, beautiful horse was launched into the river.  I actually laughed at this death because it was particularly dumb (and caused by my distraction).

There was nothing left, but to swallow my pride and trek Arthur back into the mountains to track down version 3.0 of the white Arabian.  (Horse #3 is still going strong!)

The moral of the story--distraction kills; ignore your text messages while dangerously fishing on railroad tracks.

When Side Tasks Rule

Red Dead Redemption 2 has been ruling my gaming world.  I've spent hours and hours traversing the massive, open world of the old American West.  Have I finished the story?  Haha....not even remotely close.  Rather than focus on the story missions, Arthur Morgan has been spending the bulk of his time on a mission to hunt (and now fish) across the entire region.  Tracking down legendary critters requires travelling to the far reaches of the map, finding clues related to the animal in question, and then tracking down and slaying it.  There's a part of me that feels a bit sad about killing the amazing, majestic creatures (and, as a side task hunting is purely optional) but slaying legendary beasts provides materials for trinkets (or talismans) which provide benefits for Arthur.  Another side benefit of skinning the beasts is that you can sell the hides and use them to craft themed outfits for Arthur.  The outfits are purely cosmetic, but offer the ability to mold Arthur into a true character of the old West.  Some of the outfits are a bit ridiculous--I have no desire for Arthur to roam around with a ridiculous bear head hat or a giant grenadiers cap.  Cobbling together one of these custom outfits is no mean feat--besides requiring the skins of the legendary beasts, they also require perfect skins from various critters scattered throughout the world.  I'm not sure I have the resilience to hunt down all the required animals.

One aspect of hunting that I'm really questioning is the fact that many of the crafting tasks require materials from non-wild creatures and instead aim you to killing farm animals (pigs, goats, cows, etc.).  It feels a bit weird to have to intrude on a farm and slay its livestock.  I wish there was a way that Arthur could buy the hides of these farm animals from butchers rather than having to slay and skin them himself.

It's a beautiful world in RDR2.

Mostly, I'm having a good time with RDR2.  The world is absolutely amazing and while I've been sending Arthur on his legendary animal hunts, I've also made it a point to try to explore various places scattered around the map.  In true Rockstar form, there are some unique (and weird) stories attached to these places.  I found a remote cabin with a hole in the roof and a circle of mutilated inhabitants sitting around a crater in the floor--what the actual hell?  Some minor exploring revealed that a meteor had crashed into the cabin and killed the unfortunate group of settlers.  I also found the 19th century version of the Heaven's Gate cult in a cabin filled with skeletons and the eerie glow of a passing UFO.

There are parts of the game though that conflict with other parts of the game.  One part that I'm questioning is the morality meter.  You can choose how Arthur reacts to certain situations in the open world or in the story--for example, strangers might ask Arthur for help or present a situation that could potentially be financially beneficial (opposing gang members holding up a wagon or train are ripe for attack and claiming the fruits of their misdeeds for yourself).  Arthur scores "honorable" points for helping people...but to me, that part of the game feels weird.  Arthur is a member of an outlaw gang--the story (so far....which I'm not very far) revolves around the gang robbing and stealing from various entities.  Arthur's a "good," bad guy?  It's strange and I'm curious if it's going to have an impact on the story later on.  I always lean toward the "honorable" side of things.  I've also been confused by how morality works in relation to looting--looting the corpses of hostile gang members is fine, but looting the bodies of strangers will result in "bandit" points.  It's odd.

Another set of side tasks that have been mildly distracting are the challenges.  Challenges require you to complete a certain set of skilled tasks and reward Arthur with unique gear.  I was focusing on the gambler challenge, but I don't find the side games to be overly engaging so I don't know how much more I will accomplish--I'm at the point where I'm supposed to get three people to bust out of three separate poker games.  Other challenges have been easier to accomplish--the horseman tasks have been fairly straightforward.

Speaking of horses, one irritant I encountered was a weird experience with my horse.  I was completing a bounty and was attacked by some other bounty hunters.  In the process of trying to escape them and gun them down, my horse, Fred, was shot and downed.  I managed to kill off the remaining bounty hunters and used some horse reviver on Fred to get him back on his feet, but oddly, a few minutes later I failed the mission because I had acquired a wanted level (a witness riding by witnessed the shootout with the bounty hunters).  When the game reloaded it was after the point where I had slain the bounty hunters, but I was on an unnamed, random horse!  Fred had disappeared into the ether (he wasn't in the stables either).  Although Fred wasn't some super rare type of horse, I was still a bit irritated at the situation (but instead have focused on finding and breaking other types of horses).

Black Belle offers to pose for a quick photo.

One of my favorite side tasks so far has been tracking down former gunslingers to try to get them to share information about Jim Calloway (the fastest left-handed gunslinger in the West).  Mostly these former gunslingers aren't cooperative and you get to have the enjoyable experience of quickdraw shootouts with them.  Only one of them has been cooperative--the lady gunslinger "Black Belle," who offers to help you if you help her in a massive shootout with bounty hunters who are after her head.  She's quite a character and has rigged her swamp hideout with strategically placed dynamite which can be used to explode any bounty hunters who get a bit too close.  I helped her fend off the waves of bounty hunters and escape and she let me snap a goofy picture for the author of the book about Calloway (Calloway seems like an idiot from the small amount of information that these individuals shared prior to being gunned down).

It's back to the old West grindstone for me.  I'm going to be spending more of my time in RDR2 on a new legendary challenge--fishing!  The story can wait for there are fish to be caught.

Western Style Adventure

I decided to grab Civilization 6 for free as part of the huge Epic Games Summer Sale giveaway.  Choosing to snatch it up is completely questionable--I'm horrible at 4X games and generally don't enjoy them--but hey, it was free!  One of the pluses of grabbing the freebies from Epic is that you also receive a $10 off coupon that can be applied to other purchases.  I had been eyeballing Red Dead Redemption 2 for awhile and was trying to be patient enough to wait for the price to drop down just a bit more than the sale price of $47.99 and to get somewhere in the $30 range.  Lucky for me that I got that handy $10 off coupon!  I decided to grab it and enter the world of the Wild, Wild West.  I cannot even think of another "western" themed game that I have played, so it's an exciting old/new world to be adventuring in.

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut, before my adventures got started, I got to have a whole other kind of adventure--an adventure in the frustrations of having to use multiple game launchers...that use multiple accounts....that work like a pile of hot garbage.  I very much enjoy Rockstar's games--I have been a Grand Theft Auto fan for a long time--but was wary of pouncing on RDR2 because many of the reviews on Steam mentioned the fact that the Rockstar Launcher is trash and that there were some early sketchy performance related issues.  I left my computer on overnight to download the whopping 118gb and then excitedly logged on and got prepared to get down to playing--unfortunately, just logging on turned into a chore.  The first thing you have to do is download and install the Rockstar Games Launcher--it was a quick, easy install.  Then, you have to try to set up an account, or in my case, try to remember the username and password for a Social Club account that I probably hadn't used for at least three years.  After going through the normal "forgot username/password" e-mail game I did finally manage to get logged in....only to get the message that "there are no linked games with this account."  What the fudge, man?

Faced with this installation wall, I had to resort to Googling how to fix this issue.  Repeated scanning of my system kept saying "there are no game files."  Umm, yes, there are 118 gb of frakkin' game files that took hours to download!  With some Reddit searching I was able to find some strange but effective solutions that eventually worked (deleting folders for the launcher and Social Club) and starting both the launcher and Epic Games in administrator mode--the launcher finally identified RDR2!  Time to get down to business....

Ha!  Nope.  The next error message I received was that the Rockstar Launcher couldn't authenticate the files from the Epic Games Store.  I hopped back onto Reddit to look for a solution and couldn't find one.  Luckily, I stumbled onto a thread that mentioned that during the halcyon days of the GTA V giveaway people were frequently getting the same error and that it had to do with Epic's servers being completely overloaded by people activating their free copies of GTA V.  So, there was nothing I could do but wait until the server side issues had been resolved.  Within an hour they had been fixed and I was finally able to get logged on.  By this point I had seriously considered mashing the refund button because all this work just to get the game to start was grating on my nerves--but, I am hoping that it turns out to be the masterpiece that people are claiming it is.

My first impressions of the game were mostly positive.  The graphics are absolutely amazing and I was stupidly impressed with the physics of the snow in the early introductory story.  Here's where I'm going to mention that my graphics setting defaulted to the high side and my computer started to sound like an aircraft upon take-off--this game is a beast on the graphics side of things and there are some insanely detailed graphics settings.  I had to play with them a bit so as to not overtax my poor graphics card (it didn't overheat, but I could feel the heat coming off my PC).

A genteel looking Arthur.

The story follows an outlaw gang that is on the run after a heist gone bad (the details of which seem to be intentionally shrouded in mystery).  Arthur Morgan, the character you play, is a rugged, cowboy type who rides with this gang.  One of parts of RDR2 that is interesting is the fact that there is a morality element--you can choose to have Arthur take actions that are "honorable" or you can play him like a true, outlaw badass.  After a short story introduction that gives players an idea about the various gameplay elements, you finally get to the meat--the massive, open world.  The world is gorgeous and filled with animals to hunt, games to play, bounties to capture and of course, story missions and side tasks.  It's not an Ubisoft-esque nightmare of map symbols, but it's huge!

I've been playing for a few hours and I've hit a bit of a wall--there is a ton to do and I've been a bit too focused on some of the side tasks (there are special challenges that you can unlock) which have proven to be more difficult than I initially thought they would.  There have also been some elements of the game that aren't explained terribly well and that I had to spend some time to figure out (namely supplying my camp).  I am going to spend some time working on the main missions (because I also think they unlock some gameplay elements that I haven't discovered yet).

I would emphasize this post with a beautiful screenshot I took of a fun, double rainbow, but another irritant related to Social Club is that your screenshots are saved in a weird, abnormal format that requires more work to find and convert.  (Maybe you're seeing a pattern here by now?).  I am really hoping that the quality of the game makes up for the ridiculousness of installation and these weird, non-user friendly settings.