I got it yesterday and was able to put a couple hours into it. So far it’s much better than GTA4, but still not “super ultra mega fun” as all the reviews would have me believe. Lassoing people is fun, and I enjoy playing poker/blackjack (but I can’t get the hang of horseshoes, and five-finger fillet is damn difficult and not worth the trivial amount of money you get).
I’ve been in a couple random encounters, but they don’t seem to happen very often. I saved a whore from being stabbed, saved a dude about to be hanged, and got ambushed once. So I ugess that is kinda a lot. But still, I spent a lot of time traveling around (mostly hunting) and not a lot happens. I’ve doe a few stranger quests, too
I do like the duels, though. You gain loads of fame (like 100 points or something) for shooting the guy’s hand but not killing him, and that’s pretty sweet. I got caught cheating in poker the first time I tried and it resulted in a duel.
The controls can be finicky and broken at times, but I actually like the horse controls after you get the hang of them. Gunfights are WAY too easy, though (left trigger, nudge right stick up, right trigger. left trigger, nudge right stick up, right trigger).
Also I absolutely hate that there’s no way to directly compare a new gun to your current weapons before you purchase it (unless there is and I’m just missing it?) I found that to be a huge oversight. It’s 2010, games have been doing this for years and years, how did Rockstar SD forget to put this in?
also (and sorry for the double post, but I just thought of this) there’s no way to skip the animation for skinning animals. It gets very, very annoying. There’s a glitch you can do (where you “park” your horse right on top of the animal you want to skin, then jam on the Y button as you dismount) but there should really be a built-in way to skip the animation (hitting Y or A or something)
[spoiler]Holy holy! I reloaded about three times at the end. The first time I reloaded I tried to just sweep from right to left with headshots. It didn’t work. The second and third times I just tried to shoot Bowlerhat McDouche, but couldn’t hit him either. Damn.
Actually took me a second to figure out what was going on at the end, I thought it was Javier Escuella come to pay his respects, as I hogtied him. When I saw Abigail’s grave, date of death 1914 (what did she die of? Shock at Archduke Ferdinand’s assassination?) the penny dropped. Goddamn.
I haven’t started Jack’s bit yet. I’m still hoping John can at least take out those government asshats, but I doubt it.[/spoiler]
You kidding me? I get an encounter every five minutes or so. It’s hardly random anymore. Anytime I arrive in Thieves’ Landing there is some merchant being robbed or horse stolen. I think I’ve seen about 15 kidnappings so far. Most of them happen in or around towns, or around roads, so if you’ve been travelling off road I guess they can be few.
Agreed. Also, what kind of horse do I currently have? I want to buy a faster one, but I can’t find what I’m currently riding. Spending $1500 on a Kentucky Purebred didn’t seem to improve my speed.
One thing that floored me yesterday: I crossed the river into Mexico, got on my horse and a beautiful guitar song started playing. It perfectly matched the scenery with the rising sun and the rhythm of the hoove beats. It made me feel homesick for a place I’ve never even been to. Very well done by Rockstar.
The game has a brilliant soundtrack, both ambient and set pieces. The track’s called Far Away, by the very talented Jose Gonzales, famous for covering ‘Heartbeats’. It hit me too when I was galloping into Mexico, seemed to come out of nowhere. There’s a brilliant one later on too, when John rides back to his ranch to see his wife and son after the final confrontation with Dutch, this plays.
The song that plays over the end credits, Dead Man’s Gun, is also brilliant.
Directly, I don’t think so. But you can check the stats of your current gun by pausing and going to Weapons (or something like that, don’t have the game on right now)
There are so few guns it didn’t really bother me. Once I got the Winchester I used that untill I got the rifle that held 22 shots. It does have the power but reloading less works for me in big fights.
Now I’m rocking the buffalo rifle which is a one shot deal but really powerful and accurate. The one shot thing adds a bit of a challenge to the rather easy gun fights IMO.
BTW the only gun I actually bought was the buffalo one as the rest I just picked up during missions from dead people or was given them during a mission.
I’m loving the game, done a few missions in Mexico at this point, but by far my biggest gripe is not being able to tell a thing about horses. I mean, this guy is supposed to be an expert rider and cowboy, but we can’t get any info on horses even after we’ve tamed them? It’s BS.
From what I can tell the white Mexican horses are the fastest but I don’t know for sure. Last night I saw a neat looking horse that I had never seen. It was chestnut in color but it’s mane was two toned black and white. So I chased him down and caught him but he seemed no different than my current horse, slower actually, so I ended up ditching him.
I’m still enjoying the game. I’m trying to have a life, so I’ve limiting my play to about 2-3 hours per evening. A couple of things…
I got tired of slow traveling everywhere. I am now a big fan of riding off the main road, using the instant camping, and traveling to my way-point from there.
I may have missed it in this thread but there are some pretty hilarious glitches in this game. I’ve seen them, but I haven’t experienced any of them yet. From what I can tell they’re mostly X-Box glitches, and I’m playing on a PS3. Anyway; go to youtube and search for Red Dead Redemption Glitches. Men who fly like birds, a donkey woman, a buggy that looks like it has hydraulics are all part of the fun.
I’ve seen those on Kotaku. Quite funny. I haven’t seen any in game though. I’m playing on a PS3 as well. I actually encountered my first glitch/hiccup last night. I just finished a mission and was standing around with a bunch of soldiers at some ruins. I decided to explore the ruins and found a container. Upon opening it I found out someone owned it apparently. When I came back out the soldiers were after me. I decided to give myself up and did so. Then it went to a loading screen and just stayed there. I let it sit for upwards of ten minutes before finally giving in and quitting the game. That’s the first problem I’ve encountered though.
I did a little internet research on horses and it appears I was sort of right. Both the all white and all black horses in Mexico are 3 star horses. There are also a couple stallions you can get and it appears I was an idiot and the horse I caught and gave up was one. You can tell because they are huge and extra muscular. That’s definitely what I had. They are 3 star horses as well and have much higher health (maybe that means one swipe from a cougar doesn’t kill them. I’ve lost way too many horses that way). I think I may still have him because I believe you can own more than one horse at once. Maybe I’ll kill the one I have and whistle and see if he comes running.
I’ve had a few glitches so far. I can’t let myself get arrested because, as with capeo, it locks up on me. I had one instance of a hydraulic buggy, and on the mission where Bonnie is leading the horses you caught back to the farm they began to orbit her at high speed like planets around a sun. I also lowered a platform down a mineshaft and jumped onto it. Marston had what appeared to be a grand mal seizure the entire ride down, then picked himself up and started killin’.
With the exception of locking up my system, these bugs are pretty funny when they happen so I can’t complain too much.
Also, if you haven’t tried it already, play around with the saturation and contrast in the in-game video options. 2-3 clicks up on saturation and 1-2 up on contrast give the game a neat Technicolor look.
You can own multiple horses only if you’ve purchased their deeds. If your current horse dies you can click the deed to get another one. Otherwise the replacement will be one of the default normal speed horses you had near the start of the game.
Deeds last forever btw, no matter how many times your horse dies you can always click the deed to get it back. You will lose the bond you had with your old horse but that’s easy enough to get back and, as far as I can tell, it’s practically a non-issue with the best horses anyway.
If you can’t afford a deed but want a better horse, the white stallions can usually be found in far SE Mexico. Just go break one, hitch it to make it your ‘active’ horse, and you’ll keep it till it dies.
LOL! Same exact thing happen to me when I jumped onto the lowering mine cart in that stranger mission. He acted like he was getting hurt the whole time then just stood up like nothing happened.
I didn’t know that about the deeds. Now it seems worth spending the money on at least one decent horse though it’s real easy to find those white horses in Mexico.
Most importantly, now that I know that the “giving up” glitch happened to you too I’m never going to even try getting arrested again. I see big bounties in my future
Yea I know, but it’s really difficult to tell if the gun at the store is better or worse than the one(s) you currently have, and that’s annoying.
From what I can tell the glitches are pretty limited to online play. I play on an Xbox and haven’t really encountered anything. The only glitch I’ve seen was when I roped a guy with my lasso and he died. he coulda been shot, I dunno, but it was rather odd
No glitches for me yet either, other than horse-based stupidity. Anyone met the Strange Man yet?
John: Damn you!
Strange Man: Yes, many have…
He also [spoiler]last appears where John’s grave is to be, and notes that it’s a “…beautiful spot…this is a fine spot…” and appears in the firing squad outside the barn.
He also has lines saying that he is an ‘accountant…in a way’ and when John demands to know his name and says he won’t be responsible for his actions, he says;
“Oh but you will. You will be responsible.”
And sends John off out on quests where he points out the evil option, like robbing or donating to the nun in Mexico. Very curious…[/spoiler]
Yeah, I wish there had been more of those side missions.
I didn’t notice him outside the barn, that’s a nice touch. I was too busy trying to take out the g-men to notice anything else. It would have been neat to have at least one meeting between him and Jack, unless he’s supposed to be John’s conscience and not some sort of deity. I think he’s supposed to be the latter of the two though.
I still have things to do in this game and I already want a sequel.
I had the same thing happen. I forget which mission I completed; but it seemed like it was saving the game and fading to black for a moment, but it never came back. I rebooted the ps3 and all was good.