Red Dead Redemption 2

[mandru]

On the AARP Site there's an 8 ball pool game that sometimes lies about the projected lineup determining your shot accuracy and often cheats the rebound angles off the cushions making a perfectly planned shot turn into something where the cue ball behaves as if it were a prairie dog diving for the nearest den on spying an approaching coyote.

Being good for wasting 5 minutes per round it has been known to make me cuss occasionally. 

[Art Blade]

I'll still keep looking next time I'm up that way.

Do you know what's even better than SPT?

Spoiler

Two of 'em.
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Near Emerald Farm a tad NE of it I'd say, I had a night-time random encounter that was new to me. I heard a woman calling for help, saw two guys on horses, the woman was strapped to the back of one of the horses. I killed both guys, ran to the horse with the woman (the other horse ran away) and noticed that it was actually the original SPT type. I grabbed the woman, dropped her and cut the ropes to free her. Having cast a covetous eye on that horse already, I didn't want the woman to take it and ride away on it so in a doughty manner I mounted said horse before she could and when she asked for a lift, I gallantly agreed to take her to Van Horn on my new horse.

Now both my main horse and my temp horse are SPTs. It's SO cool

[Dweller_Benthos]

Cool! So, you can find one after that initial encounter camping in the mountains. Nice to know.

[Art Blade]

yeah, there are several random events with Murfrees (with and without horses) that may occur at any time.

[Art Blade]

Oh, as far as I can tell at least some of them may reoccur so you don't have to worry about "using them up" once you had one. However, I recommend saving manually a lot (switch off auto-save which is an annoying and useless feature! During missions you'll still have checkpoints, so no need for auto-saves) and if you encounter something like those Murfrees and blow it, reload. Chances are high that you get the same encounter again after reloading. Even if you don't, it still means that you'll have that encounter some time in the future and still can use it.

Meanwhile, I am having a blast with two of those cute reliable horses I was in the snowy mountains to catch that legendary bison and a pack of wolves popped up on the way, naturally. Now it doesn't matter which horse (main or temp) I'm riding as they're virtually the same. Of course both of them stayed cool.

And just to be clear: SPTs do panic when they're close enough to predators or fire but they typically remain well controllable and allow you to stay on them. That, being able to stay on them without getting bucked off, is the main reason why I rely only on SPTs. I tried to reproduce situations with different horses, they'd all go mental and buck me off, even at a comparatively long distance to a predator. Whatever I do, I know that my SPTs won't let me down, and that's why I ride them almost exclusively.

It's also quite typical that they start to go into panic mode kind of slowly, leaving you all the time to deal with the danger (which usually means killing predators from horseback) and only after that, they may be a bit more upset but mostly they calm down quickly if you pat them until they're calm. And perhaps turn them away from all the bloodshed so they don't have to look at it while you're trying to calm them down, that really seems to help, too

I got thrown off by an SPT only twice in all the time I've played the game. Once I kind of rode into the open jaws of a gator which is absolutely understandable, and recently thanks to a stupid move on my part: I was on a slightly elevated railroad while preparing to kill an attacking cougar. I made the horse turn to face the cougar but unfortunately that forced the horse to do a tiny jump off the railroad, towards the cougar which at that time was perhaps only three yards away and in full berserk mode. That was too much, she bucked me off, but I don't mind, I can understand that. I killed the cougar regardless. So the two times I got bucked off were for the same reason: going forwards into an attacking predator that was only a few strides away. Normally you can avoid those situations.. It only happened twice in like 1,500 hours.

[Art Blade]

LOL just had virtually the same random encounter again (ran into Murfrees who were about to abduct the woman, she was already hogtied and a Murfree was carrying her over his shoulder) and now I know they fetched her from a stage coach robbery. I was a bit too far to intervene just then but I got there in time to kill both Murfrees before they could mount up. Their horses ran away but hey.. I already got two SPTs

Happened a bit south of Van Horn, a tad south of the Van Horn Mansion where the road crosses the railroad. She wanted a lift to Annesburg this time. That spot where it happened is apparently a spawn point for those Murfree random encounters, I had several there.

[mandru]

Art, with that stage coach event the woman was from are you able to see/find the coach and look for loot-able bodies or even better the coach's strong box?

[Art Blade]

yes. But. The Murfree Brood guys (bandits) picked it clean so there's nothing or not much to get from the coach. You may loot the bandits but they usually don't have anything really valuable on them. However, during this event, it's not so good to do any of that because there's a damsel in distress and if you start to pick over the remains of the coach and the bodies, she'll leave. You actually have to hurry to get back on your horse in case you had dismounted because she asks you to take her to where she lives. If you're not quick about it, she assumes that you're not going to help her. So.. this event is more based on a rescue mission: eliminate the threat and get the hostage to a safe place as fast as possible.

There are other events that you can pick over coaches and bodies. And of course, you can create such events yourself.. by robbing a coach Doesn't have to be that bloody. During some challenges I had to rob coaches. One way is to sneak up on a parked coach from behind and lockpick the strongbox without anyone being any the wiser, which is what I prefer. Alternatively you can shoot the driver of a moving coach and typically the co-driver as well and if there are passengers, kill them as well.. driver and co-driver because they will defend the coach and shoot at you so you don't have much of a choice. Passengers so you don't leave witnesses who will tell the law resulting in a bounty that's likely a lot higher than the value of the entire loot. All in all, I'm not the bandit type so I avoid unnecessary shootings and killings. Also, I don't hunt "for sport" but for stuff I need, mostly food and I can sell the hides. There will be enough guys you can pick a fight with when you pay those (respawning!) bandit hideouts a visit. There you can kill about 15-25 bad guys (depending on the size of the hideout) and you can actually feel good about it. The loot is absolutely worth it, too. And of course there will be the occasional random event of the ambush type that allows you to kill and loot some bad guys. It's not getting "too boring" and it's not over the top, either. The open world aspect of this game is world class. One way of "dealing" with people is to use your lasso. Essentially you run up to them and hogtie them. That way you don't kill anyone and you don't even lose honour

While I don't like the story because of many reasons, I absolutely adore the open world aspects outside the missions. I know that you avoid buying and playing games that put you in the role of a bad guy and this game's story is doing exactly that. But you can have a new and different life. Like, after the story line has finished, you assume the role of an ex bandit who used to be with the same gang as the character you played during the main mission. The new character tries to live out his days as a farmer. So can be as friendly and peaceful as you want, you don't have to do anything bad any more. My "honour level" is 100% because I keep doing good things and avoid doing bad things.

[mandru]

Thanks for the info Art. 

[Art Blade]

welcome.

I have been wondering, is there anything you'd really like to see but can't find it on any of the average YouTube channels, stuff that might be boring even so they won't show it? I'd try and record it for you, then.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Interesting, I'll have to head up that way some time and see if I can get that encounter. I know I've run into the Murfree brood a few times, but they've never had horses, except once they did have a wagon they tried to block the road with, but I wasn't ready for the fight that would have required so I turned and ran away. Or more accurately my horse did hehe.

[Art Blade]

 

[mandru]

I kind of got burned out on westerns when I was younger and was always more interested in world wildlife travelogues, science, and of course sci-fi.

I'm not so much a Roy Rogers fan.  Buck Rogers suits me a lot better.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Art Blade]

I'm the same. I only got hooked to RDR2 when I watched White Locks's live streams on YouTube when the game was released for the PC but before it was released on steam. The way White Locks played it, how he was amazed at all the details and from the start he left the story mode and started to explore and try out stuff.. that's when I realised the game's true potential wasn't the story (which I already knew at that time, from a console story playthrough on YouTube) but the open world. It only happens to be a Western theme but it's essentially not so different from FarCry2 if you focus on the open world aspects.

[mandru]

An open world format for games will always be a draw for me. 

While I won't find fault for anyone enjoying games that aren't to my taste there are aspects with games like RDR2 and the GTA series that fall outside my sweet spot.

Games that offer Console Commands are also something I really enjoy.  Though I do see that RDR2 has extensive Cheat Codes. 

I may have to look into the Borderlands series.  As I recall PZ and some of you other guys enjoyed that one.