Being Deliberately Obscure As A Substitute For Having A Personality.

[rionaleonhart]

Wow, Red Dead Redemption. I've played quite a few good-looking videogames, but I have to say this is the first time I've sat quietly in front of the screen, not touching the controller at all, and watched a virtual sunset for ten minutes.

And there's so much to do in this game! You can play Texas Hold'em poker with NPCs! Not only that, but there is an in-built cheating system that allows you to hide a card up your sleeve if you're wearing the right clothes for it. Not only that, but if you fail the cheating minigame you will be caught cheating and challenged to a duel.

They built in the ability to cheat at cards. That's attention to detail. Yes, there are elements that make the world feel slightly less real (the same guy keeps trying to murder the same prostitute in the same place no matter how many times I kill him, what the hell, he must have done this four times by now), but on the whole the game does a fantastic job of creating a world that feels vast and alive and dangerous and beautiful.

I'm not a big fan of the last part of the 'American Appetites' stranger mission, the one with the missing people up by Hanging Rock. Look, Red Dead Redemption: I am the least observant person in the world, and I could still work out that the terrified, unarmed man pleading with me not to take him back probably wasn't the culprit. It all ended well, if you ignore the part where I shot an innocent man in the leg to slow him down so I could hogtie him and nearly get him killed, but I was forced to make an incredibly bad decision before I was able to do the right thing, which - as I could quite easily see that it was an incredibly bad decision - bothered me a bit.

...and I just spoiled myself for the game's ending whilst trying to find out whether there's a way to complete that mission that doesn't require being an idiot. Blast! I really need to stop reading YouTube comments; my life is never any better afterwards than it was before.

I became very attached to the horse Bonnie gave me at the beginning of the game, and then I got another after the horsebreaking mission and I was quite distressed! The Kentucky Saddler and I are becoming good friends now, though. The horse-switch inspired me to look up horse breeds on the Red Dead Redemption wiki (yes, I'll concede that I am wandering into very dangerous territory if I don't want to be spoiled), where I found the following line on the Infested Ardennais: 'When riding this horse, the player will not look as visually pleasurable as some of the other horses offer.' This amused me immensely. 'Just so you know, you're going to spend an awful lot of this game looking at a horse's arse, so you might want to invest in a more attractively-arsed horse.'

Regarding the actual storyline: I really like Bonnie MacFarlane! I almost 'ship her and Marston, but it's difficult to when Marston is so obviously devoted to his wife. Regardless of that devotion, I'm filing 'addressing Bonnie as "Miss MacFarlane"' next to 'expertly tying people up' in Things John Marston Does That I Find Strangely Attractive.

This entry may have fairly limited appeal (number of people on my flist who have, to my knowledge, played Red Dead Redemption: two), so here, for the rest of you, is a video of a very brave kitten.

Comments

[dracothelizard.livejournal.com]

"You can play Texas Hold'em poker with NPCs! Not only that, but there is an in-built cheating system that allows you to hide a card up your sleeve if you're wearing the right clothes for it. Not only that, but if you fail the cheating minigame you will be caught cheating and challenged to a duel."

That is GENIUS.

[rionaleonhart]

You also get an achievement called 'Dastardly' if you tie up a woman, put her on the train tracks and let her get hit by a train, although I'm not the sort to do that myself. The developers have thought of an awful lot.

[dracothelizard.livejournal.com]

Do you get a top hat and a moustache for it?

[rionaleonhart]

You can see the icon for the achievement at the top of the wiki entry on it. So, er... sort of?

[dracothelizard.livejournal.com]

That's just hilarious.

[rionaleonhart]

There's also a unicorn in Undead Nightmare, an add-on that changes the game from 'man in the Wild West goes after his former gang members to save his wife and child' to 'man in the Wild West seeks a cure for zombie plague'; it's surrounded by butterflies and leaves a rainbow trail when it runs, and the first time you tame it you get an achievement called 'Fan Service'.

[dracothelizard.livejournal.com]

...

Was this game made specifically for people like you and I?

(also, the way that last sentence reads almost makes it look like it's referring to the zombies. I'm assuming the zombies do not leave rainbow trails.)

[amy-wolf.livejournal.com]

That is the most amazing thing I have ever heard.

[nano_moose]

While there are many points in RDR when you must do dickish things in order to proceed, that's the only occurrence I can remember where the dickish thing you must do is also extremely, obviously stupid. That poor man. I do enjoy the Stranger missions, though, at some point I should go back to RDR. Someday, when I've stopped internally raging about Rockstar's inability to teach me how to play their game. (I lost thirteen duels before I snapped in Mexico and looked up how to beat them online. Thirteen. The ones I won were pure luck. This is a vital mechanic you must learn to complete the game and it has NO INSTRUCTIONS. I am sorely disappoint.)

I'm pretty sure you can keep the Kentucky Saddler, if you want! It's an excellent horse. I got very attached to mine before a cougar sliced it up, and I couldn't bring myself to skin the body even though I skinned ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING ELSE and also stuffed John's pack with flowers partly for moneys and mostly because the thought of badass knife-scarred John Marston picking flowers on the trails amused the hell out of me.

Garsh, that game is pretty. I forsook the temptations of coaches to ride to my destinations and enjoy all the gorgeous scenery.

[rionaleonhart]

I was also quite confused by Marston's reaction in the cutscene when his mistake came to light. Rather than going 'oh, man, sorry I shot you and tied you up and handed you back to the cannibal you were trying to escape from', he threw up his hands and turned away in a manner that seemed to me to be saying, 'God, fine, it's almost as if you people don't want to be eaten.'

I also enjoy watching badass knife-scarred John Marston picking flowers. You can call it the Survivalist challenge all you want, Marston; it's still flower collecting. (And I also ride everywhere, although I keep getting waylaid by bandits and killed. I'll get the hang of it eventually, I'm sure.)

[thewaterbandit.livejournal.com]

Augh, John/Bonnie, the ship that I kind of still ship even though John and his wife are also unbearably awesome. Like you, I just adore their interaction and the way he calls her 'Miss McFarlane' and her good-natured attempts to puncture his stoic exterior. I dunno, maybe they can work something out.

[rionaleonhart]

I was quite pleased when Marston told Bonnie that his wife was a bit like her. In another world, it could have been so beautiful! And their interactions really are great; I'm always pleased when I get a mission with her, even if it involves trying to herd suicidal cows.

[thebaconfat.livejournal.com]

STOP MAKING ME WANT TO PLAY THIS GAME

Flower-picking?? Really??

[rionaleonhart]

Really. You can hunt buffalo and shoot birds out of the sky and hogtie bandits and prevent (or commit) crimes and play Five-Finger Fillet, but you can also leap off your horse halfway along a trail because there's a patch of wild feverfew over there and you just have to pick some.

[nicodeimus.livejournal.com]

Used to play Red Dead Revolver when my brother and I lived at home and there was therefore an Xbox available - have heard really good things about Redemption!

I was prepared to be inpressed that they had Welsh Mountain Ponies, but then realised the breeds thing was just the stealing of names for classification. Sad horsey person is sad *grin*

[rionaleonhart]

I've never played Revolver, but Redemption is an excellent game! And I'm fairly ignorant about horses, but I really care about my steed in Red Dead Redemption. I was just about to say 'Please don't shoot her, bandits,' and then I remembered that 'she' is a stallion. Apparently all horses are female in my head? In any case, the sentiment remains.

(And this is a bit late, but thank you so much for your kind comment on my Jane/everyone Mentalist fic! ♥)

[nicodeimus.livejournal.com]

Horses are a very female thing - you realise this when you work as a riding instructor for pubescent girls and they...use the saddle 0.o

(aha, you're very welcome! It's fast on its way to becoming my headcanon for the series...)

[phoenixstorm.livejournal.com]

I got so attached to every horse, I named every horse, and I was so distraught every time one died. I actually managed to get the achievement for keeping a horse through twenty missions, because every time I went somewhere that had remotely dangerous wildlife I'd leave Jersey (my favourite) in town, and steal a horse to get me through the mission. Which worked out beautifully, as I lost about fifteen horses to wildlife throughout the game.

I had the same problem with almost shipping Bonnie and Marston, but oh my goodness, I cannot possibly express my love for Bonnie. I adore Bonnie.

I still find it hilarious that it cost Bonnie $15 to have Marston's life saved after he was shot, and yet it cost me $20 to buy a bandanna. Glad to see they've got a good understanding of fashion!

[rionaleonhart]

I've also got the same-horse-for-twenty-missions achievement, but not in quite as legitimate a manner as you; I've fallen so in love with my Kentucky Saddler that I've taken to cheating horrendously by reloading every time he dies. I can't help it! I'm weak! My brother, meanwhile, had a terrible run of luck recently when, whenever he dismounted his horse, it would wander into a lake or off a cliff.

Bonnie is wonderful! (I love your icon!) And, yes, pricing in this game can be a bit on the odd side.

[phoenixstorm.livejournal.com]

I had one horse that walked off a cliff, which left me staring at the screen with an open mouth and making spluttering "WHAT? WHAT?" noises, as that was the horse that Bonnie had given me. I also lost a horse once and couldn't get it to come, no matter how much I whistled. Then I found it in a tree. I don't know why I never think to check the trees!
What does the Kentucky Saddler look like again? I never paid attention to breeds; it was all about the colours for me.

Thank you! And with this one I am all out of RDR icons.