Riona (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rionaleonhart) wrote2018-11-25 12:50 pm
rionaleonhart) wrote2018-11-25 12:50 pm
Entry tags:
I Save Your Life Every Day I Don't Kill You.
A series of unfortunate events in Red Dead Redemption II: the game wouldn't let me stroke a cat, and while I was trying to stroke it my horse got run over by a wagon, and while I was trying to calm her down she walked straight into a lawman, and I got a bounty on my head and he started shooting at me, and while I was riding away I accidentally ran over and killed a guy, and that's why you should always ensure it's possible to stroke cats in your videogame.
I love that Arthur has absolutely no patience for slavers. He's not a good man, but he still knows where his moral lines are drawn. (Or at least he does in my playthrough; I don't know how his behaviour differs if you play him with low honour.) One of my favourite lines comes from when he suspects a shop's involved in human trafficking:
Arthur: How about you open that door?
Shopkeeper: What door?
Arthur: The hidden door. Or I'll open the hidden door in your chest.
There's a camp party in chapter IV of Red Dead Redemption II, and I wanted to speak to Abigail about recent plot events, so I followed her around during the party, waiting for an opportunity to talk. The opportunity didn't come, but following her around made me realise her behaviour during this party was really programmed out in full; she sits with her son Jack on her lap and sings along as Javier plays music, then she, Jack and Marston retire from the singing and she goes to fetch some stew from the communal pot, then she and Marston have a conversation in which Marston, who's been commitment-phobic and a pretty poor father to Jack, says 'hey, I'll do better, let's stay in the same room from now on,' then she says it's time for Jack to sleep and she goes to their room, where she's joined shortly afterwards by Jack, and he goes to bed, followed by her.
I've never seen a game create such a sense that the characters would be living out their lives with or without you there before. Videogames have developed to an incredible degree in the time I've been playing them.
I came away from this with three main thoughts:
- that's a lot of programming and writing and voice work that most players will completely miss!
- if I'd followed different characters during the party, would I have found them just living out their lives to the same intricate degree?
- Arthur must have looked so creepy in my playthrough, just following Abigail around all evening and then watching her go to bed. Coupled with his 'many years ago, perhaps I should have married her' journal entry, I'm now headcanoning my Arthur as painfully in love with Abigail. Now he's going to be haunted by the question of whether her just lying down on her bed when he was in her bedroom was a way of saying 'I'm going to sleep now, you should leave' or an invitation.
(He left, and then went back out to the party, and I made him join in on a song, only it turned out he didn't know half the words, so he was mostly just humming and then singing a few words here and there. It was sort of endearing.
Also pretty cute: Arthur being delighted by the remote-controlled boat. 'It's doing what I'm telling it!')
I love that Arthur has absolutely no patience for slavers. He's not a good man, but he still knows where his moral lines are drawn. (Or at least he does in my playthrough; I don't know how his behaviour differs if you play him with low honour.) One of my favourite lines comes from when he suspects a shop's involved in human trafficking:
Arthur: How about you open that door?
Shopkeeper: What door?
Arthur: The hidden door. Or I'll open the hidden door in your chest.
There's a camp party in chapter IV of Red Dead Redemption II, and I wanted to speak to Abigail about recent plot events, so I followed her around during the party, waiting for an opportunity to talk. The opportunity didn't come, but following her around made me realise her behaviour during this party was really programmed out in full; she sits with her son Jack on her lap and sings along as Javier plays music, then she, Jack and Marston retire from the singing and she goes to fetch some stew from the communal pot, then she and Marston have a conversation in which Marston, who's been commitment-phobic and a pretty poor father to Jack, says 'hey, I'll do better, let's stay in the same room from now on,' then she says it's time for Jack to sleep and she goes to their room, where she's joined shortly afterwards by Jack, and he goes to bed, followed by her.
I've never seen a game create such a sense that the characters would be living out their lives with or without you there before. Videogames have developed to an incredible degree in the time I've been playing them.
I came away from this with three main thoughts:
- that's a lot of programming and writing and voice work that most players will completely miss!
- if I'd followed different characters during the party, would I have found them just living out their lives to the same intricate degree?
- Arthur must have looked so creepy in my playthrough, just following Abigail around all evening and then watching her go to bed. Coupled with his 'many years ago, perhaps I should have married her' journal entry, I'm now headcanoning my Arthur as painfully in love with Abigail. Now he's going to be haunted by the question of whether her just lying down on her bed when he was in her bedroom was a way of saying 'I'm going to sleep now, you should leave' or an invitation.
(He left, and then went back out to the party, and I made him join in on a song, only it turned out he didn't know half the words, so he was mostly just humming and then singing a few words here and there. It was sort of endearing.
Also pretty cute: Arthur being delighted by the remote-controlled boat. 'It's doing what I'm telling it!')
no subject
That's hilarious! It's like a cartoon!
He left, and then went back out to the party, and I made him join in on a song, only it turned out he didn't know half the words, so he was mostly just humming and then singing a few words here and there. It was sort of endearing.
Aw, cute!
no subject