Thirith on 28/10/2018 at 12:04

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If, after a fight, you want to check where the bodies are that you haven't searched yet, you can even briefly show the regular minimap by pressing d-pad down (and by holding it, you can switch between minimap options on the fly). It's pretty neat and user-friendly.

Malf on 29/10/2018 at 10:43

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I'm really liking it. The attention to detail is astonishing and way beyond anything I've seen in triple-a before.
I am finding that to also be a pain in the ass though with needless levels of complication, and the interface design is as bad as Rockstar's interface design has ever been.

I also had to load an earlier save last night due to my bounty becoming ridiculously high after botching a backroom robbery in Valentine. I played on for about an hour after raising my bounty to $225, which meant that bounty hunters would start finding me even in the wild whilst hunting. And every time they killed me, my funds would go down even more, so I was never going to be able to make enough money to pay off the bounty.

But even so, it's got its hooks into me, and I'm looking forward to playing it again when I get home.

The random encounters are sublime:

Whilst riding across country back to camp, I came across a Mexican feller shooting bottles on a ridge who challenged me to shoot more bottles than him and win $5. I did that handily, so he upped the ante to $10 to see who would be the first to shoot down four birds. It quickly became apparent that my skills aren't quite up to that yet, so upon getting frustrated while he was still shooting birds, I levelled my rifle at the back of his head and shot him. Man, I felt like such an asshole while I was looting his corpse.

I came across a gentleman who was having problems with his horse by the side of the road. He was crouched behind it trying to get something out of one of its back feet. I called out to him to ask if he needed help, and he turned around with a startled yelp only for his horse to kick him in the head, killing him instantly.
Arthur said "Damn!"
I said, "Woohoo! New Horse!"
My $15 dollar nag called Pillock, barely bigger than a deer, was a wheezy old thing. This horse was a large, well formed racing horse.
Of course, then some stranger rode past the scene and apparently pegged me as a murderer.

I also somehow managed to kill a legendary bear after Josea lead me to it. He wussed out and returned to camp, and I thought I could take it on easily. After all, we'd already shot it a coupla times before it ran off.
I tracked it into the nearby hills and took a potshot at it with my rifle. That just pissed it off, whereupon it charged me down and started to go all Revenant on my cowpoke ass. While it was mauling me, I was desperately pulling the trigger, and to my surprise, I actually managed to kill it, between frantic close range pistol shots and stabs with my knife.
A bit the worse for wear with my coat and face savaged by bear claws, I skinned it and put my prize on my horse.

While heading to the trapper the game then informed me about, I came across a lady trapped under the corpse of her horse. I hopped down and helped her out. Most grateful, she asked if I could take her in to town. Town was in the opposite direction, and I couldn't fit her and my bearskin on the horse at the same time, so I declined to take her home. She gamely limped off on her way back to Valentine, obviously pissed off that Arthur wasn't going to take her back to town.

But I got to the trapper who made me a neat hat out of my bearskin.
Now people in camp keep asking me "What are you wearing?!"

I'm sure the missions are superb, but I kinda want to see if I can stay away from those as much as possible and just make my way through the world hunting and helping folks out.

I will also say that their deliberate decision to use unknown actors in all roles is also very welcome. I completely agree that celebrity voices can end up pulling you out of the moment. Just hope they all get royalties.
I've also not knowingly come across a duplicated voice from an NPC yet, and I'm also beginning to realise that in town at least, the NPCs seem to be persistent.

scumble on 29/10/2018 at 13:44

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I also came by the guy who was kicked to death by his own horse. I've also sucked poison out of a guy's leg, walked past him in Valentine by the gunsmith and he offered to buy me a gun. A story mission gives you and off hand holster so you can dual wield pistols. You get some useful items of missions so there is that benefit. I've found the missions too well written to ignore them, but maybe I should give hunting a try eventually. I've not felt like going full on outlaw and trying to hold up stores because of the bounty problem Malf came across as well. You can end up with something that's impossible to clear so making a save before trying stuff is a good idea.

Some parts of the story do leave you with a high bounty in some states that you can't pay off. I've yet to see when you can clear those.

The game is clearly excellent whatever you fancy doing.

scumble on 30/10/2018 at 08:22

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I respect that - yet I think the problem is widespread and one might legitimately stop buying most AAA games for the same reasons.

Judith on 30/10/2018 at 11:24

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I buy like 1 or 2 AAA titles a year now, and typically a year after launch, so I kind of did. I prefer shorter (4-12 hour) and more original experiences these days.



The idea is not to support current broken model, it's to let it collapse and give way to something new and better. "One more time for the cool devs" ensures this will happen again. It needs to be repeated again and again: crunch is a giant failure of the management, and no amount of great games will make it look otherwise. In a long term, this way of life makes the most talented people leave the industry forever.