Red Dead Redemption screens, and trailer!

[Eel O'Brian]

played a few more missions with some random guys just now

yeah, they're a little too easy with four players blasting away, probably be a lot more hectic with two players, or set your aiming to expert

someone told me you use your own weapons on advanced, seems like that would make it even easier

also, teamkilling is allowed, we had to kick a guy for being an asshole

[Eel O'Brian]

terrific, ever since the download it takes forever to get into a free roam, just sits there spinning

[Eel O'Brian]

I can't even join friends, I just keep getting the "Unable to connect" error over and over. Outstanding.  I doubt I'm as patient about putting up with the bullshit as you guys have been, seeing as this is basically the only online game I'm playing right now (or WAS playing).  I even deleted the DLC and cleared my cache, nothing.  I wish I'd waited to see what problems were going to crop up before I ever downloaded it.

[The Sceneman]

workaround for getting into free roam: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/957922-red-dead-redemption/55308293

[The Sceneman]

apparently free roam is glitched now, jump into a hideout and it will automatically clear, giving you 500 XP. Replay it infinitely for MAX XP. Man I wish I was at home 

[chronovore]

workaround for getting into free roam: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/957922-red-dead-redemption/55308293

For convenience:

start single player
start xbox private match
join a public match
presto

[Eel O'Brian]

apparently free roam is glitched now, jump into a hideout and it will automatically clear, giving you 500 XP. Replay it infinitely for MAX XP. Man I wish I was at home 

that's what infectedgib and i are doing right now

[The Sceneman]

God I hope the glitch is still active in 7 hours time... Im gonna rock the shit out of it tonight. How fast can Rockstar fix the probrem?!?    Chances are Im gonna miss out.

[The Sceneman]

bah I think I missed out, as per gfaqs board. I guess I didnt give the gorillas at R* enough credit

[Eel O'Brian]

still worked for me five minutes ago, remember to join through single player and set your targeting to expert

[Jansen]

glitch still works lol

[The Sceneman]

sweet! Gonna try it when I get home (30 minutes!), man apparently free roam has turned into a glitchy hell-hole, and the co-op missions have shat the bed and are unplayable now. Good jon R*!

I hope they dont reset the levels of players exploiting the glitch

[The Sceneman]

actually TBH this is a bit of a disaster, everyones gonna be level 50 now and toting buffalo rifles. R* have screwed the pooch with the multiplayer, this is gonna send people away in droves. Also hampering MP player retainablilty and potential DLC sales. Im at a loss as to why the dont just pull the damn servers while they fix this.

[G The Resurrected]

there's a team of R* guys going into games and kicking people who are doing the glitch. Both Roxy and I were in a match just trying to get from one side of the map to the other and we were kicked out by them. Was kind of funny, I didn't know what the hell was going on. Once we figured it out though it was nice getting those last few levels we needed to finish leveling up.

Coop is awesome but is borked cause it doesn't work for system link. Thank god for private rooms.

[Eel O'Brian]

actually TBH this is a bit of a disaster, everyones gonna be level 50 now and toting buffalo rifles. R* have screwed the pooch with the multiplayer, this is gonna send people away in droves. Also hampering MP player retainablilty and potential DLC sales. Im at a loss as to why the dont just pull the damn servers while they fix this.

I know I'm not buying any of the DLC until I hear it doesn't break the game as bad as this first bit did.

[chronovore]

I did the bad thing, and glitched through to Level 50 to get the 'cheev, because I'd never get it anyway. My assumption is that there is an easy way for rockstar to view users who have completed hideouts in 1.03 seconds with 0 kills, and then reset their server-hosted statistics to whatever they were the day before the DLC went live.

Anyway, I got to 50, then opted to Pass Into Legend, so I'm level 1 again. I'm only playing to play, and I don't care if I'm doing the same things again, or whatevs. Hunting is fun, herb gathering is kinda fun.

I'll miss my bull, Bonzo.  :'( That's about it.

Scenester and I tried to dual-farm briefly, it doesn't work well. We tried to start a legit co-op mission, it didn't work, we went to private Free Roam, which worked for Scenester earlier -- and it didn't work for us. It actually cut out the XBL Party Chat a couple times, so they're really doing something strange.

Anyway, yeah, I'll probably stick to the single player game until they re-patch it. I won't be surprised to see if my records get completely reset, or rolled back to last weekend, and it won't bother me a bit.

[chronovore]

I'm confused about a single-player story point: I've left Mexico now, and have had my final dealings with the leader of the revolution. At the end he said,

spoiler (click to show/hide)

"Oh, it's too bad about Laura..." and Marsten corrects him, "It's 'Luisa.'" But I don't recall Luisa dying in any of the missions, or even being resolved at all. She takes off after the end of the mission where Marsten lays dynamite along a road to stop a weapons caravan.

[close]

That's it. That's all.

Did I miss a story mission by completing something out of order?

If so, have I borked my 100% run? Or is this just a loose end that didn't make it into the final game?

[Robo]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Luisa was the girl with the knife who was killed running to save the tied-up Reyes during the final mission.  The guards shoot her, and in turn, Marston kills the guards.

[close]

[Eel O'Brian]

Multiplayer works fine for me now, no xp glitch anymore, haven't tried any co-op but I assume that's working now as well.

[The Sceneman]

^ great news! I managed to run through a couple of co-op missions with a friend in a private session no-prob last night, I found them to be pretty enjoyable, and theres tons of new challenges to go for, which is nice. When I tried playing with Chronovore though it was stuffed, crashing, long loading screens etc.

Haha, so you actually boosted to level 50? I went from 29-37 then got bored/ felt dirty, I then went and played a REAL MANS videogame, Peggle. Im sure Im gonna rack up tons of XP replaying the co-op stages for gold medals, so my level 50 cheev will come in good time. The game is just so good/fun (when its working), I'd rather have the satisfaction of popping the level 50 cheev MOSTLY legit

[Eel O'Brian]

i only went from 38 (almost 39) to 44, and even though i just held the controller in my hand pressing left on the D-pad every ten seconds while playing around on the internet, i still got bored and quit, so did infected gib

i figure since they patched and cut the xp payout way down on the gang hideouts (60% less in some hideouts, from what i have read) a couple weeks ago, they owed me those 6 levels

[chronovore]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Luisa was the girl with the knife who was killed running to save the tied-up Reyes during the final mission.  The guards shoot her, and in turn, Marston kills the guards.

[close]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ah, OK, yeah. My attempt on that final mission started on a quickdraw duel with some random-looking guard, no cutscene or preamble. I had no idea what was going on. I'll replay that mission and see if it plays the cutscene this time.

[close]

As for the XP glitch, yeah, I'm pretty sure that I'd never get to level 50 legit, just as I don't have the patience to grind in GTA IV. The multiplayer feels similarly eerie to me, even though it's definitely better.

Sitting there with the d-pad pressed left to Replay, reminded me of the study where the rats would continue pushing the lever for more cocaine, instead of food, and they'd eventually starve. I hit level 50 and then started looking around for other ways to abuse the cheat, such as "finish these three gang hideouts in 36 hours, without dying." I reset my online record so I could do those legit.

[The Sceneman]

I think the stupidest thing about the leveling system is they used typical RPG level scaling (the higher your level, the more XP you need to level up) but all the challenges and hideouts have set XP, theres no tougher areas/ advanced hideouts to go to once youre a higher level.

Im looking forward to getting my teeth in to the co-op proper, I imagine having a team of 4 good players would be awesome. I played a game with some randoms from matchmaking last night, all of the assclowns just ran straight into the enemies fire, and were dead within 30 seconds. I reckon you need 4 players to make getting gold medals a bit easier. And Im looking forward to unlocking the Advanced missions, they sound very challenging.

[Eel O'Brian]

i'll play whenever

here's how to really challenge yourself in co-op missions, even with casual aiming:

turn off the mini-map

also, they need to patch in the option of turning off friendly fire, there are already shitheads joining co-op matches just to kill people and immediately leave (and if you die, you have to sit out the rest of the mission)

[The Sceneman]

not 100% ture, there are "checkpoints" which will respawn dead players. If everyone dies its game over however

[Eel O'Brian]

some of those checkpoints are long, though

[chronovore]

And if there's an asshole who hasn't quit, or someone griefing the session, it would just happen over again, right?

[The Sceneman]

potentially, yes.

I think private sessions with evilbros are the way to go.

[Eel O'Brian]

Also, InfectedGib and I were talking about how, if they do a character pack download, they should just go nuts and do blatant knockoffs of The Lone Ranger and Tonto, Zorro, Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp, William Munny, basically a bunch of famous historical and fictional Old West characters

[The Sceneman]

Im still waiting for the burrito stand DLC, to get my messican fatty even plumper

[chronovore]

Also, InfectedGib and I were talking about how, if they do a character pack download, they should just go nuts and do blatant knockoffs of The Lone Ranger and Tonto, Zorro, Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp, William Munny, basically a bunch of famous historical and fictional Old West characters

I'm your huckleberry.

Im still waiting for the burrito stand DLC, to get my messican fatty even plumper

That would probably attract Demi to the game, so be careful what you wish for.

[Eel O'Brian]

Anyone want to posse up tonight and hit the co-op missions?  I'll be on (360)

GT is EEL O BRIAN (I am changing this soon)

[chronovore]

I'll probably be on in 8 or so hours. XBL "Spotlight" said Saturday night dusk-'til-dawn is RDR, but Saturday morning US PST was not jumping, in the least. 

[Eel O'Brian]

Had a fun time playing with Ichirou.  We possed up with some level 50 XBL regulators - literally, they quoted Xbox TOS to some dude they thought was hacking when he started griefing us at a gang hideout (to be honest, he might have been, he was taking an awful lot of shots from multiple people before dying), and were trying to chase him from Free Roam to Free Roam

[Eel O'Brian]

Also:

Earlier this morning, I was in Free Roam trying to finish a couple of ambient stat challenges, and decided to see how long it would take to walk from one end of the map in Mexico (near Nosalida), along the bottom border and then upwards to the Northernmost part in Cochinay.  Just out of curiousity, and to observe the pretty scenery.  I moved at a jogging speed (not pressing the run/sprint button, just holding the stick forward).  I only paused to kill people and creatures which hindered my progress, or to circle around ammo dumps and refill as necessary. 

Nerd stats:

Times attacked by other players = zero, surprising for a full board (one guy did trot alongside me silently for a while, until he disappeared as he left the free roam )

Times attacked by NPCs = one (randomly started shooting at me for no reason, so I shot his horse out from under him then walked over and shotgunned him in the face while he was trying to get up)

Times attacked by wolves = five

Wolves killed = twenty

Times attacked by boars = one

Boars killed = one

Times attacked by bears = twice

Bears killed = two

Times attacked by cougars = five (once by a pack of SIX)

Times killed by cougars = five

Cougars killed = ten

Rattlesnakes killed = three

Game "days" passed = 1.5

Real-world time to completion = approximately one hour and five minutes

I should have gotten some sort of achievement for walking the entire map

One thing I can say is that, aside from all the bugs and glitches and annoying little things, they really nailed the atmosphere of the game world.  Nothing in the background feels copy/pasted, and that sense of loneliness really kicks in when the sun sets on you in a remote part of the map.  You don't notice it much when you're barrelling through the map on a horse, but they really paid attention to detail, even to the parts they knew players would hardly ever see.

[Robo]

You got killed by cougars FIVE TIMES?  Man, the wilderness sucks.

[Ichirou]

It was pretty fun playing with Eel.  I randomly got a character skin of some wild hillbilly woman, so that's what I was playing as.  At first I had problems with my mic, turns out it's because my 360 controller was running out of batteries.

Felt weird running around with such an overpowered posse, but I was able to level up to level 7 or 8 in just a couple of hours.

Can't wait to do it again.

[The Sceneman]

Man Im so keen to play some more co-op missions. Ive still only tried like 2 of the 6 of them.

[Eel O'Brian]

Ichirou and I played co-op with some other dudes tonight.  I was mistaken earlier about them being easy.  That was when the game was still glitched before the patch, and only half the enemies were showing up.  Some of them are quite hectic now.

[Ichirou]

The co-op missions were really fun.  I'd like to play together with Eel and Sceneman next weekend, if you two dodes are free.

[Ichirou]

This game is amazing.  So far, I would say my only criticism of it is the soundtrack.  I don't really dig the ambient soundtrack and dissonant guitar chords that seem to play randomly while you're out in the wild.  I would've much preferred a licensed soundtrack like Red Dead Revolver had, with pieces from westerns...actually, since Redemption is much more in line with an American-produced western than a spaghetti western, it would've been cool to see pieces from things like Winchester '77 or The Naked Spur in the game.

Everything else is fuck awesome, though.  It's a beautiful-looking game - and it's leagues above the one I'd played previously on 360 (Dragon Age Origins/Awakening), making it look even better.

[The Sceneman]

The co-op missions were really fun.  I'd like to play together with Eel and Sceneman next weekend, if you two dodes are free.

yeah I'll be on for sure, have to get my copy of Red Dead back off my room-mate though. Might be tricky 

[Eel O'Brian]

i'm down (i'm really down)

[Mupepe]

Hey Eel, I got a new router last night so hopefully this shit will work and if so I'll play some games with you

[Eel O'Brian]

cool

as i was telling ichirou the other day, this is the only online console game i am even marginally competent at, so of course i am willing to play whenever

[Eel O'Brian]

also i keep playing with random people who apparently stick their headset microphones directly into their nostrils, so it will be nice to play some more with you guys

[Mupepe]

 

if it works i'll send you an invite tonight

[Eel O'Brian]

i hit a $12k solo bounty tonight in el presidio, at one point i was pulling the triggers so fast my controller started to squeak

i know all the spots to park for maximum coverage now, if i can get a couple people together we can get that [Wild Bunch] title in no time

[The Sceneman]

^ Good shit! Im real down to go for the Wild Bunch title. Also the one where you gotta kill a Public Enemy player while youre a Public Enemy. MUST GET ALL FREE ROAM CHALLENGES!

Man Im so keen to play more Red Dead. My flatmate has bogarted my copy

[Ichirou]

Man Im so keen to play more Red Dead. My flatmate has bogarted my copy

He must pay.

[The Sceneman]

I just need to go upstairs and piss on his xbox or something (pref. not with Red Dead inside it)

[naff]

Man Im so keen to play more Red Dead. My flatmate has bogarted my copy

 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

PS Triple, Uncharted 2, MGS4, TLR and Fable 2. Fair trade I say.

[close]

[Dickie Dee]

i found a local copy on cl. I just can't justify full priced games but this really, really interests me.

btw, is there any relationship between SP and MP other than general learning the game mechanics through the former?

"Free Roam" sounds pretty sweet cool, but don't know if it'll only be fun while MP on the game is fresh. Thoughts?

[Eel O'Brian]

In free roam you have the entire game world at your disposal to wander and launch gang matches from, there are also gang hideouts to clear and the new co-op missions are pretty sweet now that they have ironed out some of the glitches.

It's very similar to the SP in that there are ambient challenges (hunting, gathering, travelling, weapon/sharpshooter, outlaw/bounty, etc) you can complete for unlocks and XP, but there aren't any of the random "events" or side missions that happen in SP.  Just the gang hideouts and MP matches.

So, yeah, you can either use SP to learn game mechanics, or you can start up a private Free Roam and go solo for a couple of levels until you get used to it (you level up fairly quickly until you hit 20, then the XP required to level increases).

Besides the free co-op DLC that just came out, they're releasing two more DLC packs through the rest of the Summer, and from what I have read they have Fall plans as well.  It's the kind of game which could last you a long time if you enjoy making your own fun out of an open world, as I do.

[Eel O'Brian]

^ Good shit! Im real down to go for the Wild Bunch title. Also the one where you gotta kill a Public Enemy player while youre a Public Enemy. MUST GET ALL FREE ROAM CHALLENGES!

Man Im so keen to play more Red Dead. My flatmate has bogarted my copy

I should mention I did this in a private free roam.  I kept trying to do it in public, but every person on the board headed my way once I hit most wanted.  No one killed me (in fact, I caught a pretty awesome head shot off one guy with a throwing knife), but I'd get distracted by them and the Mexican Army guys would light me up.  I got pissed when I was within $50 of hitting the $5k bounty challenge and this happened, so I switched to private.  You don't get a title or achievement or anything past a $5k bounty , but I wanted to see how long I could go.

[chronovore]

also i keep playing with random people who apparently stick their headset microphones directly into their nostrils, so it will be nice to play some more with you guys

i hit a $12k solo bounty tonight in el presidio, at one point i was pulling the triggers so fast my controller started to squeak

i know all the spots to park for maximum coverage now, if i can get a couple people together we can get that [Wild Bunch] title in no time

So, so down with this.

[Eel O'Brian]

InfectedGib was right, the trick to El Presidio is to stay off the cannons/gatling and remain inside behind cover, they'll keep sending Army guys in a steady stream for you to kill.  Also, load up on ammunition at one of the campsites before you go in, you don't want to be moving around a lot to replenish once you're holed up and behind good cover

[Eel O'Brian]

[Ichirou]

I've been doing the Mexico missions for a while now and I have to say the bad Spanish is getting on my nerves.   A lot of times the Mexican characters speak in really mangled Spanish that was obviously not written by a native speaker, at other times different characters will pronounce character names differently (Javier Escuella being pronounced Escuela or Escueya by different characters - the latter is correct, the former is not).  It is understandable, but just very badly translated and badly pronounced.  You do get some interesting background info if you can understand what they're saying, though.   Some of them will talk about you, and others will talk about Abraham Reyes (rebel leader) or De Santa and Allende (the dictator and his gay lackey).

[chronovore]

I opened up the north territory a week or so ago, and then got hung up on grabbing a bounty that appears on the top of the snowcapped mountain. I tried and failed several times to get him. I was mauled by a bear right after camp-transporting into the area. It became a moral imperative to take this bounty in alive, but I kept screwing up. I forgot about deadeye, ended up marking targets on his escape horse which overlapped with his falling figure... and, yeah, bears.

Then I had a run which seemed to be working really well: I killed his henchmen, who came out nearly in a neat little chorus line for me, then the bounty target showed up without an escape horse, thinking to off me his'self. Finally, there I am on this steep approach to his hideout, just him and me, and I lasso him to the ground.

I hogtie him, and the UI reads "Pick up the hogtied criminal..." but in the very next instant, where I should pick him up to put him on my horse, the physics simulation kicks in and it treats the bounty-guy as any other inanimate object on a steep, snowy slope: The guy shoots away from me like a winter olympics luge sled and shoots down the path to the curve, and he zooms over the edge and off the cliff face. A moment later, the message changes to "Loot the body to get proof of the bounty." I started laughing so hard, I nearly killed myself trying to get down the same cliff to the body.

Good enough.