Needs it's own thread... RDR2 release date on PC

[ChemicalBR0]

My Arthur is fairly clean cut, I like the black fringed hunting jacket he has on in the pic...and I'm always fussy about having matching pistols, holsters and bandoliers etc since I like collecting the reinforced sets from the trapper for completing the various challenges, the gambler set being my favourite. Love that bear claw talisman belt buckle too

ALL of my guns are black metal, silver engraving, dark walnut wood. (in all my playthroughs)
as far as trapper sets go on this current playthrough on PC I just finished the treasure hunter challenges so I've got the full set of those belts/holsters

I also last night finished geology for beginners, .... (find the 10 Rock carvings for Francis Sinclair) so last night I got my 1st talisman which needed the old ships compass from Francis it's the ravens claw talisman and it slows weapon degradation by 20% (that one hangs from one of your holsters)

and just because it's a cool screenshot

Spoiler

 

[ArtiX]

Sooo, 70 hours into the game, hmmm.

I must say, and you will hate me for this, it doesn't feel as sophisticated as RDR felt back in the days.
The landscapes are jawdropping, of course, lots of improvements over an already accomplished environment design in RDR.

But, and this isn't a "new" release by now, the bugs and AI screwups are annoying to say the least.
Physics bugs like the "swinging broken chair", chair parts that swing back and forth while stuck in the ground, hard to imagine how this is still, even if only visual, an issue in the game.

Then the AI is way behind what i would expect from RDR2.
Here's a few things that happened to me:

Been riding into Saint-Denis, which looks and feels awesome and invites to just hang around, which i did.
So i'm sitting on my horse, not moving at all, a guy comes close and all of a sudden falls into the mud, i instantly get a Wanted notice and get killed before i even get to sprint away.

While i ride away from Valentine i get caught up in a set-up, i kill the robbers, loot them, then i approach one of the looters' horses that has been killed in the fight. I search the saddlebag. Some folks who pass by switch into "investigating" mode, resulting in 4 more kills i had to make to evade another bounty..

In Valentine a dog runs into my horse's path and gets injured, i follow it to see if i can cure it somehow, after a few seconds it dies, i am being "Wanted" again.

Saint-Denis, another accident with a horse rider, he dies, my horse needs reviving, i am "Wanted" for murder.

I get taunted by two O'Driscolls in Valentine, i wait till they go aggro on me and defend myself, no one around takes an issue with that, i loot them, upon looting the second
O'D i get another "Wanted" notice with a $15 bounty..

In some cases, outside of any missions, time seems to stop for no reason and then sometimes jumps ahead a little. giving no indicati0on as to why that happens.

That's just a few of the annoyances i encountered.


The Stranger missions are almost all treasure hunts, i really miss the Stranger missions from RDR 1, which had a lot more depth and grittiness to them.
The random encounters feel straight down flat and repetitive, with slight variations, but you just don't feel any attachment to these situations that occur.

All in all RDR2 is not bad, but i really expected more, especially story-wise. I'm not all the way through the story, but so far it feels a lot more streamlined and "same old" than RDR1 did. The missions feel forced on you in a way that you have no decision path. Like, i had quite a high "good" rating, then within the course of three missions it was almost back to neutral. I don't expect much of the last third of the game, to be honest, and with the AI being weird in so many situations you're often afraid to take any risks and just play safe. The graphics, environments and overall "feel" make up for a lot, but it's everything but a polished game, imo. The rewards for hunting are little compared to the effort
and time you have to invest, i mostly end up hunting when i randomly come across something of interest. What annoys me with hunting especially, there is no possibility to store the big pelts for later use. You loot a Bear or an Elk, hunting's over.

 

[jasonbarron]

Sooo, 70 hours into the game, hmmm.

I must say, and you will hate me for this, it doesn't feel as sophisticated as RDR felt back in the days.
The landscapes are jawdropping, of course, lots of improvements over an already accomplished environment design in RDR.

But, and this isn't a "new" release by now, the bugs and AI screwups are annoying to say the least.
Physics bugs like the "swinging broken chair", chair parts that swing back and forth while stuck in the ground, hard to imagine how this is still, even if only visual, an issue in the game.

Then the AI is way behind what i would expect from RDR2.
Here's a few things that happened to me:

Been riding into Saint-Denis, which looks and feels awesome and invites to just hang around, which i did.
So i'm sitting on my horse, not moving at all, a guy comes close and all of a sudden falls into the mud, i instantly get a Wanted notice and get killed before i even get to sprint away.

While i ride away from Valentine i get caught up in a set-up, i kill the robbers, loot them, then i approach one of the looters' horses that has been killed in the fight. I search the saddlebag. Some folks who pass by switch into "investigating" mode, resulting in 4 more kills i had to make to evade another bounty..

In Valentine a dog runs into my horse's path and gets injured, i follow it to see if i can cure it somehow, after a few seconds it dies, i am being "Wanted" again.

Saint-Denis, another accident with a horse rider, he dies, my horse needs reviving, i am "Wanted" for murder.

I get taunted by two O'Driscolls in Valentine, i wait till they go aggro on me and defend myself, no one around takes an issue with that, i loot them, upon looting the second
O'D i get another "Wanted" notice with a $15 bounty..

In some cases, outside of any missions, time seems to stop for no reason and then sometimes jumps ahead a little. giving no indicati0on as to why that happens.

That's just a few of the annoyances i encountered.


The Stranger missions are almost all treasure hunts, i really miss the Stranger missions from RDR 1, which had a lot more depth and grittiness to them.
The random encounters feel straight down flat and repetitive, with slight variations, but you just don't feel any attachment to these situations that occur.

All in all RDR2 is not bad, but i really expected more, especially story-wise. I'm not all the way through the story, but so far it feels a lot more streamlined and "same old" than RDR1 did. The missions feel forced on you in a way that you have no decision path. Like, i had quite a high "good" rating, then within the course of three missions it was almost back to neutral. I don't expect much of the last third of the game, to be honest, and with the AI being weird in so many situations you're often afraid to take any risks and just play safe. The graphics, environments and overall "feel" make up for a lot, but it's everything but a polished game, imo. The rewards for hunting are little compared to the effort
and time you have to invest, i mostly end up hunting when i randomly come across something of interest. What annoys me with hunting especially, there is no possibility to store the big pelts for later use. You loot a Bear or an Elk, hunting's over.

I can't speak to comparisons of the original RDR as I never played it, but when it comes to the game's legal system I was at first very confused but it started making sense eventually and I came around to seeing it as really making sense once I looked at it from a game world perspective. All the situations you described still have you as the bad guy as far as the law is concerned; while you may have been within your rights to defend yourself against the O'Driscoll's, for instance, you had no right whatsoever to loot their corpses.

As far as that last part about big game taking up too much room and necessitating a trip to sell or use it before hunting another big game animal, I consider that a plus and wish they took the same approach with weapon storage, too. Being able to access every gun you own from your horse is a flaw imo and ruins the vibe.

 

[ArtiX]

I can't speak to comparisons of the original RDR as I never played it, but when it comes to the game's legal system I was at first very confused but it started making sense eventually and I came around to seeing it as really making sense once I looked at it from a game world perspective. All the situations you described still have you as the bad guy as far as the law is concerned; while you may have been within your rights to defend yourself against the O'Driscoll's, for instance, you had no right whatsoever to loot their corpses.

As far as that last part about big game taking up too much room and necessitating a trip to sell or use it before hunting another big game animal, I consider that a plus and wish they took the same approach with weapon storage, too. Being able to access every gun you own from your horse is a flaw imo and ruins the vibe.

Sorry, but i really can't agree with you there.

Standing somewhere without even moving, and then being wanted for murder cause an NPC walks into you and trips over can't in any way be seen as logical.
That's just the AI team having been lazy in their programming, as there are many situations where the AI assumes a predefined logic path. And these code "paths" are flawed.
Looting the corpses of "bad guys" doesn't always yield the AI to see it as breaking the law, that's where it's just a bug and not a feature. The whole system fails to deliver a stable logic. That's what makes it annoying. It's like as if in GTA (theoretical, obviously GTA never had this feature so far) one time you run a red light and no one cared, and the next time you drive through a green light and get a 5 star chase as a "reward".

With the hunting, i don't mind it taking up the space, what i do mind is having to take a trip all the way to the Trapper to sell it, or waste the pelt on a butcher, before i can go back to hunting.
If there was a storage in Camp or if you could send them off via the Train Delivery Service, you could just sort through the pelts whenever you WANT to go to the shop.

 

[jasonbarron]

Sorry, but i really can't agree with you there.

Standing somewhere without even moving, and then being wanted for murder cause an NPC walks into you and trips over can't in any way be seen as logical.
That's just the AI team having been lazy in their programming, as there are many situations where the AI assumes a predefined logic path. And these code "paths" are flawed.
Looting the corpses of "bad guys" doesn't always yield the AI to see it as breaking the law, that's where it's just a bug and not a feature. The whole system fails to deliver a stable logic. That's what makes it annoying. It's like as if in GTA (theoretical, obviously GTA never had this feature so far) one time you run a red light and no one cared, and the next time you drive through a green light and get a 5 star chase as a "reward".

With the hunting, i don't mind it taking up the space, what i do mind is having to take a trip all the way to the Trapper to sell it, or waste the pelt on a butcher, before i can go back to hunting.
If there was a storage in Camp or if you could send them off via the Train Delivery Service, you could just sort through the pelts whenever you WANT to go to the shop.

I've never seen (in about 120 hours) anything remotely like what you're describing with the guy running into you dying and getting you wanted for murder. Either you misread the situation, or it was a bug.

 

[Mole HD]

I've never seen (in about 120 hours) anything remotely like what you're describing with the guy running into you dying and getting you wanted for murder. Either you misread the situation, or it was a bug.

I've been playing for over a year on two platforms...besides galloping through St Denis like a drunken idiot...I've never so much as grazed a pedestrian (accidentally kicked one in the face from horseback by pressing the wrong button)...but then again, I'm never in that much of a rush unless I'm being chased by the law...

 

[jasonbarron]

I've been playing for over a year on two platforms...besides galloping through St Denis like a drunken idiot...I've never so much as grazed a pedestrian (accidentally kicked one in the face from horseback by pressing the wrong button)...but then again, I'm never in that much of a rush unless I'm being chased by the law...

Ah, but have you ever just been standing there minding your own business and had someone walk into you, fall over dead and get you wanted for murder? That's the real question.

 

[ChemicalBR0]

I've 100% both RDR + undead nightmare
Im at 98% in RDR2 (on xbox) and In my humble opinion RDR2 is better than both of those combined
Ive also been playing for over a year and have not come across the situations you describe.


also dont kill people who witness you doing something bad, chase them down and they usually submit and give up (if not hogtie them and they soon forget) no witnesses no murders no bounty

looting normal NPC's (not odriscolls or people who are enemies) also lowers your honour. but people will report you for looting even odriscolls (because looting dead bodies is bad)

if you argue with a dude and kill him even if he instigated the fight, you still killed him.
"but your honour he pulled his gun on me so i shot him in the face" you're still going down regardless. (youll get a lesser sentence than if you murdered the guy in cold blood but you're still gonna have to face the law for killing a guy.

in saint denis if yiu get in a minor incident target the cops (without guns drawn) it will give you the option to diffuse the situation.... they killed you becasue you tried to run away.

also throughout the entire game you are a wanted man with a price on your head so you should be more concerned that you can even enter Saint Denis at all

 

[Noddie]

I surely can't be the only person who keeps seeing this pop up in their notifications and thinks it's something to do with a certain perambulatory bin from Star Wars.

 

[cpbtrading]

You simply have to take a relaxing trot through St Denis, it's a great place. Go see a show, take in the back alleys and try not to get into trouble..

Problem with shooting people is there is always someone around the corner to witness it.. Feels like that anyway.
I like to take the bodies and hide them, I went back to one a little later and the vultures were picking over it.

 

[ArtiX]

Ah, but have you ever just been standing there minding your own business and had someone walk into you, fall over dead and get you wanted for murder? That's the real question.

Are you calling me a liar? You should be careful with that, if the Pinkerton's hear of it.... they'll cuff you to a Draw Dominoes table and throw the key into the Bayou. (I hope they do)

You simply have to take a relaxing trot through St Denis, it's a great place. Go see a show, take in the back alleys and try not to get into trouble..

Problem with shooting people is there is always someone around the corner to witness it.. Feels like that anyway.
I like to take the bodies and hide them, I went back to one a little later and the vultures were picking over it.

I was very relaxed, but St. Denis really doesn't like me. Not the kind of dislike you get around Annesburg, where folks don't even greet back most of the time.

I made a habit of manually saving the game each time i enter townships and especially Saint Denis. That makes the frustration less...frustrating.

 

[jasonbarron]

Are you calling me a liar? You should be careful with that, if the Pinkerton's hear of it.... they'll cuff you to a Draw Dominoes table and throw the key into the Bayou. (I hope they do)

I can't tell if you're serious or not. But no, I'm not calling you a "liar," I'm saying that you either encountered a bug or didn't read what happened correctly in the game.

As far as the Pinkerton's catching me and locking me up goes...they're gonna have to out ride and out gun me first, and I reckon that'll be harder than they think, pard.

 

[cpbtrading]

Are you calling me a liar? You should be careful with that, if the Pinkerton's hear of it.... they'll cuff you to a Draw Dominoes table and throw the key into the Bayou. (I hope they do)




I was very relaxed, but St. Denis really doesn't like me. Not the kind of dislike you get around Annesburg, where folks don't even greet back most of the time.

I made a habit of manually saving the game each time i enter townships and especially Saint Denis. That makes the frustration less...frustrating.

Those damn Pinkertons..

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

The further I advance in this game, the more crashes I experience.
Yesterday, I managed to get through 'American Distillery' about the 6th time or so... I was on the fence to request a refund...

Such an immersive game, yet the experience is constantly spoiled... I wonder whether R* will give up on PC ports given the poor reception and all the pain, at least on Steam.

 

[Mole HD]

The further I advance in this game, the more crashes I experience.
Yesterday, I managed to get through 'American Distillery' about the 6th time or so... I was on the fence to request a refund...

Such an immersive game, yet the experience is constantly spoiled... I wonder whether R* will give up on PC ports given the poor reception and all the pain, at least on Steam.

Strange...since the day 1 nonsense I haven't had a single crash..

 

[Old Duck]

RDR2 is on sale via Steam. Not a huge sale, but it's tempting me nonetheless.

 

[jasonbarron]

I've had no crashes while playing, but a problem that started cropping up around the eighty hour mark was the "GRFX-ERR-STATE" dialogue which would allow you to get as far as loading a save before locking the screen just as it started to finish. Took a while to figure out what was causing the problem and come up with a work around, but no big deal. But then they released the Moonshiners update yesterday and not only did the problem come back with a vengeance, the previous method of working around it quit working. Very frustrating. I eventually figured another work around, but it took hours of hair pulling and teeth grinding. I even came close to reinstalling the game.

 

[jasonbarron]

RDR2 is on sale via Steam. Not a huge sale, but it's tempting me nonetheless.

Despite some technical frustrations, I still highly advise picking it up. The content is nothing short of the best open world adventure game I've ever played. And I've played them all.

 

[Juniper]

The further I advance in this game, the more crashes I experience.
Yesterday, I managed to get through 'American Distillery' about the 6th time or so... I was on the fence to request a refund...

Such an immersive game, yet the experience is constantly spoiled... I wonder whether R* will give up on PC ports given the poor reception and all the pain, at least on Steam.

I've had a number of crashes, but at least some of them were solved by physically removing all mods. Even if you're not running them, having anything unexpected in the RDR2 directories seems to cause issues.

I've also had success running it as Administrator, which goes against my principles, but it seems to help.

 

[jasonbarron]

The further I advance in this game, the more crashes I experience.
Yesterday, I managed to get through 'American Distillery' about the 6th time or so... I was on the fence to request a refund...

Such an immersive game, yet the experience is constantly spoiled... I wonder whether R* will give up on PC ports given the poor reception and all the pain, at least on Steam.

I would advise turning off the auto-save function as many people are experiencing in-game crashes due to that. Also, consider switching from Vulkan to directX12 in the graphical settings (of the game). As I mentioned above, I've never had in-game crashes but I've seen a LOT of conversations by people who have. There's no doubt that the PC release is coming by it's buggy reputation quite honestly.