Azurephile27

Joined 02/23/2012
  Super Member

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329 Posts

DOOM Four Years Later
Azurephile gives this an astounding "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale
This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.
Azurephile gives this a "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale
This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.
DOOM (not to be confused with Doom apparently) is still a great game, four years later. However, one of my main complaints is the platforming. It’s kind of like a cross between Doom and Super Mario Bros. Still, I think it’s a great game. As someone who’s been playing Doom since the beginning (and even before with Wolfenstein 3D), DOOM is a great addition to the series. There wasn’t much of a story in the original Doom games. Doom 3 had more of a story, and so does this one.

DOOM is a great visual upgrade from the other games in the series. It looks great and apparently performs really well, too. You can play with the Vulkan API, which seems to be pretty awesome. I seem to remember some reporting about the game pushing a lot of FPS (1,000 I think) or something similar. Now DOOM is on the Switch. I don’t know much about that version, but I’m sure it performs well.

One new addition in this game is the Glory Kill. When you attack a demon enough and it’s low on health, it may end up staggering, it will glow with an orange and blue outline (depending on if you’re close enough to perform a Glory Kill). When you’re close enough, you just hit the melee key or button to kill it. This is a great way to replenish your health, especially since there are many weak demons that are easy to stagger. If you want to get ammo, use your chainsaw on a demon. The chainsaw requires gas to use, which you’ll find scattered around like ammo, armor, and health. You can kill a demon with one chainsaw attack. This is a great way to quickly kill a demon and replenish your ammo.

You will mostly find demons in groups. You will usually need to kill all the demons in an area to proceed. Since they won’t respawn, you’re free to explore the area without interruption once you’ve cleared them out. This is helpful for collecting items, including “secrets.” The map will display icons, including Run Trials and other “secrets.” Some of the secrets are collectible dolls, skins of the Doom Guy. For instance, there is one that’s based on Fallout and it’s called “Vault Guy.” You can also collect classic Doom maps. To unlock these, you’ll have to find the lever and pull it, which will open a door to a classic map. There’s usually very little inside them, but you still need to go in them in order for the game to recognize that you completed that “secret.” However, you can play these maps outside of campaign mode. If you don’t get all of these on the first time through a mission, it’s ok, because you can go back and replay missions from the game menu. You can go through a map multiple times picking up different things each time, but the game will keep track of what you’ve collected or done. Likewise, you don’t have to complete each challenge, you can come back later and get one or more, if you like.

Runes are pretty much special abilities. However, in order to get them you’ll have to find the Rune trial and complete it. Some of them are difficult. Not only will you get a cool bonus from this, but it will also help you get some practice and teach you how to effectively use a weapon.

As for weapons, I actually ended up using the Super Shotgun most of the time, but some demons require a much more powerful weapon to kill. You can unlock different weapon modes. For instance, the Rocket Launcher can use a lock on target mode or a remote detonation mode. The game will also show your progress towards the weapon’s mastery, which gives you a certain challenge to complete. This may be something like killing a certain number of demons using a certain weapon mode.

One feature lets you can create your own maps. I think I tried it once, I think there’s at least one achievement for it. I haven’t played multiplayer mode either. I bought the season pass for the game, but from what I could tell, the DLC was multiplayer content that I wasn’t interested in, so I didn’t get much out of it.

I think if you’ve been a fan of the Doom series, you’ll probably enjoy this. I think it’s an awesome game, although sometimes the platforming and some of the challenges are frustrating. I also really like the music, it’s pretty awesome and fits the game well. I think the game does a great job at making you feel like you’re a demon-killing badass.

What do you think of DOOM? I remember the game is one of Cheerful Ghosts Games of the Year.

Ark 2 and the Animated Series!
Here's just a quick announcement about some very exciting news I found in a brief announcement from Studio Wildcard. Apparently, they've announced Ark 2, but haven't released a trailer or details. I believe I read that it's going to focus on Santiago's story (played by Vin Diesel). He's one of the characters you'll only find out about by reading Explorer Notes that are hidden throughout the game. These notes cover a few different characters, but Helena and Rockwell (David Tennant) seem to be the main characters, at least at the moment. They also showed a preview for Ark: The Animated series, which stars actors such as Russell Crow, Vin Diesel, David Tennant, Karl Urban, and more! Check out the trailer in the embedded video. I think this is awesome and exciting. I can't wait to hear more about Ark 2. I was wondering what would happen w/ Ark after Genesis Pt. 2, because that is supposed to be the end of Ark. However, people speculated about Ark 2 and it seems that's what's going to happen. As fan big fan of the game, I find this news to be very exciting, I just had to share it. Perhaps later I'll update this post with details as I find them.

Twitter source: https://twitter.com/survivetheark/status/1337205017762258944

*Update* Here's the latest link with some more info, including an Ark 2 trailer: https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/articles.html/ark-ii-ark-the-animated-series-r1682/

Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight, is it worth it?
Azurephile gives this a "Meh" on the Ghost Scale
It’s not amazing, it’s not bad. This is ok but you may want to choose another title.
Azurephile gives this a "Meh" on the Ghost Scale
It’s not amazing, it’s not bad. This is ok but you may want to choose another title.
I decided to delete my “recommended” review for C&C4 on Steam, because I’m a bit mixed on whether or not I’d recommend it, so I thought I’d just share my thoughts on it here instead.

Skip this if you’re not interested in cheating in the game:
I did enjoy C&C4, but I used Cheat Engine to make me invincible, which may have altered my experience. I’m not too ashamed to cheat in some games, I actually think it makes the game much more fun and much less stressful for me. I really don’t like a challenge. I used this program for many other C&C games. If you want to cheat in the game like I did, download and install Cheat Engine. When you open it up the first time, it will ask if you want to go through the tutorial. That is your choice, but I found it confusing and definitely unnecessary. The tutorial basically tells you how to discover cheats for a game, but I think it’s way easier to just search the web for a cheat table someone else created. I was able to do this simply and easily. When you have the game running, such as when you’re at the main menu, Alt-Tab back to your desktop and open Cheat Engine. Then select the icon under “File” and it will show you a list of processes running on your computer. Select the one that’s obviously C&C4. Next, click the icon to the right of the first one and there you can browse to the cheat file you’ve downloaded and open it. Then, at the bottom of the program, in a big white box, you’ll finally see some text. Click on the empty box near the text to enable the codes. Select the very first one to enable the overall cheat ability and then select the one next to whichever cheat you wish to use. After that, go back to your game and enjoy the cheat(s), it’s simple really.

Skip to here if you’re not interested in cheating in the game:
It seems the main reason that the game gets such a negative review is due to it’s DRM. The game requires you to login with an EA account. It also requires you to use a key to activate the game. It will not accept the code given to you by Steam when you try to log in and register it via Steam. You must visit EA’s website to activate the game in your EA account. This is actually easy to do and I found a video that shows exactly how to do it: https://youtu.be/Ex3tIL5EcjU

Tutorial, MCV, Unit Limitations:
I initially wrote a positive review for the game on Steam. I wanted to share the solution I found so others wouldn’t have to waste their time looking for it. However, I’m not entirely sure the game deserves a full recommendation. First of all, the tutorial is extremely limited, which is unlike some of the other C&C games. C&C3 had a good tutorial and Red Alert 3 has a very detailed tutorial broken up into parts, so you weren’t overwhelmed with it all at once. This game doesn’t really tell you how to do much. For instance, it says to find a point on the map, but doesn’t specify how to move your camera, though this is something you can easily figure out, especially if you’re already familiar with the series. In this game there’s only one building for constructing units and defenses, the MCV, which can be deployed in three different varieties; offense, defense, and support. This makes the game extremely unique in that you don’t have to create buildings for infantry or vehicles or aircraft, it’s all done in the same place. What’s more is that you’re limited to how much you can create by something called command points. I think I saw the max available was 60 and each unit costs at least a few of these, so it’s very difficult to amass a massive army to overwhelm your enemy. I’m not sure how to or if you can increase your command points.

There is also no harvesting of resources. There are red, blue, and green crystals you’ll find on the map, which you can pick up to get points to spend on abilities. There are also blue and green orbs you’ll find that can increase a unit’s rank. The game doesn’t go into much (if any) detail explaining these things.

”Capturing” structures:
There are also some structures that the game will tell you to capture. If you’re familiar with the series, you’ll probably assume this means sending an engineer into the structure, since that is the way every other C&C game has worked. However, this time is different. These structures have a meter which displays GDI, neutral, and Nod influence. To capture them, you need the structure’s influence to be on your side. To increase your influence, you need to be around it for a while and have more units in the area than your opponent. While it’s under your opponent’s influence, it will work for them (if it’s a turret for instance) and you can attack it. If you attack it enough, it will go into neutral influence and you won’t be able to (or need to) attack it anymore. You’ll see arrows that point out which direction the influence bar is going. However, there is at least one mission where you’ll have to use an engineer to capture certain buildings.

Summary:
Honestly, I thought the best part of the game was the very beginning, the intro trailer. I’m still suck on those limiting command points and I think that’s a real drag. I’m not too fond of the deviation of harvesting resources, which is something that’s been in every other C&C game, except for Renegade (which is a FPS). Even using an invincibility cheat, sometimes the missions were frustrating as you have to chase units across the map and also hold onto certain structures with your limited units (due to command point limitations). The story was ok I guess and the FMVs were crisp. The game looked modern.

Anyway, if you like the C&C series, I think you’d be justified in skipping this one. However, if you’re interested you may want to wait to catch it while it’s on sale. Although, if all of this sounds good to you, then go for it. I didn’t include all of this detail in my Steam review, so this is a legit Cheerful Ghost review. 😄

P.S. The trailer I just embedded makes the game look more like a movie, it contains very little game play.

Ark Introduces David Tennant as Rockwell in Genesis Pt. 2
The dev team of Ark: Survival Evolved are currently doing their annual Extra Life charity stream. During these events, they release new info about the next DLC coming to Ark. This year it's about Genesis Pt. 2, which was originally slated for release this winter, but has been delayed (like everything else in the world today) until March 2021. However, they released an exciting teaser trailer and David Tennant is the voice of one of the game's characters named Rockwell! As a fan of David Tennant, I was pleasantly surprised by this. To me it kind of raises the game to a new level, kind of like when Patrick Stewart provided his voice for The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.

I believe Genesis Pt. 2 is supposed to be the culmination of all of the Ark content released in the last five years. Everything has lead us to this. The game really doesn't throw the lore in your face, so if you want to know what's going on, you'll have to dig a bit. Otherwise, there are some good videos on YouTube covering the Ark lore and there are theories running around on the game's forum. Initially you'll probably be introduced to Rockwell by obtaining notes called "Rockwell Recipes," but you can also open Explorer Notes which are in various locations in each of the game's "story" maps (The Island, Scorched Earth, Aberration, Extinction, and Genesis Pt. 1). However, it isn't until Aberration that the game seems to focus more on the characters of Rockwell and Helena. In Genesis Pt. 1, you have a small robotic companion named HLN-A that follows you around and tells you about being in the simulation. Yes, Genesis Pt. 1 is a simulation, you and HLN-A work together to figure out just what is going on as there are many "glitches" to repair.

There are some cool new looking creatures to look forward to as always. There are also some familiar creatures as well. I saw Pteranodons flying, so I'm hoping that means you can actually fly this time. Strangely enough, Genesis Pt. 1 had flying creatures, but didn't allow you to fly, though you could enable this on your own server or in your single player game. There weren't flying creatures in Aberration either, just something that could jump great distances and another that could glide.

Also in the Ark news today, TLC 3 has been released. This is the third time the devs have taken some creatures, given them a new look and some new abilities. This time the Stego and Mammoth received some TLC. Luckily, you cannot be dismounted on the Stego, as there are Microraptors in the game that can dismount you. They have different "states" in which they can change into with each different attack being beneficial in different ways, for instance one is better for harvesting thatch, another for berries. Mammoths got another seat added to their saddle, which now fits two. The new seat is for someone to play war drums, which have been in the game since the beginning, but they now give a buff. For instance, they make it so that your creatures can't become afraid as is something that occurs with an ability used by the Yutyrannos. Mammoths were also given some extra attacks.

Also included in this TLC is a bit of a taming UI overhaul that helps you better see what's going on while you're taming a creature, such as displaying it's torpor, so you don't have to go into it's inventory and keep an eye on it. Another addition with this TLC is the ability to finally breed insects and bats. You can watch the video released for TLC 3 here: https://youtu.be/bL_d6-jo0yY

For more information on the Extra Life event, Genesis Pt. 2, and TLC 3, check out the post on the website: https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/articles.html/ark-genesis-part-2-teaser-trailer-tlc-pass-3-r1667/

If you're interested in Ark, it's currently on sale. If you want to discuss any of this, feel free to do so in the comments. I've tried to avoid spoilers w/ regards to Rockwell and Helena, but if you want to discuss those, feel free to let me know.

Check out these two videos by Anthomnia for more info on Genesis Pt. 2:
Trailer Breakdown: https://youtu.be/dvkUAmZZcZs
Look at new creatures, biomes, and items: https://youtu.be/MRWkc-rNEfc

If you prefer a more quick look at what was revealed (as shown in the video links above) check out the post on the official forum here: https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/articles.html/extra-life-2020-livestream-reveals-r1670/

Check Out the Trailer for the Monster Hunter Movie
This looks like an awesome movie and it's coming out at the end of the year! I saw other smaller trailers for it, but this one added to that. It seems to explain why a modern group of military soldiers are fighting monsters we see in the Monster Hunter games. It didn't make sense, before this trailer, why modern weapons were being used, but now it makes sense. You do get to see some people using weapons that we're used to seeing in Monster Hunter games. One of the main characters, for instance, is using dual blades. She's one of these modern soldiers, but it seems she switches from modern weapons to Monster Hunter weapons. There are other characters we will see wielding other Monster Hunter weapons. I've read a little bit about this movie and how the production team worked with Capcom. This has been in the works for about a decade, I think.

So let me know what you think of this and if you're planning on going to see it (despite the COVID situation). I feel like this looks like something I most definitely want to go see as I've enjoyed playing Monster Hunter: World. For those of you that own a Switch, you should also be aware that the Switch is getting two new Monster Hunter games (lucky!).

Command & Conquer Remastered Collection is Great!
Azurephile gives this an astounding "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale
This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.
Azurephile gives this a "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale
This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.
Command & Conquer (C&C) is one of the very first real-time strategy games. It was released in 1995, although Dune II actually came out a few years before it. C&C, however, made vast improvements and additions to the genre and was perhaps most famous for its full motion videos (FMVs). The acting, music, and gameplay were all great and lead to a very successful series that lasted over a decade. This success led to the game actually being retitled as “Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn.” After the success of C&C and it’s expansions, a new game was released called Red Alert (RA). RA takes place in a different timeline in which Einstein creates a time machine and removes Hitler from history. This put the Allies against the Stalin led USSR. Like C&C, RA was followed up with some expansions and sequels. I still own the soundtrack to RA that I got many years ago. I’ve really loved pretty much all C&C/RA music.

Most recently, some of original developers of the games decided to create the Command & Conquer Remastered Collection. They actually found old tapes of the FMVs and were able to remaster them, making them look much better. You can check out Jon’s post (link below) to see a video about how this collection was made, it’s worth watching if you’re a C&C fan.

One of my first reactions to the collection was that I was surprised that it’s priced at only $20. Maybe, I was expecting it to be a little more expensive. However, Limited Run Games did have other, more expensive, copies you could get that came with a lot more extra material, such as the music on a USB drive. I still think $20 is a great price tag for this collection.

The first bug I actually ran into may have been changed by now, but it was difficult to disable subtitles. For some reason, you had to click around the button instead of on the button. It’s been quite a while since I’ve done this, though. I ran into another bug that was actually just a typo in the description of a photo from the bonus material.

The games didn’t just get a graphical overhaul, but the music and other elements were overhauled as well. One of the interesting graphical features is that you can press the Space Bar to switch between the classic and remastered graphics. This gives you a nice view of how the game has been remastered. The collection includes bonus material that is unlocked after completing a mission. Most of it is just videos showing green screen takes of the actors, which I didn’t find to be very valuable. However, you can also unlock bonus music tracks, which I found to be much more valuable.

Speaking of the music, I ran into what I thought was a bug. You can go into the game’s Jukebox, which you can find in the audio options on the main menu or in the menu during a game and create a playlist. It has some good options such as including or excluding original or remastered tracks, bonus tracks, C&C tracks, or RA tracks. One part of this confused me and that is the shuffle feature. I assumed this meant that the game would play a random music track if this was enabled, however this wasn’t entirely correct. What happens is that after adding tracks to the playlist, the game then shuffles them around and then seemingly saves that playlist. It then plays the exact same songs in the exact same order in pretty much every mission. This seemed to persist for almost every mission, although I think it actually changed some times. You can easily switch tracks w/ the “-” and “+” keys, though.

Just like in the original, sometimes there are often multiple areas you can select for the next mission after completing one. In the original games, this meant that you’d probably miss out on one, but this collection has a Mission Select menu option. Once you finish a mission, you can click on the “Main Menu” button. The game will then tell you, pretty much, that your progress is saved and you can select missions from the main menu. This way, you can play every mission. It’s very handy and helps expand campaign gameplay. You can also unlock the secret missions for both games. I couldn't remember how to do this, so I just used Google to find out how.

I was working on Steam achievements, but ran into another issue, which may just be something I was doing incorrectly. One of the achievements requires you to play 10 multiplayer matches, but includes “comp stomp,” which I presume to mean you versus the AI, pretty much like the Skirmish option. However, I couldn’t get this to start and am waiting to hear back about what I may have done wrong with this.

After finishing the C&C part of the collection, I started playing the RA part. RA included a new snow environment, which I liked very much. It also included new units including spies and naval units. One thing I liked was that if you lose a naval unit, the game will specifically tell you, “naval unit lost.” After switching from the first game to RA, I immediately began to notice how it was an improvement over the original game. For instance, in the original game, it was difficult for a tank to shoot at an infantry unit and it was just easier to run them over. However, tanks seem to have gained anti-infantry accuracy in RA. They also seem to have gotten a speed boost. You may also hear the male voice of EVA and think “oh, that sounds like Jarvis from Iron Man,” but I can tell you that they are not the same actor. They most definitely sound alike (to me and some others) though.

If you liked C&C and RA, I would definitely suggest picking this up. I enjoyed being able to play these games again, especially after being remastered. I (along with others apparently) would really like to see more of the C&C/RA games get the remastered treatment. I have these games on a DVD collection known as "Command & Conquer: The First Decade," but the earlier games aren't completely compatible with today's modern PCs as they were designed for 32-bit CPUs. However, with a bit of research and some extra steps, you can get these games to work and stay stable. I've been able to get Tiberian Sun working and am playing it again.

If you have thoughts you want to share about this, please feel free to do so in the comments!

Check out this post by Jon: https://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/4466/the-remarkable-story-behind-command-conquer-s-remastering

Minecraft: Caves & Cliffs Update Coming Summer 2021
Since the last two posts have been about Minecraft, I figured why stop there? Check out the embedded video by xisumavoid to see what's in the next Minecraft update called the Caves & Cliffs Update. If you want to stay up to date with Minecraft news, his channel is definitely one of the best Minecraft channels to watch. This update enhances cave generation and adds a couple new biomes and blocks to them, including copper. There are also two new mobs you'll find in them, one is hostile, while the other is friendly. The former is blind and can only detect your movement. There are new blocks that will detect movement, even allowing for "wireless" Redstone. The latter mob can be collected in a bucket and can help you when you go exploring those Ocean Temples since they are aggressive to the mobs located there.

Some time ago, the community voted on adding goats to Minecraft and they're included in this update along with enhanced mountain generation. Goats have good climbing ability and strong knockback. The next mob that was voted for is the Glow Squid, so we'll see that in the game eventually.

This update is set to release Summer 2021, which I think is a bit of a bummer, but understandable during these pandemic times. Also, Mojang has a website where people can give feedback and others can vote on that feedback. I know this is part of how the cave biomes became part of this update as I noticed it was one of the most popular suggestions. You can give feedback and see more at: https://feedback.minecraft.net/hc/en-us

If you want to read more about this update and more head on over to the article Mojang posted regarding this year's Minecraft Live: https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/article/minecraft-live-the-recap

Minecraft Joins Super Smash Bros.
In case you missed yesterday's big news that possibly crashed Twitter, Minecraft is joining Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as the next DLC. The trailer looks really cool. I don't own a Switch, but I've played all the other versions of Smash Bros. and have enjoyed the game since the first on the N64. I think it's kind of crazy how many characters have been and are being added to Smash Bros, though not necessarily a bad thing. I think having Minecraft in Smash Bros. kind of speaks to just how big and popular Minecraft is. This DLC has been in the works (including "talks") for about 5 years.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/twitter-crashes-and-reacts-to-super-smash-bros-ultimates-minecraft-steve-reveal/1100-6482817/

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/minecraft-in-super-smash-bros-planning-began-five-years-ago/1100-6482854/

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/super-smash-bros-ultimates-next-dlc-fighter-is-minecraft-steve/1100-6482813/

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity Coming in November
Nintendo has just recently announced Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity and it's coming in November. This is one more reason why I wish I owned a Switch. Nintendo has acknowledged that they're working on a sequel to Breath of the Wild, but this new game is actually a prequel as it is set 100 years before Breath of the Wild. The original Hyrule Warriors game on the Wii U was probably my most favorite game on the system. I really enjoyed it. Hyrule Warriors is a mix between The Legend of Zelda and Dynasty Warriors games. If you haven't played the latter, basically it's an action war game where you control one character battling a whole army. The individuals in that army are weaker than you, but as a collective, they're a bit more challenging. Each character has their own moves. There are also a variety of weapons. In the original game, you could use Amiibos to unlock stuff, too. Again, I really enjoyed Hyrule Warriors and I'm so very surprised to see this announcement. Check out the embedded video!

Let me know what you think about this and if you're going to get it. Have you played the original Hyrule Warriors or the DS version? Have you played a Dynasty Warriors game?

Red Dead Redemption 2: A Steam Version Review
Azurephile gives this an astounding "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale
This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.
Azurephile gives this a "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale
This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.
I just received the 100% completion achievement for Red Dead Redemption 2, so it’s time to write about it. This game is great. It is pretty much exactly what I wanted in that it was a deep game that had a lot to do and took a long time to complete. It made time disappear quickly. It was one of those great gaming experiences I was wanting. I decided to grab it while it was slightly discounted during Steam’s summer sale. There are three versions of it. The most expensive version comes with additional content for single player mode and Red Dead Online. The one that’s a little cheaper only comes with the additional single player content, while the cheapest version comes with none of the bonus content. I decided to get the middle one, as I’m not really interested in Red Dead Online. I didn’t really enjoy Grand Theft Auto Online, so that’s why I’m not interested in RDO. However, there was a weapon you can unlock in the game if you do a certain treasure hunt on GTAO, I did that.

If you’re not familiar with the series, this is actually the third game in the Red Dead series that started with Red Dead Revolver, which I’ve never played. It was followed up by the very successful and great Red Dead Redemption, which I now intend to replay to piece the two games together. Basically RDR is like GTA, but a Western version of it, so horses instead of cars. I really loved the horses. I only ever had an Arabian breed as my main horse for a long period of time, but there are lots of other breeds you can get. I found out early on what the best horses were and how to get them. There’s a white Arabian you can tame near the bigger frozen lake up North. In this game, you’re pretty much a gunslinger named Arthur, who’s in a gang. I personally think the story is fantastic and emotionally moving. I won’t give away spoilers, but even when I discovered a spoiler, I was still quite affected by some of the events of the game. It’s interesting that I love this game so much, because I’m not into guns, hunting, and thieving, but this game puts them together and does a really great job of it.

Unfortunately the game is not without it’s flaws. The majority of issues I saw were minor, but visual as some object didn’t render properly. I visited one character who had a floating candle in front of him. I decided to share that with Rockstar tech support/customer service and it seems to have been fixed. However, this wasn’t the only bug I spotted and shared with Rockstar and about half the time I found their representatives to be quite unhelpful as though they hadn’t even read my ticket. Eventually, I pretty much gave up on reporting these issues as I had a few bad experiences with them. This I find to be unique as most other companies have excellent tech support customer service representatives. The game did not always do well with the Steam overlay, so I disabled that after a while. Sometimes, after using the overlay’s web browser, the overlay/web browser would stay on screen even though I had told it to close or tried to close it with TAB and SHIFT. This in turn made me rely on ALT-TAB to look up things on the Internet and keep track of that 100% completion checklist I was working on. Unfortunately, sometimes this caused the game to crash. Sometimes the game would stutter for a few seconds, but this was uncommon and didn’t last very long. I think perhaps something else was going on with my PC, but perhaps I’m wrong. Still, it was uncommon enough to live with. Other than that, the game ran smoothly, extremely well. I was impressed! In fact, the game’s benchmarking tool ran a lot smoother than GTAV’s, which made me think about how they’ve optimized the engine. I thought RDR2 ran better than GTAV, but after playing the latter again for a bit, I noticed that it doesn’t render the same way in-game as it does in the benchmark. In the benchmark, things pop in on screen instead of naturally gradually, maybe it’s that the view distance is short, but I didn’t see this in RDR2, except in one area later in the game.

There is a lot to do in RDR2. The story is set in chapters. Chapter 1 gives you an introduction to the game’s controls and mechanics. There are only a couple of missions, before it moves on. Once you’re in Chapter 2, the world opens up, but not completely. There is one area you cannot go until much later in the game. Even if you avoid the law, you will be killed by “invisible snipers.” In a way, this is disappointing that a big part of the game is locked, because it prevents you from completing some tasks, such as studying all the plants in the game. In Chapter 2, it’s a good idea to do some of the story missions to get you started. One will open up a fence, which is someone you can sell stolen goods to, who also accepts wagons. Another will take you on a hunt for a Legendary animals. These are rare single animals in the wild you can track, kill, and trade in their carcass or pelt to the trapper and get another material you can take to the fence to create a trinket. Trinkets give you a permanent bonus, so it’s a good idea get these as soon as possible. Otherwise this is a perfect time to go exploring and doing a lot of non-story things. The game will tell you about some of these things, for instance there are Challenges where you need to do something to complete and when you do, you’ll rank up and eventually complete it. When you complete Challenges, the trapper will have new improved equipment unlocked that you can buy. This equipment often does things like increase ammo capacity and reduce maintenance needed for your guns. Having a completed set of this equipment will unlock a bonus to one of your stats, depending on the equipment. Stats in the game include health, stamina, and Dead Eye. The latter is kind of like V.A.T.S. in Fallout, it slows down time and allows you to aim and shoot. It can even highlight the areas on the animal or person you want to shoot for a critical hit. Although the full part of this feature isn’t unlocked until later in the game. It’s a very handy skill, one of the most important indeed. You’ll want to keep your Dead Eye bar filled as you may be wanting to use this often. You can replenish it with food, tonics, or getting kills without using it.

Hunting and fishing is an activity you can do, which I enjoyed even though I don’t hunt or like hunting in real life. Non-Legendary animals come in three qualities; poor, good, and perfect. If you kill a perfect animal with a critical shot that doesn’t damage the pelt, then you can get a perfect pelt from it. These are often needed for crafting different materials and also an optional hunting quest you can do. You use your Dead Eye ability to slow time and it will show you trails of animals that you can track and follow. No matter what animal you kill, you’ll get some meat from skinning it. You’ll want to set up camp often as sleeping restores your stats and it allows you to cook and craft items. You can then later eat the food you’ve cooked or found while you’re in a gun fight. There are herbs you can use as seasoning that will give the meat you cook certain advantages; like one will give you a bonus to health. However, I very rarely used any of the meat I cooked nor any of the food items I picked up in the world. Still, I enjoyed looting everything.

When you complete a story mission, you’ll be given a bronze, silver, or gold reward for it. These pertain to hidden objectives within the mission. If you complete all of them, you get a gold reward. I’m not sure if there’s anything related to getting gold in every mission, but it seems like a lot to do. This isn’t that different than GTAV’s missions.

There is really a lot about this game to talk about and it’s kind of hard not to find spoilers if you’re looking for information on something. I wanted to work on the 100% completion achievement, but by finding out what I had to do for it, I ended up meeting some spoilers. Although that didn’t change the game for me, I still enjoyed it very much.

I definitely recommend playing this if you’re into this kind of game or if it sounds like something you’d be interested in. It’s not too incredibly flawed and I got really attached to the characters and my horses. This is a game that will keep making you want to come back for more and play it all that you can, or at least that was my experience with it.

Oh, I also recommend using the keyboard and mouse controls instead of a controller. Even though this game was born on consoles, it translated quite perfectly to the PC’s keyboard and mouse. The mouse aids in aiming and guiding your horse or looking around. My only recommendation would be to change the Dead Eye key from the mouse scroll wheel button to CAPS LOCK as it can be tricky to trigger in it’s default setting.

So, what do you think about this? Have you played this game or RDR? Does Red Dead Online appeal to you? What did you think about it? Let me know what you think. If you want to talk about spoilers, I could create another post so we can do that.