What game are you playing?

[Elgarian Redux]

That is what I felt about Red Dead Redemption. The sequel was harder for me to get into due to the slow pacing of the very long prologue. The laggy controls didn't help either (at least on Xbox). I've heard it is much better on PC. I plan on playing it soonish since I now have it on PC. I've heard from multiple people that RDR2 is their favorite video game of all time.

I think the people who played the original Red Dead Redemption inevitably get a different perspective on the whole thing. (For a start, they already know John Marston.) But I came with a clean slate, as it were, and came straight in with Arthur Morgan and no experience of games consoles at all. I had nothing to compare RDR2 with, but I was won over straight away by the breathtaking landscapes and the sheer extent and richness of the world. The prologue didn't trouble me because (a) I found it really useful. I remember spending several hours just trying to figure out how to fire a gun by shooting at a tree!
And (b) because it was just so fantastically beautiful, in all that snow.

The story arc of Arthur Morgan moved me immensely. When I eventually reached the first climax of the game, I was inconsolable, and wept and wept like the old softie that I clearly am. My first response to completing it all was to simply start again. I've lost track of how many times I've cycled through, now.

At some point I played the original Red Dead Redemption (I bought a 2nd-hand PS3 purely for that purpose). And while I enjoyed the experience, it wasn't life-changing, as RDR2 had been. I think it must be much harder to go backwards like that, as it were.

Having been so thrilled by RDR2 I tried  several other open world games: Witcher 3, Skyrim, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Horizon Zero Dawn. But they left me cold - not because they're bad games (I'm sure they are excellent in their way), but because they weren't what I was looking for. They were so clearly games. I came to realise that I didn't really want a game, as such; I didn't want to 'beat the game'. I wanted something more like a theme park holiday, and RDR2 seems to be the only game that can offer me that kind of experience. Plus, of course, it's a western - the kind of thing I dreamed about as a boy.

[DavidW]

I finished Veilguard. When I return home I will either play RDR2 or Fallout New Vegas.

[hopefullytrusting]

Currently replaying: Max Payne 3, Reperfection, and Trauma.

Currently playing: Bleeding Moons and The Charnel House Trilogy.