BropolloCreed79

Oh, for the life of me, I just seem to be completely incapable of finishing the one shooting challenge that requires you to disarm three opponents without reloading. There's a trail of one-armed Lemyone and O'Driscolls from Valentine to Saint Denis, but they never let go of the gun. I've started walking through the piles of corpses and blowing their heads off in frustration after the fact.

There's an even better hat that's similar, but more refined; the Nevada Hat, which is FREE, as it's a collectible, and it's in an easy to access location. Not a pic of me, just one I found on online, but it completes the "Lawman" look that I like for my single player experience.

I suppose I'd better buckle down then on the story mode and actually play some of the missions. I'm STILL in Chapter 3 so I'm pretty sure I still have a LONG ways to go. The good news is, I've finished a lot of the challenges and at some point, I suppose I'll power through, but I really want that 100% completion, so I tend to get through it slower than I probably should. The horror stories from online beta don't exactly serve as inspiration to get me to finish quicker.

It's not surprising. The Beta has been active for almost a month at this point, and without having clear expectation of what (if anything) is going to change, there's little motivation for players to become invested. It'd be one thing if a player or permanent posse could pool funds and purchase buildings for sale to operate as a base that could be upgraded, or have a goal to work towards other than simply "ranking up", but as it stands now, there's no true endgame. There's no instances/dungeons for the RPG crowd No personalized customization other than a camp and clothing. There's nothing elusive and tangible for players to chase. The only thing is ranking up, and with the forced PvP element, a player can't grind in peace, so there's no incentive for casuals or PvE players to stick it out until something is implemented that is more in-line with the experience they want from the game. Players need to be able to purchase or commission a hunting cabin/lodge/farm/whatever and work towards furnishing it. I should be able to hunt a legendary buck and mount it's head on the wall of my Evil Dead-inspired cabin overlooking a river. Instead, I have to be aggrieved by trolls and work towards.... a new hat? Nobody wants that experience, that's why nobody is playing. Like it or not, the casual PvE crowd is going to be larger for this game in terms of player volume than the PvP crowd. Having the open world be a PvP slaughterhouse doesn't segregate the players who want nothing to do with that style of play, so there's yet another reason to stay offline. What they should look at is the ESO model, which has literally everything this game needs to retain a robust player base that will spend money. There are other solutions, but right now, the online play is severely lacking unless you're into PvP. Give us something to work towards and let us do it in peace if we choose to do so, or collaboratively without being hassled by cretins. If I want PvP gameplay, I'll fire up The Division and head to the Dark Zone.

Hammers. Nothing quite as statisfying as smacking an opponent in the face with the business end of a good old fashioned framing hammer. Not that I know what that sounds like...

I"ll take a good scattergun and tactical gameplay over a varmit rifle any day of the week.

How DARE you, Sir. This is the Internet! Reckless speculation and emotional outrage are the grease that keep the gears moving online. Everyone knows that.

There are far, far worse things to have stuck in one's head. For example, there's a bevy of 80's commercial clip montages available for your viewing pleasure. I won't go so far as to do that here, since it's off topic, but clearly we need to come to a consensus as to who is indeed, the best RDR2 Online player out there.

But... but... how will the tri-hards track their progress in the absence of leaderboards if there are no levels? Lists are meaningless unless they actually follow through on it. Until this hot mess is out of beta, I reserve the right to withhold judgment. Apart from deeming it a hot mess in it's current (albeit incomplete) iteration. I'm still leaning towards this happening more so than nothing happening at all. Too many folks were gifted free gold for participating, and a as a result, folks who participated in the Beta will have a leg up on the folks who did not. Not that they're known for being fair, but I'm inclined to believe they'll do a full reset and refund everyone's purchased/earned gold.

Maybe I'm just trying to build everyone else's self esteem. Or maybe I'm sluggish on the controls because "whiskey".

Obviously, it's about this dopey-faced goober being the best RDR2 player. There's only one Champ:

I'll take action on that, if only for the fact that they don't care about what we think. If anything, they'll just refund everyone's Gold to the original value or amount purchased, but that's all they'd really have to do to satisfy any legal requirements. Exactly what they would do. It's the simplest solution. It's a competitive business. And late February through March is going to be insane for gaming releases (assuming they don't delay Anthem or The Division 2). I know that I'm not overly enthused with the online portion of RDR2 at the moment, but they have about two months to get me engaged before I jump ship. High praise. It's a fantastic game, to be sure, and one of the best I've played in a long time, but "the best game ever"? I don't think I'd go that far. This guy gets it. I've been adamant since the day Gold launched during beta that purchasing it should be avoided at all costs; anything can be rolled back for any reason during beta--that's why it's a "beta". And I've seen it happen too many times in the past to believe differently. I'd be willing to bet fewer than 1% of games go through a beta process without substantive changes--and the types of changes we're talking about usually have significant alterations (both directly and indirectly) to core game mechanics, and in this instance, the in-game economy. They won't see a dime from me until they release a finished product. Ask people who sunk money into the Marvel Heroes Omega on PC, PS4, and XB1 how they feel about the money they spent--as big a cautionary tale as there is. We all know RDR Online is under no threat of shuttering within six months, but the fact that it's in beta and will continue to be for the foreseeable future is a HUGE red flag for myself and others when it comes to pouring more cash into the game.

Literally everything short of fishing is fun in this game: Want to go on a murder spree without getting a wanted level? Go to Van Horn. Hunt, rob, or steal your way to happiness. Shoot a fish. Blow up a stagecoach (it takes a bit of dynamite and ingenuity, but it CAN be done). Beat up a newspaper boy. Punch a horse. Throw someone off a bridge! Sure, there's plenty of "nice" things to do, but other than patting a dog in town, the "nice" things.... are kind of boring--let's admit it, I'm not the only one who fantasized about putting one in the back of little Jack's head on that fishing trip and calling it a day, right?

Couldn't pass up the chance to drop this in here. Nah, bro, be glad Gun Media and Illfonic didn't make this game.

Reading comprehension. It's a "Cheapie Maghee mechanic"--nothing said about players who use them. The mechanics are cheap; I have no quarrel with players who use them as intended. If anything, I blame R* for putting that crap in the game to begin with. I used Fortnite as an example because (A) I hate that game--it flat out sucks, and is only popular because it's free to play. The graphics are trash, the mechanics are disgusting, and it's just a terrible experience. Shooters require balance, and Fortnite is about as balanced as a one-legged pirate with a glandular disorder; and (B) Fortnite is an easy comparison because of it's inherent and intentionally outlandish cartoonish style--an overt contrast to the care, realism, and attention to detail that permeate almost every aspect of RDR2. If they charged $39.99 or $59.99 for the PvP version of Fortnite NOBODY would play it. Instead, it's populated by preteens who don't have disposable income playing for free, and parents who just want to spend time with their kids. Put an economic gate to entry on that title, and it's about as popular as a wet fart in an elevator. I guess the point of all this is, I REALLY hate Fortnite. Probably because my kid wants to play it and won't shut up about it--all his friends play it, and talk about it, and do the idiotic ripoff dances during basketball practice--God, I hate that game. The GOAT? There's only one GOAT, and his name was Robert Paulson. What they should do is make it a scoring modifier for using free aim as opposed to AA. For example, playing PvP versus PvE mode of Survival on the Division adds in a 1.5x score multiplier at the end of the match. So for RDR2, you should be locked into your aim preference before the session starts, and from there, you have a scoring modifier applied to your XP gains if you use free aim as opposed to auto aim. Shoot, son, I can do that blindfolded with half a bottle of whiskey in my belly. A real neat trick is shooting hats off of them instead of pulling off headshots.

Fixed that for you. But I agree. Even in story mode, when I'm in a shootout, I switch over to First Person mode because I have auto aim disabled. When I want to shoot someone in the leg who's hiding behind cover, I want the freedom to aim without AA pulling the bead somewhere else. It's far more rewarding and realistic. If people want "Cheapie Maghee" mechanics, like flopping and auto aim, they should go play Fortnite.

Hey, I have no life, where's MY high level character?

Great answer. Did not know that. Seems like a lot of unnecessary work for an oversight in the programming logic. After all, what "gang" or "posse" doesn't have lieutenants or "#2's" to handle things when the big boss is not around. Hell, Arthur is pretty autonomous in RDR2's story line, but our creations are mindless fools?

Makes sense. Given the creepy/weird/supernatural elements that are already in the game as side quests and/or Easter Eggs, I fully expect them to incorporate some element of that into DLC, although maybe not until later on, to coincide with Halloween later this year. Releasing "Undead" content or a variation of that in February or March hardly seems appropriate. First of all, I'm stealing this idea and creating a "Micah" for online play. It'd be worth sitting through the cinematic again. Second, anyone can go out with a bang like that, but a true "Micah" player would be the ultimate troll: betraying everyone in his groups during online play, driving stagecoaches of NPC's directly into a game of "Chicken" with a locomotive, or even just shooting eveyone's horses out from under them for hours on end...

The exact reason why I urged folks repeatedly to delay in purchasing gold. Anything purchased during beta could be subject to rollbacks or worse. There's little in terms of recourse for consumers/customers either, thanks to the standard EULA boilerplate language that guarantees arbitration instead of litigation in the event someone wants to challenge this. Unfortunately, there isn't much of a leg to stand on. Review the EULA; the best you can hope or is arbitration.l

Shoot, I'll kill your horse just for looking at me too long. I've done worse.

That tent ain't for "sleepin'" buddy.

I always take my sawed off shotgun, pump action shotgun, and a repeater into the saloon. When someone repeatedly beats me in poker, I get up, pull out my gun, and murder the entire bar. Just toss dynamite into the front room (through both doors) and that usually does the trick to clear the room.