I understand that people obviously enjoy games for different reasons. I trend pretty hardcore towards the "accomplishment/completionist" side of gaming, and so, while I believe the issues I outlined are valid for everyone, they probably bother me more than most. I guess I have a really hard time tolerating anything that impacts efficiency, and RDR has a lot of those things. Anyway, specific responses below.



See, this just goes against the very core of my gamer-self. I am utterly incapable of travelling at less than full speed in any game. I MUST ride my horse as fast as possible, and I MUST do it off-road on a regular basis, because that's often the fastest way to get from point A to point B.



At least we can agree on one.



It's usually me, but in this case it's actually you. I double checked with a gamefaqs guide to be sure. Holding the "A" button will maintain your speed, but only up to a leisurely gallop. Spurring the horse will put John more flat on its back, and the horse will go into full-speed mode for approximately 1 second. Holding "A" will not maintain this speed. In order to stay at this speed, you have to continually spur the horse (tap "A" ). If you're very careful, you can time your spurrings such that you will stay in high-speed mode without dropping stamina (but you'll usually be dropping slowly if you're not paying complete attention). I just didn't think this was a very fun game mechanic is all. There's no skill or strategy to it (or at least, very little), you just have to keep tapping A if you want to go fast.



They're fairly fun, they just don't change at all.



Heh. Not those things specifically, I was just giving examples of how a very similar game (mechanically speaking) made travel fun. I could practice power-sliding around turns, weave through traffic on a motorcycle, hit a jump just right to vault onto another road, etc. I could keep myself fairly well entertained while travelling (plus all I didn't have to keep mashing "A" ). RDR, though, well. . .there's really only one way to travel, and that is by horse. And there's only so much you can make a horse do.



Sorry if you consider those things spoilers. I was pretty vague, though, and figured most people had played the game by this point. Anyway, yes, I agree with you, he's a pretty likable dude with a good voice actor. I just didn't like how he handled hardly anyone in the first section of the game (he was pretty good with Bonnie).



I know what you mean. They're not overly important to the story, but they're a big contributor to the "open-ness" that everyone loves so much about the game. "There's just so much to do!" they say. And yet the vast majority of the off-plot activities are completely lifeless. Yes, you can ride all around a gorgeous landscape, but there's just not a lot to keep you busy while you're not advancing the plot.



I tried to do that as well. It worked fairly well for the first rank of each challenge, but not for anything beyond. The first flower you have to collect can be found just about everywhere, so chances are you'll run across it. The later flowers, though, are only found in one specific spot, and they only show up when you're literally right on top of them. Unless you use a survivalist map, which lasts for 20 minutes. You're fairly unlikely to run through the correct area while you have your map turned on (unless you're just constantly buying maps). You pretty much NEED to make a specific effort to seek them out, which is not overly stimulating.,

The sharpshooter challenge is similarly bad. The first rank is fine; birds are easy to see while riding, and you can pick them off without much trouble. Rabbits, though? Tiny, and very hard to notice while riding at full speed. I haven't seen a single one since the beginning of the game, actually. I'm not convinced that the game actually spawns them when you're riding at full speed. Maybe I've just been very unlucky, but I finished the first major area (New Austin) without shooting a single rabbit for that challenge. Note that I never did bother using bait, so that could make a big difference, but I suspect I'd run into an issue similar to the survivalist map thing I talked about above.

So, yeah. I basically did just try to do things as I went along, but didn't get very far.



It's happened to me quite a few times (again, mostly because I'm trying to run at full speed everywhere ), but this single issue isn't a big problem. Nor are the other small issues I listed in this section. It's only together that they're a big deal to me. It just demonstrates what seems to be a lack of polish in an otherwise very professional game.



You're right to say that I'm looking for something different, I'm just disappointed because I expected the game to accommodate my playstyle. I expected that because GTAIV, a game made by the same company using a very similar model, accommodated me just fine. Furthermore, the reviews for this game have been almost universally glowing. Surely not everyone out there plays RDR in a slow, leisurely, "I'm here mostly for the sights" kind of way, though? I just have a hard time believing that some of the more focused gamers out there weren't annoyed by the things that have been bothering me. Everyone says the game is great. I feel as if there should be a lot more dissenting opinions than there are.