Red Dead Redemption 2

kwestfan08

I presume when I can't get my local smyths store up on the site to pre order that they've stopped taking them for that location?

Fred The Red

Fred The Red wrote: »

And on that note, bowing out from the thread for now
Something I didn't want to know!

Enjoy the cowboy fest folks, will be back in about a week :P

Spoiler FFS, I didn't know there was cowboys in this :mad:

marcbrophy

Deleted User wrote: »

Spoiler FFS, I didn't know there was cowboys in this :mad:

Well whose wagons did you think you were painting?

johnny_ultimate

Kotaku have published their investigation into crunch habits at Rockstar during RDR2 production. Interesting mix of responses from staff.

https://kotaku.com/inside-rockstar-games-culture-of-crunch-1829936466

Hopefully given the furore over Rockstar’s approach and the increasing bad press crunch practices are getting general, more developers will start trying to eradicate the practice wherever possible - no game’s worth damaging developers’ relationships or health over.

sexmag

kwestfan08 wrote: »

I presume when I can't get my local smyths store up on the site to pre order that they've stopped taking them for that location?

Yeah I can't seem to pre-order a ps4 bundle on any smyths store but says there will be stock on on Friday.

Guess game stop will get my custom then

Dr. Bre

scottigael wrote: »

Sean Macguire is another one they have in the gang! And i think one of the journalists mentioned an irish gang of some sort one of the rivals to dutches so plenty of Irish presence!

He plays for Ireland also

martyos121

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Kotaku have published their investigation into crunch habits at Rockstar during RDR2 production. Interesting mix of responses from staff.

https://kotaku.com/inside-rockstar-games-culture-of-crunch-1829936466

Hopefully given the furore over Rockstar’s approach and the increasing bad press crunch practices are getting general, more developers will start trying to eradicate the practice wherever possible - no game’s worth damaging developers’ relationships or health over.

That’s an excellent read, I’d advise everyone not to be put off by the length of it. It makes Rockstar seem like a company that you’d have to be desperate to work for (in the sense that it’s the pinnacle of the industry, not that one is desperate for money, just to be clear), but not one person seemed to suggest that it was a downright bad place to work. As quoted in the article from one of the CDPR leads, crunch is evidently a necessary evil in the development of top, top class video games like GTA, Witcher 3 and eventually Cyberpunk.

You could spin that article a number of ways, but my takeaway is this; Credit to all those putting the hours in at Rockstar, even though many aren’t doing it voluntarily, I have the utmost respect for them as they were all quoted as being immensely proud of what they do produce at a high personal cost. I cannot wait to get started on RDR 2, I think it’s going to be something really special.

Zero-Cool

Can't wait to play this. I heard 3 men died making it.

awec

martyos121 wrote: »

That’s an excellent read, I’d advise everyone not to be put off by the length of it. It makes Rockstar seem like a company that you’d have to be desperate to work for (in the sense that it’s the pinnacle of the industry, not that one is desperate for money, just to be clear), but not one person seemed to suggest that it was a downright bad place to work. As quoted in the article from one of the CDPR leads, crunch is evidently a necessary evil in the development of top, top class video games like GTA, Witcher 3 and eventually Cyberpunk.

You could spin that article a number of ways, but my takeaway is this; Credit to all those putting the hours in at Rockstar, even though many aren’t doing it voluntarily, I have the utmost respect for them as they were all quoted as being immensely proud of what they do produce at a high personal cost. I cannot wait to get started on RDR 2, I think it’s going to be something really special.

Crunch is only necessary because of

1. Too few staff
2. Unrealistic deadlines.

Kenjataimu

Zero-Cool wrote: »

New post from Rockstar on day 1 patch, embargo's, etc. Companion App will be available with launch. Wonder what you can do with that.

johnny_ultimate

martyos121 wrote: »

As quoted in the article from one of the CDPR leads, crunch is evidently a necessary evil in the development of top, top class video games like GTA, Witcher 3 and eventually Cyberpunk.

There’s nothing necessary about it, but I’m with you on the evil aspect

If crunch is deemed necessary in anything other than very limited circumstances, the system is broken. Fundamentally broken, and in need of fixing. It suggests that projects are unrealistic, poorly managed or unsustainable. If it means longer development times or even bigger budgets to fix it, so be it! Other studios get by without it.

Some very limited extra hours are necessary in all jobs - but that stretching to weeks, months or even *years* again suggests a broken system. That’s not to mention that there’s typically no tangible benefits to overworking staff, and there will be in fact most likely significant drawbacks - as alluded to in the article, it’s all just empty managerial expectations over actually striving for quality.

There’s no doubt AAA games are complex, expensive, demanding things. And sure, RDR2 very well could (will?) be an incredible achievement that everyone involved should be proud of even with the sometimes punishing development. But if these practices continue, the opposition needs to become even more fierce. A broken system always needs fixing: and I still believe there’s a way to get the kickass cowboy games out without treating workers like dirt in the process

Kenjataimu

Zero-Cool wrote: »

New post from Rockstar on day 1 patch, embargo's, etc. Companion App will be available with launch. Wonder what you can do with that.


https://www.rockstargames.com/newswire/article/60639/Get-Ready-for-Red-Dead-Redemption-2?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=rdr2-getready-10232018&utm_content=newswire

https://mobile.twitter.com/RockstarGames/status/1054848706636402688

Zero-Cool

Kenjataimu wrote: »

https://mobile.twitter.com/RockstarGames/status/1054848706636402688

That's actually fairly cool. Will probably ate through phone battery though.

marcbrophy

Pity they don't have a windows 10 version ready to go at launch, like the iFruit app.
It'd be handy to have on the laptop, whilst playing on the TV

wotzgoingon

I don't know and extra device to keep having to look at will get tiring pretty quick all details on playing screen is better for me.

martyos121

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

There’s nothing necessary about it, but I’m with you on the evil aspect

If crunch is deemed necessary in anything other than very limited circumstances, the system is broken. Fundamentally broken, and in need of fixing. It suggests that projects are unrealistic, poorly managed or unsustainable. If it means longer development times or even bigger budgets to fix it, so be it! Other studios get by without it.

Some very limited extra hours are necessary in all jobs - but that stretching to weeks, months or even *years* again suggests a broken system. That’s not to mention that there’s typically no tangible benefits to overworking staff, and there will be in fact most likely significant drawbacks - as alluded to in the article, it’s all just empty managerial expectations over actually striving for quality.

There’s no doubt AAA games are complex, expensive, demanding things. And sure, RDR2 very well could (will?) be an incredible achievement that everyone involved should be proud of even with the sometimes punishing development. But if these practices continue, the opposition needs to become even more fierce. A broken system always needs fixing: and I still believe there’s a way to get the kickass cowboy games out without treating workers like dirt in the process

To be clear, I was paraphrasing a quote pulled from the article which they took from Marcin Iwinski. I’m not denying that I agreed with it, I do to an extent, but not to the extent that posters here will try to make out, yourself included (sorry if that sounds bitchy, not my intention, just finding it hard to word it). The examples I used were my own words, I’m sure there are plenty of terrible games out there produced by over-worked staff as well, to be fair.

There are definitely ways to get around crunch to a degree; extending deadlines, more staff, more effective utilisation of talented staff by not shoehorning them into QA when their main work is done etc. I often believed that if a portion of the workforce were happy to consistently put in 60 hour weeks, let them. I came to realise that it’s hugely detrimental to their physical and mental health though, and I wouldn’t be as supportive of this anymore as it’s purely irresponsible from employers at the end of the day, they shouldn’t be letting it happen and I concede that point. I will say though, that I’ll never be fully against letting extremely hard workers, work extremely hard, but it should be under safer provisions and circumstances and perhaps not to the extent it has been done.

The tone of my post was intended to be one of gratefulness towards all Rockstar employees for a job extremely well done judging by limited early coverage (not that any R* employees would be reading this anyway :pac:). I definitely understand how my post reads with that quote from Iwinski combined with the following paragraph, and that happens a lot when one particular piece of a post is cherry-picked, but that’s fair and understandable, even if some will perceive it as back-tracking. There’s a place for crunch in the game development industry, more so than many other industries, and given the practice of iterative game design, it’s impossible to completely eradicate it in projects like RDR2. I agree with much of what you said, but especially your last paragraph, the system needs regulating and hopefully down the line, the industry could be unionised if it’s viable.

Just wanted to post that to clear up my personal views on the situation. They’re frequently changing with every bit more I learn about the industry.

AidoEirE

Havent played red dead 1 but heard great things, i'll no doubt get an itch in 6 odd months time after RD2 to play ot just to see how it pans out, although i know only the ending but no idea the way it played out.

Just bought digital as i wouldnt've able to get to midnight launch. Wouldnt be able to play it anyway thursday nightwith work the next day, so want it up and ready with no messing about.

Taking me 49 minutes to download the whole 93 gigs. Pretty shocked with that. Going to leave it on rest mode, headset and controllers plugged in so fully charged. It being out on a bank holiday makes its so much sweeter for people.

Seen a leaked map today. Don't go near it! Its a ****e picture of the map taken from a side angle from a book.
Makes no reference to me as i missed the first, but plenty here will see bits and pieces that would correlate which could potentionally ruin some bits.

Not long to go...

Breener122

Still undecided if I want to pay over the odds digitally or wait until Friday morning and get it in Argos.

kwestfan08

Think I might risk my local supervalu Friday morning. It would be in one of the smaller towns so might help my chances a bit. With work Friday I won't be anywhere until Saturday to get it and getting a pre-orderless copy I'd say will be next to impossible.

Gunmonkey

I checked the Supervalu list and there is almost an exclusion zone around my town, closest is about 25-30 minutes in any direction. So Argos it is!

Behind scenes of rdr2:

https://www.theguardian.com/games/2018/oct/24/get-real-behind-the-scenes-of-red-dead-redemption-2-the-most-realistic-video-game-ever-made

scottigael

Some early gameplay here, nothing spoilery just running around shooting things, interacting, second video does have part of a mission though if you wanna avoid it

https://youtu.be/7FzwwWUYMiY

https://youtu.be/vJJi7J9dTXs

irish1759

Isn't it going to be like +90gb to download the game even from the disc version.

Pussyhands

Amazing.

I never played RDR before, are you able to go around punching people and stabbing them like in GTA? Or is it all interactions where you select what you want to do?

Penn

irish1759 wrote: »

Isn't it going to be like +90gb to download the game even from the disc version.

No, it'll be a 90GB install from the disc version, but no download. Will be much quicker than downloading & installing and won't require any of your internet.

The Specialist

Pussyhands wrote: »

Amazing.

I never played RDR before, are you able to go around punching people and stabbing them like in GTA? Or is it all interactions where you select what you want to do?

Think GTA Wild West You can go anywhere you want and do anything you want, lots more interaction and depth in the world though (i.e you need to hunt animals for skins/pelts to make or upgrade better equipment etc)

scottigael

Pussyhands wrote: »

Amazing.

I never played RDR before, are you able to go around punching people and stabbing them like in GTA? Or is it all interactions where you select what you want to do?

You can talk to any npc in the game, greet them, intimidate them, rob them kill them, tie them up put them on train tracks etc.

Basq

Gunmonkey wrote: »

I checked the Supervalu list and there is almost an exclusion zone around my town, closest is about 25-30 minutes in any direction. So Argos it is!

Argos have a £5 off £50 / £10 off £100 this weekend..

.. so they normally have the equivalent here - so that would make that purchase a bit nicer - but doesn't seem to be here this weekend by the looks of things!

EDIT: Actually, never mind, they do..



Just wonder when it'll be available to reserve.. not til Friday AM probably: http://www.argos.ie/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?storeId=10152&catalogId=14551&langId=111&searchTerms=red+dead+redemption&authToken=

marcbrophy

I'm open to correction, but I think it's around 7am that prods go live for reservation on day of sale.

Also, that appears to be the special edition one.
Isn't that the ~€85 version?

Basq

marcbrophy wrote: »

Also, that appears to be the special edition one.
Isn't that the ~€85 version?

So it is..

.. I'm away for weekend now so so I'll wait it out and pick it next week.