I'm with Jato on this. The side missions are ok, but really nothing fancy. The missions from the strangers never come to a conclusion, it feels like a chore to do them. The hunting/gathering is not entertaining enough to keep me going for hours. So after I got fed up with it I was running one story mission after another.

The problem with the challenges is that there is no instant gratification. If you set up a grinding system you have to have that, I won't be picking flowers for hours just for the sake of it. It was a whole other story in free roam (finally got it running yesterday). I was eager to do the challenges so I could rank up and unlock new weapons. Instant gratification is key and they could have easily implemented a better rewarding system.

Which leads me to my next complaint: The rewards. Whatever it was it always was money in the end. Everything you get can be sold but not used by yourself. I don't care, I don't need it. Why the hell would I want to gather 10 grand? Money is meaningless. Now every piece of equipment you have to buy yourself (other than the basic weapons which are given to you). They could have easily have special guns as a reward for clearing hideouts or hunting special bounties, or a special horse. How hard is it to paint the content you already have new and maybe alter the stats and call it unique? I had high hopes that you'd get different things through different mission, like the horse you get in one of the first missions (which can only be found in Mexico otherwise). I was dead wrong.

The random events were well done, sometimes a bit too frequent but from time to time I still discover a new scripted event. The side activity that I really liked was gambling, that is poker and liar's dice. I usually don't give a rats ass about such things, but the way it was here was perfect. I could have spent even more time on these two if the tables weren't empty most of the time.

So what's left are the main missions. As I wrote above, the rewards are dumb. With the whole setting they could have done much more, especially in Mexico. The missions them self were well executed albeit very repetitive: Get missions objectives, ride to your destination, kill a few people get reward and ride back. As with almost every R* game the introductions are the best missions. The first you do for Bonnie and the first missions for that guy in Chaparosa were excellent. The reason why is because they are different every time. The devs could have mixed everything you learn together with every mission, but instead they are one dimensional.

The writing and and voice acting was exceptional. The story not so much. There isn't much story at all and it could be summed up in 2-3 sentences. Now with so many missions, how does that work? You meet someone who can help you but they ask you a thousand favours before they do help you. Most of that stuff is completely unrelated to the story and it's getting tiring. Now I didn't play any of the story missions in West Elisabeth but even if this is the greatest thing ever it couldn't possibly redeem the last 20 hours of grinding. Grinding challenges, grinding stranger missions and grinding story missions.

The last and maybe biggest problem I have is that nobody sticks with you. You're a lone wolf throughout the game. At least Nico had some friends who stuck with him when times got rough, like Jacob (great character) in San Andreas (still the greatest GTA) you have a whole cast of characters that grow on you and stick to the end. John is a sociopath. He was in the past (most definitely), and he still is in his present days. As a character he doesn't develop at all, he always stays the polite gangster.

Don't get me wrong. I like the game. Just as I like GTA4 with all its faults and annoyances. But this is not as great of a game as it could have been. Certainly not a GOTY.

I now understand the GTA4 fans,some games are not for everybody,I for one love this one and everything it has to offer.

just had a weird glitch.. trying to turn in a wanted guy and my horse flew thru the buildings and i got stuck inside of one lol

Also... i know ive been posting alot in this thread but i just put in a solid 10 hour session. Just got 100% ;)

What do you mean a 10 hour session and 100 %???

Like how many hours you been playing before that?

Got to agree, GTA bored the hell out of me after awhile, where as with RDR i'm loving even the most mundane task :)

I'm surprised how much better this game looks than GTA IV.

Yeah. Engine is great.

I truly love this game. It's so much fun, wild west done right. Argh my cable had to go kaboom today, really wanted to play :(

Now they should do sandbox Pirates game :p

I meant i just played 10 hours straight and got 100% complete in singleplayer. I've probably put in about 30+ hours total though. There is a trophy/achievement for beating the singleplayer doing absolutely everything in the singleplayer. It's called redeemed or something. This means doing all the challenges, doing all the stranger quests, all the forts, gun challenges etc, outfits, etc...

I still need to finish up a few more trophies in the singleplayer then its off to multiplayer owning :)

Is there any unlock or special outfit for doin everything?

Yes you get a government outfit that makes it so you can kill anyone and anything you want and not become wanted . Pretty hilarious :)

I want that!!!! awesome reward IMO,will do everything just for that awesome thing!!

Also enyone know where is this boy by the hills in Hanging Rock??

Im in this stranger sidemission and she told me he was there last seen,but Im there and there is nobody there???

Im missing something??

There is a yellow marker indicating where you need to be heading. It's just by the cliffs.

If it is a dude running asking for help I think I may screwed that up,some wolves killed him before I got a chance to help him,I was going to fast in my steed LOL

No, that was just some random encounter. Check the map, there should be some purple circle, you need search near it.

Ah ok thanks!!

I saw that purple circle but it was s little far from the hanging rock so I tought I was off.

Will do tonight!

:)

No problem, and good luck. The end of that Stranger quest *saga* is cool :)

ok one gripe i have is some of the random encounters happen so fast its hard to tell the good from the bad, so i kill the wrong guys more than not!

yeah thats sucks, start saving more often then you can reload if you really mess up.

The save system sucks too, game is still brill though.

Yeah even with its bugs it still rocks.

I changed my outfit to teh Elegant one,but I changed back to teh normal one and now I dont have gloves WTF!!

I want my gloves back,those bastards stealed my gloves in the Mcfarlane ranch!!!

I can't believe no one has made the McFartlane joke yet!?!

Oh well, there it is anyways...

How do I get my gloves back????

answer me!"!"!"!""

Alright, you want to get you're gloves back? This is what you do:

First you go to the Mcfarlane house. Once you're there you should look for the yellow stone marked with an 'X'. Once you've found that, pick it up and travel to Armadillo. Behind the saloon there is a crate with a picture of an owl on it. Now, this part is very crucial, so make sure you get this right the first time:

Get onto the roof of the saloon. Look down at the crate with the owl on it (make sure you are looking right at the middle of it), and press the following button combination (remember, you only get one shot at this!):

X,Y,X,X,B,B,X,B,Y,LB,RB,LB,RT,LT,RT,X,B,B,X,B,Y,LB,B,Y,LB,RB,LB,RT,LT,LB,RT,LT,RT,X,
B,B,X,B,Y,LB,B,Y,LB,RB,LB,RT,LT,X,Y,X,X,B,B,X,B,Y,LB,RB,LB,RT,LT,RT,X,B,B,X,B,Y,X,
Y,X,X,B,B,X,B,Y,LB,RB,LB,RT,LT,RT,X,B,B,X,B,Y,LB,B,Y,LB,RB,LB,RT,LT,LB,RT,LT,RT,X,
B,B,X,B,Y,LB,B,Y,LB,RB,LB,RT,LT,X,Y,X,X,B,B,X,B,Y,LB,RB,LB,RT,LT,RT,X,B,B,X,B,Y.

When you've succesfully entered that sequence, he should drop the stone on the crate and the crate will break into pieces. Now, you will see a secret hatch where the crate used to be ontop. However, you'll need to open this hatch with some serious firepower. So, you fist need to head back to a place called 'Red Rock' (coordinates are the following: 34,223,152). There you'll have to whistle the following in morse code: "My name is Tinkerbell". An old Chinese lady will appear and give you the explosives. Head back to the hatch and place the explosives. The hatch will open and you can enter.

To be continued....