Author: Trafficblast

The release of Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2 has come, and the game is out now on PS4 and Xbox One. Before jumping into the game, you should be sure your console is connected to the internet to download the day-one update. It isn’t required to play, but Rockstar recommends you install it first, as it includes “a number of last minute tweaks, bugs, and fixes.” We’ve also put together a wide variety of guides and tips to help you better grasp the numerous systems included, and the first cheat codes have been discovered, although there are still more to be uncovered in the days and weeks ahead along with other secrets. Read on for our full Red Dead 2 review.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a game about consequences where you have only the illusion of choice. Yes, there are some decisions to be made, and those decisions will shape your character and the world around you. But some of the most disastrous choices were made for you before the game even begins, leaving you to deal with the fallout. And because it’s a prequel to Red Dead Redemption, you also (probably) know how the story ends. All that’s left is discovering what happens in between and making the most of it. To that end, you fight against the repetitive nature of missions, frequent moral dilemmas, and the inconvenience of doing what’s right. For the most part, the frustration that tension can cause is also what makes the story impactful, and when it all comes together, your effort is not wasted.

At the beginning of Red Dead Redemption 2, the Van der Linde gang is already on the decline we know from the previous game is coming. After a heist gone wrong in Blackwater, they’re on the run, down a few members, and on the verge of capture, starvation, and succumbing to a snowstorm. There are familiar faces–Red Dead Redemption protagonist John Marston chief among them–as well as new ones. As senior member Arthur Morgan, you’re in the privileged position of being Dutch Van der Linde’s right hand, privy to his machinations and included in the most important outings. Once the gang escapes the storm and settles into a temporary campsite, you’re also put in charge of the camp’s finances, meaning you pick out all the upgrades and supplies. If Dutch is the center of the gang, Arthur is adjacent to all its vital parts at once, and that gives you a lot of power.

With that power, you’re encouraged to do as you see fit and at your own pace. A lengthy series of story missions early on introduces you to some of the ways you can spend your time, including hunting, fishing, horse-rearing, and robbery. There are a lot of systems, and covering the basics takes several hours. While they’re not so cleverly disguised as to not feel like tutorials, the actual learning is paced well in its integration with the story, and the missions also acquaint you with the characters and the surrounding area. For example, the fishing “tutorial” has you taking young Jack Marston out for the day, since John is not exactly great at fatherhood. Jack is pure and sweet–and incredibly vulnerable to all the gang’s wrongdoings–and the mission is memorable for it.

In addition to the mechanics of various activities, you’re also presented with a few elements of semi-realism you need to contend with. Mainly, you need to eat to refill your health, stamina, and Dead Eye ability “cores,” which deplete over time. Eating too much or too little results in weight changes and stat debuffs. Eating itself isn’t a problem, and neither is maintaining cores in general, but eating enough to maintain an average weight is intrusive; despite experimenting with what and how often I ate, I couldn’t get Arthur out of the underweight range, and eating any more frequently would be too time-consuming to justify. You don’t have to sleep (though you can to pass time and refill your cores), and surviving hot or cold temperatures comes down to choosing the right outfit from your item wheel, so managing your weight sticks out as superfluous rather than conducive to immersion.

Limited fast travel options are the better-implemented side of Red Dead 2’s realism, perhaps counterintuitively. There’s next to no fast travel at the beginning and few methods in general, so you have to rely on your horse to get around. It can be slow, but there’s no shortage of things to do and see along the way. Chance encounters are plentiful and frequently interesting; you might find a stranger in need of a ride to town or a snake bite victim who needs someone to suck the venom out of their wound. You can stumble upon a grotesque murder scene that sets you entirely off-track, or you can ignore someone in danger and just keep riding. And just as you can decide to rob or kill most anyone, you’ll also run into people who will do the same to you. Even the longest rides aren’t wasted time, and it’s hard not to feel like you’re missing something if you do opt for fast travel.

Red Dead Redemption 2’s version of America is vast and wide open, stretching from snowy mountains and the Great Plains down to the original game’s New Austin in the southwest. Further to the east is the Louisiana-inspired Deep South, which is still feeling the effects of the Civil War after nearly 40 years. There’s a distinct shift when traveling from region to region; as grassy hillsides become alligator-filled swamps, Union veterans give way to angry Confederate holdouts, and good intentions and casual racism turn into desperation and outright bigotry. The variety makes the world feel rich, and it both reacts to you and changes independently of your involvement; new buildings will go up as time goes on, and some of the people you talk to will remember you long after you first interacted with them (for better or worse).

Incidental moments as you explore make up a large part of the morality system, in which you gain and lose honor based on your actions. “Good” morals are relative–you’re a gang member, after all–but generally, it’s more honorable to punch up rather than down. Helping an underdog, even if they’re an escaped convict and even if you need to kill some cops or robbers to do it, can net you good guy points. In these situations, it’s easier to be noble than a true outlaw. Committing a dishonorable crime is hard to do undetected, even in remote locations, and usually requires you to track down and threaten a witness, run and hide from the law, or pay a bounty down the line. While you’ll earn money more quickly doing “bad” things, high honor gets you a pretty discount at shops, and you’ll make good money either way through story missions.

In many ways, you’re nudged toward playing a “good” Arthur. The gang members he’s closest to from the beginning are the more righteous, principled ones who are motivated by loyalty and a desire to help others, while he insults, argues with, and generally reacts negatively to those who are hot-headed and vicious. The most rotten of them is Micah, who’s so easy to hate that it’s hard not to follow Arthur’s lead and take the higher road. Unlocking camp upgrades like one-way fast travel and better supplies also essentially forces you into being honorable; although everyone donates, you have to invest hundreds of dollars yourself if you want to afford anything, and that automatically gets you a ton of honor points whether you like it or not.

One of the best, most understated details in the game is Arthur’s journal, in which he recaps big events as well as random people you’ve met and more mundane, everyday things. He sketches places you go, doodles the plants and animals you find, and writes out thoughts he barely speaks out loud. The journal changes with your level of honor, but at least for a relatively honorable Arthur, the pages are filled with concerns and existential crises–inner turmoil over being either good or evil, for instance–that make you want to see him become a better person.

Like any good prequel, there’s an incredible amount of tension in knowing what happens without knowing exactly how.

It’s a lot harder to feel like a good guy when doing the main story missions, though. Arthur, along with nearly everyone else, is loyal to the gang first and foremost. This means following Dutch into trouble, busting friends out of jail, and committing a number of robberies in the interest of getting money for the gang. Even if you’re trying your hardest to be good, you’ll inevitably slaughter entire towns in mandatory story missions–stealth and non-lethal takedowns aren’t always an option, and the snappy auto-lock aim makes shootouts a far easier option anyway. The dissonance is frustrating to play through in the moment, but it’s incredibly important to Arthur’s arc as well as your understanding of the gang as a whole. To say any more would venture into spoiler territory.

That extends to the structure of story missions, which start to get predictable around halfway through the game. It’s not that they’re boring–the opposite is true, actually, and you see a lot of action from beat to beat. But after a while, a pattern emerges, and it’s easy to figure out how any given heist or raid is going to unfold. This too becomes frustrating, partially because you often have no way of significantly affecting the outcome despite any decision-making power you thought you might have had. But your weariness is also Arthur’s, and that’s crucial. The mid-game drags in service of the narrative, which only becomes apparent much later. There’s also enough variety between missions and free-roam exploration to prevent it from dragging to the point of being a chore to play.

Like any good prequel, there’s an incredible amount of tension in knowing what happens without knowing exactly how. If you played Red Dead Redemption, you know who survives and as a result who probably won’t make it to the end of the game. Even during the slower parts, you’re waiting for betrayals and injuries and other events you’ve only vaguely heard mention of before. You’re waiting for characters to reveal their true selves, and watching as everything unravels is riveting and heartbreaking if you know what’s to come.

You can still enjoy the story in its own right without that background knowledge, though. Some of Red Dead Redemption 2’s best moments have almost no relation to its predecessor. One mission takes you to a women’s suffrage rally, and a painful side mission has you facing a woman whose husband you killed and life you ruined. The new characters are among the best, too; Sadie Adler is a personal favorite for reasons I won’t spoil. Another, a young black man in the gang named Lenny, mentions how the Southerners treat him a little differently; Arthur says that he hasn’t noticed anything weird, to which Lenny replies, “All respect, Mr. Morgan, you wouldn’t notice.”

Generally, Red Dead 2 tackles pertinent issues of the era with care. Rather than defining any of its characters by the bigotry they may experience, it allows them the room to be well-rounded individuals while still not ignoring that things like racism and sexism exist. One arc focuses squarely on a very serious issue, and here, the lack of real choice in the story’s direction–and your resulting involvement in what transpires–will likely make you uncomfortable in a powerful way.

While Red Dead Redemption was mostly focused on John Marston’s story, Red Dead 2 is about the entire Van der Linde gang–as a community, as an idea, and as the death rattle of the Wild West. It is about Arthur, too, but as the lens through which you view the gang, his very personal, very messy story supports a larger tale. Some frustrating systems and a predictable mission structure end up serving that story well, though it does take patience to get through them and understand why. Red Dead Redemption 2 is an excellent prequel, but it’s also an emotional, thought-provoking story in its own right, and it’s a world that is hard to leave when it’s done.

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Compared to the previous entries in the series, Fallout 76 is a very different kind of game. It’s the series’ first online game, with a far more in-depth focus on survival and crafting. This new approach on the familiar post-apocalyptic RPG’s mechanics will take some time getting used to–and players will be doing that together in a shared world. In the beta for Fallout 76 on Xbox One–with PC and PS4 coming next week–those who’ve pre-ordered will get an early chance to dive into Bethesda’s experimental take on the Fallout experience, with all of their progress carried over into the final game.

In this feature, we’ve come up with several tips and a short list of things to do during your first few hours exploring the ruins of West Virginia. As the earliest game in the Fallout timeline, set only 25 years after the bombs fell, the inhabitants of Vault 76 will explore a world that’s still in disarray after the nuclear apocalypse. Though the setting of West Virginia was largely spared from the bombs, radiation and chaos have seeped into the valley, irreparably altering wildlife, and unearthing creatures that many thought to be legend.

The first of Fallout 76’s betas is now behind us, but Bethesda has already announced when the next test will take place. Expect plenty more between now and the full game’s release date on November 14.

We recently went hands-on with Fallout 76, and came away with a number of interesting observations. While the main hook is the focus on surviving a violent, irradiated world full of other players online, the familiar aspects of the Fallout experience are alive and well in 76–there are even some surprises for the eagle-eyed fans to uncover. With that, here’s a quick survival guide to help you overcome the odds.

For more info on Fallout 76, be sure to check out footage from the first 50 minutes of the game, and along with our chat with Pete Hines about the current state of the game, and what lies ahead.

My Hero One’s Justice is a 3D arena-style fighter based on the popular manga and anime My Hero Academia. Unfortunately, One’s Justice offers a bare-bones recreation of My Hero Academia‘s story, and it doesn’t succeed at differentiating its offline modes. The game does have its moments, though, capturing the thrill of grandiose superhuman battles and the distinct fighting styles of the series’ main characters.

My Hero Academia takes place in a world where most individuals are born with superpowers called Quirks. Izuku Midoriya, the main series’ protagonist, is unlucky enough to be born without one. However, when Midoriya’s role model, All Might, sees the young boy bravely try and rescue his childhood friend/bully Katsuki Bakugo from a supervillain, the world’s number-one hero takes the Quirkless teen under his wing. All Might helps his protege get into U.A. High School, Japan’s top school for those who want to be superheroes, where Midoriya ends up in Class 1-A with Bakugo and 18 other first-years who all have powerful Quirks.

One’s Justice’s Story mode briefly touches on this before jumping ahead to My Hero Academia‘s sixth arc, “Vs. Hero Killer.” That’s fine if you’ve been keeping up with the manga or anime, but confusing if you’re using this game as your entry point into the franchise or just hoping to understand what’s going on at all. Even when you do understand what’s happening, there’s a lack of any kind of emotional impact, as the story plays off characters’ prior relationships with one another without actually telling you what those connections might be. However, the choice of later story arcs does justify the inclusion of certain characters, including the League of Villains.

You may also find it tough to follow the story since the whole game is presented in Japanese with English subtitles. The entire Japanese voice cast from the My Hero Academia anime return to voice their respective characters, and each delivers noteworthy performances. However, with no option to play through One’s Justice’s Story mode with the English dub’s voice cast, you’ll be fighting your opponents in Story mode while trying to read subtitles at the same time. It’s not impossible, but it’s not easy.

The game’s Story mode isn’t bad, though. One’s Justice’s campaign has optional “What If” missions that offer a look at what certain characters might have been doing between the story’s major events. Even though these missions aren’t canon, they’re written well enough to fit the larger plot and it’s believable that they really took place. Plus, they further flesh out minor heroes and villains that haven’t gotten as much screen time in the anime.

One’s Justice’s other four major modes–Local Match, Online Match, Arcade, and Missions–are where you’ll probably be spending most of your time with the game. Local and online matches pit two opponents against each other in a best-of-three fight, with the former allowing you to go up against a computer or a friend in couch co-op and the latter sending you online to try and climb up in the rankings. You can also dress up your characters with new costumes and cosmetic items that you unlock by playing the game and show off your custom outfits in local and online fights. A fighter’s wardrobe doesn’t provide any in-game benefits, but it is rather fun to dress someone up as one of My Hero Academia‘s characters that aren’t included in the game, like Mei Hatsume or Gunhead.

In Arcade, you face off against computer-controlled fighters in a six-tier ladder where opponents get stronger on every rung. There is a slight bump in difficulty compared to Local Match, but it’s not enough to make Arcade feel different from playing six consecutive local matches against AI. Missions mode is like Arcade, but with added optional requirements that you can fulfill to earn bonus cosmetic items. Those optional requirements are typically what you’re trying to do anyway–such as winning every match or getting a good rank from a well-placed combo–so they don’t force you into playing differently from the other modes. All four modes play essentially the same, with the biggest difference being whether you’re going up against a computer or another human being.

Each of the fighters in One’s Justice’s roster are unique. Some handle similarly–Tenya Iida, Gran Torino, and Deku: Shoot Style are all speed-based fighters, for example–but no two characters attack the same way, even the ones who have the same Quirk. 19 fighters are available at the outset, with another unlocked by playing the story and two more offered as DLC. Attacking is fairly simplistic, with one button for melee moves and another two for using different aspects of a character’s Quirk. That said, each fighter’s moveset is varied enough that you can form multiple strategies with a single character. Bakugo’s powerful Explosion Quirk, for example, doesn’t usually have much range, but he can charge it up to do larger, albeit slower, attacks. His Quirk also has a bit of kickback, so while in the air he can attack to quickly change his trajectory, and even keep himself airborne almost indefinitely for a faster, hit-and-run approach to combat.

Each fighter’s moveset is varied enough that you can form multiple strategies with a single character

Learning the different fighting styles for a particular character–and then implementing their unique unblockable, grab, counter, and Plus Ultra attacks into your strategy–is key to mastering each one. Once you understand the basics, going up against computer-controlled opponents won’t hold much challenge, but it does pave the way for more enjoyable moments in PvP play. When two players who know their respective fighter’s strengths and weaknesses go head-to-head, it leads to some tense, yet exciting battles. And with One’s Justice’s relatively easy learning curve, it’s not all too difficult to feel competent with at least a few characters and jump into a ranked Online Match.

The small moments of fan service during each fight are a nice touch too. Most Easter eggs come through in the characters’ Plus Ultra special attacks, such as Ochaco Uraraka’s Meteor Shower, but they show up cosmetically as well. The sleeves on Midoriya’s suit will tear and his fingers will break if he uses an all-out Delaware Smash, for example.

It’s a shame My Hero One’s Justice’s Story mode doesn’t do a good job introducing the world of My Hero Academia, with several important narrative beats either missing or revealed through subtitles while you’re busy trying to fight. The offline modes against AI don’t do much for the game either. However, One’s Justice’s combat is both accessible and enjoyable. When two players face off–either online or off–the game captures the adrenaline-pumping feeling of My Hero Academia‘s most notable fights. Pulling off moves from the manga/anime and outsmarting an opponent with devastating combos feels rewarding, and that’s enough to keep the player coming back to the game for more.

Whether or not you’re on board, Bethesda’s decision to make the next entry in the Fallout franchise an online-only game is bold. But just because it’s an online endeavor doesn’t mean you’re forced to play with others. Among all the questions I had about Fallout 76, the most important one that came to mind was: can the game work as a single-player experience? So, when the first beta launched, I played entirely as a one-man party. After about four hours of exploring, looting, and shooting, the foundation of Fallout seems readily apparent, albeit diluted. Of course, you’ll be missing out on an important aspect of Fallout 76 by going it alone, but its features that require a bit more patience make themselves clear. As a result, lone wanderers are likely to be rewarded in ways full parties may end up glossing over.

From both past experience in other games and watching my colleagues play Fallout 76 as a group, I understand there’s a tacit agreement to move at a rapid pace, going from one area or quest to another in search of action and high-level equipment. While that’s not exactly what the Fallout series has traditionally been about, it comes part-and-parcel to this style of game. That doesn’t leave much room for carefully listening to audio logs nor reading through notes left behind, let alone soaking in the environments in relation to those narrative pieces. Playing alone affords you the opportunity to do that.

One of the many notes you’ll read throughout Fallout 76.

Environmental storytelling has become a bit of a cliche when describing how games embed a narrative in the actual game space. It’s an indirect approach to story, and one that Fallout 76 has to rely on given the absence of NPCs and dialogue trees. Audio logs serve to paint the picture of how townships tried, and failed, to survive the harsh wasteland while simultaneously being a guide through the game’s world and systems. Audio logs are also the crux of unraveling the mystery of Vault 76’s overseer–the seemingly “main” questline. It’s your avenue to understanding the past and present of West Virginia. Admittedly, these vary in quality in terms of how interesting they are, but they’re critical to worldbuilding.

The wonder of discovering and rummaging through a new location, or taking in the scenic views after trudging through brutal swaths of the wasteland, has an intrinsically rewarding feel.

We’ve seen other games use these narrative techniques in the past. Much of the original Bioshock was built on the premise of listening to recordings from Rapture’s citizens as you navigate the desolate underwater society. Some of the most impactful moments in The Last Of Us came from a series of handwritten notes that communicated the desperation and humanity in the face of a zombie outbreak. Fallout has used these elements in previous entries, but they matter now more than ever.

There’s a lot to see in West Virginia with a variety of scenery.

While what’s missing are the societies and factions that made previous games’ roleplaying dynamic, it’s thematically fitting given that the setting predates the lore established from past games. And it’s strikingly lonely out there despite being an online game–only 24 players roam around West Virginia in the same instance. There’s so much ground to cover that it’s hard to see a collective of online players emerging from it; very rarely did I run into other parties. West Virginia is huge. It’s been in headlines that Fallout 76 contains the largest map in all the franchise; about four times the size of Fallout 4‘s rendition of Boston. It sometimes feels too big for its own good, as there’s a noticeable lack of density. However, like any other Fallout game, the world naturally instills a sense of curiosity to see what’s just beyond in the next town.

The wonder of discovering and rummaging through a new location, or taking in the scenic views after trudging through brutal swaths of the wasteland, has an intrinsically rewarding feel. After getting a grip of the game in the areas near Vault 76, I wandered to the Northeast and stumbled upon Grafton–a snowy town populated by Super Mutants, Protectrons, and the high-level blob-like Grafton Monster. It was a definite highlight digging up the town’s history and how it came to be run by Protectrons, and getting into tense firefights with enemies above my level. Unfortunately, I had to move on. Over the next northern range was an abandoned amusement park where I dabbled with the photo mode to take selfies with its alligator mascot on a broken rollercoaster. All the while, my radio is playing the undeniably catchy tunes of old-timey Americana (many of which are reprised from earlier games). These moments are, of course, available if you play in a group, but they make the single-player approach more meaningful.

Catastrophic events and inter-player tension very much seem to be integral to the end-game, so it’s tough to speak on the sustainability of exclusively playing alone. So far, quest structure and public events haven’t been much more than killing a certain target or finding an item in another town. And by virtue of axing traditional RPG interactions, combat becomes a bigger portion of what you do. Fallout 4’s shooting mechanics are the basis here, and while it’s more fluid than Fallout 3 or New Vegas, it doesn’t stand with the best modern shooters (and VATS won’t slow down time for targeted dice-roll shots)–it sometimes feels at odds with the type of game Bethesda’s trying to create.

Fallout 76 is a little unceremonious in its early hours, but I’m willing to give new approaches to long-running franchises a chance. It still has that distinct charm, where both the delightful and disturbing aspects of a bygone era in American history are frozen in time amidst post-apocalyptic retrofuturism. As more beta windows open up, I’ll be continuing to search for the game’s story and trekking along to see what’s beyond the wide forests and mountain ranges. Also, there are just as many questions left even after four hours. I can’t say that the single-player experience will hold up entirely, and we shouldn’t expect it to contend with the likes of New Vegas, but there are signs that it can work, and I’m hopeful. I’m also not sure where it’s leading me, and that seems to be exactly what Fallout 76 is about.