RDR2 pictures

I finally got off my duff, created a Rockstar Social Club account, and downloaded some of the pictures I've taken in game to my computer. Actually, I mostly took pictures months ago when I was pretty much done with single player, but still dabbling in challenges and exploration and stuff with John Marston. Then, after my big months long hiatus and coming back to online, I hadn't really taken any pictures, so I took a bunch just recently.  First, some long-range views; one of the main reasons I love hiking in real life, and one of the main reasons why this game, when I'm stuck literally in the house in an midwestern suburb during the winter, scratches an itch for me. Kinda a surrogate, I guess.

A crossroads in the desert of New Austin

Wide view of much of New Austin from the top of the mesa, looking out into the desert valley.

Less dramatic, but beautiful in it's own way; Great Plains, the region where John ends up settling, and where I spend a fair bit of time in the Online mode.

A view into Nuevo Paraiso across the river. This area was part of the game in the first one, but is sadly not available for exploration in this one (although in return, we got a HUGE new area added. Even without this, the de facto area of the game is almost three times what the firsts' was.)

Next, a small handful of my John pictures. Without caption; they just are, mostly. The first one was a somewhat tongue in cheek attempt to create an Indiana Jones looking outfit. And by bizarre coincidence, he's smoking in both pictures.

I like John's build, although Arthur's is even better. Sadly, none of the build choices available in online really look quite as athletic. But we do our best. Here's my Online character in a variety of outfits and locations.

If you pay attention to that kind of thing, you'll notice that many of my outfits use the Hartman jacket. I've found that I really like that jacket, and I have every single color variation available, and use them often. My character, as I mentioned, looks a little round-shouldered without a jacket, so I like wearing them if I can. This one is light enough (although it doesn't look like it) that most of my outfits default to being appropriate for hot weather unless I pair it with some other, warmer accessories; warmer hats, warmer vests, gauntlets, gloves, chaps, etc. Even then, sometimes it's hard to get it into average territory, and I can only get them appropriate for cold by pairing them usually with a vest that's guaranteed to make the outfit cold weather appropriate. Most of these outfits are average temperature, but some of them are hot.

I also prefer shorter jackets without tails or other really long accessories. I find that the animation for them works very poorly when you're riding your horse, especially in cinematic mode, which I often use to just grind out long distance chugs without having to pay all that much attention because the AI steers your horse. Although I do use and like a few longer coats, I find that even more I like coats that don't hang down lower than the characters hips. There's plenty of them that do this, but most of them are quite warm. The Hartman coat is one I can use in milder and even hotter temperatures.

Because of the vest and hat, I call this my Everyday Gator outfit

Here's another view of it. These two pictures are at the lake in Aurora Basin in Tall Trees. I'd just done a bootlegger delivery to the shack in the first area. It was pouring down rain when I started, but when I finished, it was bright and sunny; perfect picture taking weather.

Experimenting with trying to capture some motion while changing poses in front of my Tall Trees moonshine shack. This outfit I call my Everyday Blue (because of the jacket) and it uses one of the Collector outfit hats.

One of my hot weather outfits. I thought the ivory color scheme worked; made it feel like a boater outfit or something.

Blue again up near Window Rock. This is one of my two favorite fishing spots too, although now that I've maxed out my health ring and usually have better ways of making money than fishing, I mostly only do this for various daily challenges. It's a bit of a shame, though. I do kinda enjoy fishing in game. (More than I do in real life, actually. Probably because they bite much more often.)

Another of my more unusual average temperature outfits, with a very short jacket and a hat that looks almost like a sombrero. I also was experimenting with setting up my camp in Cumberland Forest, because I felt like I didn't utilize or explore that area as much as I'd like. I didn't really love having my camp there, though, so back to the Heartlands I go. I'd really love to set up in Calumet Ravine. I know it's far away from everything, but I'd deal with it for the pleasure of waking up every time I logged in to Calumet Ravine.

I'm not quite sure what I was thinking with this outfit, and a ruined campsite near Plainview. I often experiment with a handful of outfits that are unusual, that I wear around for a little bit and then decide I don't really like them so I delete them and replace them with something else. This was one such; an attempt to use some of the Pittman outfit elements that I got from the Outlaw Pass 2.

An earlier version of the Ivory outfit out near Plainview. You may notice that the hat is not quite the right color; it's a light colored Calgary hat from the top level bounty hunter outfit. The ivory colored Kennedy hat that I went out and got looked much better.

Two views of my most default outfit, the Everyday Original. No hat, so I wouldn't lose it in fights, a weathered brown jacket and chaps, and a furry vest, it's still average temperature rated. Also showing is one of my five horses; a dark bay Turkoman.

I've already showed all of these outfits, but here they are again where maybe you can see them a bit better, and with in the case of all but the last one, a more intriguing scenic vista in the background.

And finally, the Black Mask; my character's alter ego. Maybe I should have put the bandanna up over my face for the pictures, but in reality, I don't do that when I'm playing very often, so probably won't for the pictures. As you can see, the balloonist goggles do a credible job of standing in for a Lone Ranger style eye mask.

The default average temperature version. The holsters and gloves and bandannas all have minor red highlights, as you can see, because it's hard to get just plain black everywhere.  Actually, that's not really true. I just have used the role gunbelts and holsters rather than the non-role ones, and they all have highlights of various colors on them.

The cold weather version using the black leather version of the winter shotgun coat, one of the few long coats that usually looks pretty good. In fact, the entire set-up just looks really bulky altogether. I also am using a different hat that has slightly smaller gold decorations on the hatband, and a lower profile compared to the previous, "regular" version. All three of the hats used in these variants come from bounty hunter outfits.

The hot weather version, without chaps, a lighter jacket and vest, and a different hat. I actually used this quite a bit because it's hot in most of Lemoyne and most of New Austin frequently. On the other hand, I don't use the cold weather variation all that much because I rarely go where it's sufficiently cold. That's one of the reasons I thought the all day snow day we had not too long ago is something that should be repeated regularly. Let us wear our cold weather clothes without having to sit around by ourselves in the West Grizzles without anything much to do!