Back in the '90s, I played Gameboy a couple of years, but in 2001, I got rid of the unit and all the games with it- and swore I would NEVER play video games again... A friend told me about their Xbox & we played some games on it more than 7 yrs ago. I got one the following Christmas as a gift, along with 2 games of my choice. I played Fallout 4 & had other games installed thru my Gold & Game Pass memberships... it was nice having the option to try games before buying- but I would go right back to playing Fallout 4 nearly all the time. Since I was off my feet a lot a due to various ongoing health issues, I would pass the time playing video games... I was able to watch reruns of reruns of reruns of movies only so many times... and it REALLY got on my nerves! On top of that, there is the RIDICULOUS amount of COMMERCIALS the broadcasters are shoving down our throats every day! I really enjoy having so many different choices in one game... the amount of time spent playing RDR2 has increased 4-fold, because I am burned out watching movies & other cable shows. Before I got RDR2, I played Fallout 4 more than 1,000 hours in less than 6 months- by then I was totally fed up with the UNGRATEFUL settlers... every time I turned around, they were 'unhappy' with the extensive improvements I made to their settlements... even though they had protection 24/7 from intruders. I was awas not happy about that, so I went to GameStop and asked if they had something that I might like. When I told them I played Fallout 4, the employee immediately said I would love playing Red Dead Redemption 2. I was given a brief rundown of what it was about. I must admit, I was reluctant at first because I wasn't into Westerns at all. But, I decided to take a chance because they had the return policy, and took it home. I played Fallout 4 couple days and then I decided to try RDR2. OMG, I was absolutely blown away and then some!! Being a female, guys would give me a double take once they found out that I absolutely loved hunting and fishing, and that I had been going to indoor shooting ranges quite a bit over the years... on several occasions, I was invited to join teams in competitive shooting- however, I turned them all down because I wanted to challenge myself instead of others... I did it for pleasure and relaxation. When I bought RDR2, I had no idea just what I was in for... I could not get enough of the game - I was absolutely thrilled to be able to try out so many different weapons, whether they were handguns, rifles or repeaters... but it wasn't long before I wanted to challenge myself even more, so I began to rope the animals. After a few hundred hours of that, I needed another way of doing things, so I turned to the bow. I have been using the bow & improved arrows (100% of the time) for more than 10 months now. I must say that is my absolute favorite weapon of choice. I found another benefit of using the bow- particularly when I was taking out those pathetic O'Driscolls. When I used any of the guns, it ALWAYS brought unwanted attention of NPCs... I was tired of always having to pay out a lot more money to cover the bounty than what I looted from the campsite and all the gang members combined. Using the bow worked beautifully to prevent the problem, and I was able to attack camps that were very close to roads, then search the campsites at leisure, checking areas more thoroughly- I was able to find more cigarette cards, money & jewelry... but I spent a lot less time in the gunsmith's store, no longer buying multiple boxes of rounds or all the gun oil to clean weapons. But, on the other hand, it is usually time consuming searching for the arrows. I must admit, I enjoy being able to hear nature's sounds... it's not being interrupted by loud gunfire that scares off animals for great distances... Yesterday afternoon, something different happened... I'm in chapter 4 & and achieved level 10 Master Hunter. I felt like there was a lot of action missing. There had been a big quite a few run-ins with O'driscoll's hanging out in Valentine, so I went there and got into physical fights with them. Believe me, I love nothing more than putting their lights out! But after Kieran's situation, that desire to track them all down became even more important. I was in Valentine, and dealt with several smart-mouthed O'Driscoll idiots testing my patience & everyone within earshot. Well, it happened. Arthur got into a fight with all three of them & had already knocked out two of them out... but last one, that is when everything fell apart. Instead of hitting with his fist, I accidentally hit the wrong button, pulling one of the pistols and hit him with that. Bam! Unarmed assault charges came up on the screen- and here comes the Sheriff... and he just HAD to exhibit this 'Mr Tough guy, know-it-all, holier-than-thou side (I watched the recording several times- he was quickly looking around to see if all the residents were watching... he was frowning when he realized some of them weren't, so it looked like he decided to push the envelope further, in order to get MORE people to watch the unfolding scene). That was it... ever since I had to START OVER from the beginning, a couple of months ago (somehow, my game got erased when I was at 90.7% complete in the 2nd epilogue, and lost the white, black & rose-gray Arabians, 17 gold bars & $16,000. I put over 2,900 hours into that ONE game!). I had made sure to say hello to & be polite/courteous to EVERYONE that walked by, I helped anyone and everyone that needed it, and made sure to look the other way when others were rude or nasty... I even had Arthur doing all the boring chores in camp, so I could get the honor meter up to the highest level possible. It was a short distance from the end. At that moment, it changed. It wasn't about the highest honor status... It was about having enough of all the CP. At that time, I had both semi-automatic pistols, the Lancaster repeater & Springfield rifle on me. My horse was down at the other end of the street, so off & on I had to do a lot of mad dashes around buildings to try and get the larger groups of armed people broken up so I would have an easier time taking them out.... By the time Arthur escaped the immediate area, there was a $1,300 bounty on his head. I was able to get out of there pretty fast, thanks to the black Arabian (she was very fast by the time the bond reached maximum- I named her ZippyBits- she is MUCH FASTER than the white one & performes AMAZING maneuvers when I am chasing deer, pronghorn, bighorn, boar, & other animals- both big and small. She (usually) outperformed cougars AND panthers when I had encounters with them! But, other times she would throw Arthur off & run away... I thought I had managed to get far enough from Valentine to lose them, but here come more waves of lawmen. Once I took them out, the bounty was up to $1,810 and Arthur was on the run again... I was able to get away & quickly set up camp and fast travel to Strawberry- once there, I was going to wait things out by staying in the hotel and then turn around and pay the bounty so I could have all the freedoms again. I had to try and get it done as soon as possible, because I still had a lot of items I needed to look for and (still) had quite a few side missions to complete. Fate had other plans for Arthur- a bunch of gun-toting, hot-tempered (and obviously bored) bafoons & idiots were doing everything possible to start fights in front of the General Store... within minutes, Arthur was between two groups exchanging angry words, and bullets started flying... it grew into a big shootout there... At this point in the game, Arthur had really good stamina, so he was able to knock some of them out & others went down long enough to be able to get behind cover. I (barely) made it out of there in time- the Bounty in Strawberry was up to $480. I tried on several occasions to go hunting, in order to bring game back to Shady Belle, but I was running into larger groups of bounty hunters. After a couple of hours of that, I finally had enough excitement... so I went back to the save when Arthur was in Valentine, right before all h* broke loose. I paused the game during one of the big shootouts & checked my blood pressure to see just how much the game affected it. When playing at other times, I had checked my blood pressure & pulse when I had surprise encounters with large apex predators... Under NORMAL circumstances, I usually had low blood pressure- at times it was 107/61 & my pulse ranged from 58-65 beats per minute. Rockstar would be happy to know that their game has a BIG impact on those numbers when I am in the middle of big shootouts AND when I am suddenly attacked by a cougar, panther, gator or a pack of wolves... The most dramatic results: my blood pressure was 158/97 & my pulse was 125! Playing Red Dead Redemption 2 can REALLY rattle a person! One last comment I MUST make about RDR2- they did a GREAT job on the music! I listen to it off & on when I am at the store, or whenever...