Red Dead Redemption 2 - Live play: Tips, tricks and reviews for the Xbox One and PS4 sequel

The 'RDR2: Companion' app is now live for iPhone. Will report back if it's of use.

Quite a few people frustrated with waiting for the game to download it seems. It's a big 'un, clocking in at 88.15GB for me. Fortunately my broadband is fairly speedy so downloading only took an hour or so. If you're on a slower connection though, be prepared for a wait.

Again, the wait can be mitigated by following the steps here:

Red Dead Redemption II is been out for a scant few hours, but the internet is already experiencing it profound, thought-provoking ways:

This is Lenny Summers. When Lenny invites you for a drink down the saloon, I recommend you take him up on it.

A nice example of the game's realistic physics here:

Hello, Andrew Griffin here – The Independent's tech editor and second (?) biggest RDR fan in the office.

I haven't played the game yet. (It's currently sitting on my PlayStation at home, I hope, having downloaded last night.) And so I'm here as a representative of all of us sat at work, dreaming of the Wild West, and am going to ask Chris some questions.

Chief among them is this, Chris: Is it fun? I read a whole load of reviews yesterday (summarised here in our review round-up) and there were a lot of words I kept encountering: vast, impressive, deep, realistic, beautiful, profound, whatever else. There was one word I didn't see much, though: fun. Nobody said they enjoyed it, they mostly said they appreciated it. So what I want to ask is: are you enjoying yourself? Am I going to enjoy myself?

Dearest colleague,

Absolutely you will! I think that maybe reviewers, myself included, didn't use the word "fun" partly because those other emotions/experiences that you mention felt more rare and therefore important to get across.

I guess also "fun" is kinda damning with faint praise these days. Assassin's Creed is a "fun" game because it prioritises cheap thrills but has nothing deeper.

That said, I've definitely had fun with the game, and for all the low-key moments I've gushed about, there are plenty of tightly-packed missions with opportunities for more traditionally fun gaming moments (read: killing dudes).

I hope it downloads speedily for you, have your entire street switch to 4G!

Thank you Chris! That's good news, and makes me even more frustrated that I haven't got to play yet.

So here's another question. My girlfriend isn't that into this game (or the last one) because she likes to play as a woman, or at least not as a man. (We only have one PlayStation so this is both a blessing and curse.) As far as I recall from the first game, not only are there few female characters, those that were there mostly needed your help in the homesteads so that the narrative could be pushed along. Is that the same in this one? Is it an issue? If it is, it feels like a shame given, say, the great female characters in Westworld.

(I suppose that part of this will be addressed in online, where hopefully there will be the option to play as a woman?)

A great question!

I was quite impressed with how the game handled this, and managed to incorporate women into the narrative without trying to rewrite history.

I could drop some big spoilers here but I won't - suffice to say your girlfriend should be relieved to hear that, while the game starts out pretty male-centric, it doesn't stay that way.

There's a strong women's suffrage element in there, and the female members of the camp don't accept their domestic role readily. It made me chuckle when, early on, you help a female friend who was posing as a prostitute in order to con and rob a John. When things go awry and Arthur – our protagonist – intervenes, she says: "I don't take kindly to being saved. But once in a while..." It's a fun and a nicely balanced moment.

As you say, I'm sure there will be genders binary and non-binary in the multiplayer.

Any more questions, hit me!