Eurogamers verdict on each individual version of Red Dead Redemption 2

Given this is a video game site full of, by in large, video game fanatics I assume a lot of us have all the consoles (or most the consoles) and think this guide will be very helpful for you guys in making your choice of platform.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2018-red-dead-redemption-2-face-off?fbclid=IwAR2Vke3kw3s05Cdsw-Tm-3_q88SW_eRjTcnEUDCbg4MtYXyqPueFe2jdQjg

This quote really stood out to me

"...to see this phenomenal game at its absolute best, Xbox One X is the platform of choice - and by quite a considerable margin"

I didn't personally expect that to be the case given how similar the cross-platform games usually look. The Xbox One version, on the other hand, doesn't even come close to full HD and looks considerably worse than the PS4 version

I can't wait to see how good the PC port will look. Though I'll never be able to afford a PC that can run it anytime in the near or distant future.

@puchiko: I don't think there won't be any pc port (points at red dead redemption 1).

@soulcake: They have done PC ports of GTA V and LA Noire since releasing the first Red Dead game. Just like with GTA V they will probably wait a year or more before doing so. There is no reason for them not to eventually as a PC port will sell just as well are about making money. Also the current consoles architecture makes it much easier to do a port compared to the PS3/360 versions.

I had kind of suspected this. Sony has had a frankly clever marketing deal for RDR that didn't really paint the game as an exclusive per se, but focused much of the coverage spotlight on the PS4 Pro versions of it. Based on marketing alone, casual gamers may well think RDR is a Playstation exclusive or still "plays best" on PS4s.

The One X running it in native 4K HDR was a fact that sure seems like it was actively obfuscated until last week when it quietly showed up as such on the One X Enhanced games list as such. I have to think there was some sort of embargo deal in place on that reveal, because otherwise I'm certain Microsoft would have been happy to point this out much earlier, yet Hyrb and the like are only just now able to toot that horn.

Smart tactical move on Sony's part, though perhaps a little questionable. Regardless, I'm glad to see such a big game seemingly fully taking advantage of the One X's horsepower, and it seems to perform/look adequate to well across the spectrum on the other platforms as well, so good news all-around. And for the PC folks, the One X performance should be a nice sign for the inevitable PC version down the road.

As I feared with the coming of these Pro consoles games are starting to more often than not aim for the sky, leaving performance of base units a “satisfactory” compromise.

@puchiko: If I remember right for GTA V they said ahead of time that a PC version was coming. For RDR 2 they have stayed totally silent on the question. Granted I can't think of a good reason they wouldn't release a PC version sometime next year, but I could have said the same thing about RDR 1

@cronus42: I don't believe a PC port wwas announced until after the versions for PS4/Xbox One we're announced. Almost positive they said nothing about PC when it was on PS3/360

@humanity: What? Rockstar games always run poorly on the base hardware theyre released on. None of their big games hit a steady 30 on ps2 or 360

@yesiamaduck: last Rockstar game I played was GTAV and that was on 360 and I don’t remember it running poorly. That’s not to say that RDR2 will run poorly on PS4/XB1 cause I haven’t tried it yet - but from the article they say in towns and intense action scenes the FPS drops to 20’s and that’s pretty bad.

@humanity: It was also the case for the first RDR. I’m not saying it’s not a valid concern, it definitely is, and I don’t remember the GTAs as I didn’t replay those.

I had RDR on PS3 which was considered to be a bad version. I’ve ordered this one on Xbox one S, which also seems to be the worst version. While I’d rather have a 30 fps lock obviously, I’ll wait and see before being angry at it. Those games are massive endeavour that surely tax those consoles to the maximum, I can accept a less than ideal performance if it doesn’t break the game completely.

GTAV was not great on the 360, it would routinely drop into the low 20's. You can probably find an old Digital Foundry video for it on YouTube.

I can't come close to affording an Xbox One X at the moment, and I'm not buying it for one game, even if it is a game I'll love and play a lot of. Like the Xbox One X is cool, but it's only exclusive game (since I have a good enough PC to run a lot of games on around High settings) is Sunset Overdrive (and now a nicer RDR2) so I think I'll be fine on my ol' PS4.

I mean it's nice, but I have never had any problems with a Rockstar game technically outside of minor bugs that are just goofy and don't impact the game, or like some slowdown for a quick moment during very heavy firefights. Not a big deal for me.

@cronus42@soulcake

I'd bet just about anything on there being a PC version of RDR2. My understanding as to the reason RDR1 never came to PC was that it was apparently a coding mess. Whereas with RDR2, I imagine the game was built from the ground-up with the understanding that it needs to be able to be ported to PC.

Rockstar surely doesn't hate money, and I think it's fair to assume that RDR2 will follow the GTA V plan of releasing the same game multiple times on various platforms and perhaps cross-gen. I wouldn't read anything into there not being official confirmation of the PC version as of yet; they're smart enough to know that they may be able to move some more copies now to the folks who have a console and a PC that otherwise might simply wait on the PC version if they knew for sure it was coming.

I would frankly be shocked if they didn't make a PC version to drop sometime next year (hell, it may already be done).

I’m usually skeptical of hype, but between that Eurogamer article and a lot of what I’m seeing from reviews...

I might bite and get this one...

I checked it out, and it looked like it averaged around 26-28FPS on 360 even in the city areas but dipped into the low 20's when barrels exploded and such. I'm still on the fence about getting an XB1X and this game or not. I have zero interest in any exclusives for the XBOX but the added performance of the X would mean I'd start getting all multiplatform titles in that ecosystem. I already have a pretty beefy PC so it seems kind of like a waste but I do like my console games running well.

But as I remember you don't own or care for consoles so hopefully this comes to PC and you can enjoy it with an uncapped framerate or at least a steady 60 down the road, if it ever comes to PC but I don't see why it wouldn't with the success of GTAV.

They did not announce a PC version or even an updated current-gen version until well after the PS3/360 versions had come out. This exact discussion happened when GTA V came out - "I'll wait for the PC release", "there won't be a PC release, remember how there isn't a PC version of RDR?", "No, just you wait, there will be a PC version eventually", along with a number of posts saying something along the lines of "oh well, if there's a PC release I'll just double dip" or "damn it, I'm too excited to wait for a PC release, I need it now".

To my knowledge this has never been confirmed, but the rumor for the longest time has been that Red Dead Redemption 1's code is such a massive mess that it's a miracle it works at all. From what I understand, porting it to PC would be an absolute nightmare of a task and Rockstar doesn't really want to tackle that. They probably could, but also, how much money is a re-release of an eight year old game actually going to make and is it enough to support all the post-launch bug fixes and extra programming work it would take to make sure it's playable?

Yeah, I'd be stunned if they didn't do a PC port for this. The GTAV PC port probably made them a half-billion by itself; it'd be kind of crazy not to go forward with a port here. I assume they just haven't announced it yet because they know a bunch of people will buy it twice if they wait.

@humanity: I bought an X to play Red Dead (financed through the Xbox All Access deal), even while also owning a beefy PC and not caring about MS exclusives, and I haven't regretted the purchase in the slightest. In addition to the modern multiplatform benefits, the backwards compatibility with enhancements is downright magical if you still have a library of 360 or OG Xbox games lying around. If you have the money, I'd definitely go for it.

@banefirelord: MAn and just when I talked myself down that maybe I don't really need that X ..now you got me back on that horse again.

Once again, just like the original Xbox, Microsoft has found itself with the most powerful hardware on the console market, but lacking games. It's great to see developers taking advantage of superior hardware, but I still can't justify buying an X. Xbox exclusives are seemingly dead, now that Microsoft is putting all their first party games on PC as well, so I'll never be missing out on any of those. That leaves games like RDR2, where it's a third-party game that doesn't come out on PC because they know they can get people double dipping later. How often does that happen? Pretty much never, aside from Rockstar.

Sony has simply locked up way too many exclusives for them to compete. I hope Microsoft has something down the pipeline, I'd love to have an excuse to buy myself an X, but it seems too late now. They'll have to wait for the next generation, and just try to do better at locking up exclusives.