Red Dead Redemption 2 is elbowing everyone else out of the way on PC on November 5. (Well, Planet Zoo is holding its ground. Good for you, Planet Zoo.) Red Dead Redemption 2—there never has been a real way to shorten that name without causing confusion—has been on PS4 and Xbox One since October of last year, but Rockstar Games always does right by PC gamers and makes the PC launch special in and of itself.
To wit, consoles run the game at 30 frames per second, while PC will get 60 fps. The PS4 Pro and Xbox One X upscale to 4K resolution, while PC can push out 4K too, if your PC and monitor are on the same page with a high-end display setup. PC will have an increased draw distance over consoles, higher quality global illumination and ambient occlusion for improved day and night lighting, higher quality snow trails (those snow trails are already insanely good on console), improved reflections, and deeper, higher resolution shadows at all distances, while tessellated tree textures and improved grass and fur textures add realism in every plant and animal.
The PC version doesn't just have technical enhancements. It'll also bring a lot of goodies to the single-player Story Mode. Stuff like new bounty hunter missions, new gang hideouts, new weapons, new treasure maps, new horses, and new trinkets that boost skills and abilities. That's all "super easy" to implement from a developer's standpoint, but it's just more icing on the cake for folks wondering if they should buy the game for a second time, should they already own it on console. Also, lots of Red Dead Online items to keep you and your posse in effect.
Looks like if you pre-purchase the game on the Rockstar Games Launcher, anytime between now and October 22, you'll get a bunch of stuff. you'll get a free upgrade to the Premium Edition, with $20 discounts on Special Edition or Ultimate Edition. And! You can pick out two free PC titles from Rockstar's library between Bully, Max Payne 3, L.A. Noire, Grand Theft Auto III, GTA: Vice City, and GTA: San Andreas.
Red Dead Redemption 2 will be on November 5 at the Epic Games Store, Greenman Gaming, GameStop, Humble Bundle, and additional digital retailers—but it won't hit Steam until December.
