Again, the technical challenges and so on are completely beside the point. Yes, there are legitimate reasons for not doing a simultaneous release. But if they are going to do PC at all (and let’s face it, the number of AAA releases that aren’t planned for PC in this day and age outside of a console exclusivity deal is practically zero), I am not seeing any legitimate reason to withhold that information until well after the console launch, as has been Rockstar practice for a while now.
If you do end up playing John Marston again (please!), I hope they can convince the same voice actor to reprise his role. That guy was so good that it would be jarring playing as ‘Mr Marston’ but with a different voice actor.
I consider it probable that Rockstar is using the existing RDR code base for making the sequel. A code base that is renowned for being so hairy they were unable to ship a PC version, despite a clearly demonstrated public interest. 15 months out, they definitely do not have the confidence to ship a PC version that will work day and date with console. I would bet that their engineers are still figuring out how expensive it will be (and how much it will cost). If those factors start looking better, you’ll hear more. But until they know that, marketing isn’t going to talk about a PC version they don’t know they can afford.
No one is holding a Red Dead Revolver to people’s heads making them buy both versions. There used to be such a thing as self-discipline / personal responsibility that would step in and say ‘Self, I better hold off in case they release a PC version because that’s really where I’d prefer to play it.’
Why the hell would they use a code base that’s a couple\few products back as opposed to the GTAV current gen codebase? Even if they needed to pull features forward from RDR, they wouldn’t start with RDR; they’d start with latest and port in the old stuff (refactoring along the way to be sure).
Because they’re different teams, and there’s a lot of value in experience with a code base that is lost if you transition to a different engine.
Other studios and publishers manage this just fine. Moreover, I’m pretty sure Rockstar just uses their in-house engine, and iterates on it with each title.
Besides, who would want to update spaghetti code from the last gen when you could transition to easier x86 with this gen? That was probably part of the motivation and calculations involved in porting GTA5 to this gen, similar to what Bethesda did with Skyrim. I have no doubt the RDR team is working from that updated branch.
Rockstar is definitely going console only at first to double dip. Very fucking annoying as a consumer but hard to argue from the business side considering what happened with GTA V.
Oh Rockstar, fuck off. Announcing this an entire year ahead of time? And screwing your PC fans again. No thanks. I have more self respect than this.
RDR was a bit of an outlier. The code for RDR was an hopeless mess according to the scuttlebutt. It was an offshoot of the RAGE base, but Rockstar San Diego juryrigged a bunch of their own code to make horse riding work, improve draw distance for the relatively flat terrain, as well as chunks of work-in-progress Euphoria. In fact, it was such a cobbled-together Frankenstein’s monster of programming that Rockstar was never able to clean it up for the PC. So the rumors say, anyway.
Here is what Rockstar officially said when asked years later:
According to people who worked at Rockstar, the higher-ups at the company knew there was money being left on the table with no PC version of RDR. The clamor was heard. They just couldn’t get it to happen.
As Malkav11 said and I said, even if they had some insurmountable trouble to release for one more x86 platform, they could still admit they will release it and not hold their fans in the dark. But, they are shit, so they won’t.
Yeah, I doubt this.RAGE engine has been conceived guess where ? In Rockstar San Diego. Their main tech group is there. They are going to be using its latest iteration, improved from GTAV. And GTAV runs brilliantly on PC already. Not to mention the “code mess” rumor from RDR is just a rumor that has never been proven. I have never even seen the original source for that rumor.
Yes, it would be nice if everyone had selfdiscipline. But many people don’t and Rockstar are cynically using it. I am not gonna defend that practice even if it makes financial sense for them.
Heh; I know people who worked on RDR. While the rumors may have been slightly inflated, they’re not wholly untrue.
However, I’m with you - there’s no way they’d build a new game (six years after the last release) on a house of cards like that. A smaller game company wouldn’t do that; why would a huge company like Rockstar? They’re absolutely on the latest iteration of their engine. They’re smart with their engine evolution; you can see features and tools trickle in over each of their titles and get improved on in the next. This is similar to what Ubisoft did with the last gen set of AC titles, only they were able to do it on the appearance of an annual basis because they are HUGE.
Note to self: check back next year when people are talking about the game and not port wankery.
Nerds gotta nerd, man.
Red Dead Online was a pretty awesome and overlooked feature of the original game. There are a lot of parallels between GTA Online and its predecessor. I had so much fun messing around with RDR online. It was basically GTAV Online without most of the content. There were horse races and team deathmatch, but not many of the fun heists or activities. I expect them to change that for the new game.
I feel like a bunch of us from QT3 played that multiplayer on 360 and had a blast.
FWIW, the excitement over the sequel here resulted in my buying the original. I tend to stick to PC, so never played it!
I’ve only played the opening scene, ie the train ride, riding out to the fort, getting shot, recovering, etc, but I already like the cut of RDR’s jib.
I do recall playing online with Tom and a bunch of other Qt3ers (apologies that I can’t remember names) and having a blast. I distinctly remember sniping enemies across the map with cannons, which is never not fun.
Nice! Backwards compatible on Xbox One? Or are you playing on original hardware, (360/PS3)?
I did recently restart on Xbox One when it was added to backward compatibility but got distracted by DOOM and Grim Dawn. But playing through that part that you’re talking about, I just love the awkward quiet pacing and tense scenes where you don’t know why they’re tense. I love that about this game. We’re so used to modern editing techniques, so when a game like RDR has scenes with long quiet scenes, the anticipation just builds and builds sometimes.
I caved in, per this earlier post, and picked up the Xbox One. RDR, Minecraft and The Crew are my only titles on it.
Interesting article on Marston voice actor.