It's always been known amongst PC gamers that Rockstar Games hates our very existence. Time and time again, they spit in our faces with their gross business practices and frustrating DRM. Whether it was the delibretly delayed PC release of GTA V, the laughable GTA San Andreas port or the shoddy GTA IV complete edition, with many missing features. Well this time, Rockstar has really outdone themselves and they will certainly never see another penny from me.

Last year on October 13th, Red Dead Redemption was released on both Nintendo Switch and PS4 after being an Xbox exclusive for 12 years. Alot of PC gamers own consoles too because of the exclusive games, so many PC gamers bought the new RDR for their Switch or PS4. However, Rockstar also recently announced a PC release for RDR on October 29th, which has completely divided PC gamers. Reasons being mainly the price tag of £40 and the multiplayer being completely absent. What alot of people are missing however, is Rockstar delibretly releasing the game on PC a year after alot of PC gamers bought it for their consoles, which means Rockstar have essentially conned people into buying their game twice. Now of course, no one is forcing them to buy it twice, but the bottom line, is alot of people will and many have pre-ordered, for God knows what reason. The game isn't going anywhere. There won't be a shortage as it is all digital downloads; pre-ordering in this day and age is stupid and only enables this kind of crappy behaviour by the companies.

So not only are they charging AAA prices for a 14 year old game, you actually get LESS content than you'd get if you played the original Xbox 360 version. They have completely cut the online mode, which was my absoulute favourite part of RDR and frankly the online mode was underappreciated for years. This is much like the GTA IV PC port, but at least it is cheaper. As well as that, there will undoubtedly be Rockstar launcher intergration just to further twist the knife, which will mean always online DRM for a now single-player only game. I have a theory that they re-release these old games purely for the purpose of forcing you to make an account and sell your soul to play said game. Bethesda did it with the Doom "remasters", this is no different, except Rockstar will get your information AND make a shit load of cash from sales too. Because now, it's not about the game. It's all about advertising. Always. So many games released now require you to agree to a third party EULA, and it is all legalese dribble which when translated, says "Give us your information so META, Google and God knows who else can make money from it."

But it doesn't have to be like this. I love RDR, it's one of my favourite games of all time, but I will not open my wallet for a DRM infested, money grabbing port. RDR has been playable on the PC for years, for free, thanks to emulation. There is no logical reason to pay for this even if you are a newcomer. Most of the new features like 4K can be done via emulation anyways, and even if they couldn't, do you really need to play a 14 year old game in 4K? Not for £40 you don't.