We all know Red Dead Redemption 2 is a beautiful wanting game (no less than when it’s not crashing and freezing), however holy moly does it look stupidly good in ultrawide. Specifically, the form of ultrawide made doable by Samsung’s new CRG9 monitor, which is a fair greater specced model of final 12 months’s ludicrous 49in, 32:9 CHG90.
Whereas the CHG90 had a decision of 3840×1080 (making it successfully two 1080p displays caught collectively), the CRG9 bumps that as much as 5120×1440, growing its pixel depend to the equal of two 1440p displays strapped collectively as a substitute. It’s a mad factor to behold, and man alive if there was ever a display tailored for Red Dead 2’s cinematic cowpoke antics, that is the one. Let me let you know, it’s gorgeous.
I’ll be doing a full evaluation of the monitor itself subsequent week, however for now I simply thought I’d take you for a fast tour throughout Red Dead 2’s ultrawide prairie. Because, once you’re out in your horse, searching over the plush inexperienced plains from a excessive mountaintop, it’s… argh. Genuinely, I’ve been wanting to put in writing about this all week, however I really feel like I’m bashing my head in opposition to a wall looking for phrases to explain the way it seems to be. With not a black bar in sight, taking part in Red Dead 2 at 32:9 is ‘shivers down the back of your spine’ ranges of excellent, a chefkiss.gif in pixel kind. I imply, simply take a look at what we’re coping with right here – it’s foolish even placing phrases subsequent to it:
That’s a PHWOAR in all caps proper there. Forget about Dutch and his quest to flee the regulation. When the world seems to be this good, I’d be pleased sufficient simply roaming mindlessly, story missions, aspect quests and every little thing else be damned.
Alas, the magic is often damaged every time the game enters a cutscene – which, within the opening hours it does exceedingly often. Here, the game shrinks again right down to 16:9, with black bars showing on the high and backside, and on both aspect of the motion. This ‘cinematic view’ nonetheless occurs on a daily monitor, after all, however right here the impact is rather more pronounced. Whereas regular 16:9 screens merely recommend a little bit of cinematic aptitude with their gentler narrowing of the display, taking part in Red Dead 2 on the Samsung CRG9 feels such as you’re abruptly squinting by means of a bathroom roll tube, and the sheer quantity of black house on the display seems to be foolish.
It’s a disgrace, particularly when so lots of the cutscenes happen in-engine – you’d assume they’d nonetheless be capable of open them out? Still, credit score the place it’s due: the transitions out and in are extremely slick, and the way in which the black bars slide in from the aspect actually emphasises the tightening of concentrate on what’s coming subsequent. You’ve loved your scenic trip, the game appears to say. Now it’s time to look down the cowboy’s tube.
Conversely, there’s an actual sense of freedom when the black bars soften away once more on the finish of a cutscene; like the entire world is abruptly at your toes once more after being closed off for a bit. It’s fairly liberating, watching the display open itself up like that after a tense shootout, particularly given how rather more actual property is uncovered when taking part in in 32:9 somewhat than on a daily 21:9 ultrawide monitor.
That mentioned, there are some practicality points that crop up when taking part in at such a mad facet ratio, particularly relating to wanting on the HUD. Instead of centralising your map and context-sensitive keyboard instructions across the center of the display, for instance, every little thing will get shunted proper to the very edges. That’s nice for getting a pleasant clear view of the panorama, however much less useful once you’re making an attempt to recollect which secret’s ‘shoot’ and which one’s for saying hi there.
Indeed, with so many key bindings to be taught, I discovered I used to be continuously having to show my head in direction of the underside proper of the display to ensure I used to be urgent the best buttons. Sure, it’s a small criticism within the grand scheme of issues, however given how typically you’re required to do stuff in Red Dead Redemption 2, whether or not it’s chatting to members of your gang or simply fetching a shotgun out of your horse’s saddlebags, this perpetual backwards and forwards can get tiring fairly shortly.
Whatever you do, don’t set your HUD’s Safezone to 100% on an ultrawide monitor. You’ll break your neck.
That mentioned, even at its tightest setting (90%), the HUD nonetheless requires a little bit of a head crane.
Of course, I’d think about this impact shall be barely much less pronounced on common 21:9 ultrawide screens, particularly if you happen to’ve acquired one with a much less intrusive base that permits you to set it again additional in opposition to the wall. The CRG9, however, takes up virtually 50% of the depth of my desk in the intervening time, which suggests it finally ends up sitting fairly near my face once I’m sitting down. You can use the ‘HUD Safezone’ possibility within the Display settings to deliver button prompts additional in in direction of the center, however even the tightest possibility of 90% horizontal required a full head activate the CRG9 earlier than the HUD got here into view.
Similarly, you want a beast of a graphics card to run Red Dead Redemption 2 at 5120×1440. Indeed, I’ve been taking part in the game with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super over the past couple of days and even that’s been struggling to hit a clean 60fps on Medium-ish settings, at that decision. When I attempted including some High settings to the combination, the body fee shortly fell again right down to someplace nearer to 45-50fps. It’s nonetheless playable, after all, but it surely’s additionally not fairly as silky clean as I’d like.
Again, this shall be much less of an issue on regular ultrawide displays, which typically max out at 3440×1440. I wasn’t in a position to check this specific decision on the CRG9, however even dropping it right down to 3840×1080 allowed me to ramp virtually every little thing as much as Ultra on my RTX 2080 Super. So, these with barely much less highly effective graphics playing cards ought to nonetheless be capable of get a reasonably first rate body fee on Medium-High settings at 3440×1440.
It’s additionally value noting that the game’s picture mode restricts you to 16:9, even on an ultrawide monitor, which for me was virtually extra devastating than having to decrease my graphics settings.
Ultimately, regardless of all the sensible drawbacks, taking part in Red Dead Redemption 2 in ultrawide mode is a feast of sheer spectacle. I’ll be very unhappy certainly when I’ve to bid farewell to the CRG9 and ship it again to its cage at Samsung subsequent week. With wild landscapes and panoramic views that roll so far as the attention can see, that is precisely the form of game that cries out to be performed in ultrawide, and I’d undoubtedly advocate it if you happen to’ve acquired the best package.
