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This Is Why GTA V On PC Arrives After Console

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  • Rockstar Games
  • Software
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September 15, 2014 12:25:33 PM

Rockstar explains why the PC version doesn't debut until next year.

This Is Why GTA V On PC Arrives After Console : Read more

More about : gta arrives console

September 15, 2014 1:25:40 PM

Release dates for Grand Theft Auto 4 copy pasted from wikipedia

Release date for PlayStation 3 & Xbox 360
29 April 2008

Microsoft Windows
NA 2 December 2008

April - December was 9 months to "spit-polish" Grand Theft Auto 4 for PC

They must have hired much better coders to be able to "spit-polish" Grand Theft Auto 5 in 3 months
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September 15, 2014 1:25:54 PM

It's a joke right...?
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a b 4 Gaming
September 15, 2014 1:43:18 PM

I work in the marketing and advertising industry and I'll tell you that is a BS answer. They are delaying it to maximize console sales. That is what their investors want and they were instructed to make something up to appease the pc gamers. Plain and simple. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if GTA V ends up running as clunky on PC as GTA 4 does.

And is it weird that I can tell which articles are written by Kevin Parrish just by reading the title on the main page of Tom's. I can't do that with any of the other writers, but I can always spot a Kevin. Something about his writing makes it stand out from the others but I can't quite put my finger on the reason why.
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September 15, 2014 1:44:59 PM

Quote:
Release dates for Grand Theft Auto 4 copy pasted from wikipedia

Release date for PlayStation 3 & Xbox 360
29 April 2008

Microsoft Windows
NA 2 December 2008

April - December was 9 months to "spit-polish" Grand Theft Auto 4 for PC

They must have hired much better coders to be able to "spit-polish" Grand Theft Auto 5 in 3 months


actually they got more then a year since the ps3/360 release. so its some months on top of the 9 months gta4 got.
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September 15, 2014 2:07:57 PM

I can't wait to pair my R9 295X2 with this and enjoy my ~30fps.
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a b 4 Gaming
September 15, 2014 2:31:39 PM

I bet they are working on making a super tight DRM for it.
"you can only play gtaV after inserting a drop of your first born son's blood into the USB Authenticator"

But seriously, if they actually make a good DRM that's secure yet, non-instrusive, It would be amazing.
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September 15, 2014 3:48:42 PM

and then the game comes out and the port is a PoS
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a b 4 Gaming
September 15, 2014 4:08:08 PM

I'm sure you are absolutely right.
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a b 4 Gaming
September 15, 2014 4:09:58 PM

I'm sure you are absolutely right.
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a b 4 Gaming
September 15, 2014 4:11:05 PM

I hate tom's absolute inability to make quoting work on mobile. Technology site???
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September 15, 2014 4:31:43 PM

Quote:
I bet they are working on making a super tight DRM for it.
"you can only play gtaV after inserting a drop of your first born son's blood into the USB Authenticator"

But seriously, if they actually make a good DRM that's secure yet, non-instrusive, It would be amazing.

They have Steam. Anything else is trash.
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September 15, 2014 5:44:18 PM

RCguitarist is absolutely spot on. I dont blame them tho tbh there are definitely lots of people willing to pay for this game but the longer they delay it the more sales will be earned. Just the nature of the PC gaming community some play it fairly while others won't.

However what they don't have an excuse for is a shty port. Kiss my faith in Rockstar goodbye if they don't put any effort into it.
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September 15, 2014 5:44:49 PM

RCguitarist is absolutely spot on. I dont blame them tho tbh there are definitely lots of people willing to pay for this game but the longer they delay it the more sales will be earned. Just the nature of the PC gaming community some play it fairly while others won't.

However what they don't have an excuse for is a shty port. Kiss my faith in Rockstar goodbye if they don't put any effort into it.
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September 15, 2014 5:48:13 PM

If it is a quality PC port, then by all means I shall buy it. I have the 360 version (around 30 mil on one account) so transferring will be a breeeze :p 
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September 15, 2014 6:38:37 PM

Finished it twice on PS3, and I can't WAIT to get this on PC.
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September 15, 2014 8:34:39 PM

Running 3 GTX 780 Tis with a 4K display looking forward to this and Far Cry 4, The Division and Rainbow 6.
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a b 4 Gaming
September 15, 2014 9:08:48 PM

Quote:
Quote:
I bet they are working on making a super tight DRM for it.
"you can only play gtaV after inserting a drop of your first born son's blood into the USB Authenticator"

But seriously, if they actually make a good DRM that's secure yet, non-instrusive, It would be amazing.

They have Steam. Anything else is trash.


Yet Steam, who once saved PC gaming, is now slowly killing it. and this is due to the ever so popular (I love them too) steam sales. Any publisher (both big and indie) knows that nearly half of the PC gamers would never buy a game at the opening price, but wait for at least a 50% off sale or something before even considering a game. therefore, once again, PC becomes the platform with decreasing profit and an afterthought for most publishers
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September 15, 2014 10:10:26 PM

I don't think they are going to laden it with excessive DRM at all.

I think they are delaying it so long after the PS4/Xbx release so they can sell as many legit games as they can, which they are perfectly entitled to do.
By the time the PC version is released they would have sold enough to not bother with ridiculous DRM.

Not a bad strategy. Keeps them making good money, so they can keep making great games while not pissing off the world with insane DRM requirements.
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a b 4 Gaming
September 15, 2014 11:10:34 PM

unfortunately I have my doubts that it will look any better on PC than console whilst needing significantly more processing power. I want to be amazed though.
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September 16, 2014 1:17:50 AM

My brother worked as the lead AI developer on GTA games up until GTA san andreas.
He told me at that time they had literally 1 person who did the conversion from console to PC.
Considering how bare minimum it was back then I would not be surprised if they have similar setup now.

For Christ sake here in Edinburgh they advertise for "Runners" to work in the office.
Know what a runner is? Basically it's a butler, job description states everything from making coffee to picking up washing, I kid you not.
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September 16, 2014 2:07:14 AM

I really really didn't expect all this negative feedback about a game delay. Unless you are planning on dying in the next few months, 2 months is an insignificant amount of time. It isn't going to cost you any more and the game is only going to get better. Just be a bit patient. Look back to some of the great games that people play, at this point would you care whether skyrim came out in November or January? No, cause it has no bearing on the fact that it is brilliant and you can play it absolutely tons.

Mr marketing and advertising has just written what everyone wants to hear and stuck an only slightly relevant job down to make it seem like he knows what he is saying. I am not personally attacking the guy but everyone could tell you that if you have to delay something, making an excuse of it needing work will help keep people happy. But you need to actually working for R* to call their bluff cause none of us know the truth.

Finally, PC gaming is much harder to develop for with the thousands of hardware configs and different software people run. You also have to factor in the higher quality graphics they have create assets and code for. Plus the in game film maker that worked quite well in gta v.

I have plenty to do in the 2 months between the release dates, and I really hope this is a great port of an already great game.
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September 16, 2014 4:12:19 AM

RCguitarist said:

And is it weird that I can tell which articles are written by Kevin Parrish just by reading the title on the main page of Tom's. I can't do that with any of the other writers, but I can always spot a Kevin. Something about his writing makes it stand out from the others but I can't quite put my finger on the reason why.


My bullshit detector beep at words like "we are incredibly excited"... marketing is either on too much caffeine or have severe ADHD it's in every announcement. I for one notice posts of Cangelini immediately because he's delegated to write articles as secondary PR .

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September 16, 2014 6:09:26 AM

"Yet Steam, who once saved PC gaming, is now slowly killing it. and this is due to the ever so popular (I love them too) steam sales. Any publisher (both big and indie) knows that nearly half of the PC gamers would never buy a game at the opening price, but wait for at least a 50% off sale or something before even considering a game. therefore, once again, PC becomes the platform with decreasing profit and an afterthought for most publishers"

Bull. The PC market has ALWAYS been an afterthought for these people. Frankly, if there was a way that outside marketers could offer lesser prices on the Microsoft and Sony stores for the PS4 and XBox One, they would do it.
Competition ALWAYS improves things and someone needs to do a 'noncompetitive practices' suit against both Microsoft and Sony on this issue.
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September 16, 2014 6:17:46 AM

We can only hope and pray that the PC port winds up better optimized than the GTAIV PC port, or we'll need a pair of Titan Zs in SLI just to get a decent framerate at 1080p.
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September 16, 2014 6:46:48 AM

I want a "thank you PC master race players, we owe you our very success from the start" edition. otherwise i'm going to torrent it. ah, no, i forgot i already decided to torrent it because i paid for gta4 (played 32 minutes) and maxpayne3 which was stereo audio. so rockstar owes me money.
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September 16, 2014 7:10:54 AM

I'm glad its coming out. Now if they could bring RDR that would be sweet.
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September 16, 2014 1:24:10 PM

@vmem. You do realise that when steam discounts by 50% they've found sales go up by 1000%. So the devs make more money on a sale than at any other time. How is that much more sales bad for the industry?
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September 16, 2014 3:07:42 PM

If they released the pc version at the same time as the console version then most people will pirate the pc version rather than buy any version.
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a b 4 Gaming
September 16, 2014 4:48:22 PM

Optimus_Toaster said:
I really really didn't expect all this negative feedback about a game delay. Unless you are planning on dying in the next few months, 2 months is an insignificant amount of time. It isn't going to cost you any more and the game is only going to get better. Just be a bit patient. Look back to some of the great games that people play, at this point would you care whether skyrim came out in November or January? No, cause it has no bearing on the fact that it is brilliant and you can play it absolutely tons.

Mr marketing and advertising has just written what everyone wants to hear and stuck an only slightly relevant job down to make it seem like he knows what he is saying. I am not personally attacking the guy but everyone could tell you that if you have to delay something, making an excuse of it needing work will help keep people happy. But you need to actually working for R* to call their bluff cause none of us know the truth.

Finally, PC gaming is much harder to develop for with the thousands of hardware configs and different software people run. You also have to factor in the higher quality graphics they have create assets and code for. Plus the in game film maker that worked quite well in gta v.

I have plenty to do in the 2 months between the release dates, and I really hope this is a great port of an already great game.


I don't think it's negative feedback about the delay itself (although it does fall after Xmas), rather the reason for the delay ie. the marketing BS that it's going to be optimised for PC when in reality it's probably to maximise console sales and the pc version will not look any better. People don't like to be BS'd that they are waiting for something better to run on their expensive machines, only to get something which isn't better.
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September 16, 2014 5:45:10 PM

"I can't wait to pair my R9 295X2 with this and enjoy my ~30fps."

You never know---after all Max Payne 3, while being an otherwise pretty disappointing game, ran great even at launch, so RS *can* make a good PC port.
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September 16, 2014 7:18:56 PM

Technically, they don't need to do any optimizations porting it to the PC. The bigger issue are PC players. Everyone knows Rockstar will need 3 months to build a player base on the consoles before the PC gamers start raping everyone with their fast reaction times and instantaneous movements using a mouse and keyboard.
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September 16, 2014 7:45:24 PM

vmem said:
Quote:
Quote:
I bet they are working on making a super tight DRM for it.
"you can only play gtaV after inserting a drop of your first born son's blood into the USB Authenticator"

But seriously, if they actually make a good DRM that's secure yet, non-instrusive, It would be amazing.

They have Steam. Anything else is trash.


Yet Steam, who once saved PC gaming, is now slowly killing it. and this is due to the ever so popular (I love them too) steam sales. Any publisher (both big and indie) knows that nearly half of the PC gamers would never buy a game at the opening price, but wait for at least a 50% off sale or something before even considering a game. therefore, once again, PC becomes the platform with decreasing profit and an afterthought for most publishers


It's a question of value.
I've only ever bought one PC game at full price, because it was worth it.

Want people paying more? Make something worth it. As it stands, the market is artificially inflated, and has been for years.
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September 16, 2014 9:12:19 PM

Well, Rockstar has already given us PC people the finger and are making us wait a year and a half just to play a half assed console port, why pay full price since I've been forced to wait so long already?
Its a $5 Steam sale for me, they don't like it, start releasing within a month or two after the console release.
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September 17, 2014 8:46:49 PM

The only thing R* has going for them, in hopes of a quality port, is the job they did with Max Payne 3. It ran fairly well on my hardware, and seeing that both games use the same engine, you can keep your hopes up that they will not make the same mistake they did with IV.
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September 17, 2014 8:52:11 PM

Honestly, I would rather them take atleast a year longer before they release the game on PC. Everyone is so hyped up about wanting it NOW, but in reality, that is in part the reason why game ports are so bad. Everyone is rushing them, or rather the general hype is. If they spent atleast a good year or so on the game, and really utilized that time trying to optimize the game to its max, we could even see 4 year old desktops running it at medium settings. But no. We are forced to buy hundreds of dollars (some thousands) in hardware so that we can play shitty console ports that aren't optimized at all.
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September 19, 2014 4:33:30 AM

First, you can't compare poor power pc console ports to PC, with fine x86 amd systems almost equal to actual PC ports. So porting to PC now is not complicated. Easy cake.

Second, there is graphic optimization, so waiting more than a year and a few more months to make it even better has sense. GTA V looking better than any other system is a FACT, so the only BS here are some comments.
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September 19, 2014 8:47:44 AM

FU rockstar. set back the PC version once again! by time you release this for PC it will be Ancient! will just buy for Ps4. stuff your january date for PC. was looking forward to that but again you let down for pc users.
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September 19, 2014 2:40:12 PM

it might be BS, but if they can polish the game even better for PC its worth the wait. You figure they make these console games with PCs but are limited to what they put into them due to the power of the console. Now that they bascially have a no limit they can add more things to make the game look better. I myself cant wait to see it
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September 19, 2014 8:31:24 PM

Quote:
I work in the marketing and advertising industry and I'll tell you that is a BS answer. They are delaying it to maximize console sales. That is what their investors want and they were instructed to make something up to appease the pc gamers. Plain and simple. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if GTA V ends up running as clunky on PC as GTA 4 does.

And is it weird that I can tell which articles are written by Kevin Parrish just by reading the title on the main page of Tom's. I can't do that with any of the other writers, but I can always spot a Kevin. Something about his writing makes it stand out from the others but I can't quite put my finger on the reason why.

Quote:
I work in the marketing and advertising industry and I'll tell you that is a BS answer. They are delaying it to maximize console sales. That is what their investors want and they were instructed to make something up to appease the pc gamers. Plain and simple. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if GTA V ends up running as clunky on PC as GTA 4 does.


Well I work in the game development industry, and I'll tell you that's a perfectly logical answer. PC gamers are religiously devoted to their more powerful hardware and expect more as a result.

You completely ignored the development side of it, and the huge feature list promised. They can't just not do any of that, it'd be pretty obvious, so they're not just lying. And that stuff will take that amount of time, it's not easy.

Did you ever think that both could be true? Maximise your console sales, then make a good PC version and cash in on that market too. It's good business sense and pleases everybody.

As a PC gamer, I'll be buying the PC version when it comes out.
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September 19, 2014 9:16:00 PM

amen to that
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a b 4 Gaming
September 21, 2014 8:07:14 AM

GTA5 will be awesome on PC. Why?

There was a really good article that went quite in depth on the coding that went into the game. They had the PC in mind during most of the coding. So much so, in fact, that you might consider the XBOX 360 and PS3 versions as "ports" of the PC version.

I suspect that has a lot to do with the "PC" nature of the new consoles. They must have known quite a while ago that the new consoles would use an x86 CPU so the basic coding would be nearly identical for PC/XBOX1/PS4.

Now I suspect the extra "polishing" for the PC version is more about compatibility due to the PC hardware variations and drivers which introduces a lot of extra complexity.

*Whatever the case, unlike GTA4 which sucks on every PC I've tried GTA5 should scale quite nicely and run fairly well even on a modest PC.
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September 21, 2014 4:55:44 PM

i think some of you are right about the holding out on PC to make more profits from console sales, it makes since for them to do this, but, we all know that last gen consoles (ps3 xbox360) had some users with modifications to the software or hardware to circumvent the security and DRM that the companies implemented to stop piracy, the Xbox 360 version was out on the webs like a week before any game retailers released it. we all know that its a little more work to modify a console to play backed up retail games, but we know there are some that do it, lets just hope that the PC port for GTA V is better than GTA IV, im running a pretty strong machine that still struggles to run that game maxed out, my $3,200 alienware m17xr4 with high end specs has trouble running it
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September 22, 2014 11:26:58 AM

It takes considerably less time to release for console, since there is only one combination to deal with. With PC, they have to release for several combinations of poorly manufactured motherboards, video cards, and ram.
You can't blame the programmers for this, when it's obviously the fault of cheap hardware manufacturers, and those who wish to buy the cheapest components from eBay and Amazon.
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September 22, 2014 12:29:43 PM

Bill Adams said:
It takes considerably less time to release for console, since there is only one combination to deal with. With PC, they have to release for several combinations of poorly manufactured motherboards, video cards, and ram.
You can't blame the programmers for this, when it's obviously the fault of cheap hardware manufacturers, and those who wish to buy the cheapest components from eBay and Amazon.


Well they should optimize for mid to high end builds. Noone expects them to optimize a game for a 10 year old piece of junk.
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September 22, 2014 9:40:08 PM

GTAIV ran fine on my Windows system, looked and played much better than the console version(s) even with awesome graphical mods installed. If it's that much of an improvement again then it's worth the wait. There's plenty of games out there and I'll probably only finish 25% of the ones I start before something else comes out and catches my eye. I'm in no hurry for something to release unless I've fallen for their pre-order hype and start to miss my money.
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September 23, 2014 6:09:51 AM

I am a born again PC gamer & I do not own nor do I ever play any pirated games. I own over 200 A titles (non steam games) and probably 150 Steam Games, this is not allot compared to some (Europeans, Americans) simply because out of a currency point of view you guys get more value for money & games are cheaper so you can own more.

I would have bought this game's collector's edition if it had one at launch for PC. (To give some clarity I own an Xbox 360 so I could have played GTA V at launch), Rockstar however (who I have supported with every single title they have ever released except bully 1 & 2, even GTA 1, GTA London) gave me a loyal fan a big middle finger.

I was already irritated because I had to buy GTA IV on Xbox because there was no PC at launch but that was fine next time I said.

Next time didn't come, I was one of the first 100 000 to sign that online petition. A year later Rockstar reveals it will release GTA V I went back to that website tried to remove my name/ point from it.

I had no longer cared, I still don't you have lost me as a customer. You will have to do some serious ass kissing if you want me back. I don't like console exclusives, I never have, even back when I had a PS2 I wanted to play that game on PC not on PS2.

Why rob me of my free choice of preference? I am sorry but there are many MANY publishers that still cater for my needs and release on PC before others (Blizzard comes to mind) I am sure Rockstar & Blizzard know eachother well & Blizzard is the richer of the 2, I have never heard of a Rockstarcon ? Have you? So what makes Blizzard so rich? Oh that's right PC gamers!

No thanks Jeff
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September 23, 2014 10:53:06 AM

photonboy said:
GTA5 will be awesome on PC. Why?

There was a really good article that went quite in depth on the coding that went into the game. They had the PC in mind during most of the coding. So much so, in fact, that you might consider the XBOX 360 and PS3 versions as "ports" of the PC version.

I suspect that has a lot to do with the "PC" nature of the new consoles. They must have known quite a while ago that the new consoles would use an x86 CPU so the basic coding would be nearly identical for PC/XBOX1/PS4.

Now I suspect the extra "polishing" for the PC version is more about compatibility due to the PC hardware variations and drivers which introduces a lot of extra complexity.

*Whatever the case, unlike GTA4 which sucks on every PC I've tried GTA5 should scale quite nicely and run fairly well even on a modest PC.


you should try GTAIV on my PC, run's silky smooth with mods, not a single drop in performance. Did i mention it looks fantastic? Oh right it looks fantastic! I cannot wait to get my hands on 5 its too bad by that time i won't have much time to play it with my new job. Hopefully its more fun then my 360 copy.
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September 23, 2014 6:32:21 PM

I hate how some games are console exclusive. At least this game will actually make it onto Pc, unlike most of halo series.
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September 23, 2014 11:35:26 PM

i have R9 -290 is its enough for this game??
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