Despite the nightmare of its development and the chilling budget, Red Dead Redemption became one of the most important titles we enjoyed on the seventh generation of consoles. Today there are two "official" methods to play it: using the original hardware (X360, PS3), or taking advantage of backward compatibility services, either directly on Xbox One or via PlayStation Now. However, there is a third path: Play Red Dead Redemption on PC with the Xenia emulator for Xbox 360… and have patience. There is still a lot of work ahead, but it’s close.
Every console emulator has a game that defines it technically. Thanks to its natural popularity, it becomes a kind of benchmark, demonstrating the speed, stability, and graphical quality of the emulator. Some examples? In the case of the Game Boy, I think there is no doubt including the entire Pokémon series. On the Nintendo 64 it was clearly Super Mario 64. The Bleem! emulator for PS1 took Gran Turismo 1 and 2 as reference. A game often mentioned for PS2 emulators is Shadow of the Colossus, and when talking about the Nintendo Wii U, the honor belongs to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Now, the Xbox 360 seeks its own emulation benchmark, and the great candidate is Red Dead Redemption.
How to Play Red Dead Redemption on PC with Xenia
The video we just saw gives us an idea of how Red Dead Redemption works and looks with the latest build of the Xenia emulator in its DirectX 12 variant, as long as you have a nuclear reactor on your desk (Core i7-8700K at 5 GHz, 32 GB of RAM, and a GeForce GTX 1080). Don’t lose sight of the FPS counter from MSI Afterburner in the top right corner: The video was "corrected" to 60 FPS, but the performance is lower. Graphical errors are evident, and many users report that they cannot complete the first missions, which is quite common in the development of any emulator. Of course, not everything is negative in Xenia. The emulator already runs between 80 and 90 titles without speed issues, and the number keeps growing. We only need the crown jewel.
The process is relatively simple: Obtain a copy of Red Dead Redemption (I suggest the GOTY edition), and download the copy of Xenia most aligned with your system. The hypothesis is that AMD hardware performs better with the Vulkan build, but you should try both. Also, Xenia needs Windows 8 at minimum, and a processor with AVX instructions (Sandy Bridge or equivalent onward). The official page is blunt: If Xenia says your computer isn’t compatible, then you won’t be able to use it. The emulator requires much firepower, especially for a tank like Red Dead Redemption, but what once seemed impossible is now within our reach.
Official site and downloads: Click here
