While the game proper releases next Tuesday, November 5, Rockstar invited us in to get an early taste of how the game is shaping up on PC, and having sunk over 500 hours into the Xbox One version of the game since its release last year, I kind of felt obliged. And on the superior desktop platform, it did not disappoint.

The sheer number of PC gamers who've likely just "looked the other way" in frustration that such a lauded series never saw the light of desktop day, can now start to understand the hype and absorb themselves in one of the most celebrated games of any generation. Here's a snippet from my hands-on:

There was a moment during my hands on where, while rounding an ascending path to the north-east side of the stupidly-large game-world map, I could see a waterfall off into the distance. Rockstar has been most vocal about draw distance improvements on PC (though I’ll argue shortly it’s in lighting and particles), and this was a living example of those claims. The waterfall at Brandywine Drop doesn’t come into view on console until you get north of Martha’s Swain. You can see the drop point; a sheer rockface, still detailed, south of Martha’s Swain, but no waterfall. And it’s not something that alarms you -- Red Dead Redemption 2 is riddled with trees and treelines; elevation and valleys. Shrubbery and animals that capture the eye. But on PC, oddly, I realised coming around this bend, on this path at this elevation, and at some distance beyond me, I hadn’t ever seen this waterfall before. Of course I had, but I had to be closer to it in order to see it.

Click here for our full PC hands-on.