caved, and bought Crimson Desert on PS5, downloading now. 85GB! I played Black Desert Online for three years and I like Pearl Abyss as a developer and this looks pretty much like a single player version of that game

I never played a game with as big a world as BDO, it was phenomenal. no fast travel* and it took an hour to sail across the ocean, and you could literally get lost in the desert

*well technically there is fast travel but you needed one of the rarest items in the game to do it. that may have changed now but when I last played the Archaeologist's Map was really hard to get, literally days of grinding for the 0.000000001% chance to get the pieces to drop. I'll never forget the feeling when I finally made it and people saw the server announcement

"well met, stranger. I'm sweatier than a pig's arse!"

...is what one of the first random NPCs I talked to in Crimson Desert said to me earlier πŸ˜„

game is great. movement is very slow and weighty, and the combat has a great feel to it. my experience playing Black Desert means I feel right at home already with some of the systems, and I can see myself getting lost in this game for hours

looks and runs great on my base PS5 at 1080p in Balanced mode

Crimson Desert combat is a mash up of a few classes from Black Desert, mainly warrior. even some of the skill names are the same! like Spinning Slash. it's all about learning the button combos to pull off the moves, can see the better players doing some crazy shit. the combat will have a very high skill ceiling I think

the tutorials are utterly awful though, I've had to Google about 20 things already (including "how to put my weapon away")

spotted a couple of characters from BDO already, too! Alustin (who was an Alchemist in BDO and is some sort of Abyss Priest here) and the little Shai Rulupee. so cool

raging at the boss at the end of the Quarry and his "disappears underground then pops up to one-shot you" bullshit attack 😀

I got him, but as the first boss most players will likely face they could've toned it down a bit. took me about 20 attempts

I knew nothing about the story in Crimson Desert before buying it, and I am now starting to suspect that this game might just be a prequel to Black Desert. We have Alustin (who I was always suspicious that there was more going on than we knew about in BDO), Rulupee, and now Shakatu, all turning up

if we end up in a little port town called Velia at some point I will squeee

I really really hope the black spirit turns up at some point, I love that little guy πŸ€” I have the beginnings of a theory but it's just a wild stab in the dark

spent over an hour just fishing last night πŸ™πŸ» listening to the sound of the river and the ambient noise, the game is gorgeous

I wonder if there's a rare chance to fish relics πŸ€” (BDO again) you can get accessories like earrings and other items the fish have swallowed

#CrimsonDesert

this is the Black Spirit from Black Desert Online, a major character in the game as it possesses the player character right at the start of the game. you never find out what its true intentions are, or even what it really is

most of the time it appears as a cute little blob thing however there are times when you see its true form (second pic)

the symbol on its forehead is used for your stamina meter in #CrimsonDesert and I am pondering if there are any lore implications of that... πŸ€”

"if we end up in a little port town called Velia at some point I will squeee"

AAAAAAA SQUEEEEEEE! it's the same, the approach to the town, the coastline, everything! 😭

(in BDO town faced North and you couldn't see a far coastline, it was open ocean)

one of the first things I did when I started BDO way back when was make a little rowing boat. and look what I found 😭

#CrimsonDesert

the scale of this game is absolutely fucking bananas

#CrimsonDesert

just fought the boss at (I assume) the end of chapter 3 and it was SO cool, like something out of The Wicker Man. they absolutely nailed the atmosphere, and the cut scenes during the fight were incredible

had to force myself to turn it off for the night

#CrimsonDesert

yes you can pet the cat

just like in BDO you can get pets that follow you around and collect loot for you.

I now have a cat mewing in the background of all the very serious cutscenes. best game ever

#CrimsonDesert

each time you pick up the cat and pet it you gain 5 trust, can do this a max of 5 times a day. once trust gets to 100 you bond with the animal and it becomes your pet, so it takes 4 in-game days. you can drop meat for +10 trust to speed up the process a bit

can have up to 30 pets it looks like, with probably 5 out at a time, if it's the same as BDO, eventually I plan to be a big gruff Viking bloke followed around at all times by a swarm of cats

I am disappointed to discover that you can only have one pet out at a time, if you try to summon a second one the first one disappears πŸ˜₯ boo

@COMPU73E File a complaint, the number of issues they've just patched is astonishing - it's like they've been listening to my inner monologue πŸ™ŒπŸ˜„ https://crimsondesert.pearlabyss.com/en-US/News/Notice/Detail?_boardNo=76

- added button prompt before using keys -πŸ™ βœ…
- Changed stealing to not decrease Contribution before an NPC witnesses the act πŸ˜…
-Movement speed increases by tapping the running key once - instead of tapping like a lunatic βœ…
- Reduced Flight's stamina consumption, longer Batman gliding yay βœ…
- Improved the interaction range to make interacting with NPCs more convenient - that was driving me nuts, you had to stand directly in front of an npc βœ…
- PlayStation 5] Added a β€œFixed 4K Output” option to provide a sharper gameplay experience, regardless of whether the display natively supports 4K, allowing for a sharper image.
- and a ton of other fixes and improvements πŸ™Œ

[Updates] Patch Notes Version 1.01.00 | Crimson Desert

Fellow Greymanes,Here are the fixes and improvements that have been added this patch.  Major UpdatesThis patch adds 5 summonable mounts, decreased loading times for fast travel and revival, and some more changes to controls as part of our ongoing efforts to improve the game's controls.  Update Sc...

Crimson Desert
@COMPU73E Woke up and patch is live already on PS5, they are cooking 

@chris "Improved locked doors so that an interaction button is displayed, allowing players to choose whether to use a key to open the door."

yes! drove me nuts that did

@COMPU73E The number of times I've inadvertently used a key because I went through some back door just to find the main door wide open - or I've used a key and there was absolutely nothing inside πŸ™„ Thing is, there are certain buildings/doors where you actually need a key to progress or get to a recipe and coming back later or reloading from a save sucks, so I'm really glad that's fixed!
@COMPU73E Vâlgar the Catomancer. 🀩
@COMPU73E πŸ˜„ Not yet. I'm going to adopt that fat cat I've seen in one of the mansions. And some of the dogs are really cool too. You can also dress your pets in armor like palico in Monster Hunter but I have no idea how, just unlocked the camp.