Crimson Desert

Took a stroll down south of Demeniss. Found a giant cube like thing, not sure how it works. Fought some bushes. Can see blimps in the distance. Got attacked by a cliff. Everywhere you look, theres something new. New QoL updates are good.

It's everything, all at once. This works for and against it. It's not as refined as say, Horizon or RDR2, but it still looks amazing. And it does so much more than any game I've played before. Im nearing 40 hours in and only explored about 30% of the map, if even. Constantly something new to find or explore.

It won't be for everyone, and its a slow game, as in theres no rush. But I can honestly say I love it. I'm not even close to bored with it. I've seen clips and pictures of things I've yet to encounter. I want to move on but constantly distracted by literal shiny things. It's massive but filled with stuff to do. Does take a while to get used to everything that's happening, but with the most recent update it's a lot more fun to move around.

Easily my GOTY contender.

I'm 45 ish hours in I think . must check steam clock again . Iv most the side stuff done in Hernand including most of the grey mane stuff. The base building and wagon stuff defo need a bit of balance patching . Hard make money or understand what's going on . Iv basically not left Hernand at all . Iv been making dust of most the bosses but the Antumbra's Sword boss is after whooping my butt tonight so ya I be leaving that for 5 or 10 more hours gameplay . I'm still not finished chapter 5 on the main story .

Best thing to do is play it, it's very divisive, some people think it's goty and others hate it.

I actually really like it, when I'm not playing it I'm thinking about it and to me that's a sign of a great game.

I think someone said it really well when they said it's "the best bad game they've ever played",

for me it a game where it's flaws: UI, contextual controls, story/writing (even though I don't think it's that bad) and lack of hand holding really don't diminish the experience of exploration, power fantasy, beautiful world and that feeling of just getting lost in a game and suddenly 4 hours later going wtf I've done nothing. It's the same reason I loved rdr2, oblivion, Skyrim, Zelda etc. even with their flaws.

If anything, this game with 250 devs at peak and a budget of an estimated $150-300 million can produce this, my expectations for the estimated 6000 dev 3 billion budget GTA 6 is probably gone to unrealistic levels, that it won't live up to it.

That's exactly what I'm expecting to happen. You know what Crimson Desert doesn't have? Romance options. Thank ****. Seems like GTA 6 will be based around a romance "option". I'm no longer the target audience for GTA...

Romance was always an option in GTA......as long as you had the cash

I'm in that in between games phase. Just wrapped Control and cyberpunk recently. Tried Kingdom come deliverance but it's just too much for me. So looking at this a lot recently. Obviously comparisons to days gone give it a boost. ☺️.

My main concern is the size, but from what I've heard the fun is in the playing not necessarily the beating it.

There is a heat/cold bar, which depletes your stamina faster in cold, no idea what heat does but i assume the same. If you hit the highest or lowest point, you take damage until you warm up/cool down. No diseases or maladies though.

Pretty sure the Crimson Desert is accessible from the get go, you'll just probably die trying to get there.

You could do both. You can dip, do a quick few side missions or a main mission, explore or just head to a enemy area and let loose. I've done an hour or two, and ive had hours long stints. You may not be able to just give it an hour or two!

Even just exploring is fun, because if you don't find anything you can do, you've at least (probably) unlocked a fast travel or two for returning later.