Black Desert Online, that Korean MMORPG you might remember for having a really detailed character creator that everyone lost their minds over a few years ago, debuted a new trailer for its upcoming expansion Land Of The Morning Light at Summer Game Fest tonight. Said expansion, which is out on Wednesday June 14th (hey, that's soon!) is Black Desert's biggest expansion yet, taking players to a new region inspired by Korea's medieval Joseon era. Do I know anything about Black Desert? Hell no. But can I appreciate a boss fight with a many-tailed fox spirit? Hell yes. Always.
]]>All I really know about Black Desert Online is that it has an amazing character creator, and that's why I instantly claimed a free copy when I heard that the makers are giving it away right now. I've since read that the fantasy MMORPG is a pretty fun game too? But in all honesty, I'm downloading it mostly to make pretty/weird/monstrous wizards.
]]>If you're looking for an entire second life, we're here to judge. We're only here to serve, which is why we've curated a list of the best MMOs and MMORPGs on PC right now. There's many a massively multiplayer experience to find out there these days, running the gamut from fantasy to sci-fi and... well mostly those two things, but you can still build a little you and live in a whole new world, make virtual friends to share your life with, engage in huge battles against massive enemies, and spend your evenings on raids to grind out levels. Some of the games on this list are tried and true classics that have stuck around for the long haul, and some are newer entries, but all offer deep worlds that you can disappear into.
]]>Black Desert Online developers Pearl Abyss are in the process of branching out of their MMO roots, having announced a clutch of new games this week. But while they might be working on games as far removed as a shooter and a cutesy monster catch ‘em up, it’s Black Desert’s battle royale-esque spinoff Shadow Arena that’s furthest through development. I got my hands on it at G-Star in Korea, and talked to lead producer Kwang Sam Kim about how it takes as much inspiration from Tekken as it does Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds.
]]>Stare at the abyss, they say, and the abyss stares back. Stare at Korean publishers Pearl Abyss, and they'll announce a handful of new MMORPGs. The company behind Black Desert Online unveiled no less than four new online games at Korean convention G-Star this morning. While two high-fantasy adventures keep well within their wheelhouse, Pearl Abyss also announced two radically contrasting games: a high energy kid-friendly monster catcher named DokeV and Plan 8, a grim n' bloody shooter from one of the minds behind Counter-Strike.
]]>The dramatically named Korean developer Pearl Abyss has three new games whirring away on their development PCs. The developers of Black Desert Online are working on three new MMOs: one shooter from the creator of Counter-Strike, one child-friendly jaunt, and one fantasy game. The three games have a proper reveal planned for on November 14, during Pearl Abyss Connect at G-STAR 2019. For now, we know they're called PLAN 8, Crimson Desert, and DokeV, alongside a handful of other details.
]]>Valve are joining all those great internet thought-leaders and telling you to clean your room, or at the very least to play the games that you've bought on Steam. Running this weekend until May 28th, 6pm GMT, the Steam Spring Cleaning Event provides a front-page checklist of games to try or return to, and rewarding the diligent with goodies to decorate their account page with.
All fluff, really, but as good an excuse as any to dust off something you might have picked up a few sales back. Of course, undermining this push, there's also a bunch of free weekend trials open on discounted games which also count towards your total. The list includes action RPG Grim Dawn, four-on-one competitive horror game Dead By Daylight and stylish 4X sci-fi strategy game Endless Space 2.
]]>Sandbox MMO Black Desert Online usually has a $10 entrance fee, but until October 17th, you can nab it for free, provided you level your character up fast enough. Grab the seven-day trial, and hit level 56 and complete the Awakening quest before time is up, and the game is yours to keep.
]]>CCP Games, the Icelandic mob who make spacebastard sandbox Eve Online, are being bought up by the South Korean lot behind Black Desert Online (that MMORPG with the weird and wonderful character creator). Pearl Abyss are to pay $425 million (about £330m) for CCP, with the plan that CCP will continue to run and work on their own games while also lending their expertise to Pearl. Though perhaps it's too early to rule out the possibility that this is part of another grand scheme or double-cross from an Eve player seeking an advantage over their spacefoes, the most expensive yet.
]]>We've just passed the half-way point of 2018, so Ian Gatekeeper and all his fabulously wealthy chums over at Valve have revealed which hundred games have sold best on Steam over the past six months. It's a list dominated by pre-2018 names, to be frank, a great many of which you'll be expected, but there are a few surprises in there.
2018 releases Jurassic World Evolution, Far Cry 5 Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Warhammer: Vermintide II are wearing some spectacular money-hats, for example, while the relatively lesser-known likes of Raft, Eco and Deep Rock Galactic have made themselves heard above the din of triple-A marketing budgets.
]]>Another year over, a new one just begun, which means, impossibly, even more games. But what about last year? Which were the games that most people were buying and, more importantly, playing? As is now something of a tradition, Valve have let slip a big ol' breakdown of the most successful titles released on Steam over the past twelve months.
Below is the full, hundred-strong roster, complete with links to our coverage if you want to find out more about any of the games, or simply to marvel at how much seemed to happen in the space of 52 short weeks.
]]>In case I haven't said this enough, Black Desert Online ain't your average MMO. And one of the places that is more apparent is when gearing your character. It can be a confusing process thanks to BDO's not-so-great localization and how different it is from typical MMORPGs. I'm going to spell it all out for you in this guide, showing you how to upgrade equipment while demystifying some of the more obtuse concepts—like what the hell a 'fail stack' is.
As well as explaining how all of this works, this article should demonstrate, to those who aren't convinced, that BDO is worth a look even if you're burnt out on traditional entries in the genre.
]]>When we sent Steven Messner into Black Desert Online [official site], he came out gushing about the MMORPG... then telling us how to build a production empire. It was not a small game, and it quickly became even bigger only a month after launch. Last week saw the release of the 'Mediah' expansion, a huge free update adding the eponymous new region to make the world about 30% larger - with all the new quests, bosses, items, and so on you'd expect from that.
]]>Alice is at GDC, which is why it falls to me to ask in her place: WATYPWPATWPAWAPTPYPWAWPAPTPTP this weekend? If you need time to think about it, you can peruse our own selections below, with Joe and Medoly kindly standing in for Adam and Pip as they have done all week.
]]>Black Desert Online is an MMO that combines a few aspects of EVE Online with a gorgeous fantasy world. It features plenty of fluid action combat, but you'd be missing out if you don't invest in its expansive and robust crafting and production systems. This guide will help you get started, teaching you how to use 'contribution points' to build your own business brewing beer.
]]>I had the hardest time getting into Black Desert Online [official site]. Learning to enjoy it feels like systematically dismantling every instinct MMORPGs have taught me. Black Desert, a sandbox MMO that launched in Korea last year, is the Invasion of the Body Snatchers of online RPGs; underneath its familiar skin is a refreshingly subversive experience. But the result is a game that can be confusing, frustrating, and captivating—often at the same time. Even as I continue to sometimes struggle against it, Black Desert Online has me locked in its grip.
]]>Earlier this year, Black Desert Online [official site] released a free standalone version of its sophisticated character creation suite and the results at RPS Towers were quite horrifying. Today, the Korean MMORPG has finally made it westward and you can check its launch trailer after the drop.
]]>We've been peering at Korean MMORPG Black Desert Online [official site] with some interest since plans for a western release were announced in 2014. We've cooed at trailers, pondered the combat system and applauded the character creation tools. To learn more, we sent Agent Messner into the fray and he returned with exciting news. Could this be the MMO for those of us who are weary of the genre's formulaic structure?
I am bored to death of MMORPGs. Not their potential mind you, but the execution. The seemingly endless chains of quests, the sole focus on murdering everything that doesn't give you a quest (and some things that do), and, perhaps most of all, the way developers think that shoving more quests into the meat grinder is the solution to prolonging a game's lifespan.
]]>Black Desert [official site] is a Korean MMO that's prompted a surprisingly large amount of excitement from the MMO players I know. That's not entirely due to the character creator, but that is the main focus of my own interest, since it allows you to poke, prod, stretch and smooth each face in umpteen different ways, creating monstrosities like that above. Now you can do the same without needing to download the full MMO it's connected to, as the character creator can now be downloaded and used for free as a standalone thing.
]]>Black Desert Online [official site] is an MMO about sprightly, perfect-skinned warriors doing battle with various grimy monsters. The latter part looks fine, but it's the enormously detailed character creator that let's you influence those sprightly fighters that makes it interesting to me. After being released in Korea last year, it's now in closed beta in the west.
]]>I'll admit that I don't know much about Black Desert, my grasp of Korean largely starting and ending with the output of Joon-Ho Bong, but I'll also admit that I like a lot of what I'm seeing in the MMORPG's new trailer.
Alice posted waaay back in April about the game's character creator, which is a frankly glorious thing offering a range of customisation I've not seen since City of Heroes. Developers Pearl Abyss should release it independently, as BioWare did for Dragon Age: Origins.
]]>My favourite part of every MMORPG is almost inevitably its character creator. EVE Online aside, I've found styling virtual dolls more fun than their attempts to hook me into dull lifeless worlds and dreams of becoming a hero. A good character creator is worth the download alone and oh my, I'll certainly give Black Desert a go if it comes westward.
A new video from the F2P South Korean MMORPG shows off the finest character creator I've seen since APB, including squillions of sliders to tweak a dozen different parts of the face, squish around body shapes, style hair like a pro, and even give characters heterochromia with star-shaped pupils like some sort of glam rock Dr. Quinn.
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