Pre-ordering Crimson Desert
I have been aware of the online interest around the open world action game Crimson Desert for a while now. One of the things that has intrigued me about it is the scope of the game. The word “hype” has been bandied about by a few gaming websites. However, from what I have observed, developers Pearl Abyss have not been excessively hyperbolic themselves, with regard to the manner in which the game’s systems and mechanics have been marketed. Now that the press embargo has been lifted, the pre-release reviews seem to confirm that everything we’ve seen in promotional videos in the run up to the launch, is in fact present in the game. So far the initial critical response has been very positive and it has been hinted that the game may well be a genre milestone. Perhaps Crimson Desert is just a rare example of a game that has not had a rushed development and isn’t launching prematurely for business reasons.
As I still had some money left from my birthday, I decided to pre-order Crimson Desert today. The standard edition of this single player game retails at £55 and the deluxe version at £65. As usual I spent sometime looking for the best deal that I could find online and eventually purchased a digital deluxe version for £54, saving £11. I could have found a cheaper key but I prefer to by from vendors that I’ve used before. This minimises the risk of being scammed or purchasing a region locked key that requires a VPN to activate, or some other complex workaround. The vendor will make the Steam key available nearer the launch date. I would expect it to be on or near the 17th March, when the game can be pre-installed 48 hours ahead of launch. According to the Pearl Abyss the game installation is 150GB in total which is a quite a size. Like many modern games it is now recommended that the game is run on an SSD.
It is becoming increasingly important to check a game’s minimum specifications before purchasing these days. In the past there was a degree of “wriggle room” with regard to whether a new title would run on your PC. However, nowadays it is a far more exact science. I can run Battlefield 6 in 2K but if I alter the game settings beyond what is stated in the game specifications, then the overall performance drops dramatically. According to the specifications for Crimson Desert, I should be able to run the game somewhere around the “recommended” settings. I am curious to see what sort of graphical quality that provides, although there is much that games can do these days when running on average hardware. Upscaling being a useful “get out of jail” card if necessary. I’ll know for sure on Monday 19th March at 15:00 PT, 22:00 GMT and March 20, 7:00 KST, when Crimson Desert launches. No doubt there will be a follow up post with my initial thoughts on the game.
Roger Edwards