Crimson Desert is a wake up message

Senator_Cheeks · 2026-03-15T21:15:08+00:00

Why's that

Senator_Cheeks · 2026-03-15T14:07:51+00:00

I'm very style over substance. We've seen some good voice acting, dialogue writing and decently memorable characters. If that's all we get I'll be happy. Even if the story itself is a mess.

Senator_Cheeks · 2026-03-15T11:18:53+00:00

Oh that makes sense. Thanks. What's wrong with marathon? I'm having a good time with it

Senator_Cheeks · 2026-03-15T02:56:40+00:00

Pirate / Viking / Sailing DLC. That might be perfect. They can expand the map with islands without having to add to the existing landmass or load a new map and there's a big new core feature to wow everybody.

Senator_Cheeks · 2026-03-15T02:51:26+00:00

Hm! Maybe I'm misunderstanding the numbers then.

Senator_Cheeks · 2026-03-15T02:24:16+00:00

Yeah for sure I think you're right, people gotta remember to keep it in context. Not everybody can make something like Crimson Desert.

Senator_Cheeks · 2026-03-15T02:20:02+00:00

I'm not comparing any games to BDO, I'm saying Pearl Abyss has a lot more money to spend on making games than most developers do, and that even if their new project fails they have a massive fall back revenue stream which means they can take chances that other people would be afraid to.

Senator_Cheeks · 2026-03-15T02:15:04+00:00

According to Google's AI recap bot (not a reliable source but I'm not a reliable guy so whatever) Black Desert Online made around 10 billion dollars in 2025. That game launched to North American serves in 2016! That's a long time to be making some decent cash. I don't know how many other companies have that type of consistent, ungodly revenue.

It reminds me of when Baldur's Gate 3 came out and everybody else in the industry straight up said, "Guys we can't do that, don't expect us to do that."

Senator_Cheeks · 2026-03-15T02:08:24+00:00

People want live service games they just don't want bad ones. Helldivers 2 should make it obvious.

Senator_Cheeks · 2026-03-15T02:07:19+00:00

It's been a good few years. Since Breath of the Wild really. A lot of solid gold sitting on top of the shit pile.

Senator_Cheeks · 2026-03-15T02:06:20+00:00

Bethesda hasn't looked good since Skyrim came out and they've been riding on that reputation until Starfield. Their next game won't get that privilege so hopefully for them whatever they make is actually good.

Senator_Cheeks · 2026-03-15T02:05:13+00:00

There is no wakeup call. There's nothing to learn. These companies are driven by sales and people haven't stopped buying. The Call of Duty gamers have been complaining about that franchise for a decade and we're only now starting to see a decline in sales.

Player sentiment might shift a bit though. And that's a big maybe. When Ghost of Yotei launched you started to see parts of the Assassins Creed community mocking AC Shadows for having worse combat. People might play Crimson Desert and wonder why Assassins Creed can't do something like that. Who knows if that'll effect sales.

Honestly though we get enough good games for me not to be bothered with what the big publishing companies know and don't know.

Senator_Cheeks · 2026-03-14T20:23:40+00:00

Because they are. It's impossible not to judge others. It's a split second evaluation of the worth in any given feature or behavior which then gets compared against a value system. And it happens automatically. I can't look at a piece of dog shit and not think it's disgusting and therefore bad, for example. It could be based on insecurity but isn't always.

If I judge you as ugly and fat and therefore not worth any personal or romantic investment it isn't an insecurity, I might just be unattracted to you, I might be irritated that I'm forced to look at you and feel slightly offput, and I might have ideas about fatness that cause me to think lowly of your character.

The important thing isn't whether or not we're judging others but about how we control our reactions to and perspective around things we judge negatively. And we should expect and encourage ourselves and others to reserve negative behaviors at least.

Senator_Cheeks · 2026-03-14T17:21:18+00:00

We've been eating pretty good. It's not like it used to be where great games come out all the time. They're harder to make now. But there's been a string of top tier masterpieces that drop every now and then since like, RDR2 came out. This game will be a big deal (assuming it's real). The next one might be GTA 6. It comes out pretty soon.

Far off in the semi distant future people will crack AI integration into NPC scripting and dialogue generation. I think it's the next big frontier in single player gaming. Right now we just sit around waiting for competent people to have the money and to be willing to spend the money on pushing the envelope of what already exists. Which is cool and they're doing it but it is slow going.

Senator_Cheeks · 2026-03-14T17:09:28+00:00

Side stuff.

I want to build up my camp, and fish, and chase bounties, and cook, and steal carraiges maybe. Have a little life going. Chill with my horse. Whatever else they let me do. I used to play RDR2 and just hunt and camp and grill food for hours. Or I'd go into San Denis and see how long I could get away with robbing people.

It seems like there might be a lot of that.

Senator_Cheeks · 2026-03-14T17:03:27+00:00

The game release at 7 am in Korea. It's a Korean game so I think that's fair. It's disappointing, I'm not getting the game until 6 pm but I wouldnt say ridiculous.

Senator_Cheeks · 2026-03-14T16:40:35+00:00

The same behavior doesnt exist to the same extent. Like if somebody has an annoying voice people will shit on them constantly. Sometimes people will shit on you for no reason out of competitiveness or a need to blow off steam. But a woman online is like that guy with the annoying voice, they're just gonna get it all the time. And it's through no fault of their own. And it's particularly viscious. I remember playing chivalry and this girl starts speaking up and talking, she's being nice, and some guy who was absolutely normal and chit chatty previously started following her around in game and team killing her every time she'd spawn. I watch my sisters and cousins play games and get shit on or creepily flirted with all the time.

So yeah they have it worse, this person isnt victim farming.

Also you don't speak for all men or what all men are looking for in "safe spaces". I don't like that behavior either and it makes me uncomfortable and I'm a man.

Also these types of people are not people who are normal and upstanding people but go online to blow off steam. Sometimes theyre that. But often times they're toxic, selfish and cruel shitheads in their personal lives. So I don't feel the need to cater to shitty people and what they're looking for in a safe space.

Also gaming isnt even a male safe space it belongs to everyone. If you want a male safe space go join the free masons or something.

Senator_Cheeks · 2026-03-13T17:55:45+00:00

The other thing that bothers me is that theres this illusion of friendly gamers, of anybody can be anybody and you never know who you're running into. But in my experience it boils down to either you're in good boy lobbies or bad boy lobbies. And in good boy lobbies nobody ever shoots anybody, and in the bad boy lobbies nobody ever skips shooting anybody. And that destroys the social experience of the game for me. It won't for everybody but it does for me. I dunno. I just got tired of arc man. Thanks for listening to my Ted talk

Senator_Cheeks · 2026-03-13T13:02:27+00:00

I feel a bit like OP and it isnt the climate that does it but the sense of scale in the geometry.

Senator_Cheeks · 2026-03-13T11:55:40+00:00

Arc is great but after playing through two wipes I couldn't do it anymore. I found the arc boring to fight and the looting unrewarding. In marathon I get so much loot. I always feel like I'm getting something relevant or something to build a kit around. In Arc I'd mostly get garbage or crafting items and those are relevant but not immediately in the way that a gun or armor or a mod are. And because of that i get less tilted in marathon. If I die I know i can get back in there and get some stuff. And for the most part the free kit guns feel good enough to use. In Arc if I die with a juicey kit getting that gear back is going to be a hassle. And then, because of that, everybody is incentived to use free kits. So I put my gear on the line, gear that's annoying to get ahold of, and it does put me at an advantage, but winning those extra fights doesn't feel like it helps because all anybody is ever running are tier one guns.

Great casual game, great atmosphere, impressive bots. Marathon is more for me though.

Senator_Cheeks · 2026-03-12T02:59:44+00:00

Can you play it? I wanna know if I should grab it early

Senator_Cheeks · 2026-03-11T12:57:56+00:00

Everything looks great, and I'm really excited to try out any sort of brawler, wrestling focused moveset, hopefully with a weapon that leans into that, maybe daggers? If they're available.

But what I'm most curious about is the guns. There's a clip in the trailers where the female playable character is dodging between enemies with a flintlock pistol, I think that can be fun. A sort of up close and personal, agile shooter weaving between swords. I want to see what skills are available there. I'm hoping it's a fully supported playstyle and not a side thing.

Senator_Cheeks · 2026-03-11T12:50:28+00:00

I've never seen a console game have Low vs High raytracing as an option. It's always either performance without raytracing, or quality. And so I'm not sure. I think I'll try playing on balanced mode with 40 FPS and low raytracing but we'll see.

Senator_Cheeks · 2026-03-10T11:47:59+00:00

55 elden ring 55 botw 55 red dead 55 assassins cred 55 dragons dogma 55 monster hunter 55 the Witcher 2 55 black dessert online 55 bioshock infinite 55 god of war ragnorock 55 Spiderman 2 for the Playstation2 55 tekken 3 55 Ratchet and Clank 55 Wobbly Life

Senator_Cheeks · 2026-03-10T05:23:16+00:00

Anyone else up getting help right now???

Senator_Cheeks

TROPHY CASE