Sen. Ron Wyden called it an "outrageous end run around the Fourth Amendment."

Six and a half years after its announcement, the standalone title from the creators of Black Desert Online is finally here. Two things are clear: Expectations are sky-high, and it'll take a few hundred hours to fully judge whether they're justified. As I didn't have that much time between receiving the game and its launch day, an impression of Crimson Desert's early game will have to suffice. To be clear, my official on-the-clock time is closer to 30 hours, but I spent a lot of time testing various aspects of the game for coverage, so my "real" playtime is likely closer to 20 hours. But my philosophy is thus: If it's no fun after 20 hours or frankly even 10 hours, it's not worth the 10 hours. And this is coming from someone who loves these types of games — last year, I wrote about how Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is the "best RPG I've ever played."

The expansion will try to give players something to do with all that power next month.

Reviews of Crimson Desert, the new open world fantasy RPG from Black Desert Online studio Pearl Abyss, are surfacing across the internet as you read these words. Out on 19th March, it's the story of Kliff McDuff of the Greymanes, who is trying to rally his scattered comrades following a vicious attack by their rivals, the Black Bears. It's one of those Much-Anticipated games, possibly because it appears to have inhaled the entire third-person action genre, with mechanics that range from sorcerous air-hopping through momentum-based damage to Dynasty Warriors-style crowd control. Predictably, this glut of ideas can feel a smidge… inelegant and unwieldy.

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Bradford has spent the last two weeks hunkered down in Crimson Desert, Pearl Abyss' first game since Black Desert Online. How does it stack up?

I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but in two weeks, we’re all gonna get slammed with April Fools’ Day jokes and events, only some of them actually worth a giggle. Elder Scrolls Online is hoping its Jester’s Festival will be one of those. “The glorious return of the beloved Jester’s Festival in-game […]