Moon Beast have released a pre-alpha demo for their action-RPG Darkhaven. You know, the one from the former Blizzard North devs, which harkens back to Diablo 2 while stirring in a dynamic world and terrain destruction reminiscent of Minecraft. I did a big interview feature about it. Now, you can play a very early build and decide whether I’ve been quaffing the Kool Aid.
Is Crimson Desert an RPG? Does it even matter? What is an RPG anyway? Those are questions sparked by the hotly anticipated “open-world action-adventure” game as it nears release, and it’s fair to say there is a variety of opinion.
Let’s start with developer Pearl Abyss’ official description of its own game:
Crimson Desert is an open-world action-adventure game set in the beautiful yet brutal continent of Pywel. Embark on a journey as the Greymane Kliff and restore what has been lost. Explore uncharted lands, fight against threats that stand in your way, and discover the wonders the world has in store.
Pearl Abyss does not call Crimson Desert an RPG here. Nor does it call the game a ‘soulslike,’ which I’ve seen some wonder about. It’s an “open-world action-adventure” game, and it’s as simple as that. But why are people wondering if it’s an RPG in the first place?
X / Twitter user Synth Potato kicked things off by posting about how progression works in Crimson Desert, declaring the game not to be an RPG. That’s because it doesn’t have levels or experience points, which we associate with role-playing games. Rather, new abilities are gained by finding artifacts out in the world, and you can buy or craft better gear. This places Crimson Desert firmly in the action-adventure category, according to this analysis, and not in the RPG category.
But does this mean Crimson Desert cannot also be considered an RPG? Some say that playing as a character in an open world who can progress, even in this form, makes Crimson Desert a role-playing game. Levels and XP are not needed for it to be so, they say. But, following that, does that mean all open-world games are RPGs? Is GTA? Is Red Dead Redemption 2? What about The Legend of Zelda? Link doesn’t level up with experience points, but lots of people call The Legend of Zelda an RPG series.
It’s worth noting that, like in The Legend of Zelda games, in Crimson Desert you play a set protagonist (the wonderfully named Kliff) and experience a set story. You’re not making big decisions here that change the course of events, or determine which ending you’ll get. It’s a more fixed experience, although there is freedom of exploration within it.
“I think everyone is aware it’s not marketed as [an RPG],” a fan said. “It’s still got a ton of RPG systems. Gear score, skill points to progress skill trees and stats to increase for builds.” “It absolutely does have RPG elements,” added another. “What makes an RPG has become a very unclear line as well with how many action adventure games are RPGs.” “It’s more akin to Just Cause or Shadow of Mordor, which is just what I wanted,” commented one fan.
I think this is one of the reasons why they’re being really careful to not call it a RPG. That term has expectations from the player that crimson desert doesn’t have. CD definitely strikes me as an open world action adventure with an incredibly fun combat sandbox https://t.co/7guY0AsEE2
— Ms5000Watts (@Ms5000Watts) February 17, 2026
Perhaps the last word should go to Pearl Abyss itself. Will Powers, director of marketing at Pearl Abyss America, recently told fans not to expect RPG elements in terms of decision-making and choice and consequence as it relates to your character in Crimson Desert. The sheer amount of things to do in the world will facilitate the role-playing part of the game instead, which players will form through “head canon.”
“You choose the type of character you want to play as in terms of your progression within the systems in the game,” Powers explained. “And then through head canon you’re having this very different experience than other players because of the scope and scale of the game. You’ll be distracted by something, you’ll go on this quest line, you’ll have an experience that’ll be radically different than someone else, even though they’re playing the same game and the same canonical storyline that you both are going through.”
And after the debate over whether Crimson Desert is an RPG or not went big online, Powers himself explained why Pearl Abyss doesn’t want to call it an RPG, even though it’s perfectly happy for fans to do so.
“Open world questing and action sandbox for sure,” Powers tweeted. Then, in response to someone who said it should be made clear that Crimson Desert is not an RPG to avoid mismanaged expectations, Powers said: “honestly…. it’s not my place to dictate someone else’s experience. If because of good amount of RPG elements in the game, they want to call it an RPG… Sure. I’m just explaining why WE don’t call it one.”
Crimson Desert is due out March 19 priced $69.99. Pearl Abyss recently confirmed it does not contain a cosmetic cash shop nor microtransactions of any kind.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Battlefield 6’s Season 2 thunders onto PC today, a three-month festival of Battlefoolery that begins with a new map, Contaminated, new modes for the Redsec battle royale component, a dinky yet deadly helicopter, and some new guns and gadgets. The EA shooter’s Steam playerbase has slumped following its chart-topping release last year, but don’t worry, ye Battlefaithful, because Season 2 has officially recaptured my interest by filling my lungs with psychoactive vapours.
In new limited-time mode VL-7 Strike, available in regular multiplayer and Redsec, you must wear a gas mask and replenish its filters to avoid falling victim to clouds of funky fumes. Idiot! Why would you want to avoid falling victim to clouds of funky fumes. It’s got to be more intriguing than flipping the objective yet again.
Konami has removed two Metal Gear games, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, from digital storefronts.
The Japanese company finally revealed Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 at last week’s State of Play showcase, promising to re-release Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots for PC and consoles this August. While it’s exciting that two classic tactical espionage action titles are getting touch-ups, more importantly, it means MGS4 will finally be playable on something other than PS3 when the collection launches August 27, 2026.
Shortly after that announcement, however, players noticed that the two games included in the collection had been pulled from the PlayStation and Xbox stores.
It could be that Konami has removed the older games to avoid confusion when pre-ordering the new collection. A less charitable interpretation is that the publisher has removed the original versions to funnel sales towards the new one. Even though the games were only available on very old systems like PSP, PS3, and Xbox 360, Metal Gear Solid 4 had previously been streamable on PlayStation.
IGN has asked Konami for comment.
Konami released Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 in October 2023. Mixed in with the troubled launch of the first bundle was a leak, as confirmed by IGN, suggesting more MGS re-releases were on the way, but it wasn’t until August 2024 that the publisher would finally tell fans to “stay tuned.”
Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 is coming to PC via Steam, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, and Xbox Series X/S. While we wait to see if Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 will have a more stable launch than its predecessor, you can read about what Konami is doing to reassure players.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Amid soaring SSD prices, slower-but-cheaper mechanical hard drives may have offered an attractive reprieve for anyone wanting to embiggen their PC storage on a – and I know it’s increasingly difficult to use this word without breaking down into desperate laugh-crying – budget. Unfortunately, that probably ain’t happening either, as leading HDD manufacturers Western Digital and Seagate have both revealed that they’ve already sold “pretty much” all of their mechanical drive stock that was allocated for 2026.
Back when Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown was announced, we knocked it for offering zappy muzak in place of the TV show’s official theme. Gamexcite and Daedalic have added the theme, now, and I sort of wish they hadn’t. “Help!” I screeched to my bedroom walls, as the rousingly sorrowful opening bars wafted from the speakers like nitrous oxide. “A videogame is making me feel something! It is making me feel like 31 years have passed, and I can still remember Neelix getting drunk on water. I still remember the Doctor’s first words. I still remember blowing up the Caretaker Array rather than using it to insta-warp home.”
Monster Hunter Wilds patch 1.041 is now live, and it’s a big one.
Marking the game’s anniversary, from now until March 18, there’ll be a login bonus plus rotations of past Festivals of Accord. And, as we learned last week, we’re also getting the Arch-Tempered Arkveld, 10-star Arc-Tempered monsters, a special collaboration with Monster Hunter Stories 3 — a spin-off series that releases next month — plus an anniversary event where all previous awards and quests will be “re-available.”
We also learned last week that Monster Hunter Wilds will welcome a “large-scale” expansion later this year. Addressing fans in a video celebrating the open-world adventure game’s first anniversary, series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto teased that this expansion will be similar to Monster Hunter World‘s Iceborne add-on, but was otherwise coy about the details. He did, however, stress that this will be the “final update” for the monster hunting game.
Monster Hunter Wilds has had something of a bumpy ride. Title Update 4 arrived at the end of last year and ushered in a long list of gameplay and balance changes, as well as CPU/GPU improvements, load reduction, and the optimization of “PC-specific processes and addition of options and presets to reduce processing load.” A development roadmap, detailed in December, outlined plans to address the myriad issues impacting the PC version.
Note that you won’t be able to access DLC or play online multiplayer until this update has been installed. Steam users are also advised to update to driver versions to NVIDIA GeForce 581.57 (or newer) or AMD Radeon: 25.9.1. (or newer). “Some issues have been identified with AMD Radeon drivers versions 25.10.2 and higher on certain PCs using AMD Radeon graphics cards such as the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT/7800 XT,” the team warned.
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Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Get a free Phoenix Wright outfit.
Remember last September when Among Us teamed up with Capcom to promote the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection?
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Update: Following reports of a Switch 2 release.
Nintendo formally announced the Switch 2 last week and while some developers appear to have already locked in their support, other studios are still gauging whether or not to release certain titles on the Switch’s successor.
One of these developers happens to be Moon Studios, with the CEO Thomas Mahler asking on social media if fans of the studio (as well as Ori games and Nintendo platforms) would be interested in the team’s new release, No Rest for the Wicked on Switch 2.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Magic: The Gathering has become “crossover central” in recent years, and while some fans have conflicting thoughts on the game’s 2026 roadmap, it does lead to some absolutely bizarre combinations.
A few months ago, we pointed out a ridiculous combo between Sonic the Hedgehog and Warhammer 40K’s Winged Hive Tyrant, but we might just have something that matches it in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set, launching next month.
Artifact Creatures in Magic: The Gathering are essentially just that – a blend of two card types. That means cards that affect Artifacts, and those that buff Creatures, will help power them up nicely.
We mention this because Krang, Utrom Warlord, could be quite ridiculous when paired with a deck focused on Artifact Creatures, like Necron Dynasties from the Warhammer 40K Universes Beyond Commander deck lineup.
Krang, Utrom Warlord is a nine-cost (expensive, yes), but has the keywords Flying, Trample, Indestructible, and Haste. Oh, and it’s a 9/9.
That’s a pain to deal with on its own, but the card also gives other Artifact Creatures you control Flying, Trample, Indestructible and Haste.
For context, almost every single creature in the Necron Dynasties deck is an Artifact Creature, so dropping Kang onto the battlefield alongside them could be a potential game-ender.
It feels like it’ll find a spot in a lot of decks based around that creature type, given it’s colorless, too, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see it climb in value somewhat.
As for Necron Dynasties, you’ll need to find it on the secondary market these days, but the mono-black deck was already plenty powerful already.
We’ll find out soon, though – the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set launches on March 6, with preorders available already.
Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He’s a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife’s dismay.
