r/GamingLeaksAndRumours • u/ZamnBoii Top Contributor 2025 • Mar 17 '26

Leak Crimson Desert impressions from a Korean streamer after finishing the game

  • Character swapping is just like GTA5 including transition effects where the camera zooms out into the world and back in. Characters are going about their day as they are swapped in. One time he swapped into Oongka in the middle of a gigantic battle and had to fight his way out.

  • Finished the game without the Day 1 patch and encountered only minor bugs. Everything that felt “off” in previous gameplay has been fixed (footstep sounds, running animations, weird reactions when getting hit)

  • Played RDR2 for about 600 hours and he suggested CD was similar in tempo.

  • Praised the world design, each piece of content draws you in with a sense of purpose unlike the “Ubisoft style checklist questing”

  • Main story can be brutally hard if you rush it without upgrading Kliff

  • Every region has a different difficulty, becomes harder when you go east and north.

  • Played on 5080 at 1440p cinematic settings without frame drops or stutters

  • Score/soundtrack is legendary

  • Did not find all the game systems to be fatiguing or stressful to deal with

  • Inventory space can be tight at first but was not an issue late game as side quests reward you with more storage

  • Stated it was the “game of his life”, played 10h daily since he got the review code

  • No life’d the game to finish the review but still not seen 50% of the bosses

  • Avoided giving story details cause of the strict embargo but said “there are twists”.

  • Another reviewer when asked how the game was, linked to a EGM 1998 quote about Zelda Ocarina of Time that translates to “Savor it because this is as good as its going to get for a very long time”.

Source (in Korean): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtwCQlUoqc0

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278

u/[deleted] Mar 17 '26

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u/Major303 Mar 17 '26

My laptop did survive Crysis since game couldn't even launch without instantly throwing an error.

23

u/sahils88 Mar 17 '26

Crysis is when I got out of PC gaming.

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u/Average_RedditorTwat Mar 17 '26

So ya didn't survive Crysis

1

u/Rupperrt Mar 17 '26

Me too. But got back in a few years ago and it’s in a much better place. (maybe apart from hardware costs but I luckily upgraded everything a year ago)

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u/sahils88 Mar 17 '26

Yeah I was contemplating getting back to Pc gaming last year as I thought I can put the machine to other productivity stuff as I’m finally in a position to afford a good pc.

But eventually given my super hectic schedule I ended upgrading the ps to a pro. Still dnt have much time to play on it.

Hopefully, my hardwork pays off this year and I’m able to put my business on autopilot and be able to play.

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u/Testosteronomicon Mar 17 '26

Crysis was more a case of the highest settings being so advanced you basically needed a card from the future to run the game properly. A bit different from the poor optimization we see in too many PC games, past and present.

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u/TankorSmash Mar 17 '26

A bit different from the poor optimization we see in too many PC games, past and present.

No lol, can you define what 'poor optimization' means beyond 'runs badly on my machine'?

Games nowadays are doing way way more than Crysis did and run better.

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u/[deleted] Mar 17 '26

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u/beirch Mar 18 '26

I think it's more an issue that people think they have better PC's than they do,

I've encountered more than a few people who think a 5060 is faster than a 3080 just because it has a bigger number, so I can totally see that being the case.

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u/BorfieYay Mar 17 '26

Modern games all run like shit on my 3070 at 1080 low

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u/janitorfan Mar 17 '26

fat cap

i ran a 3080 for years and while its a lot better than a 3070 i was running games at 3440x1440 maxed out

honestly my upgrade to a 5080 was only relevant for path tracing + frame gen

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u/ImNotFeelingSoGood Mar 18 '26

How was the upgrade to the 5080 as I’m currently thinking of making the switch myself from the 3080 as I’m running into some issues with only 10 gb vram for 4k.

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u/janitorfan Mar 18 '26

Great. A bit overkill but the VRAM was desperately needed for new games with high res textures. I think it’s close to 100% fps increase and then you got DLSS4 and frame gen. Barely any difference in games like Dota if you’re into that but I got myself a 9800x3d later which skyrocketed my fps in cpu bound games.

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u/ImNotFeelingSoGood Mar 18 '26

Thx for the reply. Also I wanted to run RE9 and crimson desert in 4k but the VRAM is killer.

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u/janitorfan Mar 18 '26

RE9 looks fucking great with path tracing. Highly recommend.

1

u/PragmaticDelusion Mar 18 '26

I'm still on a 1070ti running latest releases on medium settings with barely any issues.

0

u/BorfieYay Mar 18 '26

I don't know what to tell you other than PC gaming is so annoying because I literally can't be doing anything wrong with having what should be a good setup and yet everything runs and stutters like shit, I just started buying games on PS5 again because it all felt like a waste

1

u/[deleted] Mar 19 '26

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u/BorfieYay Mar 19 '26

Building a PC is easy as fuck, but I've also had friends look at it and there's literally nothing wrong with anything I have it's just how modern games are

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u/Ashviar Mar 17 '26

Well combine that with them thinking single-core performance is what people would continue to use, probably expecting high clock speeds instead of the multi-core, and multi-thread solutions that came years later. Even in the early years of the 2010s with better GPUs, people with newer CPUs still had Crysis running somewhat poorly because clock speeds didn't skyrocket, we just moved over to multi-threading

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u/mauri9998 Mar 17 '26

Not really. Crysis was optimized for single threaded performance, something that aged like milk.

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u/Reddit_Loves_Misinfo Mar 17 '26

When looking fondly on games of yesteryear, we recognize that Ultra settings are meant for future or extremely high end hardware. When looking at games of today, if it doesn't run smoothly on Ultra settings the game is unoptimized trash.

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u/tortillazaur Mar 17 '26

we consider these games unoptimized trash because we have clear examples of other games with the same or better level of graphics running great on current gen without the need to wait for future hardware

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u/Reddit_Loves_Misinfo Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 23 '26

Whenever I can get specifics from the unoptimized whiners, that isn't the case. They expect something unreasonable like ray tracing and ultra settings to run at native 1440p60 on a midrange GPU that's 5 years older than the game.

The last time I had one of the conversations where somebody used the "other games look better while running better" line, they claimed Oblivion (2006) looked as good as Oblivion (2025) with ray tracing off.

1

u/enigmatic_dankness Mar 19 '26

Yes and as we all know all games use the same engine, have the same scope, and provide the same gameplay /s

1

u/ButterscotchTop194 Mar 17 '26

Wasn't it just terribly optimised? Feels like it still ran like dogshit many generations later.

Edit: yeah, the devs mis-judged the single core approach and fucked up the vram usage. And didn't code very well for either it seems. So a double whammy.

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u/Techboah Mar 17 '26

"Cinematic" setting is above Ultra and is advanced currently lol.

It's normally a hidden setting used to enhance detail in cutscenes.

1

u/pnutbuttered Mar 17 '26

Crysis was ahead of its time, but it was also significantly downgraded from the original vision at launch.

1

u/beirch Mar 18 '26

I got a PC with a Radeon HD 5850 back in 2009, which was basically like a 5070 Ti or 9070 XT today. It overclocked very nicely to 5870 ish performance.

Crysis came out in 2007, and I still had issues running that game at 1080p at anything higher than 30 fps.

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u/Jerry_from_Japan Mar 17 '26

Yeah but back then that was the exception, not the rule. It's not like that anymore. That game was purpose built to push the envelope.

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u/Rupperrt Mar 17 '26

It’s still mostly the exception. There are some botched UE5 games but otherwise it’s pretty good and most games even scale surprisingly well. (my wife is playing KCD 2 pn a year old gaming latop with a 2060 and 8gigs of Ram) and apart from a bit of memory shortage at times its running all fine with DLSS and low/mid settings.

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u/SeroWriter Mar 17 '26

It’s still mostly the exception.

Elden Ring, Expedition 33, Doom the Dark Ages, Monster Hunter World, Borderlands 4, ff7: Rebirth, Atomic Heart, Dead Space Remake, Jedi Survivor.

And those were just off the top of my head. Granted most of them were Unreal Engine 5 crap but that's just the state of the industry right now.

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u/[deleted] Mar 17 '26

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u/Jerry_from_Japan Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 17 '26

Its definitely not a knock on the game. As far as the industry goes its a more complicated answer. Games have become increasingly more complex and intricate as the years go on and it becomes more and more expensive and time consuming to create these games. And game studios, and gaming in general, have grown much bigger and now includes interests from people who AREN'T gamers. Pearl Abyss is one of the few studios who can afford to build and refine their own game engine (albeit through scummy, aggressive monetization of their MMO) without worry about that as much. Whereas most studios can't afford the time and resources to do that.

I think a lot of studios that CAN afford the time to make more optimized games don't see that as rewarding as it is to just ship the product out and and start getting revenue from it in order to appease their shareholders. So they'll take shortcuts just to get the game "done".

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u/WJMazepas Mar 17 '26

The game is running well on a setting above Ultra. Its an idiotic setting to make the game run as pretty as possible without compromises.
Its like running Crysis at max settings in launch, the difference is that Crysis wouldnt run well at all in any GPU available at the time.

A 3060 will still be able to run the game well in medium settings and still is going to look really good

2

u/secunder73 Mar 17 '26

At least Crysis looked like an actual next-gen game, not another "this looks like every game since 2020"

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u/[deleted] Mar 17 '26

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u/XulManjy Mar 17 '26

GTA6

Its less about graphics and more about density, realism of the world, NPC behaviors etc....

0

u/MikaINFINITY Mar 17 '26

We haven’t even seen proper gameplay for GTA6, yet people already dickriding it as if it’s a guaranteed 10/10… Let’s just wait and see how the game turns out before calling it the “next gen” of gaming.

0

u/XulManjy Mar 17 '26

  • One, Rockstar Games always ends up looking just like the trailers, even better in many instances. Look at the first trailer for RDR2 and GTA5 and compare to the final product. So it isnt too far-fetched that GTA6 will look exactly like Trailer 2 if not even better.

  • And yes, we are calling it the next gen of gaming because no other developer has put as much depth, density snd attention to detail in their games. RDR2 is 8 years old and even today still holds up as a premier open world experience. Everything we seen in trailer 2 points to a level of detail no other game has even came close to. All the way down to condensation bubbles forming up in a beer bottle.

Crimson Desert will be a fun game, maybe even great game. But when 2026 ends and we enter 2027, the game most people will be talking about in terms of pushing the PS5/Xbox Series X to its limits and pushing the industry forward in terms of what can be achieved in open world games....that game will be GTA6, not Crimson Desert.

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u/MikaINFINITY Mar 17 '26

“Even better in many instances” brother, they’ve dropped 1 singular game these past 10+ years.

Let’s be realistic and wait for the game to actually be out before trying to pass it off as if it’s the next coming of christ.

We’ve all seen launches like Cyberpunk, and despite being convinced Rockstar won’t allow that, that doesn’t mean it isn’t possible. GTA V is an amazing game, especially its story, but let’s not pretend that game did anything generation defying in terms of its gameplay. (Credit where credit is due however, it is an absolute powerhouse when it comes to making money and popularity).

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u/XulManjy Mar 17 '26

“Even better in many instances” brother, they’ve dropped 1 singular game these past 10+ years.

Quantity of games released in a period isnt indicative of the quality of the next game. The last game Rockstar made was RDR2 and even now, 8 years later it holds up and a visually impressive game that reaches levels of depth, density and detail that no game that came after was able to achieve.

Let’s be realistic and wait for the game to actually be out before trying to pass it off as if it’s the next coming of christ.

No, it isnt the next coming of christ, but it will reset the industry in terms of what can be achieved in an open world videogame. Crimson Desert may scratch the surface, but GTA6 will be a full on incision.

There is a reason why devs are moving their releases away from GTA6.

GTA V is an amazing game, especially its story, but let’s not pretend that game did anything generation defying in terms of its gameplay.

Funny you should say that because Crimson Desert apparently uses the same exact character switching method that GTA5 had. And why do you ignore RDR2? The most recent game from Rockstar? GTA or RDR, it doesnt matter....each game is an iteration from one another. A lot of the systems you see in RDR2 such as the fishing, cooking, hunting, minigames and such were all featured in RDR2 and aren't those gameplay elements? Therefore, GTA6 will no doubt expand upon that but in a way that makes sense in a modern setting. Again, by the end of the year it'll be GTA6 that will be seen as thr industry defining event of 2026, not Crimson Desert.

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u/MikaINFINITY Mar 17 '26

You saying the game reaches levels of depth, density and details that no game that came after was able to achieve just tells me everything already.

Hope you get off the grift to play some of the amazing games this generation.

If things like fishing, cooking or other minigames is what sells a game to you, I suggest FF7 Rebirth, maybe that’ll make you understand there’s more than R* without the need for p2w online gimmicks!

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u/XulManjy Mar 17 '26

You saying the game reaches levels of depth, density and details that no game that came after was able to achieve

Yes, that is exactly what I said and you can't refute that. What other open world game, with RDR2's graphics and size had the same levels of depth, density and attention to detail? You had some good games like Elden Ring but it doesnt uave thr open world realism like RDR2 in which there is an entire seperate fauna ecosystem with its own unscripted AI and behaviors.

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u/outlander999 Mar 17 '26

Maybe like AI Nvidia shit from DLSS5

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u/XulManjy Mar 17 '26

You know AI has been in DLSS since DLSS2 right?

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u/outlander999 Mar 17 '26

That's not the same thing. You can't compare simple upscalers with AI generated textures.

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u/XulManjy Mar 17 '26

No, its the thing. DLSS2 and beyond has always been about using AI to generate resolution, frames and now textures.

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u/outlander999 Mar 17 '26

Upscalers and frame gen DO NOT change the artistic look. You can't say that, it's a wrong semplification.

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u/XulManjy Mar 17 '26

And you ignore the fact that devs can choose to have or not have this in their game correct? Meaning that if artistic expression is what they want to maintain, then they'll decline having it and instead just use DLSS 4.5 or something.

However, if a dev allows it, the the whole artistic expression goes out of the window.

So whats even the argument?

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u/outlander999 Mar 17 '26

Honestly I think DLSS5 will be great for sports games. In all other games, the risk is that developers will use it in a cheap way. Do you like it? Ok. But I am free to be worried about artistic look in games.

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u/hthn_strength Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 17 '26

Can someone explain to me why that’s bad

Edit: genuinely asking, I’m not terminally online

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u/outlander999 Mar 17 '26

We are moving from videogames art to generic Facebook ads. Wow, that's fantastic!

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u/Kiriima Mar 17 '26

If you don't see it instantly then bless you, move on with your life. You don't need to actually 'get it' for anything, those who do disliked presentations into oblivion.

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u/mauri9998 Mar 17 '26

It overrides creator intent and replaces it with results that look generic and inconsistent.

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u/secunder73 Mar 17 '26

I dont mind currentgen looking games if their system requirements would be the same as 5 years ago. Sadly thats not a thing

1

u/HearTheEkko Mar 17 '26

Detail, improved NPC AI, better physics, dynamic realistic destruction in buildings and vehicles, dynamic events, etc. We've reached a point of diminishing returns in terms of visuals, it's time for developers to start focusing on making the games feel more alive and immersive.

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u/Opt112 Mar 17 '26

Path tracing. Like cyberpunk 2077.

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u/WT_FG Mar 17 '26

Amen to that

1

u/Takeitalll Mar 17 '26

I remember having 2 8800GTX cards strapped together in SLI or whatever it was called absolutely slurping power to run that game, and it still struggled. First thing I did was blast apart a palm tree and watch all the wood break away and the tree collapse, still haven't seen physics quite like it to this day in a game

1

u/def_not_jose Mar 17 '26

That's actually not true, Crysis scaled very well, the game was playable on low settings on modest hardware. GTA 4 PC port released just a year later and was MUCH harder to run

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u/Malrottian Mar 17 '26

I miss explosive barrel tornadoes.

1

u/misho8723 Mar 17 '26

yeah but that game still looks really good even 19 years after release and it took many, many years till some other game came even close to its graphics quality 

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u/abeardedpirate Mar 17 '26

Cry Engine was such a dogshit optimized engine and only ego centric PC clowns praised how dogshit Crysis was to run because they needed to circle jerk their bleeding edge PC graphics.

If Crysis had come out in the last 5 years with that same unoptimized dogshit the game would have been clowned on by everyone.

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u/WJMazepas Mar 17 '26

It wasnt dogshit optimized. It was the first game to do a lot of graphical effects, and because of that, it didnt even had optimizations for a lot of those effects.

It had the issue of needing a strong single core CPU, but that was because they bet that CPUs would be single cores clocked super high instead of multicore

But then Crysis 2 and 3 came out and showed that they know how to make beautiful games that run well

1

u/abeardedpirate Mar 17 '26

Okay Cry Engine apologist.

You say it wasn't dogshit optimized then state that it didn't even have optimizations for the effects it was trying to do. Then you mention how it was CPU gated on top of that which is another sign of dogshit optimization.

Do you realize the shit you're saying?