Featured Image Credit: Pearl Abyss
Topics: PlayStation, PlayStation 5
2025 has been a notably impressive year for video game releases and, excitingly for us fans, it looks like next year isn't showing any signs of letting the side down just yet.
GTA VI will obviously be the standout arrival that many are looking forward to, assuming it isn't delayed once again, but there are plenty of other titles on the way that could sneak up on Rockstar's giant at next year's Game Awards.
Games like Resident Evil Requiem, Fable and even the highly anticipated next expansion for World of Warcraft, are solid examples, but there are plenty more that you should be aware of.
Those include a brand new open world RPG that's absolutely enormous in scope, and could have everything it needs to thrust itself into Game of the Year consideration for 2026.
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Crimson Desert is the latest effort from Black Desert Online developer Pearl Abyss, and it's difficult to overstate just how ambitious this project is, even with the relatively limited amount that we have seen of it at this early stage.
The headline feature for many will likely be the enormous map (as first noted by ComicBook.com), which clocks in over 400 km², making it over twice the size of The Witcher 3's map and around one and a half times the size of Assassin's Creed Odyssey. It really is a huge world but all of the materials that have been released so far from the developer themselves make it look both busy and varied.
It can also be traversed on foot, horseback or via dragon, with the latter being what you'll need to cover those great distances quickly.
It's also important to remember that the developer has plenty of form with building enormous worlds like this one. Though Black Desert Online has plenty of critics with very legitimate concerns, one of the overriding pieces of feedback provided by fans is that the greatest strength of the MMO is the worlds that they have managed to create.
The sheer size of the thing might have you worried it is going to be a procedurally generated mess, but everything in the game has been handcrafted and placed deliberately, with distinctive regions, wildlife, cities, weather and events to keep the experience fresh every time you lock in.
It doesn't look like it's slacking in the combat department either, with a complex physics-based system that relies on grapples and tackles to get the job done. The very limited gameplay we've seen so far also has traversal that should evoke memories of Assassin's Creed, even if you are more limited in your ability to scale things quickly.
Crimson Desert is set to release on 19 March 2026, for macOS, PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S.