Black Desert Devs’ Next Game Looks Dope, Features Horse Drift

Gif: Pearl Abyss / Kotaku

Gamescom’s Opening Night Live kicked off Tuesday, August 22 with a smattering of trailers for Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Black Myth: Wukong, and Little Nightmares 3, among others. Tucked into the presentation was a trailer for Black Desert developer Pearl Abyss’ next game and, y’all, it looks pretty cool.

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Crimson Desert was announced in November 2019 and has since had a handful of details spill out, with a big reveal landing in December 2020 at The Game Awards. Billed as an open-world action RPG, Crimson Desert’s ONL appearance featured a new gameplay trailer showing tons of cool stuff.

Crimson Desert

It looks like an interesting amalgam of Assassin’s Creed and Devil May Cry with brutal combat, transformations, and horse drifting. Yes, horse drifting. At one point during the trailer, the character gets a horse to make a sharp left turn that’s almost giving racing sim or maybe something closer to the 2022 indie online co-op racing battle royale game Knightfall: A Daring Journey. It’s over-the-top in a very video game sort of way, and I’m absolutely here for it.

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Interestingly, according to PC Gamer, Crimson Desert was originally planned as a prequel to Black Desert. However, the project outgrew that property to the point where Pearl Abyss saw fit to treat Crimson Desert as a separate IP. While it’s unclear just how connected the two games are, Crimson Desert is built using an upgraded version of the engine that powers Black Desert.

Crimson Desert doesn’t have a release date, but it is expected to come to consoles and PC.

 

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New Nintendo Controller Patent Shows Possible Joy-Con Drift Fix

A patent for a new Nintendo controller, published by the United States Patent Office on September 7, indicates the Super Mario developer is at least considering how to permanently shake its Joy-Con drift issue. Joy-Con drift, a phenomenon in which your Switch responds to phantom Joy-Con movement, has frustrated Switch owners since the console’s 2017 debut, triggering class action lawsuits, and begetting an official apology from Nintendo, which outsourced some drift repairs to a constantly overwhelmed repair shop in Syracuse. But through all of this Joy-Con misery, Nintendo has failed to incorporate a permanent fix until, maybe, now.

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According to the controller patent, which was first filed on May 11, it proposes “a resistance section using a magnetorheological fluid whose viscosity changes with a magnetic-field intensity and which becomes resistance when the operation element is displaced.”

A screenshot from Nintendo's patent shows a square-shaped controller.

Screenshot: Nintendo / Kotaku

“I hope this means we’re getting Joy-Cons that use magnetism not to drift, as a change like that is long overdue,” games writer and accessibility advocate Laura Kate Dale told me over Twitter DM. However, some think the patent could instead hint at Nintendo introducing “force feedback analogue sticks similar to the resistive triggers on PS5” to a future console, Dale says. If that’s the case, “my main hope is that they can be switched off on a system level for disabled players,” she continues.

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Nintendo’s patent is also kicking up more rumors about the much-asked-for Nintendo Switch 2, which appears to be scheduled for a 2024 release, though some developers reportedly received hands-on time with the device earlier this summer. Kotaku reached out to Nintendo for comment.

“There are a lot of rumors doing the rounds that the Switch 2 is going to basically be a Switch, but with more power under the hood, and a reliance on DLSS-style upscaling to improve framerates and resolution,” Dale, who leaked Switch news in 2016, told me. “As a disabled gamer, I’d love to see a hypothetical Switch 2 make an effort to be more accessible” by adding some features that “are now standard on PS5 and Xbox Series consoles, such as system-level colorblindness filters and accessibility tags on the digital store.” Out with the Joy-Con drift, in with the more accessible gaming future.

 

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$245 PS5 Controller Promises To Get Rid Of Stick Drift

French gaming accessory distributor Nacon opened preorders for its Revolution 5 Pro controller for PS5, PS4, and PC. The officially licensed, polished-looking product is listed at $199, about half the cost of a digital-edition PlayStation 5. But if you can’t stand stick drift, maybe that’s a small price to pay.

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For a while, it’s seemed like no modern controller could escape stick drift, or phantom joystick movement that affects in-game actions. Nintendo offers Switch owners free repairs for its freewheeling Joy-Cons, and Sony similarly covered drifting DualSense controllers under its warranty. But there are few permanent fixes for any controller.

Nacon, then, attempts to cut the problem out at the root. Like a growing number of other manufacturers (and Sega back in the ‘90s, with its Saturn and Dreamcast controllers), it uses contactless magnet technology, powered by a phenomenon called the Hall effect, to track the movement of its analog joysticks and triggers. This is in contrast to the degradable potentiometers and springs living in a typical Joy-Con or DualSense controller.

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“This asymmetric controller offers revolutionary features to improve precision and gaming performances,” Nacon writes on its website. “Exceeding all expectations with its technology optimized for the PS5. Enjoy an enriched configuration interface, improved and ergonomic modular design, all wrapped in premium materials for unparalleled comfort.”

Aside from utilizing the magnetic Hall effect for its sticks, the Revolution 5 Pro controller also uses magnets to supply its trigger stops. The company touts its odd-looking d-pad for apparently being made in collaboration with its sponsored fighting game player, which it suggests imparts “exceptional control and precision.” As for the battery, $199 gets about 10 hours of playtime, which is comparable to a DualSense controller (that gives up around the 12-hour mark).

As with many of these high-end “pro” or “elite” controllers the Revolution 5 Pro has various modular pieces you can swap in as you’d like. It offers “four profiles saved per platform, three sets of weights, three stick sizes, three sets of stick heads, one external microphone jack and no less than 60 customisation options,” according to Nacon. So, go crazy.

The expensive controller, available in white or black, will start shipping in October.

 Updated: 9/29/23, 12:10 p.m. ET: This article previously included pricing information based on the European list price of the controller, €229. Nacon has since announced that the U.S. price will be $199.99.

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