Black Desert: Charming Smiles And Fast-paced Slaughter

I'll admit that I don't know much about Black Desert, my grasp of Korean largely starting and ending with the output of Joon-Ho Bong, but I'll also admit that I like a lot of what I'm seeing in the MMORPG's new trailer.

Alice posted waaay back in April about the game's character creator, which is a frankly glorious thing offering a range of customisation I've not seen since City of Heroes. Developers Pearl Abyss should release it independently, as BioWare did for Dragon Age: Origins.

If you've ever wanted to tattoo a gentlemanly 'tache or useless war paint upon the face of a human plaything, this is the character creator for you. I also strongly recommend - I really cannot stress this enough - that if nothing else you play the video and scrub to the 40 second mark. It is worth it for the smiles. Oh, somebody had fun making this video.

We're also shown the game's combat, which looks so far up my street it's stuck a coathanger through the letterbox and has unlocked the door. I'll probably come home to find it drinking juice straight out of the carton. Tsk.

Although the trailer doesn't give many hints as to how the game plays it certainly gives you a sense of its pace, making Shadow of Mordor look like an uruk-hai tea party. Given that the game is a free to play MMORPG I have my reservations about how good its combat system will actually feel, but purely based on what can be seen here it could play like Darksiders or Dynasty Warriors - fast, frenetic and filled to the brim with over-the-top combos.

I feel for the elf trying to take on some giant rock monsters with a bow, though. Brother, I don't care how many arrows you can fire per minute. You are still going to struggle with granite.

Publishers Daum confirmed plans for a western release a few months back, but they're still hazy.