Weekend Gamer: Sword & Board

As the Weekend Gamer, I’m always keeping an eye out for new games (and games I’m interested in). Recently the video game Crimson Desert has taken the world by storm… even before it is officially released! The game comes out today, March 19, 2026, and already it’s sold out everywhere.

The big budget game started its life as an online game sequel to Black Desert, an online-only game, but the developer decided to make it a single-player game. Critics who got the game early mentioned that they love the open-world game and spent over 100 hours on the game.

While I am interested, it’s probably very unlikely that I want to drop $80 for this game. Since I’m not on Game Pass anymore, I don’t really play brand new games. I have explained in the past that I usually will wait a year when the game is on sale.

Plus, as the game comes out, you can hear reviews and reports from regular gamers – who may not be so kind to Crimson Desert. I always consider that these critics, who never pays for games, that their reviews are generally kind to the game, and I don’t really trust their opinion.

So yes, color me crimson. I’ll keep an eye out for a sale, so expect me to be playing the game a year later.

Last week, Blizzard gave us a taste/demo of the new Diablo IV class: The Paladin, from the forthcoming Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred expansion. I’m familiar with this class from Diablo II, so if you have played that class in Diablo II, it plays very similar to Diablo IV. If you have never played this class, it’s primarily a sword and board (weapon and shield) character.

I don’t know if I have mentioned this, but the way I like to play are shooting from a distance – such as the archer or rogue characters. The way I play is to kill the enemies before they get close enough to do damage… it is just the way I prefer to play.

With the Paladin, there’s no way around it, you just have to get close and hit the enemy face-to-face. Thankfully, due to their shield and armor, the character is also a bit of a tank and won’t go down easily. Plus, once you get to a certain level, you also have auras to boost health or enhance attacks. Overall, it’s a really powerful character.

I mostly stuck to sword and shield, but you can also play it as a two-hander, or hammer and shield. In my time with the character, I breezed through Diablo IV (but I suspect it was due to the level-scaling, so it was never really a challenge for me).

The big question is – will I pay for the upcoming expansion (which will unlock the Paladin). At the moment, based on the price ($40), I am going to say no. I was very disappointed in Vessel of Hatred, which I paid $40 in July 2024 to play the Spiritborn class. I didn’t like the character, I didn’t think I got much out of it… and I think the whole thing was overpriced. Now with the Paladin, paying $40 to unlock him – you also get Spiritborn for free (because it comes with Vessel of Hatred)! Everyone who paid early, like me, we’re not getting the Paladin, even though we paid the same price. Blizzard sucks, that’s how I feel about this greedy company. This is the same company that also sells a $90 version Deluxe version of the Paladin. Who is paying that much for an expansion?

I think I’ve learned my lesson here. Just don’t bother with Blizzard. There’s no value here.

P.S. I’m still playing Diablo II! When Blizzard updated the new Warlock class, they also introduced a new inventory management system for gems that made the game more appealing to play. I like it so much that I’ve been kind of grinding and trying out all the classes in Diablo II – including the Paladin. To me, Diablo II is still a better game than Diablo IV, in my opinion.

Yours,