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Black Desert Online’s closed beta is live, complete with a bonkers character creator

Black Desert Online beta

Black Desert Online, the version of the gorgeous Korean MMO being developed for western audiences, kicked off its first closed beta today. It’ll be running until Tuesday, and I’ve already dipped in to take a look. I had hoped to play more than I actually have, but I ended up losing myself in the character creator, which is best I’ve ever seen in an MMO. 

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The default characters are all impossibly beautiful models, all busty and musclebound, apart from the wizard, who is, well, Sir Ian McKellen…

You can make them look however you want, though, by tugging on body parts and fiddling with sliders. There are options galore. There are two — TWO — sliders just to change how curly your character’s hair is. It’s bonkers.

First, I made some sort of heavy metal barbarian clown, because why not?

Then I attempted to fix the sorceress, who looks like a lingerie model by default.

It’s a work in progress.

Finally I settled for this handsome fellow. He is extremely angry because someone flicked jam at his face. How rude!

And yes, that is his default expression. There were other options, but why would I choose any of them when I can make him look like that. Forever.

As for the game itself, well, I’ve not had much time to play. It’s just as gorgeous as you’d expect from the character creator, but I’m a bit baffled by all the menus, and I’m a man who loves a lot of menus. I managed to get into a couple of scraps, and golly is the fighting flashy, and significantly more kinetic than your average MMO.

I’ve been told that the game has full gamepad controller support, which is interesting. I’ve been looking for a PC MMO that I can play in my living room, so this is rather serendipitous.

Unfortunately all the gorgeous (or hideous) characters that players create will be deleted from existence when the beta ends.