Key Note Gaming

Any game built around gacha mechanics needs to have a certain hook to keep things interesting in the long term, especially if there’s potential to invest your hard-earned dollars into it. For all their systemic sins, Game of Thrones: Kingsroad and Persona 5: The Phantom X at least piqued my interest by expanding on already-revered lore, allowing me to entwine myself in their beloved worlds. The much more enjoyable Zenless Zone Zero , on the other hand, pulled me in with a mix of high-octane combat, endearing character development, and Y2K flair. Arknights: Endfield is the latest competitor in this genre’s fierce attention economy, offering not only an engrossing sci-fi open world to explore, but another mechanically moreish addition: base building and automation. It’s a clever combination that keeps you pushing, but, after 38 hours of grinding, I’ve found that Arknights leans a little too heavily on the tropes of the genre, and stops it just short of feeling like anything more than...

Magic: The Gathering has a busy year in 2026 , particularly when it pertains to Universes Beyond. June 2026 will see a Marvel Super Heroes set arrive, and unlike Spider-Man, it’s bringing Commander precons. We’re still waiting for more information about what’s in each, but we’ll update this page as we hear more. Any you’ve got your eye on? Let us know in the comments! There are four Commander Decks for the Marvel Super Heroes set, following in the footsteps of other Universes Beyond sets like The Lord of the Rings, Warhammer 40,000, and last year’s Final Fantasy. Here’s the lineup, including the brief description on the box of each precon, as well as their color identity. Avengers Assemble (Captain America and Nick Fury - Red/White/Blue) ‘Grow your ranks, equipment and counters’ Wakanda Forever (Black Panther - Green/White) ‘Power up with artifacts, reign as the Monarch’ The Fantastic Four (The titular team - Red/Green/White/Blue) ‘Noncreature spells, protection fiel...

This morning Wizards of the Coast put a new Magic: The Gathering product up for sale with an unexpected twist. The “Prints Charming” Secret Lair drop contains four reprinted cards with pretty excellent new art – but rather than simply telling us how much it costs, it was given five different non-foil store listings and five more for the foil version, each with a different price ranging from $10 all the way up to $50. The product description on all of them is careful to point out the following: “The only difference between listings is the price. Higher-priced listings do not include anything extra.” This, by my estimation as someone who has been playing Magic since the 90s and literally wrote the announcement for the very first Secret Lair , is pretty lame. Taken graciously, it’s a goofy marketing stunt meant to do something silly and get folk talking about it, but it nevertheless leaves those who arrived too late with a very sour taste in their mouth. A more pessimistic reading wou...

Fortnite fans are on the edge of their seats as rumors and leaks seem to suggest a potential Chappell Roan crossover coming to Fortnite in February. The Femininomenon of the pop music world has been the talk of the Fortnite community since cosmetics related to some of her most iconic songs supposedly leaked late last month. Developer Epic Games hasn’t confirmed whether Chappell Roan or her famous pink pony mascot will actually show up in-game, but fans are still expecting an announcement as soon as this week. CHAPPEL ROAN POTENTIALLY NEXT FESTIVAL ARTIST #Fortnite pic.twitter.com/Ut2jTrm6Ok — Leaky (@itsmeleaky) January 22, 2026 X/Twitter user @itsmeleaky seems to have been the first to kick off rumors that the Midwest Princess was next to join Epic’s roster of Festival stars, sharing images of some very Chappell Roan-looking music cosmetics and what appears to be a llama sidekick dressed up as a pink, cowboy hat-wearing pony. Players were then able to find these same items in...

The latest Magic: The Gathering set, Lorwyn Eclipsed , is here to kick off the game’s 2026 release schedule . This release marks the return to the classic fae and elf-heavy realm of Lorywn, last visited back in 2008. Recently, as I was perusing Instagram, I came across a video by Daniel Powell (aka JollySaintClick), who brought to my attention the new “ Mirrorform ” card that is part of the latest set. This card, costing four colorless and two blue mana, reads as follows: “Each nonland permanent you control becomes a copy of target non-aura permanent.” JollySaintClick pointed out how the card can get out of hand with something like Coveted Jewel, and it got me thinking: What other cards would be great to copy with Mirrorform?” Mirrorform Explained Before I get into the list, let’s break down a couple of important things about Mirrorform: It doesn’t say “until the end of the turn” anywhere on the card: Your cards won’t be changing back at the end of your turn, so take care wh...

The future of the newly released Ashes of Creation is in doubt after its leadership team quit following a dispute with the management board — and now Steam is reportedly investigating. Ashes of Creation — funded by a hugely successful $3.2 million Kickstarter campaign back in 2017 — is described as "an old-school take on the modern MMORPG set in a living, reactive world where your choices shape civilization." After significant interest and excitement from MMO fans, Ashes of Creation finally released in December, albeit as a $50 Early Access game on Steam . By the end of January, however, the game's director Steven Sharif had quit "in protest," reportedly along with most of the game's senior development team at Intrepid Studios, after claiming that the management board had asked him to do things he "could not ethically support." According to Sharif, the Board then issued WARN Act notices — layoff warnings, in other words — to the remaining staf...