Key Note Gaming

Swords are awesome. Whether you're a Final Fantasy 7 fan or not, there's no denying the draw of a massive buster sword. It's like an oversized meat cleaver that looks incredibly inconvenient to use, but absolutely awesome to display on your wall. It's one of those things you didn't know you needed until an Amazon discount suddenly thrusts its way into view. Which is exactly what's happening right now with this Cloud Strife replica sword. It's made out of stainless steel and is currently discounted to its lowest price in months. We posted this on the IGN Finds X account yesterday and it was easily one of the most popular items of the day at this price. Listen, nobody actually needs a giant sword, but that doesn't mean you can't yearn for one. Final Fantasy 7 is one of the most popular games in the world and definitely the most popular in the franchise thanks to its characters. Cloud has become one of the most recognizable faces in the series, even ...

Defense wins championships. It’s an old adage that you’ll hear across both college football and the NFL. Great teams – championship teams – make stops in the big moments. They separate a receiver’s soul from their body when they hit them. They instill fear. That’s probably why EA started off with defense when talking about College Football’s junior season. Many of these changes are also coming to Madden as well, so let’s get back to the gridiron and talk about it. One of the big changes is improved coverage that comes through a system EA is calling Look for Work. What this means is defenders won’t just wait until an offensive player enters their zone to cover them. Now, they’ll play with anticipation, which means better coverage. The other big changes are smart zones, which will allow you to make global coverage changes with a couple quick button presses. You want your guys to play conservatively? You can do that. Or, if you want them to be hyper aggressive and try to jump a route for ...

The developer of 1666: Amsterdam has apologized for its use of AI assets in the game's playable prologue, which is available now on PC. In a statement posted to X/Twitter, the studio acknowledged "concerns" had been raised by those who had played the 30-minute experience and spotted in-game art that appeared AI-generated. Panache Digital Games, which previously made ape survival game Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey, announced 1666: Amsterdam last week during the Summer Games Fest livestream . It's a concept that Panache founder Patrice Désilets devised years ago following his acrimonious exit from Ubisoft, where he co-created Assassin's Creed. The statement admits that Panache's team of artists used AI to generate "early versions of assets," which will now be replaced for the game's full version. It's unclear if these were always set to be replaced, or are simply being changed due to backlash. "A number of people have raised questions...

Crimson Desert has now sold over 6 million copies worldwide, Pearl Abyss has announced. The impressive milestone was achieved less than three months after the game went on sale — just 83 days, to be exact. Crimson Desert sold 2 million copies on launch day, and passed 5 million within its first month. “Your adventures and tales continue to make the journey of Crimson Desert even more special,” the South Korean developer said. “Once again, thank you to every Greymane who has stepped into Pywel and experienced the world of Crimson Desert in their own way.” Pearl Abyss CEO Jin-young Heo added: "We are sincerely grateful to players around the world for helping Crimson Desert achieve meaningful success in the global market despite being a new IP. To provide more enjoyable and better experiences, Pearl Abyss will continue moving forward and taking on new challenges." Crimson Desert launched on March 19 and was an instant hit for Pearl Abyss. In its latest financial results, which ...

Nintendo fans have reacted in despair at the lack of updates to Mario Kart World , following this week's big Nintendo Direct broadcast . While DLC and expansions were confirmed for other hit Switch 2 games, such as Donkey Kong Bananza and Pokémon Pokopia, Nintendo once again kept schtum about any plans to add content to the platform's best-selling title. Of course, many fans bought Mario Kart World in a bundle with their console — but owners say that this is the perfect reason why Nintendo should be prioritizing the game with fresh content. After all, it has the biggest install base of any title on Switch 2 — and for many, it could do with sprucing up, to counter claims that its open world is a bit dull. "Nintendo took our Switch 2 bundle and $80 and went home," wrote Yoshimitsu126, in a ResetEra forum thread discussing the lack of Mario Kart World updates. "And now are wondering wtf to do with the open world if they add new tracks. While DK and Pokopia have DLC...

Destiny 2 is seeing a massive resurgence with the release of its final update. Destiny fans have shown up in droves to send off the beloved sci-fi shooter. Although Destiny 2's servers will remain active for the foreseeable future, the game won't be getting any new content going forward. The game's final update was released today and at the time of writing, the game's 24-hour concurrent player count on Steam has peaked at 167,000. This is the highest Destiny 2 player count since the release of 2024's The Final Shape, the last paid expansion for the game, which peaked at 314,000 players. Some players have even been reporting that they're having troubles logging into Destiny 2 due to the sudden influx. Ahead of the update, fans were aiming to surpass the all-time peak of Marathon and crash Destiny 2's servers to show Bungie/Sony that Destiny should continue on. They've already blown past Marathon's all-time peak player count of 77,000 players, and it...