Key Note Gaming

We'd heard that Final Fantasy 16 is a six-month timed exclusive on PlayStation 5, but Square Enix has been frustratingly vague about a PC version . In a post on Playstation's Japanese blog ( in Japanese ), producer Naoki Yoshida said that though he would like to release a PC version it simply wouldn't be ready in just six months. The entire team has been focused on optimizing the PS5 version. "I've caused a bit of a stir with my remarks the other day, but I'd like to touch on the PC version. First of all, it is true that FINAL FANTASY XVI is a six-month limited time exclusive on the PS5 platform. However, it is a completely different story that the PC version will be released in half a year. I will make it clear, but the PC version will not come out in half a year," said Yoshida, via machine translation. Buck up though, kiddo: This is effectively acknowledgement by Yoshida that a PC version will likely happen, even if it's not six months after rele...

This past weekend a Reddit user going by LATIN0 posted an image of what they estimated to be six pallets of Magic: The Gathering card s that had been dumped at their local landfill. What would be a treasure trove to a dedicated player was taken as a curiosity by LATIN0, who only knew the game existed from a decade of Reddit use. So they snapped a picture, dumped their trash, and moved on with their life. Later, they posted the quirky picture to Reddit alongside a few more pictures of opened sealed packs. All without knowing that the retail value of those pallets and boxes was, at a conservative bent, something to the order of $100,000. Depending on contents, however, that could easily have been more than $250,000 worth of MTG cards, containing as it did a mix of Secret Lair, Modern Horizons 2, and Unfinity cards spanning 2019 through the end of 2022. That higher figure is if more of the valuable cards like Modern Horizons, which retail for near twice the price of a regular MTG pack...

In today's New Gameplay Today, your hosts Wesley LeBlanc, Kyle Hilliard, and Prima Games '  Jesse Vitelli  discuss Final Fantasy XVI after going hands-on with it during a recent preview. In this specific segment, Clive must fight the Eikon, Garuda. While he holds his own, he must tap into the powers of Ifrit to finally take her down, and you can watch all that play out in this new NGT. Enjoy! As you can see, the Eikon fights are shaping up to be massive, climatic, and flashy combat scenarios that we can't wait to see more of in the final game. For more, you can read Wesley's full Final Fantasy XVI preview thoughts  here . And you can read Jesse's thoughts over at Prima Games   here .  For more previews and discussions of some of the biggest games of 2023 and beyond, be sure to head over to our  YouTube page  for NGTs about Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon ,  Atomic Heart ,  Metroid Prime Remastered ,  WWE 2K23 ,...

After many, many years of waiting, Diablo 4 will finally be playable soon. The first of two Diablo 4 betas starts in a little over two weeks. The Diablo 4 early access and open beta periods take place over two weekends. It will give you a chance to try each of the game's five classes and explore its initial open world area. Blizzard says you might "encounter performance issues, outages, and come across things that simply don't work," during the betas. It provided system requirements for PC players that are listed below. Level 25 will be the max level for the beta, but as long as you raise one character to level 20, you'll get cosmetic rewards to use in the full game in June. The beta will be limited to the Fractured Peaks, one of five regions that make up Diablo 4's open world. The prologue and first act of the game takes place in the snowy, mountainous zone and eventually leads you to Kyovashad, the capital city. I played through the Fractured Peaks dur...

In today's New Gameplay Today, your hosts Wesley LeBlanc, Kyle Hilliard, and Prima Games ' Jesse Vitelli discuss Final Fantasy XVI after going hands-on with it during a recent preview. In this specific segment, you'll see protagonist Clive exploring a castle in search of Benedikta. Along the way, Clive runs into plenty of enemies to take down, some minibosses, and one big boss at the end. Enjoy! As you can see, Final Fantasy XVI is looking to be the most action-heavy mainline game in the series. But traditional Final Fantasy mainstays like magic, potions, and, of course, Cid are still part of the formula. For more, you can read Wesley's full Final Fantasy XVI preview thoughts here . And you can read Jesse's thoughts over at Prima Games here .  For more previews and discussions of some of the biggest games of 2023 and beyond, be sure to head over to our  YouTube page  for NGTs about Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon ,  Atomic Heart ,  Metroi...

Beyond Good and Evil 2 is facing even more development trouble, as a new report says developer Ubisoft Montpellier is undergoing a major leadership shakeup. According to a report from Kotaku , Ubisoft Montpellier staff were informed last week that their managing director was no longer with the company. Guillaume Carmona had been absent from the role since the beginning of 2023, and no reason for his departure was given. Carmona had been with Ubisoft for nearly two decades. Sources also told Kotaku that Ubisoft Montpellier is facing a labor investigation from local government authorities due to a high number of developers experiencing burnout and going on sick leave. A Ubisoft spokesperson told Kotaku that "the Montpellier development team is undergoing well-being assessments through a third-party for preventative measures and to evaluate where additional support may be needed." The report also said that creative director Jean-Marc Geffroy and director Benjamin Dumaz hav...

While there are clearly many millions of players who have secured their own PS5 and Xbox, lots are still looking. Whether you are trying to figure out which outlets have them available, which console and accessories you should actually buy, and what the pros and cons for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S are, we've got you covered. Read on to find all that and more. Where to Buy a PS5 Walmart has PlayStations available right now, while Amazon is still requiring you to apply for an invitation. However, the turnaround for those invitations is getting faster and faster. Where to Buy Xbox Series X Should I Buy a PS5 or an Xbox? That's a complicated question that has a lot of answers. First, what types of games do you like? If you like single-player games with more serious tones, PlayStation arguably has the lead (at least right now), although some feel that there is a degree of "same-ness" to them, which is something to keep an eye on. Xbox currently has what some conside...

How do you remake a game many consider to be a masterpiece? In our conversation with Resident Evil 4 (Remake)'s Director Yasuhiro Ampo and Game Director Kazunori Kadoi, we learned a few of the ways the team at Capcom is attempting this. From quality-of-life improvements and updated controls to a new knife system and parry mechanics, they've done quite a lot; and you can learn about it in the video below. For more Resident Evil 4, check out Game Informer's YouTube Channel to see the rest of our coverage of the game. You can also visit our hub for exclusive RE4 coverage , or watch the new trailer revealed at Sony's recent State of Play. Disclaimer: Capcom helped to arrange and cover travel accommodations for two in Osaka, Japan, in association with this cover story. As the world’s largest video game magazine, Game Informer’s editorial team is proud to remain impartial, professional, and committed to the truth in all forms of our content, regardless of any outside fa...

At the Monaco Anime Game International Conferences 2023 (MAGIC 2023), Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi looked back at his almost four-decade long career in a 90-minute panel hosted by IGN JAPAN. While his first game The Death Trap dates back to 1984, Sakaguchi’s latest work Fantasian was released for Apple Arcade in 2021. Fantasian met critical acclaim for incorporating real-life dioramas as its location backgrounds, a stellar soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu and an innovative battle system that allowed the player to aim attacks and stock random encounters. However, since it was an Apple Arcade exclusive, many RPG fans did not get the chance to play Sakaguchi’s new epic. Now, it seems that Sakaguchi wants to solve this problem. “Many people ask for a PC port, and I also hear demand for a sequel,” Sakaguchi said. While nothing was officially announced during the session, Sakaguchi said that he wants to continue making games and hopes to be able to meet these expectations, as ...

Chrono Trigger is widely considered one of the best RPGs of all time , but according to Hironobu Sakaguchi, it almost became a mediocre game. At the Monaco Anime Game International Conferences 2023 (MAGIC 2023), Sakaguchi – best known as the father of the Final Fantasy series – looked back at Chrono Trigger, a game he worked on together with Yuji Horii (Dragon Quest) and Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball). “I was already a big fan of Akira Toriyama’s manga before I entered the videogame industry, so working together with him was like a dream come true for me,” Sakaguchi recalled. “The same could be said for the entire staff, so his drawings became a huge motivation for us.” That doesn’t mean that Chrono Trigger’s development was an easy one. Sakaguchi said it was the most difficult game to make amongst all of the titles he has worked on, which is why it is very dear to his heart. “It almost became a mediocre game, so we had to tear the project down and start all over from scratch,” Sa...

Sons of the Forest players have found the line of code that dictates whether their favorite survival companions live or die. Kelvin and Virginia, your two NPC allies in the game, can permanently die if you let them. And, trust me, you don't want to. Kelvin may be accident prone, but he only wants to help. And Virginia is a great shot, even if she won't listen to your direct commands. In the event that one of them dies, or you are a heartless person that refused to help Kelvin after the opening helicopter crash, you can resurrect them with a fairly simple tweak. Locate the folder where your Sons of the Forest save games are located. For most people, it will be in your App Data folder on your C: drive. The address should look like this: C:\User\[UserName]\AppData\LocalLow\Endnight\SonsOfTheForest\Saves. Alternatively, you can get close to it by hitting Windows key + R, type in "appdata," and press OK.You'll need to open and edit the GameStateSaveData.json file. ...

For more than 45 years, Shigeru Miyamoto has worked at Nintendo in some capacity, so it's hard to imagine the home of Mario without the veteran director and designer. However, Miyamoto thinks Nintendo will "probably be the same" even after he's gone. In an interview with NPR , Miyamoto spoke about his inspirations, Nintendo's future, and how a shared vision at the company drives its familiar essence. When asked about a Nintendo without him, Miyamoto thinks the creators and executives still there will keep things mostly the same. "You know, I really feel it's not going to change, " Miyamoto said. "It's probably going to be the same. There's, you know, people on the executive team, creators within the company, and also people who create Mario, they all have this sense of what it means to be Nintendo." Miyamoto chalks that outlook up to a shared understanding at Nintendo. Even as the company introduces new ideas, he described a Ni...

Sons of the Forest has officially arrived in Early Access and one of the biggest talking points for the game has been Kelvin, an AI companion already so beloved by the community whose mission is to help you on your journey, even though he sometimes makes bizarre and hilarious decisions. For those unfamiliar, Kelvin is an elite soldier who survived the helicopter crash that stranded you on the island featured in Sons of the Forest. Unfortunately for him, he suffered brain damage and can no longer hear or speak, so players must communicate with him via a notepad. Despite his new injuries, he remains extremely helpful... well, mostly. The developers of Sons of the Forest created Kelvin to help replicate the multiplayer experience for solo players, but he is also very useful for those who wish to play Sons of the Forest with friends. "We found in our first game, The Forest, that building and collecting resources in single-player could be a real slog compared to multiplayer where...

The one thing Morrowind had too much of was Morrowind, and now, thanks to CaffeineSnake over on NexusMods , that problem is solved. First spotted by Elder Scrolls YouTuber Micky D , Morrowind Removed gets rid of the island of Vvardenfell entirely, leaving just open ocean (and the island of Solstheim, if you've got Bloodmoon installed). To quote the mod's author, "Vvardenfell removed because y'all can't behave." Fucking good pic.twitter.com/8VlSbynkMG February 26, 2023 See more But it wasn't enough to just yuck it up at this meme mod and call it a day, I had to experience a Morrowind-free Morrowind. I had to feel it in my very bones. I just dropped the .esp into my Data Files folder like with any other mod and launched the retail version from GOG so I could use the character I made at the beginning of the pandemic. "Unable to find Region 'DELETED REGION' in Load for Cell 'Wilderness'. Continue running executable?" Well...

Cloud storage sure doesn't feel as infinite as it used to. I remember thinking I'd never reach the limit on Google Drive, and now after years of phone photo backups I'm always having to clear space for storage. Those 15GB just don't really cut it for modern, high quality video and image capture, or even mass file storage. Of course you can pay Google or some other storage service for more room. Or, you could just upload encoded videos to YouTube. Storing data in video isn't new, but this is the first time we've seen it used to turn YouTube into your own free cloud storage service. Hackaday shows off the work achieved by DvorakDwarf, who managed to encode bytes into pixels to store data in YouTube videos just in time for World Backup Day next month. Before we get into the details, DvorakDwarf makes it clear this isn't necessarily intended to be used as a mass storage solution on their Github page . Instead, DvorakDwarf wants users to think of this mor...

It's no secret that Valve scanned the faces of real people to use as 3D meshes for characters in Half-Life 2. Most of them are credited in the "Thanks to the following for the use of their faces" section of the credits in Half-Life 2 and its follow-up episodes. Thanks to Source Filmmaker and Garry's Mod , many of them have enjoyed a memetic life beyond the Half-Life series too, with even the background citizens of City 17 developing followings in the SFM community. YouTuber Richter Overtime did some digging to find out where the people behind those faces are now. Some are already well-known to Half-Life fans, like Jamil Higley, the actor and model who was scanned to create Alyx and also performed her motion capture (according to IMDb , she also did mocap on No One Lives Forever). But there are plenty more you might not know. For instance, Father Grigori, the shotgun-toting priest Gordon meets in Ravenholm, was based on Daniel Dociu, who was the art director for ...

FromSoft NPCs do a lot with a little, combining the developer's trademark terse style with compelling archetypes and distinctive silhouettes (lotta dudes with big hats). They often meet tragic or obscure ends, with very occasionally some hidden golden path to get a happy ending.  Dark Souls 1 fans had to feed a mute, chronically ill spider lady like fifteen to twenty human souls to open a secret door and kill a giant glowing house centipede before progressing past an uncommunicated point of no return in the main quest where it would drive memetic bro Solaire of Astora insane.  And you know what? We loved it. Even in the age of the internet, FromSoft games still have a capacity for sparking playground rumor-style obsessions over their hidden secrets. Reminiscent of Triforce-in-Ocarina of Time rumors spawned by Nintendo Uncle-having liars, the Soulsborne games have their weird little legends. A literally useless pendant in Dark Souls drove many to the brink trying to uncover...

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty has been a game half on my radar for awhile, but after giving its demo on Steam a try, this Team Ninja-developed Wuxia action game has my full attention. I'm hooked on its combat like with no Souls pretender before it in no small part due to its fantastic counter. It's something halfway between the all-or-nothing parries from Dark Souls or Elden Ring and the more forgiving perfect blocks from Sekiro. Your requisite Soulslike dodge is a jaunty little dash that, instead of providing precious invincibility frames, has to be timed with enemy attacks to open them up for a counterattack and raise their stagger meter for critical strikes. It's much easier to pull off than a Fromsoft parry, but a short delay and increase to your own stagger gauge when you dodge without nailing a counter heavily penalizes spamming. It feels incredible to pull off counter after counter in a boss fight, and Wo Long's more substantial battles have an engaging rhythm t...

"If we're on a kick re-mastering games from the aughts," David Gaider, lead writer of all three Dragon Age games, mused on Twitter , "what about Dragon Age Origins? Its graphics were behind the curve even at the time of release... can you imagine it with brand new PS5-era bells and whistles? 🥳" We'll forgive the PS5 mention to treat this question with the seriousness it deserves. Following the well-received remake of 2008's Dead Space, and with remakes of 2003's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, 2005's Resident Evil 4, and 2007's first Witcher game all on the way, it sure does seem to be the period's time. Though Gaider suggested a remaster rather than a remake, there's a fine line between the two, as another former BioWare staffer, Mark Darrah, explained . Dragon Age: Origins would be a fine candidate for either. While the 2009 RPG runs on modern PCs it doesn't do so without issue, and a version where the text isn't to...

After multiple delays and an early unlock period that was marred by game-breaking bugs , Blood Bowl 3 launched on February 24. In spite of fixes for the most egregious issues, like the servers straight-up not working, it's currently sitting at a user rating of Mostly Negative on Steam . Only 27% of user reviews are positive. The Blood Bowl team responded to complaints with a community update , promising to address the main issues players are having. Firstly, the remaining bugs. "The functionality of the game is our main priority and rest assured we will do our best to address any bugs or broken elements as soon as we can," they said. Next, they moved on to complaints about monetization. While Blood Bowl 3 lets players customize team colors and emblems, individual player options like helmets and shoulderpads are only available in a shop where they have to be paid for with in-game currency called warpstone. (While warpstone is not on sale yet, bringing up a blank page in...

Authorities in Massachusetts have brought to trial a man who allegedly ran a cryptocurrency mining operation out of the crawlspace beneath a high school in Cohasset, a small coastal town about 20 miles outside of Boston. The operation was discovered in late 2021 by a by a town employee who noticed electrical wires and temporary ductwork in an "elevated crawl space" nearby the school's boiler room. The narrow crawlspace contained what appears to be two sets of specialized mining rigs, one cluster of five and another of six computers, according to photos released by the Cohasset Police Department. The equipment was patched into the school's electrical system and was housed in several coolers with ducts venting hot air to the outside. Police's primary suspect in the crime is one Nadeam Nahas, who worked for the Town of Cohasset as an HVAC coordinator and assistant facilities director from January 2021 until early 2022. Court records say the operation ran from Apri...