Key Note Gaming

PC gamers have really been getting the rough end of the stick lately with lacklustre ports and buggy releases. One of the latest disappointments is the release of Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, which has been plagued by performance issues. It's not just a matter of older hardware struggling with a new game either, as even powerful PCs have been had trouble. All this has earned the game a "mostly negative" rating on Steam . Over on YouTube, PureDark has uploaded a video showcasing a modded version of the game running at much better framerates. They've implemented a DLSS Frame Generation mod, which according to the video evidence brought their game up from 45 to 90 actual fps. That's a marked improvement over what many are seeing, especially Steam's ticked-off comment section. PureDark's modded solution is still far from perfect. It has visual artefacts and isn't fully featured when it comes to camera info, and it's not currently available to the p...

You'll find all the Wordle help you need to solve the May 1 (681) puzzle waiting for you below. Quickly check through our tips and guides for more general aid, get some targeted help with our daily clue, or snatch victory from the jaws of Wordle defeat with today's answer. It's entirely up to you. A strong opener—I do love seeing three yellows on that top line—soon turned into a real struggle today, the letters either not falling into place quickly enough or not turning up at all. I did manage to pull it all together eventually, but only after spending a few goes trying and failing to fill in a stubborn grey gap to get to today's Wordle answer. Today's Wordle hint (Image credit: Josh Wardle) A Wordle hint for Monday, May 1 The word you're looking for today can describe, amongst numerous other things, any group or spread existing between two values. Prices can _____ from £10 to £100, for example, as well as the distance a car or other vehicle can tr...

Wartales , Shiro Games' turn-based tactics RPG in which you lead a mercenary company in a low-fantasy world plagued by banditry, wolves, and, well, plague, is so gritty you could use it to strip paint. The tough early game, in which you'll march down Struggle Street trying to earn enough food to keep your employees alive and enough cash to pay them, might be off-putting to some. That hasn't stopped it from winning fans, with Shiro boasting that it's sold more than 600,000 copies so far and been wishlisted one million times. Wartales is doing well with players on Steam, who've given it a user rating of 91% positive over more than 13,000 reviews. Our own Rick Lane gave it a score of 83 in his Wartales review , praising its "rich and granular mechanical toybox" as well as its potential for character-driven storytelling. "As you pootle around in your camp," Rick wrote, "your mercs will occasionally have moments of introspection leading to ...

I was immediately intrigued by It Comes In Waves on seeing its screenshots and early gameplay on developer Antonio Freyre's Twitter . It has a dusty, analogue, desert sci-fi setting reminiscent of Dune and Star Wars' iconic ripping-off of Dune. After playing it, I'm happy to say I can heartily recommend this brief, creative exercise in tension and dread. Freyre's previous outing was last year's Undetected , a retro revival take on Metal Gear Solid. I found the two share a similar philosophy on interrogating videogame violence, as well as a throwback presentation halfway between the first two PlayStations, but otherwise It Comes In Waves is its own beast. You play as an unnamed wanderer who has done something… unspeakable. The game begins in an Anchorhead-style village in the desert, full of inhabitants giving you the cold shoulder. "Forgive yourself first," one tells me, while another says "No amount of specimens will change what you did....

Dinosaurs captivate all ages. The creatures that dominated Earth ages ago, populating our world for 165 million years in total, will never not be fascinating. And on screen, as part of movie history, dinosaurs have always been a go-to genre for incredible spectacle and chilling thrills - whether you're into t-rexes, pterodactyls, raptors, or gentle giant brontosauruses. The Jurassic Park/World franchise has raked in $6 billion in box office bucks over the past 30 years, proving that these glorious beasts can bring home the bacon. Sometimes movie fans are transported back in time, to the era of these wondrous reptiles while other instances show dinosaurs living among us, either on a secluded island lost to history or as cloned beings brought back by science for our amusement (and dismemberment). Here are the 10 best dinosaur movies, from trampled theme parks to warring prehistoric titans. Jurassic Park (1993) Where to Watch: Peacock , or rentable on most platforms. Um, du...

Who wants to play a survival game where you're a grunting lummox who punches trees for wood when you could be playing a survival game where you're an olde worlde dandy who picks flowers in a Tim Burton dreamscape? Klei's Don't Starve and its multiplayer-focused sequel/spin-off Don't Starve Together remain some of the best survival games around, as a raft of new players are currently discovering. Don't Starve Together is on sale on Steam for 90% off until May 4. That makes it $1.50 in freedom eagle money, £1.10 in the King's shillings, and $2.15 in Australian dollarydoos. What's more, it comes with a free bonus copy to give to a friend. The original Don't Starve is on sale for 75% off as well. According to SteamDB's charts , a record-setting 96,000 concurrent players took advantage of this opportunity to shave beefalos, curse the darkness, and starve to death in chummy solidarity. For comparison's sake, when Don't Starve Together ...

Want to play a game where a you're a wildly irresponsible, extremely dangerous police officer with a suite of armaments you probably shouldn't have fighting equally-overarmed villains in a dystopian future city? Well, aspiring cyborg-cop or dreadful judge-jury-executioner type, there's an upcoming game for you: Mega City Police. Mega City Police is an action roguelike about blasting your way through city streets overrun with viciously psychopathic criminals out for blood. After choosing one of a few character archetypes you go into top-down shooter action against hordes of enemies and bosses. As you go, you pick up cool new weapons and special abilities to customize and define your playstyle. The prelude version of Mega City Police is out now, and lets you play the first 2 levels of the game as any of the 4 playable police officer classes. The full game intends to have more outfits, officers, guns, abilities, and more stylish future police cars to drive. It's pre...

Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) is what is known as a Tabletop Role-playing Game, or TTRPG. A collaborative storytelling and boardgame experience where various dice rolls help to decide how the game and story progress. With the recent release of Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves more and more people are becoming interested in how to play this classic game. Currently in its 5th edition (D&D 5e), D&D has never been more approachable or understandable for new players and now is a perfect time to join the fun! What You Need to Play D&D People Rulebooks Dice Character sheets Miniatures and Game Boards 1. The People D&D can be played with a minimum of 2 people, but often having 3-5 people is an ideal table size. At minimum, you'll need a Dungeon Master (DM), or Game Master in other TTRPGs, and one or more Players. That being said, there is really no limit to how large an adventuring party can be, so feel free to invite as many friends as you can fit in...

From 2010 to 2014 Richard Cobbett wrote Crapshoot, a column about rolling the dice to bring random games back into the light. This week, there's no case too big, no case too small. When you need help, just call... Chip, Chip, Chip and Dale, Resc— Oh. Wait. Sorry. Totally different guy. It's the future, and we still don't have our flying cars. Boo. We don't even have our own rocket packs, though thinking about it, that's probably for the best. Nobody wants to be one butt-scratch away from losing a hand, and that's if they're lucky. That's not a hole you want cauterised if the straps slip a little, to put it mildly. But I think we can all agree that, maybe with the exception of hoverboards and grappling hooks, there's no cooler completely ridiculous way to get around. And in an alternate World War II, no other weapon is capable of saving the world from the Nazis' plan... whatever it is they're up to this time. Yes, Zeppelin,...

A game developer and software modder has done what Microsoft has steadfastly refused to do for years: Add a layers function to Microsoft Paint . That's right, you can now arrange separate parts of a drawing into separate groups and interact with them separately. What a concept! You can get mspaintcompanion free on itch.io , even. 📢📢📢🎨LAYERS IN MSPAINT🎨🔽OUT NOW FOR FREE🔽 pic.twitter.com/IYg3WWUJfd April 27, 2023 See more The mod is a creation of 17-year-old game developer Talon Zane, and is available along with its source code for free. It's a beautiful concept as an update to the 38 year old app, and more than anything just kind of an obvious upgrade that I think we all agree is confusing on Microsoft's part. "That's right, you can now pile on as many layers as you need to perfect your silly little doodles," says Zane, "no longer will you be confined to creating simple, one-layered monstrosities!" A lovely thing for myself, as I am a...

Somewhere in the mid to late 2000s, Bethesda got really good at making RPG side quests. I love Morrowind to bits, don't get me wrong⁠—it certainly has the best main campaign Bethesda's ever done⁠—but something hits different with Oblivion, Skyrim, and Fallout 3's consistently excellent side stories. Morrowind often just sees you clearing out a cave or collecting a macguffin and returning it for a reward. That's fine enough, and these side quests can't all be Shakespeare, but the name of the game in middle-period Bethesda is variety . Take Fallout 3's standout The Replicated Man . This mission sees you sleuthing through the inhabitants of Rivet City like a post-apocalyptic Rick Deckard, trying to determine which of these citizens is a human pretending to be an android, all at the behest of a morally dubious employer. It's well-written and intriguing, with a mix of gameplay options, as well, combining dialogue, exploration, and light combat and culminating i...

On Wednesday, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) blocked the Microsoft and Activision Blizzard Merger due to its implications for cloud gaming. Along with fundamentally changing the future of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, the document released alongside this decision has revealed quite a few details about the increasing financial demands behind AAA games. In a massive report on the decision , the CMA revealed that some major publishers report their AAA games can cost over $1 billion to make. According to the report, AAA games that are greenlit now with potential releases in 2024 or 2025 typically receive development budgets of $200 million or higher — Call of Duty has already surpassed $300 million in development costs alone, and the next Grand Theft Auto title will likely require a development budget of $250 million or more. When considering marketing costs, this number can jump to over $1 billion, with one large studio reporting that a major franchise's deve...

The way kids' show characters like Dora the Explorer pause for responses as if they can hear all the five-year-olds shouting at them is mildly unsettling, and probably contributes to the confused notions kids sometimes have about television. The ones that lead to questions like: Can they see me? Amanda the Adventurer , a "found footage edutainment horror" game that released on Steam this week, exploits that creepiness by having us watch and respond to VHS tapes of a made-up kids show starring a little girl named Amanda, who in the first episode bakes a pie without parental supervision despite the protests of her poor little friend, a Wooly the sheep. Amanda of course does the Dora thing, where she asks you, the viewer, for advice. Except that when she asks something, such as what to cut apples with, you have to type in the correct answer or she won't continue: K-N-I-F-E. It's not exactly a subtle way to introduce the show's sinister supernatural essence...

Since going free-to-play in 2019, Bungie has made many changes with what’s pro bono and what will require a real-world investment in Destiny 2 . If you’re wondering exactly what is free and what’s paid, we made this nifty guide to help you navigate all that space magic. Destiny 2 Free-to-Play Activities First, let’s cover all the things you can do in Destiny 2 without paying. These are all the playlist activities, limited-time events, and stories you can partake in without ever running into Destiny’s paywall: 1. The “New Light” Questline and Guardian Rank Onboarding As a newcomer, this content will be the first thing you’re forced to tackle before you can do anything else. This brief storyline will introduce you to the Destiny universe, teach you the basics of looting and shooting, and catch you up on the happenings so far, including a special cutscene to catch you up to speed all the way to Lightfall . After that, you’ll be given a series of goals via the “Journey” tab that wil...