Key Note Gaming

Diablo Franchise General Manager and old friend of Unlocked Rod Fergusson joins the show this week to celebrate the launch of Diablo 4. Rod talks about the challenges of joining Blizzard mere days before the COVID-19 pandemic, why he left Gears of War behind after 15 years, which Diablo 4 class he'll be playing first, and much more! Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, to our YouTube channel , or grab an MP3 of this week's episode . For more awesome content, check out our interview with Todd Howard, who answered all of our Starfield questions after the big reveal at the Xbox Showcase: For more next-gen coverage, make sure to check out our Xbox Series X review , our Xbox Series S review , and our PS5 review . Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked , as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered . He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not &

As some may know, May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the United States. Although Asian Americans make up a little over seven percent of the United States population, Asian American is a diverse term encompassing Asian Americans from all kinds of cultures from over 24 countries, and that’s only including the ones officially counted by the United States census. The history behind the term “Asian American” is complicated, and doesn’t do justice to such a diverse and varied group of people. But in the centuries since Asian immigrants first arrived in the United States, people from numerous countries have left an indelible mark on American culture. If this list is short, that's because Asian American art is still nascent. But if you want to look back on AAPI month and enjoy some great contributions to culture from AAPI artists, you can start with these. A note before the list: we've done our best to highlight specifically Asian American media, which is

A handful of former CD Projekt Red ( The Witcher 3 , Cyberpunk 2077 ) developers have created a new studio named Blank. to make a character-driven game set in an apocalypse, "with a twist or two."  Cyberpunk 2077 game director and The Witcher 3 co-game director Mateusz Kanik has co-founded Blank. with Jędrzej Mróz and Marcin Jefimow, both former executive producers on The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077. Together, this new studio aims to apply "their years of experience to a clean slate" and bring "beautifully crafted games and unique experiences to players, favoring novel territory rather than well-trodden ground." A press release from Blank. says the studio has no plans to make "clones, or predictable entries."  Alongside the studio reveal, Blank. has released concept art for its unannounced project, which is the aforementioned game set in an apocalypse, which you can see below:  Kanik will serve as the game's director, while Mróz and Jef

Tears of the Kingdom players have unearthed yet another infinite duplication glitch just days after Nintendo dropped a patch which removed a number of existing exploits from the game . As spotted by Games Radar , videos of new new glitch – including this one from YouTuber Kibbles Gaming – began appearing online earlier this week, giving players a new way to infinitely duplicate fused weapons. With the weapon equipped, players should open the inventory and save the game, then hold the right bumper to prepare a throw, and without letting go, open the map. After this navigate to your adventure log and watch any memory four times in a row. Finally, press the plus button and load the previous save to find the duplicated item lying on the ground. “I will never understand how anyone has this much time to figure things out like this…but I could never thank then enough either,” replied one viewer. “Honestly, if Nintendo had just removed the degradation system, then all this duplication n

2021's Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City  blended together the stories of the first Resident Evil game and its sequel, Resident Evil 2 ( which received a fantastic remake in 2019 ), and while it wasn't a complete knockout hit, some have been asking for a sequel. It seems one might be on the way.  According to a new report on Sudbury.com , a news organization that covers the Greater Sudbury area in Canada, which is where  Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City  was filmed, Sudbury is receiving an $11 million injection from the provincial government, as reported by PCGamesN . This government is funding 20 local projects through the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation and while a sequel to  Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City  hasn't officially been named as one of those 20 projects, there is one called "Umbrella Chronicles," and it's receiving $2 million.  If you're familiar with the Resident Evil series, you know "Umbrella Chronicles&

Developer Giantscraft has announced Ecumene Aztec, a new first-person survival action-RPG that's in development for PC and due out in 2025. In Ecumene Aztec, you play as an Aztec trying to withstand the assault of Spanish conquistadors in your Mesoamerican city. Giantscraft promises "a strong narrative, RPG progression with blood sacrifices, gritty combat, stealth gameplay, and crafting." Take a look at the announcement trailer above and the first screenshots in the gallery below. Other gameplay features include character upgrades via blood sacrifices, three unique character classes (Jaguar Warrior, Eagle Warrior, and Snake Warrior), a climbing system, and stealth gameplay. We'll have more on Ecumene Aztec as development progresses. Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked , as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered . He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "

Nintendo and Critical Role are teaming up for a special one-shot tabletop RPG stream set in the world of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The special is set to air on Critical Role's Twitch and YouTube channels, beginning tonight, May 30, at 7 p.m. PT. Critical Role's Matthew Mercer — who is also the voice of Ganondorf in Tears of the Kingdom — will serve as game master for a cast starring Critical Role mainstays Liam O’Brien and Marisha Ray with Robbie Daymond, Emily Axford and Omar Najam also joining in. Set in Hyrule, tonight's game will present an original story scenario and original characters inspired by Tears of the Kingdom. It's rare to see Nintendo partner hand the keys to its franchises to outside organizations, but we're starting to see more and more examples of it. The most obvious instances of this are Nintendo's partnership with Universal for both Super Nintendo World and The Super Mario Bros. Movie, but there are other, smaller oc

BKOM Studios and Paizo have launched a Kickstarter campaign for a co-op hack-and-slash action RPG based on the Pathfinder tabletop game. Titled Pathfinder: Abomination Vaults, the Kickstarter says this is the first-ever hack-and-slash RPG based on the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. If funded, the title is set to come to PC via Steam. Pathfinder: Abomination Vaults will support up to four players at a time, as they lead Pathfinder heroes through Gauntlight Keep in a mission to defeat the evil sorceress Belcorra Haruvex. The game will take place in a mega-dungeon beneath Gauntlight Keep that's separated into different biomes. Players can choose between four Pathfinder champions: Amiri the Barbarian, Harsk the Ranger, Kyra the Cleric, and Ezren the Wizard. Kickstarter backers will be eligible for rewards like an artbook, early access, a custom dice set, and more. The project has a goal of CA$410,000 with 30 days to go. While this is the Pathfinder franchise's first Diablo-li

Square Enix has begun detailing the endgame activities that Final Fantasy 16 players will be able to look forward to after they finish the main story, and they include New Game+ and the game's most difficult challenges. As reported by Game Informer, one of the biggest draws of New Game+ is the addition of a new harder difficulty setting called Final Fantasy Mode. Alongside allowing you to bring over all of your abilities and gear from your first playthrough like most New Game+ modes, this new difficulty setting will also change monster placement and will see them showing up in different parts of the game to keep you on your toes. “The main design philosophy is that the first playthrough is about learning Clive, learning the controls, and then enjoying the story,” Final Fantasy 16 combat director Ryota Suzuki says. “The second playthrough, we want to shift that focus – because the story hasn’t changed – to the action. For example, in Story Mode, while players may encounter wave

CD Projekt Red has revealed that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has sold over 50 million copies worldwide. Furthermore, CD Projekt Red also confirmed that the series as a whole has surpassed 75 million copies sold . This includes 2007's The Witcher, 2011's The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, and 2015's The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The School of the Wolf is growing! 🐺 Over 50 million people joined Geralt of Rivia on his Path of finding Ciri and defeating the Wild Hunt! Thank you for your enormous support over the years! ❤️ pic.twitter.com/lhMHmgF34z — The Witcher (@witchergame) May 29, 2023 CD Projekt Red is currently working on several games in The Witcher series, including Project Polaris, which is presumably The Witcher 4 . It likely won’t be released until 2025 at the earliest as it only entered pre-production in March 2022. The studio is also working on a remake of the first Witcher game and has confirmed that it will feature an open world . The Flame in the Flood d

On May 27, the development team behind Wii and GameCube emulator Dolphin announced a massive roadblock : Nintendo's legal team was moving to prevent the software from launching on Steam. While the Dolphin team is investigating its options, the project is currently "indefinitely postponed." Here's the full quote from their blog post: It is with much disappointment that we have to announce that the Dolphin on Steam release has been indefinitely postponed. We were notified by Valve that Nintendo has issued a cease and desist citing the DMCA against Dolphin's Steam page, and have removed Dolphin from Steam until the matter is settled. We are currently investigating our options and will have a more in-depth response in the near future. We appreciate your patience in the meantime. Originally reported by PCGamer , this is not actually a DMCA takedown, just the warning of one. Kellen Voyer, an attorney who specializes in intellectual property and technology law spoke

Remakes tend to be more exciting than remasters because the improvements often go beyond mere bumps in resolution or framerate. At best, studios reimagine classic experiences in exciting new ways, sand away rough edges, and somehow retain the intangible x-factors that made fans fall in love with these titles in the first place. At the very least, remakes offer a great way to play antiquated or less accessible experiences on modern hardware.  The remake boom has been in full swing in recent years to the point that it’s starting to get tough to keep track of all the projects in the works. Thankfully, we’ve gathered as many of the announced remakes ( not remasters ) that we could find and gathered them in one neat list, arranged chronologically by release window. This will be an evolving list that will be updated as new remakes are announced and released, so be sure to keep an eye on it over the coming months.  System Shock Release: May 30 First revealed in 2015, Nightdive St

Robosen Robotics has for some years fostered a fun partnership with Hasbro and its Transformers license, including an awesome fully transformable Generation 1 Optimus Prime that would change between robot and truck on its own. In a similar spirit, the same team now has a new robotic collectible coming to market, this time emulating the Optimus Prime character as he appears in the new Rise of the Beasts live-action film. Instead of full transformation like the previous G1-style incarnation, this new collectible is built as a display piece that can shift between various aerial action poses, speak lines of dialogue, and respond to voice and app commands from your phone or other device. The figure features 21 precision servo motors and 69 microchips. Even before mounting on his included stand, Prime stands at 16 inches tall. The team even brought in legendary voice actor Peter Cullen to reprise his role and record brand-new lines for the character to spout. The new Rise of the Beast

Final Fantasy XVI is the most action-forward game in the mainline series’ history, and while it’s been a point of contention between players excited for this and fans of the franchise who yearn for something turn-based, it’s hard to deny the combat looks flashy and fun. And as someone who’s played a few hours of the game, I can say it is.  While I attribute most of that to how great it feels to control Clive, it turns out there might be some tricks developer Creative Business Unit III learned developing Final Fantasy XIV’s action to make FFXVI’s combat feel even more satisfying beyond the actual gameplay.  “For example, in boss battles, when you have an attack and you may see certain areas on the ground that light up to show that’s where the attack’s going to be, that’s something you might recognize from Final Fantasy XIV,” Naoki Yoshida, the game’s producer, tells me. “Moving to this real-time action-based battle system, we wanted players not to be overwhelmed with what was going o

Do you know DMA Design? Great development studio – up in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded all the way back in 1987 by gaming industry icon David Jones . You may not know some of its first games on the Commodore 64, Amiga, and Atari ST, but you’ve probably heard of its breakthrough hit, Lemmings . Or maybe the SNES racer Uniracers ? I’m sure I’m forgetting something… The studio is still around today – working on some games you may know – but never mind those; I want to take you back all the way to 1998 and introduce you to a forgotten gem called Body Harvest for the Nintendo 64. Body Harvest is a 3D shooter that lets players take on an invading army of space bugs across multiple time zones, from 1916 to the bitter end on the aliens’ homeworld in 2046. Flawed Gem Let’s get this out of the way: not all gems sparkle brightly. If you’ve got an N64 sitting around in the attic and you can find a working Body Harvest cartridge, you will find a game that will capture your attention not for ho

Keanu Reeves channelled his inner Johnny Silverhand when he reunited with his rock band Dogstar to play their first public show for over two decades at the 2023 BottleRock Napa Valley music festival. Reeves, who played Cyberpunk 2077's rockstar-turned-warrior Johnny Silverhand , took to the Verizon stage with his bass guitar on May 27. He performed to the crowd of festivalgoers alongside Dogstar's drummer Robert Mailhouse and guitarist/vocalist Bret Domrose. According to the San Francisco Chronicle , Dogstar attracted a sizable crowd with their set, which included songs from their back catalogue and their forthcoming album, generating plenty of cheers and even proclamations of love for "John Wick" throughout the afternoon. Mailhouse offered Reeves some welcomed advice before heading out on stage with the band after a long hiatus from live public performances. "He was just super positive," Reeves told the outlet. "He was like, 'Listen to the mus

Warning: This article contains minor spoilers for the opening hours of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a very open world game, with players able to do more or less anything they want in any order. This means what's intended to be the game's starting area can be completely skipped, though the oddness of this is noticed by Hyrule's NPCs. Once players float down from the sky islands at the beginning of the game, they're very much pointed towards Lookout Landing, a simple base that not only kicks off the main quest and provides a place to gear up, but gives players access to a very important key item: the paraglider. Skipping Lookout Landing therefore doesn't make much sense for those looking to experience every part of Tears of the Kingdom and access one of its important traversal methods, but it's an option nevertheless. That being said, the citizens of Hyrule will notice (and question) the decision to

Yakuza fans desperate for more information on Lika a Dragon 8 could hear more at RGG Summit: Summer 2023, which Sega has announced will take place on June 15. Revealed in a tweet (below), the showcase from Yakuza developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio will be available to stream at 8pm Pacific / 11pm Eastern, meaning June 16 at 4am UK / 1pm AEST. Sega has yet to reveal how fans can watch along but, as was the case last year , it will likely be streamed on its official Twitch channel. Get ready for RGG Summit Summer 2023! 📅 June 15 ⏰ 11PM ET / 8PM PT 📺 Stay tuned for live stream details #RGGStudio #RGGSummitSummer2023 pic.twitter.com/01WYJ4uAqI — RGG Studio (@RGGStudio) May 28, 2023 The publisher didn't share any information on what fans can expect, though RGG Studio primarily focuses on the Yakuza franchise ( which has been rebranded as Like a Dragon in the west ) and it's likely we'll get an update there. Last year's event saw the full reveal of Like a Dragon

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom launched to immense praise from critics and players alike. IGN scored the sequel to Breath of the Wild a 10, stating “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is an unfathomable follow-up, expanding a world that already felt full beyond expectation and raising the bar ever higher into the clouds.” It’s a title that will be discussed and played for months after its initial release. Yet, with its support comes the cyclical arguments that Nintendo is leaving disabled players behind. With every successful game comes warranted criticism from disabled individuals examining its accessibility. These discussions almost always scrutinize the options, or lack thereof, available within menus. Can subtitles be adjusted? Is there an option to turn off quick–timed–events? Are there aural indicators for blind/low vision individuals? Questions posed by disabled players come from a place of necessity. Without these tools, many of us can’t play critically ac