Key Note Gaming

At last. The LEGO Great Deku Tree, available exclusively at the LEGO Store , is the first of its kind – a Nintendo-themed set that doesn't concern a certain turtle-stomping, mustachioed plumber. Instead, we're transported to a medieval land ruled by prophecy, fate, and magic. For thousands of years, our heroes, Link and Zelda, have saved Hyrule from the forces of evil. The Great Deku Tree was a key ally in four of their most acclaimed adventures: Ocarina of Time (1998), The Wind Waker (2003), Breath of the Wild (2017), and Tears of the Kingdom (2023). And accordingly, this set includes Easter eggs from across the franchise. It would appeal to any 3D Zelda fan, regardless of which series entry they grew up exploring. The LEGO Great Deku Tree gives you two build options. In the first option, you build the Tree as it appeared in Ocarina of Time, where, in its dying moments, it summoned Link and sent him on his quest to defeat Ganon. The first boss battle, against the Qu...

SSD prices are trending upward for 2024, but there are still some excellent deals to be found if you're vigilant. Today, MSI is offering its PS5-compatible MSI Spatium M482 2TB PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 Solid State Drive (SSD) for only $99.99 wtih free shipping. This is the best price currently for a 2TB SSD that fulfills all of the mandatory and recommended requirements for the PS5 console. You'll need to supply a heatsink, but you can easily get a PS5 heatsink for under $10 . MSI Spatium 2TB M.2 SSD (PS5-Compatible) for $99.99 The PS5 is an outstanding gaming console, but the 1TB SSD is a real bottleneck. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, for example, can exceed 200GB alone . NBA 2K23 weighs in at 150GB and even older games like God of War: Ragnarok and Horizon Forbidden West require 90GB of space. Future games like Grand Theft Auto VI will undoubtedly demand even more space. The advantage of a PS5 console over the Xbox Series X is that the SSD slot is not proprietary; you can ins...

For the last week, there’s been a lot of online discussion on Sony’s newly-launched multiplayer shooter, Concord. But it’s not because everyone’s playing it – it’s because seemingly no one is. Plenty of games don’t sell well at launch, but observers have latched onto Concord’s dramatic failure due to its high-profile nature as a Sony first-party game, and its shockingly low Steam concurrent player numbers at launch. Upon its August 23 debut, Concord only had 697 Steam concurrent players, and it hasn’t risen any higher since. At the time I’m writing this, 130 entire people are playing Sony’s brand new, first-party game on Steam. That’s real, real low, even for a game with middling critical reviews ( we gave it a 7/10 , which at IGN means it’s “good”). So, what happened? Why did a big Sony first-party game get sent out to die immediately? Is it actually selling badly, or are we just reading the numbers wrong? As usual when questions of this nature crop up, I asked a bunch of profe...

Gearbox Software attended PAX West 2024 to reveal a collection of concept art and new details for its recently announced looter-shooter sequel, Borderlands 4. Each shot highlights new foreign locations for players to explore while also not revealing too much about how the fourth Borderlands game will shake up the formula. If there’s one thing to take away from the concept art drop it’s that Gearbox wants to give players a variety of areas to loot and shoot through. One image shows a smokey, candle-lit room decorated with glowing blue lighting, while another shows a small neon town surrounded by snowy mountains. You can see some of what Borderlands 4 has in store in the gallery below. “The Borderlands universe is super interesting and there is so much to get to play with,” art director Adam May said when describing the concept images at PAX West. “It is a post-apocalyptic world but in the distant future, so it’s like high-tech but lo-fi. It creates all kinds of interesting opportu...

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 publisher Focus Entertainment has answered a number of burning questions fans had about the soon-to-be released action game in a FAQ that addresses everything from console performance specs to cross-play. Space Marine 2 sees Titus of the Ultramarines go up against the Tyranid horde as well as the forces of Chaos in a sequel that arrives 13 years after its predecessor. It includes a campaign that can be played co-op, a PvE Operations mode, and a PvP mode. Let’s start with the console performance specs. On PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, Quality Mode enables 4K resolution at 30 frames per second, and Performance Mode enables “up to” 60fps at 1080p resolution. Focus said that on the less powerful Xbox Series S, the Quality Mode allows for 1440p at 30fps, and Performance Mode is unavailable. As for PC, it’s a mixed bag. DLSS2 / FSR2 is available at launch, but DLSS3 / FSR3 is “planned for post-launch.” Ray tracing / HDR is not supported. Wide-screen...

I was just as surprised as you when I discovered some of the best Switch games were on sale ahead of Labor Day weekend – and I’m not exaggerating when I say the best . The newest Legend of Zelda game, Tears of the Kingdom, is at its lowest price yet as part of Walmart’s Labor Day sale. As someone who's been waiting for the right time to dive into the latest (and largest) iteration of Hyrule, I didn't hesitate to grab this deal myself. Save $20 on The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom What We Said in Our Review Tom Marks sums it up well in his verdict from IGN's 10/10 review of Tears of the Kingdom : "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is an unfathomable follow-up to one of the greatest games ever made, somehow improving upon it in nearly every way – be that with simple quality-of-life improvements, a genuinely exciting story, or wildly creative new building mechanics that make you rethink what is possible. It both revamps old ground and introduce...

Woot! (which is owned by Amazon) is offering the best deal on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate . Right now you can get a 3 month code for only $36.49. Microsoft recently raised the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to $19.99 per month, so now you're saving 40% off a 3 month membership. Note that you can purchase multiple codes and apply them to your account, up to a maximum of 36 months. This deal was supposed to expire last week, but Woot! has extended the deadline to August 29. Note: There is a coupon code " VIDEOGAMES " that takes $3 off one order. If you purchase multiple gift cards, this code will only work on a single gift card. 3 Months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $33.49 Xbox Game Pass Ultimate gives you access to a library of hundreds of Xbox games, including day one releases. You can play them for the entirety of your membership without any restrictions. You do lose access to them once your membership is over, but if you ever decide to renew, all your past achi...

The Walmart Labor Day sale kicked off earlier this week and it has some of the best prices on gaming consoles and accessories anywhere right now. More specifically, if you're in the market for a Labor Day deal on the Switch Lite , Walmart's sale currently has the lowest prices we've found ahead of the long weekend. Although none of the bundles are currently discounted, there are multiple versions of the Switch Lite that are marked down to pretty reasonable prices. The Turquoise and Gray consoles are the cheapest options available at just $165 each. Nintendo Switch Lite Deals at Walmart If you're just entering the Nintendo Switch ecosystem for the first time, the Switch Lite is a good cheap option that has some limits compared to the dockable standard and OLED versions. We reviewed the Switch Lite back in 2019 and had nothing but good things to say about it. Should You Buy Refurbished Switch Lite Consoles from Walmart? All of the Switch Lite consoles w...

Earlier this week, Blizzard announced changes to how leveling from level 70 to 80 will work in recently-released World of Warcraft expansion, The War Within. And now, after criticism from players, developers are reassuring that the overall impact to leveling time will be "minimal." The changes were announced yesterday in an official post , with community manager Kaivax sharing that the team had noticed players coming into the new expansion content with endgame gear from the previous expansion, Dragonflight, were "extremely powerful relative to that intential content." The post goes on to say that a hotfix to be pushed today would "adjust the scaling of enemies in War Within leveling content to increase the power of lower-level enemies, bringing the duration of combat more in line with expected WoW behavior. These changes will be most noticeable at level 70, and will have a reduced impact as your level increases." All of that sounds relatively normal, ...

Call of Duty Warzone is bringing back the map that started it all: Verdansk. Activision confirmed the return of what might be the most beloved open-world map in Warzone history as part of COD: Next , today, celebrating the news with a special post that made its way to X/Twitter. The announcement marks the end of rumors that the map would be making a comeback for months. Now we know that Verdansk – along with iconic points of interest like Stadium, the Train Station, and Superstore – will finally return in spring 2025. It’s unclear if it will be altered in any way or if it will be just as players remember it when it eventually drops in Warzone. A specific release date has also not yet been revealed. Run it back. Verdansk will return to Call of Duty #Warzone in 2025 #CODNext pic.twitter.com/Y70gnYl2If — Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) August 28, 2024 Verdansk first debuted alongside the launch of Call of Duty Warzone in March 2020 . It was a momentous occasion for Call of Duty playe...

A hefty Star Wars Outlaws update coming in at 8.5gb was released on PS5 last night, bringing with it a 40fps mode and bug fixes. But it's causing problems for some PS5 players who have already made progress into Ubisoft's sandbox Star Wars game. In the wake of releasing Star Wars Outlaws Patch 1.000.002, Ubisoft sent the following message to some players warning them that they may encounter issues with their current save if they were playing on an older version. To best experience the Outer Rim, we rolled out a maintenance to make sure everyone is playing the latest version of the game. As one of the players affected who had access to an older version of the game, we are aware you might be encountering some issues after this recent patch. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused...Once you’ve confirmed you have the latest version, please start a new save to fully enjoy Star Wars Outlaws as our team intended. If you continue on a prior save you will...

Activision has detailed the PC system requirements for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 ahead of its closed beta test this weekend. The publisher revealed the minimum and recommended specifications in a post on its website . Essentially, playing Black Ops 6 will require nearly the same hardware as what was needed with last year’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 . That includes the storage required to download the game, which calls for an SSD with 149GB of space. It’s still a lot of room on any kind of device, but at least it’s better than the 300GB rumor that floated around earlier this year. Players can also still cling to the promise that Activision will continue working on customizable download options ahead of the full launch in October. You can see the full list of PC system requirements below: Minimum Requirements OPERATING SYSTEM Windows® 10 64 Bit (latest update) VIDEO NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 960 / GTX 1650 or AMD™ Radeon RX 470 STORAGE SSD with 149 GB available space...

Nintendo games can be pricey, but Switch fans can still find fantastic deals. Throughout the year, there are numerous sales on games, Switch consoles, and accessories that are worth exploring. We've gathered the top deals currently available below, including a fantastic power bank for Switch that's under $60 , some Switch games with great discounts at Woot (like Super Mario Odyssey down to $39.99 ), and more. Check out our favorite deals at the moment below, and for more updates on the latest discounts, follow @IGNDeals on Twitter or Threads. Preorder the Nintendo Switch Lite Hyrule Edition Console Announced alongside The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom during June's Nintendo Direct , the Nintendo Switch Lite: Hyrule Edition handheld console is officially up for preorder. Best Buy is offering preorders for $209.99 with orders shipping out on September 26. That's $10 more than a stock Switch Lite, but that's more than justified by the fact that this edition...

If you want to maximize your PlayStation 5 experience, the right accessories can take your gaming to the next level. From SSDs to expand your console’s storage, to the immersive PSVR2 headset, you can really crank your console up a gear. There are loads of PS5 accessories to consider, and not all of them are big ticket items. TL;DR – These are the Best PS5 Accessories: WD Black NVMe SSD - Best SSD PlayStation Pulse 3D Headset - Best Headset PlayStation PSVR2 - Best VR PlayStation DualSense Edge Wireless Controller - Best Controller PowerA Twin Charging Station - Best Charging Station innoAura PS5 Faceplates - Best Faceplate Alternative Logitech G29 Driving Force Racing Wheel - Best Racing Wheel KontrolFreek Call of Duty: Warzone Performance Thumbsticks - Best Thumbsticks PS5 Media Remote - Best Remote PlayStation Portal - Best Remote Play Device Sure, accessories can enhance your gameplay, but they can also add a level of convenience. PS5 accessories like a...