Key Note Gaming

Welcome to Beyond! Game Club, a new segment for podcast Beyond! where each month we will be picking games to play as a group and talking about our experiences as we progress through them. The games will range from various classics to quintessential PlayStation games we consider must plays, and even revisiting some recent favorites to prepare for upcoming sequels (looking at you Ghost of Tsushima and Yotei)! However, for March we decided it would be a great time to revisit one of our favorite superhero games of all time: Batman: Arkham Asylum . It's been at least 10 years since many of us dove into 2009's Batman: Arkham Asylum and now feels like the perfect time to revisit the game that almost singlehandedly revitalized the superhero genre. Whether it was the excellent freeform combat of snapping back and forth between enemies with precision, to unleashing devastating kicks or takedowns, or the way it trained our detective skills to solve the numerous riddles by the Riddler –...

Many of the best board games tend to be geared towards smaller groups of players. So what's one to do when you have a party or other gathering of fun-loving friends in higher numbers? Thankfully, board game and card game makers have not left these scenarios in the cold. If you know where to look, you can find some awesome tabletop experiences that cleanly and elegantly scale up to 10 or even more players, giving everyone something to partake in. If you’re seeking a good board game to break out at your next gathering, these are the best board games for parties and large groups to play in 2025. You can also check out our list of the best family board games if you're looking for something for all ages. TL;DR: The Best Party Board Games Link City (2-6 players) Caution Signs (3-9 players) Ready Set Bet (2-9 players) Challengers! (1-8 players) That's Not a Hat (3-8 players) Wits and Wagers: Party (4-18 players) Codenames (2-8 players) Time's Up – Title R...

Niantic’s augmented reality video game phenomenon, Pokémon Go , may soon find itself under new ownership — and some fans are already working to keep it from reaching this next stage in its evolution. Long-time players of The Pokémon Company’s trend-setting mobile experience were sent into a frenzy last week when a Bloomberg report suggested that Niantic was in talks to sell its video game efforts to Saudi-owned company Scopely for around $3.5 billion. It’s a deal that could involve the trade of titles such as Monster Hunter Now, Pikmin Bloom, and, yes, Pokémon Go, with an announcement reportedly expected to arrive soon. There’s been no word on how significantly a leadership change could impact in-game mechanics and microtransactions... yet. With Scopely in the picture, this is what we’re looking at. There goes my desire to play pogo. 😬🤬 pic.twitter.com/UKYLFV7VKX — AmyWiedy (@Amy_Wiedy) February 20, 2025 Scopely oversees a fleet of notable mobile experiences that range from ...

Monster Hunter Wilds has enjoyed a huge launch, with nearly 1 million concurrent players on Steam. Capcom’s action adventure game launched on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S, and quickly became the eighth most-played game on Steam of all-time with an incredible 987,482 concurrent users. To put it into context, that’s ahead of the all-time peaks of best-sellers Elden Ring , Hogwarts Legacy , and Baldur’s Gate 3 . It’s already outstripped its predecessor on Steam, where 2018's Monster Hunter World enjoyed a peak concurrent figure of 334,684. And it’s worth noting that Monster Hunter Wilds’ actual peak concurrent figure will be much higher, given neither Sony nor Microsoft report player numbers. The question now is how high can that Steam concurrent figure go as Monster Hunter Wilds heads into its first weekend on sale and beyond. It seems likely it will crack the 1 million concurrents mark later today, overtaking Cyberpunk 2077 in the process. Could 2 million be ...

Steam Next Fest is the all-digital event where you can play literally hundreds of demos on Steam for free, so you can find your next favorite game. But with so many demos to play and the event lasting only a week – it ends 3 March at 10am PT – it can be daunting to know where to start. IGN's team has been downloading and trying out the best and most interesting demos, which we've compiled below. It's not a comprehensive list of everything to check out, more a starter list of demos you should definitely go to first and, if you want more, well, there’s hundreds of others to choose from. Monster Train 2 I still play the Monster Train daily challenges on my phone to this day, and I’d just finished one when the announcement of Monster Train 2 and the demo popped up. So I was pre-grabbed on the roguelike, deck-building fantasy game series. But so far I like what I’m seeing of the sequel. It’s not a radical reinvention of the idea, but it’s layering on some new stuff like eq...

This morning, we got our first lengthy look at Pokemon Legends: Z-A , Game Freak's futuristic new Pokémon game set in the familiar Pokémon X/Y locale of Lumiose City. But even though we saw a number of features such as running on rooftops, changes to battling, and Mega Evolution, we still have loads of questions about exactly when Pokémon Legends Z-A takes place relative to the other Pokémon games, and which returning characters we might see in Lumiose City. That's where the community comes in. For context, while most Pokémon games tend to be standalone affairs, the first Pokémon Legends game dealt with time travel. It also heavily featured familiar locations from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl set hundreds of years in the past, numerous characters who were clearly ancestors of characters in other Pokémon games...or, in one case, just a Pokémon Black and White character plopped down in the past by Pokémon God themself. With that in mind, fans are eager to know when Pokémon Lege...

Pokemon is celebrating its 29th birthday this year and, as always, The Pokemon Company has planned a huge birthday celebration on February 27 to honor the milestone and reveal a bit of the future of the beloved franchise. While we don't know what surprises are in store for this year's Pokemon Day, we will be gathering all the biggest announcements right here to ensure you don't miss a thing! What are you most excited for? Let us know below and keep checking back as we will be updating this roundup throughout the show! Pokemon Legends: Z-A Gets a Ton of New Details and a Late 2025 Release Window Pokemon Legends: Z-A was the big finale for this year's Pokemon Presents and we got a few new details alongside a late 2025 release date. This new adventure takes place in Lumiose City and players will get to choose either Chikorita, Tepig, or Totodile to be their first Pokemon. Luimiose City is undergoing a "high-tech urban redevelopment plan" that aims to turn...

If you play Pokémon Go even semi-regularly, you already know that PokéCoins are basically essential. Whether you’re raiding, grinding XP, or hoarding Incense like a dragon hoards gold, you’re going to need a steady supply of these things. And while you could buy them directly through the game, that would be a rookie mistake because Best Buy has a way better deal right now. Pokémon Go $50 Gift Card (7,000 PokéCoins) For $42.50, you can get a $50 Pokémon Go gift card, which gives you 7,000 PokéCoins instead of the usual 6,700 $50 would get you in-app. That’s an extra 300 coins for free, and you’re saving $7.50 on top of that. More PokéCoins, less money spent. Now, if you’re sitting on 7,000 PokéCoins, you might be wondering what to spend them on. Should you hoard them for future boxes? Blow them all on Remote Raid Passes? Maybe finally invest in that Pokémon Storage upgrade so you don’t have to suffer through constant “Your Pokémon Box is full” notifications? Decisions, decision...

Trainers know the struggle with Pokémon TCG right now. A new set drops, you wait maybe 30 minutes too long to buy it, and suddenly every scalper on eBay is selling it for double MSRP with no remorse. But this week? Things are different. Best Buy, Amazon, and Walmart have restocked some of the most in-demand Pokémon TCG sets at retail price. No fighting over the last box at Costco, no sketchy third-party Amazon sellers charging a premium, just pure, untainted Pokémon goodness straight from the source. Best Pokémon Day Deals 2025 One of the big catches here is Pokémon TCG 151 Booster Bundle , which comes with six booster packs from the Scarlet and Violet 151 set. I'm dying to fill my binder with some of the best cards from 151, like the gorgeous Special Illustration Rare Charizard or Venusaur ex, an absolute tank and playable. It's been one of the hardest sets to find sealed at MSRP, and I don't expect it to stay in stock long. Another solid investment right now is Sh...

Not all cards are meant to be played with. If you’re into collectibles already or just starting to collect trading cards, you may have a big enough collection that warrants some extra care or bulk storage. Some of your cards may even have significant value or will continue to grow in value, depending on what cards you collect and how you store them. As an investment, many serious collectors go to significant lengths to protect their cards such as sleeving or even double-sleeving them. However, even if your cards aren’t worth much monetarily, they are still nostalgic and special to you; whether it be Pokémon TCG , Yu-Gi-Oh, sports cards, MTG cards (shoutout the new Final Fantasy collection ), X-Men cards, or others. That said, you should consider the right dedicated storage option for your type of collection and your budget. Jump to: Quiver Time Quiver Card Case - Best All-Around Pick GameGenic Dungeon 1100 - Best for Bulk Collections Quiver Time Bolt Card Case - Best Case f...

Tekken 8 veteran Anna Williams is returning to the roster, and while her redesign seems to be going down well with most fans, some aren't so sure and are even comparing her new look to Santa Claus . When one fan asked Tekken game director and chief producer Katsuhiro Harada if the development team could bring back the "old Anna design," Harada slammed the criticism , saying: "If you prefer the old design, I am not taking those away from you." "While 98% of the fans are welcoming this, there will always be people like you," Harada wrote. "I understand and sympathize that it may not suit your personal taste, but if you prefer the old design, past works already exist. I am not taking those away from you. "Also, you refer to yourself as 'Anna fans,' as if you represent all Anna fans, but you should express your opinion as an individual. "You threaten to quit if she isn’t brought back. You complain the moment she is brought bac...