Key Note Gaming

Earlier this month, Sega confirmed Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds guest characters such as Hatsune Miku, Ichiban Kasuga (Yakuza), Joker (Persona 5), and even Steve, Alex, and Creeper from Minecraft. But the guest characters do not stop there. Sega has now announced a Nickelodeon collaboration that brings SpongeBob SquarePants to the track — and teased Avatar and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters down the line. Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a kart racer packed with Sega characters and as such celebrates the company’s history. In addition, big-name guest characters are helping to flesh out the roster of racers. As part of that, those who buy the Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Digital Deluxe Edition get the Season Pass, which includes the Nickelodeon content as well as the recently announced Minecraft characters, vehicles, and tracks, characters from the Netflix series, Sonic Prime, and two more yet-to-be-announced collaborations. The trailer below shows off SpongeBob SquarePants and Patr...

We've rounded up the best deals for Sunday, June 22, below, so don't miss out on these limited-time offers. Monster Hunter Wilds for $55.99 Monster Hunter Wilds released earlier this year and sold through 10 million copies in just a matter of weeks . Wilds brought many new features to the series for the first time, including dynamic weather, a connected hub, and more. A Capcom Spotlight livestream event is set for Thursday, June 26 , so it's likely that we will receive new information on the next major update coming to the game. Donkey Kong Bananza Now Available to Pre-Order This week's Donkey Kong Bananza Direct was absolutely bananas, and if you weren't interested in the game before, you probably are now. Bananza is set to be DK's biggest adventure yet, and this time, he's joined by a young Pauline. The two are tasked with heading to the very core of the planet, where wishes are supposedly granted. If you are looking for the next big game on Ni...

I've said it a ton over the last few weeks, but interest in Magic: The Gathering is at what feels like an all-time high. With the recently released Final Fantasy Universes Beyond crossover set, new players that may have never picked up a card are now inching ever so slowly towards one of the most addicting and time-consuming hobbies around. If you're one of these people, or someone looking to dip your toes into the wonderful world of hundred-dollar cardboard, IGN has you covered with our Magic: The Gathering beginner's guide. Where to Start Playing in Person For newcomers, the best place to start playing in person is with what we call "kitchen table" Magic. No formats, no banlist, no meta, just good old fashioned vibes. Find a starter kit you like, grab a friend, sleeve them up, and jump in. These starter decks are great ways to learn the rules. I'd also highly recommend picking up MTG Foundations , as this set is specifically designed with brand new pla...

Splitgate 2 developer 1047 Games has confirmed an undisclosed number of layoffs, with the co-founders of the studio opting not to take salaries as they bid to turn things around. The free-to-play ‘Halo with portals’ shooter launched under a cloud after co-founder and director Ian Proulx took to the Summer Game Fest stage wearing a hat that read ‘Make FPS Great Again.’ During his speech, Proulx called out Call of Duty in what was considered a marketing gaffe. When Splitgate 2 launched, it did so with a battle royale mode and a heavily criticized $145 microtransaction bundle. Splitgate 2 saw a peak concurrent player count of 25,785 on Steam, well below Splitgate’s 67,724 peak concurrent player count. Steam user reviews remain on ‘mixed.’ Steam stats do not paint the whole picture, of course, given Splitgate 2 launched across consoles as well as PC. Indeed, 1047 Games has said Splitgate 2 has had over 2.5 million players. But clearly, things have not gone as well as the studio had ...

Grow a Garden has released its Summer update 1.11.0, propelling the Roblox game to comfortably the highest recorded concurrent player count in video game history. The patch notes are below. The microtransaction-fueled free-to-play farming simulator had already shot past Fortnite’s concurrent peak of 15.3 million players, achieved during the Marvel-themed season finally back during Covid-era 2020, with an incredible 16.4 million concurrent players. At the time of this article’s publication, with players logging in for the Summer update , Grow a Garden was at an astonishing 21.3 million concurrents. Grow a Garden Summer update official details: Summer's here! Introducing our biggest update so far with all new seeds, pets, gear and the limited time Summer Harvest event to celebrate the coming of summer. Explore the all new Summer Season and join forces with other gardeners to participate in the Summer Harvest event. This update brings brand new seeds, pets, craftable items, ...

IGN Store has partnered with Bethesda Softworks and world-renowned artist Dave Rapoza to create Hellwalkers - the latest piece in IGN’s exclusive museum-quality IGN Artist Series. Available only on IGN Store, Hellwalkers - IGN Artist Series 004 vividly captures the menace and power of the legendary Doomslayer, as made possible by the equally legendary artist Dave Repoza, a lifelong Doom fan himself. IGN Store has 400 premium weight art prints ($70) and 100 premium acrylic art prints ($275) - both measuring a bold 18 x 24 inches. These pieces are brutal, iconic, and highly-collectible. Each print is individually numbered and signed by Dave Rapoza and the acrylic print is truly fine art, backed on gator board and featuring a Certificate of Authenticity (laser-etched on the Doomslayer’s Shield Saw). Id software has proven for more than 30 years that Doom truly is eternal. Since its world-shaping debut in 1993 to the epic, weighty, powerful play style of The Dark Ages, the Doom f...

Netflix’s Castlevania and Devil May Cry showrunner Adi Shankar has turned his attention to the Duke Nukem series after acquiring the screen rights from Gearbox Software. The animated adaptation creative lead teased his next project during an interview with Esquire . Although projects like Devil May Cry Season 2 are currently top of mind, it sounds like something based on the legendary tongue-in-cheek first-person shooter franchise is currently in the works. “I'm being approached with different IPs and companies that want to work with me,” Shankar said. “I bought the rights to Duke Nukem. Not the gaming rights, but I bought it from Gearbox.” Duke Nukem is an unmistakably ‘90s video game franchise that got its start in 1991, but it wasn’t until 1996 that it would find its FPS footing with Duke Nukem 3D . Although a laundry list of sequels arrived throughout the 15 years that followed, its 2011 entry, Duke Nukem Forever , was heavily criticized by critics and fans alike. The ...

Critical Role's Robbie Daymond will join the cast of Assassin's Creed Shadows next week, as a new character you can recruit as an ally for Yasuke and Naoe. Daymond will play Rufino, a character he originally created for an Assassin's Creed Shadows promotional one-shot. A quick glimpse at the character shows Rufino wearing a Portuguese-style doublet and sporting a lavish moustache. Rufino will arrive as a recruitable ally in Shadows' next game update, due next Wednesday, June 25. This will be the latest free drop of additional story content made available post-launch, following an earlier mission that served as a crossover with Dead by Daylight. So far, Shadows' extra story add-ons have been brief, with little more than 20 minutes gameplay each time. But as a recruitable ally — one of only half a dozen in the game — there's scope here for Rufino to make more of an impact. Still, it's unclear exactly how large Rufino's role will be. Will you be abl...

In its first Q&A since Dune: Awakening launched on June 10, developer Funcom responded to questions on what's next for its survival MMO, and in particular changes due to come to its endgame. Funcom said it's "currently formulating a plan" to improve PvP in the Deep Desert, which players have previously branded as "toxic" due to griefing. Funcom has already patched out the ability for players to squish other people with their Ornithopter , but senior game director Viljar Sommerbakk also revealed the team was considering tweaking Ornis further, such as equipping them with rockets that "reduces overall maneuverability and max speed". The team is also considering making Scout Orni rockets cost slightly more heat to fire, something Sommerbakk said would limit its combat usefulness relative to the Assault Ornithopter "while still allowing it to be an aerial threat." "We have a lot of plans to address [players'] points about ...

A giant advert for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond at London's Oxford Circus tube station states that the game is now available, sparking confusion from Nintendo fans on their morning commute. First off, if you've seen the advert yourself, no — the current London heatwave hasn't melted your senses. The advert, now spotted by multiple fans, really does say the game is "out now". Officially, Nintendo has not announced a Metroid Prime 4: Beyond release date other than a vague promise it will launch this year. But even if the game isn't out now, its appearance on an advert in such a prominent location is giving Nintendo fans hope its launch is right around the corner. "Any idea why the MP4 Beyond ad in the London Underground says 'out now'?" Nintendo fan orchestar wrote on reddit . "I’m genuinely confused. Do they mean the Switch 2 is out? I wish the game was truly out though haha." Fans have speculated that the advert is perhaps outdat...

In a new entry on Sony’s official PlayStation blog, Sucker Punch Productions' co-creative director Nate Fox shared more insight into the research trips the Ghost of Yotei team took to Japan. Following on from his previous PlayStation blog contribution (more on that here ), Fox yet again emphasized the team’s commitment to portraying feudal Japan in a respectful way, this time focusing on the efforts they made to represent the culture of the Ainu. The Ainu are an indigenous people from north Japan, especially Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido, which provides Ghost of Yotei’s setting. Their language, culture, beliefs, and traditions are distinctly different from the Yamato (also known as Wajin), the main ethnic group that makes up the overwhelming majority of Japan’s population today. Ghost of Yotei is set at a pivotal point in the history — 1603 was the year the Tokugawa Shogunate was formed by Tokugawa Ieyasu, one of Japan’s great unifiers, putting an end to decades...

Remember when Funcom promised a fix was coming for players sick of getting squished by helicopters in PvP ? Well, fix it the developer did. Kinda. Rather than mess with the Ornithopters themselves, the developer simply deployed a patch so "players no longer receive damage when hit by vehicles." As PC Gamer points out, this is fine in theory, as it means you're not only protected by griefers determined to squish you like a bug in PvP, but it also protects you from wiping out on your sandbike, especially if you accidentally send yourself rocketing off the side of a cliff, for instance. And though hundreds of players have upvoted a post on the subreddit that confirms the change, some point out that griefers have simply changed tactics rather than stop griefing altogether. "The[y] need to decrease top speed when using rockets. They need to increase top speed when using thrusters. PvP should be about control, not ganking. You use rockets to take or hold a landmar...

It's all well and good grabbing ridiculously expensive Pokémon TCG cards regardless of the climate , and I'm absolutely writhing in jealousy at those who can. But imagine going back in time and pulling one of those epic chase cards straight off the shelf? Of course, you could today if you hate your bank account that much, but what about the most expensive Pokémon cards in packs right now? I'm talking about Pokémon TCG bangers that you can pull in a booster pack today, and there are loads. We're focusing on Destined Rivals , Prismatic Evolutions , Twilight Masquerade , and Surging Sparks for today, so let's have a deeper look at the mad bangers you could pull from an in-print Pokémon TCG booster pack. Just to note, the chances of pulling these cards are extremely slim, so if you plan on spending massive amounts of money on Booster Bundles, Booster Boxes, and ETBs, bear in mind that the actual value of the card itself is usually cheaper than ripping packs. Unl...

The 2021 relaunch of Splitgate solidified that Valve-style portals and old-school arena shooters are two great tastes that taste great together. Splitgate 2 carries that same great melding of run-and-gun action and tactical trickery that helped the original plant its flag in the genre, so it’s starting from a good place. Only problem is, it never makes much net progress from there. Even though the addition of character classes and a wider range of power weapons help bring Splitgate 2 through a new threshold of promise, some of the other shots it takes through the looking glass loop around to bite it from behind and have made me a bit less enthusiastic about the time I’ve spent with this free-to-play followup. Visually, quite a bit has changed relative to the original. Gone is the muted, more industrial look of the battle venues, replaced by lots of vibrant colors and brighter lighting. That all makes it look less distinctive and more like the many games trying to catch the eye of Fo...

I’m not going to lie to you, folks. When I hear the word “soulslike,” my eyes start to glaze over, and I imagine the sweet release of death. It’s the same way I feel when someone says “metroidvania,” or “roguelike.” There’s nothing inherently wrong with soulslikes, metroidvanias, or roguelikes, for the record. There’s just an awful lot of them. I love a good steak, but you can’t eat fillet mignon every day. Sometimes you need some sushi, a taco plate, hell, even just a burger. A little variety goes a long way. So when I got asked whether I wanted a one or two-hour appointment with Wuchang, I only signed up for an hour. But I was allowed to play for two, and I’m really, really glad I did. Wuchang may be a soulslike, but it’s got unique ideas, and by the time I put down my controller, I knew I wanted to see more of what it has to offer. Wuchang: Fallen Feathers sets itself apart from the jump with its unique art and setting. It takes place in the land of Shu during the latter part of ...