Key Note Gaming

Magic: The Gathering’s Marvel Super Heroes set may have given way to the game’s return to Middle-earth with The Hobbit, but that means discounts are getting more regular on the prior, spandex-clad set. The good news is that these savings extend to the Commander Decks, including the Doom Prevails one focused on supervillains from the Marvel Universe. Not long ago, the deck was being sold for significantly more than the MSRP, reaching above $80. Now? It’s dropped from its $75 price to $64.95 . And yet, if you’re looking to pick up a deck from the set, it’s not the one I’d recommend. Skip Doom Prevails, Buy This Precon Instead It pains me to say it in the Year of Doomsday, but Doom Prevails just isn’t the most cohesive deck you can pick up from the set. It leans into the Connive mechanic to drain foes of life and trigger plenty of discard effects, but it’ll need some elbow grease (and investment) to get it onto the same level as some of its rivals. There’s a copying subtheme, token gener...

Bruce Straley, the game director behind The Last of Us and various Uncharted games, finds modern AAA games to be "boring." As part of an Edge magazine story about the state of the games industry, Straley spoke about the AAA landscape. He noted that he finds the big blockbuster titles to be "boring," partially because of the lack of risk-taking. Straley pointed to God of War Laufey as an example of a game that obviously takes a lot of effort and skill to achieve, but may not innovate in notable ways. “God of War Laufey, I look at that game, and every pixel is mindblowing," he said. "The amount of work and skill that’s gone into every single frame… I’ve made those kinds of games, and I’m still blown away. But when I actually look at what you’re doing in the game? I’m not excited. And that’s nothing against the God of War team. Just, across the board in triple-A, it feels like there’s no opportunity to inject fresh, innovative ideas.” The irony, as many peo...

Brandon Sanderson has been heavily invested in making tabletop adaptations of his Cosmere books . Most recently, he's been collaborating with Brotherwise Games on standalone board games as well as a larger Cosmere TTRPG. It's unsurprising, then, that his interest in such adaptations expands beyond his most popular literary universe. IGN recently had the chance to interview Sanderson , and we asked him if he's considered making tabletop adaptations of Skyward and the rest of the Cytoverse. "I would love to! We've talked about it. However, I also want to be aware of asking my fans for too much," Sanderson told IGN. "There are a lot of great books out there, and a lot of great games. I don't want or need it to be all Brandon Sanderson all the time. We try to be very deliberate and careful about these kinds of collaborations, to only be doing what will feel the most exciting to my fans." Sanderson's answer here doesn't rule out the possibili...

The voice actor behind GTA 5’s Franklin went viral after revealing his personal disagreement with famous Twitch steamer Kai Cenat, but the two stars are on good terms again. Shawn ‘Solo’ Fonteno is the voice behind one of Grand Theft Auto ’s most iconic characters, Franklin Clinton. He made an appearance on Kai Cenat’s Twitch stream as a special guest back in 2024, where he took the influencer on a tour of the neighborhoods in Los Angeles that appeared in the game’s fictional city of Los Santos. However, Solo said this was likely the last stream he’d ever do with Cenat due to the broadcaster’s interaction with a young fan that happened during their outing. In a September 2026 episode of the Dope As Usual podcast, Solo explained that Kai Cenat approached a young fan during the stream who came from a struggling family. According to Solo, Cenat had offered to buy the fan a motorcycle — but Solo says he never made good on that promise. “This was a family that didn’t have much at all, bro...

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is adding a big new jet to its fleet, but it comes at a big new price. The "superjumbo" Airbus A380 is now available for the hyper-realistic multiplatform sim on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PS5 for $74.49 as part of the Flight Simulator Marketplace-exclusive "Exclusive Series." It is only available for the next three months. As announced on the official Flight Simulator website , the Airbus A380 includes two liveries at launch with more to come later, exterior and interior modeling in high detail, "full flight deck modelling with extensive interactive controls, displays and aircraft systems," a deeply layered avionics system including navigation, autopilot, flight management, and aircraft monitoring systems; two unique engine variants with accompanying performance differences, a "bespoke A380 flight model designed around the aircraft’s enormous mass, inertia and unique handling characteristics;" a functional cockpit p...

Marvel's Wolverine explains why Logan's clothes can heal, just like his body. Near the beginning of Marvel's Wolverine, Logan is gifted a proper superhero suit from Walter Langkowski. It's Wolverine's signature suit from the comics, cowl and all. Langkowski explains that his suit utilizes nano-tech, which can autorepair Logan's suit in the field. It's a clever workaround to make sure Wolverine's suit doesn't get shredded to the point of no return, leaving him to run around in the nude (though, that's not really out of character, either). However, this isn't just any ordinary nano-tech: it's Phalanx. In Marvel lore, Phalanx are a cybernetic species that go up against the X-Men and other heroes. They use their techno-organic lifeforms to infect other species and create a hivemind. Whether this has any larger implications remains to be seen, but it's likely more of a fun way to explain things to fans using established material from the ...

Marvel's Wolverine has an option that lets you control the speed of the game, allowing for hyper-cinematic slow-motion action. Insomniac Games has created an expansive accessibility menu for Marvel's Wolverine, and in it, there's an option to control game speed. You can map this to any button you want on your controller, allowing you to toggle between normal speed and whatever secondary speed you want. One player chose to map this to their D-pad, allowing them to slow the game down to 30%, creating a slow-motion effect. This allows you to have more control over how the action is presented in the game and create more cinematic moments, letting a splash of blood slowly wash across the screen or have Wolverine drill his claws into an enemy before ramping the speed back up. I button mapped the Game speed to 30% on left D Pad and DAWG…..THIS SHIT A MOVIE!!! 😭👏🏾🔥 #wolverineps5 pic.twitter.com/dZgkOhE7dX — ZANI (@thegreatestzani) September 15, 2026 It's very Zack S...

PopCap's popular, long-running PvE video game series Plants vs. Zombies is getting the tabletop board game treatment, courtesy of Mantic Games. The project is set to launch on Kickstarter on October 14. Mantic, who has previously adapted numerous IPs to tabletop including Worms, Halo, Hellboy, The Walking Dead, and Invincible, describes the adaptation as "a fast-paced co-op tabletop game that captures the comedy and chaos of the series." It's for 1-4 players (just like the video games) in which "players work together to overcome a series of increasingly challenging levels, each featuring unique setups, objectives, and Zombie hordes to defeat. It'll be a card-based game where cards have unique effects when played. There will be Plant cards, with examples given of firing off the Peashooter plants or exploding Cherry Bombs. These will be joined by Tool cards like a shovel that can reorganize your garden's defenses or a lawnmower that can cut down a lane of ...

Wolverine actor Liam McIntyre has seen what fans are saying about him and Insomniac's latest superhero game, but it's no skin off his nose. Marvel’s Wolverine is out in the wild for many players worldwide, and opinions have been strong, to say the least. Discourse around the game has been unavoidable over the last month, with a vocal swath of players taking issue with Insomniac’s art direction, character design, and gameplay segments that were shown off by the media and early reviews. One of the core topics of the Wolverine debate is actor Liam McIntyre, who plays the game’s titular character. Some fans don’t believe he bears a close enough resemblance to the iconic mutant, while others feel that Insomniac’s face scans and art style didn’t do his visage justice. McIntyre has been excitedly posting about his role as Wolverine ever since his involvement was first announced, and some players have just now realized that he’s been seeing what they’re saying about him on social me...

Wardogs players are avoiding the game's Lonestar faction, as they seemingly attract the worst players and lose the most games. There are three playable teams in Wardogs: a blue team (Lonestar), a red team (Valkyra), and a green team (Manticore). The different teams don't really have any major gameplay effects, but there is a stigma around Lonestar. For whatever reason, Lonestar has a really difficult time accomplishing much of anything in Wardogs. The team tends to attract the worst and newest players, leading to a major handicap for players on that team. There are a lot of theories as to why this is happening, with one being that it's the first option, so new players pick it by default. Other teams also fill up extremely quickly because of the stigma, meaning more inexperienced players who don't know any better are sometimes shut out of having other options. One player on Reddit noted that some matches have delayed starts, simply because some players refuse to pick L...

Dungeons & Dragons is one of the most popular tabletop games of all time. And while gameplay for the classic tabletop RPG does always pair well with drinking, it's not specifically designed for it. Thankfully there's an out-of-the-box option that lets you combine drinking and spell-slinging strategy seamlessly. And it's available for pretty cheap right now thanks to a new discount. Wizards Tavern is officially labeled as a strategy drinking card game for adults. It's based off of the popular Do or Drink card game, but with more D&D and quite a bit less party. Amazon currently has it on sale for $24.99 right now and comes with an extra party game for free. The way the game works is fairly straightforward. There are a total of 170 cards full of spellcasters and attacks that each player will be able to use. Your health and mana is managed via two drinks you'll need to sip to recover, each of which sits on a specific coaster included. There's also a set of ...

The card collecting community is in an uproar after two dog breeders were caught offering to trade their French Bulldog puppies in exchange for Pokémon cards, highlighting a growing issue within the space. One such breeder shown on a live stream at a convention and posted online by PICKLEQW33N, a trading card collector with Crimson Card Co. based in South Florida. During the broadcast, Pickleqw33n remarked to her viewers that some collectors were so desperate to get an edge on the card market that they were even trading their dogs for the chance of scoring rare and profitable Pokémon cards. Not long after saying this, an attendee walked up to her booth with a gaggle of French Bulldog Puppies, prompting her to give him a free Snubbull sticker. “It’s for sale,” he told her, referring to the puppies. “I’ll trade ‘em for a card.” “That’s crazy,” she replied. “Out of curiosity, what do you have them priced at?” “$4,000,” the collector responded. After turning down his offer, Pickleqw33n ret...

A PvP multiplayer mod for The Last of Us Part 2 on PC is no longer going to be released after the mod maker says it was contacted by Sony Interactive Entertainment and asked not to release the project to the public. “Hey everyone, as you all know, the TLOU 2 Multiplayer mod that has been in development since January was supposed to [be released] this month,” wrote modder Speclizer via social media. “Unfortunately I recently received a letter on behalf of Sony Interactive Entertainment requesting for the mod not to be released. Extremely sad that this never got to see the light of day but I hope you’ll continue to follow me onto the next project, this time something of my own.” Speclizer uploaded 25 minutes of gameplay for the mod back in June, with clarification the project began in January 2026 and was expected to be ready by this month. Development on the mod included a payment component via Patreon, which is unlikely to have helped it fly under the radar. The news may come as a ...

While tons of new updates are coming to Diablo, including a new Netflix series , Diablo 4 Season 15, a Switch 2 port , and more, the biggest reveal for the franchise at BlizzCon 2026 was the announcement of Diablo V , coming in 2029. IGN sat down exclusively with the team behind the upcoming game, including Game Director Joe Shely, Narrative Director Jennifer Helper, and Production Director Tiffany Wat, who gave us tons of new details about Diablo 5, including how it’s already past early development. IGN: I know probably nobody has missed the Diablo 5 announcement, but can you guys just kind of give sort of a top-level view of what the game will be? Joe Shely: Diablo 5 is a world where Sanctuary has fallen and Diablo has won. That means that the world is in an apocalypse. The fate that players have been trying to prevent for many years throughout other Diablo games has happened. Other heroes rose up, tried to stop Diablo, and failed. Diablo sits on the throne of Westmarch and has conq...

Among the many announcements during yesterday’s BlizzCon Opening Ceremony, the news that Diablo is getting its own show at Netflix has at least one of the franchise’s development teams chomping at the bit. Yesterday, Blizzard president Johanna Faries revealed that a Diablo animated series is in the works but admitted she “can’t spill the beans” just yet on exactly what the new show entails. Regardless, the development team behind Diablo 4 says it’s quite possibly the reveal they are most excited about, even more so than the news that Diablo 5 is coming out in 2029 , Diablo 4 is getting a Switch 2 port, Spawn is coming to Diablo Immortal, and the arrival of the Amazon class. I sat down with Brent Gibson, Diablo 4’s Game Director, and Owen Leach, Season Lead for Diablo 4 - Hell’s Legacy, after yesterday’s news to break everything down. “Even though I have no information and can't share anything, the fact that we're getting a show [is what I’m most excited about]," Gibson sa...

We got the chance to speak with the developers of the new StarCraft game, who explained why they shared such a distant release date and even teased some potential gameplay elements for this highly-anticipated title. StarCraft is finally getting a new game, and it’s taking a drastically different approach from its predecessors; instead of an RTS, Blizzard’s grisly sci-fi property is making its debut in the realm of open-world shooters, and it’s set to launch in 2030. That’s a long way out from now, and it’s anyone’s guess as to what the world will look like in four years. We got the chance to ask the developers everyone’s burning question at Blizzcon 2026: Why announce the game if there’s still so much time left before it releases? Dan Hay, GM & VP of StarCraft and AnaLee Haertling, Associate Director, told us that sharing a firm release date helps keep them “honest” — and yes, 2030 is a firm release date. “You walk a funny line, because it’s like, you wanna tease, and we wanna say,...

If you're a bit stunned to hear that there's a new single-player story campaign for Warcraft 3 in 2026 – 23 years after its last expansion, The Frozen Throne – then you can imagine how I felt when Forsaken Kingdom fell into my hands ahead of its surprise announcement and immediate release today. It's honestly great to be back, considering Blizzard hasn't given single-player RTS fans anything new to chew on at all since 2016's Starcraft II: Nova Covert Ops. This expansion maintains the feel of classic Warcraft 3 while mixing in some new ideas, and that's something I might never run out of appetite for. At the time of writing, I've only had the chance to play through maybe a quarter of the new story: the four-mission Last Days of Lordaeron prologue, which is quite juicy and ambitious on its own, as well as the first three or so hours of what Blizzard says is roughly 30 total in Forsaken Kingdom. The latter really leans into being an RPG so far, like a more amb...

BlizzCon 2026 came with a lot of surprises, but few were as big as the Diablo 5 reveal – and we're about to learn even more. Yes, in case you missed it, Blizzard Entertainment is working on Diablo 5. The fifth entry in its massively popular dungeon-crawler video game series is set to bring players to a ruined Sanctuary in spring 2029, but the news doesn't stop there. "The heroes are gone, Sanctuary has fallen, and Diablo has won," Blizzard's Joe Shely said today. "For the first time, you won't be fighting to stop Diablo from taking Sanctuary. You'll enter a world where he already has. There are no towns, no safe places waiting to protect you." The Diablo team is ready to reveal even more about the next big installment in the franchise with its BlizzCon 2026 Forging the Next Era panel. All we know so far is that the team plans to take viewers "inside the fallen Sanctuary." That means updates on how it's "evolving the world, cla...

Citizen sells an entire line of Star Wars themed watches based on its well-established Eco-Drive platform and two of the more popular models are on sale today during the Jomashop End of Summer Clearance Sale. For a limited time you can save up to 45% off either the Citizen Luke Skywalker Chronograph Blue Dial Men's Watch or the Citizen Rebel Pilot Chronograph Black Dial Men's Watch, both with free shipping. They normally retail for $475 a piece. Save Up to 45% Off Citizen Star Wars Eco-Drive Men's Watches The Star Wars watches are collector's edition variants of Citizen's popular chronograph watches with Eco-Drive technology. An Eco-Drive watch contains a solar cell that sits beneath the transparent dial and collects energy from any light source - both natural and artificial - to power the battery. This light could derive from the sun, overhead lights, or even your desk lamp. The battery can run for up to six months in between charges and, under normal usage, the...

Polyarc Games, the developer behind the critically acclaimed Moss games, has announced it is shutting down. The Seattle studio announced it is ceasing operations starting today, September 11, 2026, with a post on LinkedIn . It's a shock announcement that will see the company close its doors after 12 years. "After nearly 12 years riding the joyous rollercoaster of emotions that is making video games, our time together has come to an end," Polyarc said. "As we wind down active development, we are saying our farewells to each other. "Working together over all of these years has been an honor. Bringing surprise and delight to those who played our games has been a privilege. Thank you to everyone at Polyarc, our work is now finished. Polyarc has been home to exceptional developers across all disciplines. The post then signed off, encouraging game developers looking for talent to hire members of its team. The full list shared with the message totals 29 names, includi...