Key Note Gaming

Crimson Desert developer Pearl Abyss just released a patch that makes a number of significant improvements, but one that players are already praising lowers the difficulty of one of the hardest activities in the game: the archery minigame. If you’ve played Crimson Desert for a few hours you’ll probably have encountered this minigame, which challenges you to an archery contest against an NPC. The idea here is to be the first to score 10 hits, with targets popping up one after another. It’s worth noting the control scheme for firing an arrow, which involves holding a button to aim then releasing the button to fire. It is NOT a quick process — certainly not quick enough for what’s to come. The further into the contest you get (it costs you coin to participate), the harder your opponent. Later opponents start doing their best Robin Hood impression, seemingly predicting where the target will pop up and landing a hit in the blink of an eye. Players had called this minigame impossible ...

Crimson Desert developer Pearl Abyss has outlined a few improvements that have been applied to Crimson Desert in a new patch released today. The studio has made some adjustments to both keyboard/mouse controls and gamepad, increased health restored from food and items, and introduced storage at the Howling Hill Camp to be able to stash inventory items in. “[W]e have been paying close attention to your experiences across issue reports, videos, livestreams, and community discussions,” the studio wrote in a new post detailing the patch notes on Crimson Desert’s official website . “Your feedback has been invaluable to us, and we appreciate the time and care you have taken to share it with us. This patch includes some of the improvements and fixes we were able to prepare first, including changes based on player feedback, like the addition of a Storage at Howling Hill Camp for storing your Inventory items and some improvements related to keyboard and mouse controls. “However, this is no...

A new weekend has arrived, and today, you can save big on Code Vein II, My Hero Academia: All's Justice, Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, Square Enix RPGs, and more. Check out our top picks for Sunday, March 22, below. Code Vein II for $49.99 Code Vein II is on sale for the first time since launch, and you can save $20 off a PS5 or Xbox Series X|S copy. This soulslike action RPG features an open world and multiple other evolutions from the first game. If you're someone looking for your next RPG, this could be a great option, especially for $49.99. My Hero Academia: All's Justice for $39.99 My Hero Academia: All's Justice covers the epic conclusion of MHA, featuring the climactic final battle of Deku and Class 1-A versus Shigaraki and All for One. This weekend, you can score a copy of All's Justice for $39.99. One of the best new features of this game is the Hero's Diary mode, bringing brand-new original interactions and scenes between MHA's cast. C...

Crimson Desert developer Pearl Abyss has launched a “comprehensive” audit of all in-game assets after admitting the use of AI-generated images in the final release should have been disclosed. After the hotly anticipated open world action game launched this week, players were quick to spot signs and paintings that looked very much like they were generated by AI . IGN’s Brendan Graeber found further examples of in-game images with the telltale signs of AI. Crimson Desert’s use of generative AI art put Pearl Abyss in violation of Steam's AI Content policy , which requires generative AI use to be disclosed on the game's store page. There was no disclaimer on Crimson Desert’s Steam store page as of yesterday, but today one is included as follow: AI Generated Content Disclosure The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this: Generative AI technology is used in a supplementary capacity during the creation of some 2D prop assets. Any such assets ...

Screamer isn’t subtle. Screamer is neon-soaked, maximum volume arcade racing that requires both the finesse of Wipeout and the tactics and aggression of Mario Kart, where dicing for position demands that you think offensively and defensively at all times. Requiring the use of both sticks to fling your car around corners – plus actively shifting the semi-automatic transmission at the perfect time to build crucial boost energy – it’s also a fascinatingly busy racing game. Confidently different, Screamer makes a good case for itself in a genre rarely recognised for a great deal of innovation, despite being let down on occasion by a few dud tracks that slow the pace too much, some unbalanced missions in its central tournament mode, and no clear characters to really care about in its story. Screamer’s twin-stick racing mechanics see the right stick used to dictate drift angle by swinging out the rear. The pendulum-like effect is a little overly pronounced in a few of the cars – which ...

When a new console launches, the majority of the conversation is defined by its specs. “Does it hit 60 frame-rates per second?” “How much RAM does it have?” “What’s its resolution?” But, as we’ve seen since the release of the Nintendo Switch 2, the hardware is only as good as the worlds it invites you to inhabit. The Nintendo Switch 2 launched with Mario Kart World, selling 17.37 million units worldwide , per Nintendo’s latest fiscal report. It was the best-selling console of 2025 in the U.S., both in unit sales and dollar sales, selling a total of 4.4 million units, and selling faster than the original Nintendo Switch over the same period. As we move into 2026, a surprising game has become the definitive system seller of the year: Pokémon Pokopia . If you’ve been watching your friends play in the Withered Wastelands like that SpongeBob meme, there is a perfect entry point. Nintendo has released a dedicated console bundle deal in the UK, specifically for Pokémon Pokopia. In thi...

When I reviewed MLB The Show 20 , I praised it as the best baseball simulation around while dinging it for playing too safe, recycling visuals, and leaning on marginal improvements instead of taking real swings. Six years later, I’m getting deja vu. Despite giving MLB The Show 21 a standing ovation for finally starting to mix up the formula in its jump to next-gen (at the time) consoles, I’m now sitting here with MLB The Show 26 struggling to articulate what's meaningfully different from the last few years. The iterative additions are better than usual this year — especially in Franchise mode — but the foundation hasn't moved an inch, and I can’t help but feel like MLB The Show 26 is little more than another full-priced update for the same live service game we’ve been playing since the 2010s. To its credit, MLB The Show 26 still plays excl o jellent baseball. The core simulation remains the most convincing recreation of the sport in any video game, and developer San Diego S...