Key Note Gaming

Magic: The Gathering’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle set feels like it just came out (because, really, it did), and we’re already getting excited about Secrets of Strixhaven. This return to one of Magic’s classic planes will launch on April 24, but you can get deep into the lore sooner than that with a tie-in novel called Strixhaven: Omens of Chaos. Better yet, the first edition is seeing a preorder discount at Amazon , bringing it from $29 to $20.99. The new novel comes from Seanan McGuire, who has previously worked on short fiction stories for Wizards of the Coast, and brings her history with the game to this dark academia novel. You can check out the full synopsis below: “Eula Blue was supposed to be a shield mage. That was before the war came—before the fight for the Multiverse devastated Eula’s home, and with it her hopes for a magical education.” “But the destruction of the war also brought something new: the ability to travel to other planes. And when Eula receives an in...

Marathon developer Bungie is "watching and ingesting" your thoughts and feedback about its new mode, Cryo Archive. Cryo Archive, which went live over the weekend, was players' first taste of a raid-like experience in Marathon . It contains gameplay mechanics similar to those seen in Destiny raids, including puzzles, in-match events, and evolving sequences of objectives. However, this is not just something that unlocks for all players; there are several requirements you need to meet in order to access Cryo Archive. Players need to be season level 25, have all factions unlocked (completing the initial liaison contracts), and queue in with a loadout value of $5k credits or higher. Oh, and it's only live on weekends, too. Now that the first weekend is done, game director Joe Ziegler said the team had noted a handful of pain points, including issues for players who can't play on the weekend, players who want to jump in without a crew, the RNG of subroutines and ...

Crimson Desert Steam reviews are improving, moving up from ‘mixed’ to ‘mostly positive’ on Valve’s platform as developer Pearl Abyss releases game-changing updates. As IGN has reported, Crimson Desert launched big on Steam with nearly 250,000 concurrent players , but was met with a "mixed" user review rating. Much of the early criticism from players revolved around the controls , which some had called clunky and unnecessarily complicated. There were some performance complaints too. For example, PS5 owners joined forces to work out the cause of blurry visuals — an issue that was also on the PC version. Meanwhile, Pearl Abyss saw its stock price plunge nearly 30% in what was seen as a reaction to review scores from critics . A day after launch, the company stock fell a further 9.78% — despite the announcement of 2 million sales. According to the Korean business press, Pearl Abyss reportedly spent seven years making Crimson Desert, with development costs coming in at 200 b...

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 ...