Posts By Mat Growcott

It’s that time of the year where I start thinking about Christmas guides. And man, 2023 has been something special. We look back at 1998 and 2004 and we remember them as years where gaming evolved. Title after title that defined a generation – and an entire industry. And, you know, I think 2023 may just end up being one of them. Granted, it’s hard to tell. One of the important things about those two years is longevity. Metal Gear…

The Last of Us Part II is getting a ‘remaster’ for PlayStation 5. At the ridiculously old age of three, it really is overdue. I mean, it’s basically unplayable at this point. Nobody is surprised that this is something Sony is putting out with a straight face, nor that there are a sizeable amount of people who are really into it. And all the more power to everybody involved. You don’t have to be mad to be a gamer, but…

There are a number of big reasons why Microsoft’s purchase of Activision made sense. But the eSports angle rarely got explored. For the vast majority, the Call of Duty of it all was just more important. And that’s without mentioning the huge boon the purchase gave Xbox in the mobile space. In fact, there’s a lot of reasons this deal was made, and eSports is probably the least of it. At least, it might seem that way on the surface.…

I can’t be the only person getting tired of hearing about all these live service games. Call me selfish, but I really wish it’d just stop. Trends come and go. In the past every game seemed to have a stealth section. Or a tower defence mini-game. These were annoying, but had very little impact on the industry itself. Nobody was imploding because their content pipeline wasn’t filled to the rafters. And yet live service has fundamentally changed ...

Over the last couple of weeks, Microsoft Rewards have been slowly being nerfed. Users are getting less points, which is making it harder to maintain the level of bonuses they were used to. The scheme, which allowed those interested to utilise Bing and Game Pass to earn Xbox money or subscription time, as well as other rewards, has been made harder to use. That has included reducing points for things like earning a daily achievement and the removal of ...

Casinos love a tie-in. That’s how you end up with the Big Bang Theory slot machine. But sometimes they go deeper than just slapping a face on a wheel. And often that is most obvious with video game gambling adaptations. Today we’re going to take a quick glimpse through some of the most famous video game adaptions for gambling. It’s not surprising that popular franchises try to cross into other forms of media. Nobody would be surprised if a ...

There are few things in gaming that are absolutely sacred, but one of those things is modding. It is an inalienable right, as Bethesda found when they started considering paid modding. Capcom, apparently, didn’t hear this message. Taro Yahagi, a programmer for Capcom, said mods “aren’t that different from cheating” in terms of what they do to the game internally. Which shouldn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, but of course ...

Most people probably know Matthew Perry as the ever-popular Chandler Bing in the more ever-popular Friends. And yet gamers know him as a fan of Fallout and as the voice of Benny in New Vegas. Benny is one of the most memorable characters in the most memorable of Fallouts, and a huge part of that is Perry’s performance. A side character in a video game might seem like it pales in comparison to being a main character in the biggest…

There was a lot of talk, not that long ago, about the potential of cryptocurrencies and NFTs in video games. Now that discussion has died a death. There’s a couple of obvious reasons for that – all of the mainstream news about these things has been negative lately. I barely go a day without reading something about how someone lost a fortune on an easily stealable picture of a cartoon ape. But then again, you know what they say about…

I haven’t spoken much about the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection, despite the fact that it’s MGS and I’m a huge fan. I’ve been cautiously awaiting impressions to know what to make of it. I don’t want another GTA set. On the face of it, it’s an amazing set. MGS is available on Xbox for the first time, and with trophies and achievements. It includes Integral, VR Missions and multiple languages to choose from. For the first ...