Posts By Mat Growcott

It’s Steam Sale time, and that means those of us with powerful PCs are picking out indie games that will barely tax them. Happy holidays everyone! And yet the season has me thinking once more about the state of the gaming industry – and the perks of being a patient gamer. I must own over 1,500 games, easy. I’m hoping one of these days I’ll finally play one or two of them. But within that backlog sits every genre and…

I loved Beyond Good and Evil and I’m glad the original is getting a decent modern re-release. It comes with a new mission tied to the long-promised sequel, and I’m wondering at this point what that could possibly mean. The original game was not a commercial success. Quite famously so. It sold less than 300,000 copies in the US, and it took price cuts of up to 80 percent to get there. Quick searching shows official mention of a sequel…

The original Resident Evil has been rated for a release on Steam, and it’s the most ridiculous thing ever that it isn’t already a thing. Think about it. You have a giant library of games from the last 30 years just sitting there. The average PC gamer has it open by default. They want games to buy, and the rights holders… just do nothing? Yes, the REmake is available for purchase. But that’s not enough. Steam should have all the…

Starfield is just okay. That’s the biggest sin a game can make in today’s reaction-led world. But those reactions are starting to wear a little bit thin. Reviews on Steam are negative again after an update added some paid mods to the game. Skyrim and Fallout 4 both have these mods, and they’re completely optional. And yet it’s another case of Starfield living rent free in some people’s heads. I should clarify that I found much of ...

The Summer Game Fest has come and gone to mark the semi-official start of the season’s Not-E3 celebrations. And yet this year, more than ever, we can see that it’s not the E3 replacement perhaps everybody wants it to be. That should be okay. That is to say, there a place for a smaller “hyped” event that can explore a variety of smaller games alongside a few bigger announcements. And while that might not seem like a controversial ...

While the State of Play was an underwhelming start to the Summer games news blowout, there was at least one major bright spot. Astrobot and Dynasty Warriors mark another welcome return to mainstream fun. That’s not something to take for granted. The actual prioritisation of entertainment over production values or spectacle is something that rarely comes along. And while Dynasty Warriors was edging a little closer to edge than I’d have traditionally ...

To the surprise of nobody paying attention, Call of Duty will be coming to Game Pass. It’s official. Stop asking. Xbox confirmed the news today, after previously confirming it multiple times. But don’t worry guys, you can still secretly hope a new Call of Duty tier is added between now and November. Or that the price suddenly doubles. Microsoft have had a crappy year so far, and there’s absolutely no denying it. They’ve scored more own ...

I woke up this morning to perhaps the most important low-key video game news of the year. The Kingdom Hearts series is finally hitting Steam. Those not in the know might shrug their shoulders at this news. There’s a good chance that most people in the know won’t give a damn. A hodge-podge of PS2, PS4, PSP and 3DS games reaching an app on a platform they were already available on? Yawn, right? Wrong. This signals a change in priorities…

It’s nearly that time of year when – for a week or two – there’s actual game news. And this not-E3 might be the most important yet. Since the actual E3 died a death, publishers have collectively decided that June is still a good time to share your big marketing push for the coming year and beyond. And while I miss the organisation, pomp and cringe of the proper show, what we’ve got now is still better than the nothing…

There was a time when I’d write about games. Now I write about how industry executives keep stepping on rakes. I should preface this by saying I’m not the multimillionaire executive of a trillion dollar company, so perhaps the line between “making customers happy” and “destroying an entire brand in a fire” is thinner than you might think. Xbox this week shuttered two popular studios for reasons beyond public comprehension. ...