Posts By Mat Growcott

Two things have come out of an understandably muted Game Developers Conference. The first is that the keyword is growth, and executives everywhere are trying to find it. The second is that this year’s PS5 Pro hasn’t done enough to sell itself. Granted, it hasn’t been officially announced yet. But behind closed doors, developers are wondering exactly what it brings to the table. It’s a hard question to answer. From a consumer ...

Baldur’s Gate 3 has been a runaway hit, and rightly so. When a game comes out that raises the bar as much as that has, it’s nice to see the developer rewarded for it. That’s not always the case. But is it a good thing that the bar has been raised so sharply? Does this not just lead us exactly down a road that’s hurt the rest of the industry? The ever-desperate need to be on the absolute cutting edge…

Sony is pausing production of its PSVR 2 device for the foreseeable future, it has been revealed.  The report, which came from Bloomberg, says that sales of the headset had slowed and that stock had begun to build up. Sales have actually dropped every quarter since its release. Naturally, discussion has gone to two obvious points that have plagued PSVR2 since day one. That’s a lack of compelling content and a ridiculous price for a peripheral. Early ...

The Steam Deck is a very cool little handheld, and one that’s becoming increasingly popular. Only one thing is stopping me from buying it: I want to play everything on my TV. I figured that older games and indies would be a shoo-in for the portable. It’s basically what the Switch is, right? But the idea of playing something that’s supposed to be big and beautiful and epic on a tiny screen feels like watching Lord of the Rings on…

There was a time when bingo looked like it was on the way out. The halls were closing, the people who’d played it the most religiously were dying off. It was slowly just becoming a dirty night out for people without much imagination. And then the internet took it and ran with it, and now it’s more popular than ever. There are 100m people playing bingo across the world, and a massive 3.5m in the UK alone. That makes it…

You’ve found a casino you like. It has all the right games, playable in all the right ways. Is it really worth cheating on your favourite and looking at bonuses elsewhere? It might seem like something of a hassle, but it’s worth giving yourself a reality check. Like subscription services, casinos want you to feel comfortable because it means you’re less likely to leave. Looking at what is available elsewhere, even if it’s just a short ...

As Sony’s concerns over profit margins were discussed and rediscussed the web over, there was one mantra that it was hard to escape from. That mantra was BRING BACK GRAVITY RUSH. I’m with you, Kat fans. That series was the perfect combination of cute and clever. It was like nothing else, and that’s a real shame. There should be more games like it. But there aren’t. Why? Because they’re not as wildly successful as, say, Spider-Man. ...

How much would you spend to be able to smell the things you can see on your screen? If your answer was a sensible “absolutely nothing”, you’re about $150 off. That’s exactly what GameScent is offering. And no, we don’t know why. In the history of gaming, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a single tweet, forum post or opinion piece saying “Ya know what? It would be pretty cool to be able to smell this game”. There ...

It’s shocking to think that within a day or so we’ll be playing Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth. But I’ve checked the calendar a good few times, and it’s definitely true. Yesterday, when the original Final Fantasy VII: Remake came out, it was divisive for only covering the adventure up until the end of Midgar. Now we’ll be able to see what comes next. Only it wasn’t yesterday. It was four years ago. Which is pretty short by game ...

Exclusivity is changing. When I was a kid, I desperately wanted a PlayStation to play Tomb Raider. I drew pictures, I read magazines. I had a Sega Saturn, and could’ve played it perfectly well there. But six-year-old me didn’t know that, and nothing I saw convinced me otherwise. I had a PlayStation that Christmas. A bit after that we went into a little game shop in Birmingham – up near where Currys and Pizza Hut is now, if memory serves.…