Posts By Mat Growcott

Game engines aren’t supposed to cause major problems for their users. Usually when they do, it’s accidental. This week Unity bucked that trend. And while there is no shortage of column space around this very issue, it’s worth another look. It could very easily impact on the way we all play our games old and new. So as a quick recap: Unity decided to change their deal with developers. They would charge a set fee of $0.20 for every download…

Final Fantasy has struggled with itself for a good long time. How do you recreate the scale and majesty of a massive SNES or even PS1 game in the HD era? The answer, for a long time, was that you just don’t. You stick to narrow corridors, or scale back the story. Maybe you confine your characters to a car for long journeys, with passing landmarks doing just and only that. With Final Fantasy VII Remake and now Final Fantasy…

It seems for a while everybody had settled on the idea that Game Pass wasn’t some kind of weird space/time hack. It works, it’s profitable and it’s popular. Then Starfield came along and broke everybody’s minds all over again. Is six million players enough for Microsoft to be happy with Starfield’s release? Have enough people paid for the game through Steam to subsidise the obvious losses made from a subscription service? Should ...

When we got our first PC, it came as part of a bundle with a chair included. That was how important it was to get a PC chair – it came with your initial purchase. No wonder that bundle cost more than even today’s GPUs. On the other hand, it allowed me to play Black and White without any problems so it did its job. But it seems the days where desk chairs are seen as vital are gone. Thank…

Within 24 hours, critics across the world will be sharing their thoughts on Starfield. And it’s clear that they have something pretty special in their hands. Honestly, I’ve never seen this level of hype from critics before. Everybody seems to be sharing hints and teasers. Some are saying it’s their biggest review ever. I’ve seen at least one review split into two videos. Notice so far I haven’t said anything about good. None of ...

It used to be that talk about servers was vitally important to the gaming community experience. The Xbox 360 was better than the PlayStation Network, or so the internet discourse said. Dedicated servers were expected and rarely received. Today that discussion seems to be a thing of the past. Online games have improved and, by and large, the conversation has moved onto other, more “important” things, like acquisitions and monthly active users. That ...

With a tantalisingly small amount of time left until Starfield is in our grubby little mitts, it’s a good idea to take a look at an extremely helpful but often overlooked Xbox feature. You can pre-install the game to your console or PC via the Xbox app right now, with the pre-install for Steam coming this week too. But you’re also able to do this on console if you don’t own the game yet. The full install can be put…

I know, I know – I can already hear the comments. But bear with me, because I really do believe it’s true. Final Fantasy 16 is the ultimate Final Fantasy experience. And I think it’s only going to get better from here. If you’re after a stat-driven turn-based RPG, I can imagine you’re rolling your eyes around now. But that’s never been what Final Fantasy is. Yes, it’s the mode that it was delivered. But it’s the ...

Because the Switch has so much excess processing power, Nintendo has approved “gaming security solution” Denuvo to appear on the console. The software is best known as the bane of PC gamers’ lives. It requires authentication to work, and often lowers performance. Neither of these things are good on PC, but, if they work in a similar way, will kill the Switch experience. That’s if the full Denuvo experience is brought to Nintendo ...

In what will hopefully be the final surprise twist in the wild Activision/Microsoft Merger – Ubisoft will control the cloud rights to Activision Blizzard games for the next 15 years. Nobody saw it coming, but early this morning the companies involved made the announcement. Ubisoft will offer all classic and new Activision games for the next 15 years through Ubisoft+. They will also be able to license out the games to other streaming companies, including ...

When America needs to dole out some democracy, there’s only one gang of soldiers brave enough to answer the call: the Broforce. Made up of familiar (but not too familiar) faces from favourite action films and TV series of the 80s and 90s, you get to chew gum and kick ass through dozens of hilariously funny levels. And while the original game came out in 2015, Broforce Forever – the final update – was released earlier this month. And ...

When the original Fallout came out in 1997, I was not even close to being able to play it. And multiple attempts in the years since have proven fruitless. Why? Various reasons. When I was a teenager, I guess it was down to the fact that it was just too damn dense to hold my attention. Things aren’t obvious, and that isn’t a good thing. Even today, hours into the experience, I’m still noticing buttons and finding new ways of…

The original Red Dead Redemption is making its return – and I kind of wish it wasn’t. That’s not entirely fair. It’s fantastic that the barebones remaster of the original game is coming to PlayStation 4 and Switch. The fantastic Xbox backwards compatible version is good enough that it makes sense to re-release the game where it isn’t available. PC could use some love, but there we go. Still, it leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. ...

I’ve written a lot about remakes and remasters lately, but by and large they have been for games that are already easily available. Where’s access to the titles we really need? Like, sure, it’s fantastic I can play Grand Theft Auto 3 on my Xbox Series X. But Liberty City Stories is forever trapped on PSP (or PS2 if you want the inferior version). Same goes for Vice City Stories. There are two entries in one of the most major…

Final Fantasy IX was a timeless celebration of everything the franchise had been up to that point. It celebrated the best of the SNES classics, while improving on what we had loved about VII and VIII. With X, a new era began, and things have never quite been the same. And that’s why fans are rightfully worried about the upcoming Final Fantasy IX remake. It hasn’t been officially announced yet. But it was on the Geforce leak and insiders have…