Posts By Mat Growcott

In all the debates around Microsoft’s purchase of Activision, one has been the most frequent. How is PlayStation going to cope without Call of Duty? Should they have to? Is it fair? It’s been a while since we last looked at the Activision purchase. That’s mostly because a fat lot of nothing has happened. Decisions have been delayed, as you’d expect from a purchase of this size. A decision will still be made by the end of this financial ...

It’s fair to say that Overwatch 2 has been the dominant game for me since it released. When I’m not playing it, I’m thinking about it. When I am playing it, I’m wondering why I’m not playing better. It’s still a great game. If anything, it’s a perfect team shooter let down by minor details (and its major battle pass problems). Today we will go through a few more of the issues I’ve found through extensively ...

Call of Duty is out, and the talk of the day isn’t about its tight multiplayer or enjoyable campaign. Most conversation seems wrapped around the NEXT Call of Duty. This one isn’t getting a sequel, it’s getting a “premium expansion” – and just what is the difference? If instead of another Black Ops game we get Modern Warfare 2-2, only it’s a paid expansion and everything is done via update… does it actually make ...

One of the signs that gaming is growing up is when you have two games so totally different vying for people’s attention this November. God of War and Pentiment couldn’t be any more different – but expect a lot of chat about them going forward. That’s not to say they should be compared, although inevitably they will be. But with both games now gold, and almost ready to be played, there’s a good chance that Game of the Year talks…

This has been a bad week for VR. Confirmation, as if confirmation was needed, that it is not for the mainstream came in the announcement of the new PlayStation VR’s price. And that’s not to mention Meta’s problems. A few weeks ago I wrote about VR and it’s problem breaking through to larger crowds. How quickly that article was proven correct. PlayStation fans will be expected to pay $599.99 / €649.99 / £569.99 / ¥79,980 if they want to ...

Like all good addicts, I’m still knee-deep into my return to Overwatch 2. That’s giving me a long time to consider the battle pass, and just how much it takes out of the game. I’ve done the review. I’ve spent a decent amount of time with new – or newish – characters. It is, as it always way, a bloody good game. So why is the monetization so bloody bad? The battle pass takes a key part of the first…

Within days of me giving myself hope for a Metal Gear future, some more evidence has popped up that may or may not add to that foolish optimism. The developer rumoured to be working on a Metal Gear Solid 3 remake has teased something… right before deleting it again. The Metal Gear Solid 3 remake has been rumoured for several years, and is bizarrely often mentioned along a new set of remasters for 1, 2 and 3 as well. Virtuos…

In the annals of LittleBigPlanet, Sackboy: A Big Adventure is a sad footnote. Not because of the quality of the game, I hasten to add. But because it seems so often people forget it exists. Even Sony themselves, as the PC release has been a very quiet affair. A PS5 launch title, aimed primarily at families, it shouldn’t be a big surprise that it isn’t spoken about in the same breath as Horizon or God of War. But hopefully a…

If there has been one sign that the console wars have grown up, it’s this. We no longer argue about lists of games. Instead, we argue over corporate decisions. Nowhere has that been more obvious than in the conversation about Game Pass’s profitability. Game Pass wasn’t sustainable. Then it wasn’t good for the industry. Then it was both, but it wasn’t profitable. Now, thanks to a new interview with Xbox’s Phil Spencer, we ...

Everybody’s favourite bird/robot combination has returned to Overwatch – but Bastion is not as you remember him. The famously tough little robot can no longer heal, and his high damage gun is now a temporary move. In some ways this feels like a nerf – especially when you’re surrounding by Tracers and Sombras – but in others it opens him up as a very different charcacter. If the unfortunately missing Assault was still in the mix ...

Resident Evil Re:Verse still exists and, well, that’s news to me. The multiplayer game, which has been delayed twice, will be free to owners of Village from October 28th. The multiplayer mode for Village was met with skepticism when it was announced nearly two years ago. That was only increased when it was delayed from May 7 – alongside Village – to Summer, and then again to a vague 2022. Well, surprise surprise, it’s still coming in ...

Game Pass has always been great, but it’s got to the point where it’s now also impossible to keep up with. This is a fantastic problem to have. For an average adult with broad tastes, Game Pass has now tipped the scales from very cool to overwhelming. And with a mountain of first-party content expected in the first half of next year, that’s a problem that’s going to remain with us for months to come. This thought occurred to me…

I’ve been known to get a bit grumpy about the neverending talk about Silent Hill and its inevitable return. Well buckle in, folks, because now it’s been officially announced. I’ll do a quick rundown of the announcements shortly. But first, let’s look back at all the happy months and years insiders have been promising this moment will come. We couldn’t have got here without them. And don’t forget to take a moment’s ...

How do you review Overwatch 2? Honestly, I’ve been wondering ever since I downloaded it. Is it fair to give a high score to a sequel that isn’t in any way a sequel, but just the same game in disguise? Is it fair to mark up excellent gameplay when the free-to-play system beneath it feels so dirty? More than that – this isn’t my first visit to Overwatch. I have a few hundred hours into it, and there are benefits…

VR was going to be the next big thing, but it has never happened. Cost became prohibitive, “must-have” software is limited. And with the announcement of the Meta Quest Pro, it seems the best is becoming increasingly out of reach. This is not good. This tech isn’t cheap, and the Quest Pro is not aimed at your average gamer. But it’s not a good look for an area of the industry that has been on the edge of greatness for…