Posts By Mat Growcott

Rose-tinted glasses have hurt the discourse around The Last of Us: Part I, the pretentiously named remake of the original PlayStation classic. I enjoyed it too back in 2013. I enjoyed it less this decade. In the last ten years, games have changed enormously. Naughty Dog games have changed enormously. The Last of Us feels old. Even putting the remaster in 4k can’t change the cobwebs in the level design. I’m taking the comments about The Last of Us ...

Today we’re putting aside the irreverent gaming commentary to bring you the most important fact from yesterday’s Xbox conference. Despite the apparent surprise from huge swathes of the gaming community, Starfield is indeed a Bethesda game. I can sympathize. Really I can. You follow a game for years and years, straight from its announcement at the Bethesda conference. You expect a brand new Bethesda RPG in space. Then the day comes: gameplay for the ...

It’s been some 15 years since I first started covering E3 and it’s been almost like a religious holiday to me ever since. It’s Christmas without the drunken uncle and his racist rants. It was pretty obvious that it was on its last legs these past few years. What can the organisers possibly offer today that publishers can’t just do themselves online? “Come be part of our big named event – bring money”. As a business, it ...

Dead teenagers, a talking teddy bear, endless mysteries – it’s no wonder Danganronpa became a massive thing when it was first released ten years ago. Now the Trigger Happy Havoc anniversary edition brings that classic visual novel to a new audience. And it remains just as fun. You wake up in an abandoned school with a group of strangers. The only way to escape is to not only kill someone, but to get away with it. The group promises not…

The first look at Sonic Frontiers has proven to be quietly popular with fans – it is a Sonic game after all. Panic comes later. The disappointment traditionally comes with every subsequent trailer. And then even with release. It is a Sonic tradition. Personally, I hope this one bucks the trend, but we’ll have to wait and see. I feel slightly more expert than most on this topic. Long-time readers (Hi Mom) will know my wife and I are in…

Rumours are that new higher-tier consoles will be released next year. The PS5 Pro and Xbox Series X-2 will offer up a higher graphical fidelity and no doubt other bells and whistles too. But what’s the point where there aren’t any games? Neither console has got to the point where it deserves an upgrade. It’s as simple as that. The PS Pro and One X were desperately needed. 4K televisions had become more popular. Graphics had increased, but ...

Roulette is a hugely popular game, and yet its often overshadowed by the showier games online. People talk about poker, slots or sports betting – usually forgetting about the humble fun of roulette. What is it about roulette that is so much fun? There’s the pure chance of it – the ability to go as specific or vague as you’d like. There’s that little moment as the ball is finding its spot that most other games just don’t ...

Retro classics from PlayStation’s past have begun to appear on the platform’s store in Asia. Games like Abe’s Oddysee, Worms Armageddon and Ridge Racer 2 will be available to download when the service launches over the coming months. And along with the leak of these previously unannounced games, some features of the classic games have also been revealed. And it’s bad news for trophy hunters. The good news is that for PlayStation fans ...

Blackjack is one of the simplest card games to play. It’s short, it’s simple, and it’s exciting. And there are dozens of Blackjack bonuses out there to take advantage of. Changing around online casinos is one of the absolute simplest ways of making your gambling more efficient. and that’s because of bonuses. Joining a new casino can give you free money, free bets or increased odds. And that’s hard to say no to. Because Blackjack ...

Final Fantasy XV has finally tipped over 10m copies sold. At an almost eerily similar time, Grand Theft Auto V was revealed to have sold 165m copies. This is an insane discrepancy. Final Fantasy XV was a really successful game. It was a benchmark title discussed and rediscussed endlessly since the day it was released, for better or for worse. It was torn apart, criticized, enjoyed, built up – it had spin-offs and tie-ins. And it sold 155m less copies…