Posts By Mat Growcott

There’s a rumour that Sony may be about to announce another acquisition. Naturally, everybody is naming names – but some of the names are a bit too big. From Ubisoft to Warner Brothers and even the likes of Take Two, the list of fan acquisitions are wide and varied. This just isn’t likely. I’m not going to get into massive detail on what Sony can and can’t afford. That’s mostly because I think most major companies will find ...

We’re happy to announce today that PlayStation Plus Complicated will be available at some point in the near future. Maybe soon. PlayStation Plus Complicated takes all the simplicity and usefulness of two of our services – PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now – and jams it together into one unwieldy, poorly named mess. The good news is you’ll get access to more games – around 400 more games to be exact. The bad news is ...

There are so many different types of games and so little time to play them. And yet, each year they’re all getting more and more popular. Today we’re going to run down some of the most popular forms of games of all kinds in the hopes of nailing down exactly what makes each of them so crowd-pleasing. From gambling games to the nichest of the niche, we’ll be exploring what attracts attention and why. We’re not keeping too serious a…

There are things in life that are inevitable: Death, taxes and Grand Theft Auto 5. It’s a meme – a joke – and yet the titan that killed Elden Ring’s chart-topping success is Grand Theft Auto 5. It’s close enough to ten years since we wrote about the announcement of Grand Theft Auto V on this very site, and here we are writing about it again. It has launched for a new generation of consoles and it has done quite…

Another week, another list of publishers and developers that have been accused of treating their staff abysmally. Add in Sony and Activision – and no doubt countless others – and it feels like the industry is just awful. Sexism, racism, abuse. These companies fly flags and issue press releases when International Women’s Day rolls around, but behind closed doors hate just about everybody regardless of anything. Equal opportunities abuse ...

At the grizzled old age of 32 sometimes I need help understanding the basics of the modern world. What is a dab? Why is TikTok a thing when it’s so obviously not a thing? And today, what the hell are vtubers? For a while now, there’s been a lot on the internet that I haven’t understood. Frankly, it’s only been getting worse. As someone who grew up in 90s chatrooms, I used to get the wild west nature of the…

A clever consumer is always on the lookout for a bargain. Luckily, if you’re also in gambling, it pays to always be willing to look around. That’s not just because you might get bored of what you’re already on, although that’s true too. There’s a rich collection of casinos on the internet that can scratch any and all itches you might have. But it’s also because a lot of the powers of these casinos want your money. They want ...

Almost two months ago Microsoft announced it was making the biggest purchase in the history of video games. Xbox is buying Activision. Then they disappeared. Call me ungrateful if you’d like. It’s a seemingly obtuse point to make: that they are both making the biggest purchase in the history of video games and being too quiet. The patient adult in me wants to accept that there are things happening behind the scenes. The obnoxious internet side of ...

There were no 15 minutes introductory cutscenes. There’s no quest log or diary of recent dialogue. Hell, there isn’t even a Sonic the Hedghog-esque voice actor saying “previously on…” every time I load. I have no idea what’s happening in Elden Ring – and I love it. I mean, hey, I like being beaten over the head with issues as much as the next guy. I’m sure those giants I’ve killed over and over are Somalian ...

There was a time when the question of what was better, first-person or third-person shooters, wasn’t even a question. Today, it’s a muddier concept. A big part of the resurgence of third-person shooters is because of genre-bending. Cinematic games work better in third-person. There are games like 1v1.lol, that combines online building simulator and third-person action game. In 1v1, you can play online against real players, enjoy a battle royale mode ...