Posts By Mat Growcott

Occasionally a game will come out that helps define a generation. Ocarina of Time. Metal Gear Solid 2. The Last of Us. Red Dead Redemption 2. And now, perhaps, we can add Elden Ring to that list. I say perhaps because I haven’t played it yet. I wasn’t planning to play it for some time. Trailers and discussions have been ignored… But today the Metacritic score got to me and I loaded up my Amazon account and purchased the launch…

Horizon Forbidden West has come and gone, and it’s apparently unplayable. It has only an 88 on Metacritic. Call Sony, tell them to shut it all down. Nope, not just PlayStation. Shut it ALL down. Don’t take my word for it either. Go take a look on Twitter, or on the regular gaming forums. People are up in arms because – horrors of horrors – Forbidden West didn’t score above a 90. It didn’t score above Forza Horizon. It ...

The unexpected consequences of Microsoft’s near-$70b purchase of Activision is suddenly every developer wants to be bought. Nearly every studio and publisher, when asked, have answered positively about the possibility. So Ubisoft, for instance, today said they would consider offers. Which is a great answer, by the way. Makes it sound like the second the bidder walks out the room the party poppers will come out. Look, video games are hard. They’re expensive and ...

The day has come: Dreamcast games now have achievements. The likes of Sonic Adventure, Power Stone and Soulcalibur now have achievements which can be earned on about any device going. That’s thanks to the power of Retroachievements, which add the winnable digital trophies to older games. The Dreamcast achievements launched on Saturday alongside some of the biggest hitters on the console. Fans have built the achievements, which can be accessed through Dreamcast ...

The GTA Trilogy has sold about 10m copies. That’s about 10m more than you might have expected if you visited the internet around launch time. Rockstar announced the total alongside some other eye-watering statistics. Grant Theft Auto V has sold 160m copies. Red Dead Redemption 2 disappoints at only 43m. I’m kidding, the fact it sold so well is one of the happier stories of the last few days. Here’s a less happy one. The Resident Evil 3 remake shipped…

Sony paid more than $3b for Halo creators Bungie, which on the face of it doesn’t entirely add up. They don’t really have much in the way of IP and, besides, part of the deal will see them keep their independence. That includes the independence to publish games on Xbox. The house of PlayStation paid almost half of what Microsoft paid for Zenimax. And yet, on the face of it, they will not be getting half-a-Zenimax worth of content. It’s…

There are millions of people who love the casino gambling experience. Many of them live within at least holiday distance of a good venue. For the rest of us, the digital version has to do. And while it’s not exactly the same as being in a casino, there are many ways in which it’s actual superior to the real thing. There are some diehard fans – mostly older – who might not agree. Your own experience is always going to…

There are dozens of variations on solitaire, but one of the most popular must be Freecell. Included in every single version of Windows since the mid-90s, it’s fair to say that it’s been seen by a lot of people. That’s especially true when you compare with other, rarer variations. How many people do you know who play Kings in the Corner? But how did Freecell become one of the go-to versions of solitaire? Interestingly, it’s not as obvious as it…

It’s been interesting to hear the discussions about how the Activision purchase will help out Microsoft and Xbox. It’s almost been more interesting to think about how it’ll impact on Sony. Yes, this means more games for Game Pass. It means a higher incentive to buy into the Xbox ecosystem – even if that means just buying their games on PC. All those are obvious. But all of that is something of a given. It’s why Microsoft spent nearly $70b…

“Won’t someone think of Sony?!” That has been the theme of seemingly endless articles released since the announcement that Microsoft is buying Activision.  It can only be that because, let’s face it, with even a second’s thought, this deal is not unfair or illegal. I’m talking from a corporate perspective, of course. And yet armchair lawyers across the world are calling for the deal to be stopped on the basis of, basically, hurt feelings. Anti-trust is not ...