Posts By Mat Growcott

Look up a list of great controllers for PC gaming and Microsoft’s Elite 2 will come up more often than not. And those articles are correct: it’s a great controller. That is, it’s a great controller with one giant caveat. From the moment I cracked it open, I felt I was playing with something special. Heavy, sturdy to the touch, and easily customisable, it felt like a really decent piece of kit. And it was. Until it wasn’t. That is…

Overnight, Retroachievements launched its Gamecube support. More than 100 classic Nintendo games now support achievements when emulated, and thousands of fans turned out in support.  When I woke up this morning, nearly 100 people were playing Super Mario Sunshine. Dozens more were playing other big hitters like Mario Kart: Double Dash and Super Smash Bros. Melee. I would expect those records to be broken again this evening, as more people get involved and the ...

Gaming disorder has been in the press again. Not fully understood or even accepted as real by some, every so often there’s a spate of discussion. This has been going on for over a decade. This time, it’s this piece that has started the discussion. It’s interesting and sympathetic, and I’m not going to go to hard in on the piece itself because those experiences happened. Like anything that takes very specific individual cases from a much ...

It’s Steam Sale time, and that means those of us with powerful PCs are picking out indie games that will barely tax them. Happy holidays everyone! And yet the season has me thinking once more about the state of the gaming industry – and the perks of being a patient gamer. I must own over 1,500 games, easy. I’m hoping one of these days I’ll finally play one or two of them. But within that backlog sits every genre and…

I loved Beyond Good and Evil and I’m glad the original is getting a decent modern re-release. It comes with a new mission tied to the long-promised sequel, and I’m wondering at this point what that could possibly mean. The original game was not a commercial success. Quite famously so. It sold less than 300,000 copies in the US, and it took price cuts of up to 80 percent to get there. Quick searching shows official mention of a sequel…

The original Resident Evil has been rated for a release on Steam, and it’s the most ridiculous thing ever that it isn’t already a thing. Think about it. You have a giant library of games from the last 30 years just sitting there. The average PC gamer has it open by default. They want games to buy, and the rights holders… just do nothing? Yes, the REmake is available for purchase. But that’s not enough. Steam should have all the…

Starfield is just okay. That’s the biggest sin a game can make in today’s reaction-led world. But those reactions are starting to wear a little bit thin. Reviews on Steam are negative again after an update added some paid mods to the game. Skyrim and Fallout 4 both have these mods, and they’re completely optional. And yet it’s another case of Starfield living rent free in some people’s heads. I should clarify that I found much of ...

The Summer Game Fest has come and gone to mark the semi-official start of the season’s Not-E3 celebrations. And yet this year, more than ever, we can see that it’s not the E3 replacement perhaps everybody wants it to be. That should be okay. That is to say, there a place for a smaller “hyped” event that can explore a variety of smaller games alongside a few bigger announcements. And while that might not seem like a controversial ...

While the State of Play was an underwhelming start to the Summer games news blowout, there was at least one major bright spot. Astrobot and Dynasty Warriors mark another welcome return to mainstream fun. That’s not something to take for granted. The actual prioritisation of entertainment over production values or spectacle is something that rarely comes along. And while Dynasty Warriors was edging a little closer to edge than I’d have traditionally ...

To the surprise of nobody paying attention, Call of Duty will be coming to Game Pass. It’s official. Stop asking. Xbox confirmed the news today, after previously confirming it multiple times. But don’t worry guys, you can still secretly hope a new Call of Duty tier is added between now and November. Or that the price suddenly doubles. Microsoft have had a crappy year so far, and there’s absolutely no denying it. They’ve scored more own ...