Aussie readers of DDNet, have we got a treat for you! (Note: this competition is only open to Australian residents. Apologies, overseas friends, but I’m sure we’ll have another contest for you soon) Stranger Of Paradise is one of the finest, and smartest, games in Square Enix’s storied series. As we wrote in our 4.5/5 review: Do you know that…
Review by Matt C. MechRunner is an endless runner with guns and and a Transformer-like robot that can shift between tank and bipedal forms. That isn’t necessarily a recipe for a great game, but it should at least be a recipe for a bit of mindless fun. Unfortunately, MechRunner only…
Read MoreArticle by Matt S. Over recent months I’ve had a number of people ask me to write more about Japanese history and its personalities. Games from Japan, unsurprisingly, often feature references or depictions of Japan’s past, and it’s an unfortunate reality that, at least in the West, learning about Japanese…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Games academic, Ian Bogost, recently wrote a piece that proved to be controversial. In it, he laid out some of the issues in the way that game creators often try to tell stories using similar narrative structures to what those in literature and film have traditionally…
Read MoreNews by Britta S. and Trent P. Welcome to Digitally Downloaded’s regular catch-up news feature. With each issue we will bring you the best news that you may have missed. Grab the biggest mug you’ve got, fill it with your favourite brew, and catch up with us (and our favourite…
Read MoreArticle by Matt S. Over recent months I’ve had a number of people ask me to write more about Japanese history and its personalities. Games from Japan, unsurprisingly, often feature references or depictions of Japan’s past, and it’s an unfortunate reality that, at least in the West, learning about Japanese…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. I have played – and loved – a lot of visual novels over the years. There are the VNs that mix with other genres, such as Danganronpa, 999, Eiyuu Senki and Tears to Tiara, and I love them all. Then there are the “true” VNs, where…
Read MoreReview by Moshe R. The magical mystery tour is here, finally, and it took me away. At least that’s The Beatles inspired feeling I experienced as I started playing Vignettes on my iPad, with its very Warhol choice of colour palettes, atmospheric music and minimalistic presentation. As well as it…
Read MoreWe can’t stop talking about Person 5, it seems. This past week, there’s been a lot of criticism over the game’s localisation, so the DDNet team decided to discuss that this week, and more generally how localisation should work, versus how people think it does. We also have a good…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. The original Dragon Quest Heroes was a delightful game, but in comparison to what Koei Tecmo and Square Enix have pulled off with this sequel, it looks more like a proof of concept than anything else. It’s genuinely incredible how the developer team has managed to…
Read MoreReview by Harvard L. Sometimes the indie scene catches you by surprise. Whether by novel gameplay mechanic, unexpected plot twist or affecting graphical style, the best indie games manage to make the player stop and say “well, I’ve never seen that before”. In Polish indie duo Lichthund’s Lichtspeer, that moment…
Read More