Matt S. is the Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of DDNet. He's been writing about games for over 20 years, including a book, but is perhaps best-known for being the high priest of the Church of Hatsune Miku.
I don’t often write about films these days, but I recently saw something at the Japan Film Festival in Australia that was powerful, profound, and haunting enough that it has since occupied all my thinking. Kokuho, directed by one of Japan’s most noteworthy art film directors, Lee Sang-il, is, as we enter an era where AI is undermining the very…
The SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite is a good headset. This is by far the most uncontroversial thing I’ve ever written at DigitallyDownloaded.net, because with a price tag of AU$1350, you would hope that it’s a good headset. SteelSeries has packed as much sound quality as possible into this thing and,…
Disclaimer: I’m making this quick disclaimer so it’s clear and up-front. I…
Kirby Air Riders is fun. It’s not any more than that, and…
I don’t know how many people cried out for a collection of classic IGS arcade games, but for those two or three of you, here’s the IGS Classic Arcade Collection! Evidently inspired by the success of many of the other retro compilations, IGS has pulled together a bunch of its…
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Squint your eyes and Process of Elimination could be a Danganronpa spinoff. At least, in the way it works as a visual novel (and that is the bulk of the game). While both titles have very different art styles, the concepts are remarkably similar. And, like Danganronpa, this game is…
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Some good news for the Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand racing fans: one of the leading esports competitions for racing games is open for local competitors for the first time. The Ferrari Esports Series is a six-month-long racing tournament that brings together serious racing game fans from Europe, North America…
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Cherrymochi hasn’t been around all that long – this Japanese-based developer only has one published game so far. But what a game it is! Tokyo Dark is essential stuff – it’s gripping, smart, provocative and evocative. It’s a masterpiece that seems destined to have a small cult following, but those…
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I know that this is something of an unusual article for DigitallyDownloaded.net, but it has been such a weird week I felt compelled to write it. It truly has been a surreal week for political discourse here in Australia. Four days ago, our national broadcaster published an article about how…
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To all the big AAA publishers out there: if you are going to insist on monitoring our play sessions for every second that we play your thing, make sure your servers are rock-solid. Having to re-log into a golf game every two or three holes because a server disconnection throws…
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Norn9: Var Commons is not a new visual novel by any means. It was originally a PSP title, and then localised into English for the first time for the PlayStation Vita version. Now it has landed on Switch to give players that missed it previously to catch up. They should…
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Preview embargo has lifted on the delayed and long-awaited Advance Wars 1+2: Reboot Camp! If you had a GBA, you owned and loved these games for their taut tactical brilliant in a comfortable portable format. The big question is, does the “remake” do enough? That’s what we chat about in…
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Fans – and make no bones about it, there are fans out there – have been waiting for a new Advance Wars game. Even as Nintendo and Intelligent Systems have built Fire Emblem up to be one of their most cherished and beloved properties, Advance Wars, despite being reasonably similar…
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Writing is such a critical tool for storytelling. That goes without saying, but so often with video games it seems like an afterthought. So in this month’s podcast, we talk about what good writing looks like in games and celebrate some (but not all – we didn’t have hours!) of…
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