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 love real-world escape room experiences. You’ve got an hour or so to sort out an extended puzzle, find your way through a couple of different challenges and, ultimately (and usually with the assistance of a group of friends), make your way out in time. Escape rooms prove that a…
Read More
There are so many ways that Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon could have fallen flat. Being so utterly different from the existing Bayonetta trilogy it could have disappointed players. It also offers a form of gameplay that is very hard to get right, too. And yet, it is…
Read More
Catan’s trajectory has been incredible, given that it’s only 28 years old. Initially, it was something of a disruptor, helping the “Eurogame” become a dominant approach to board games. From there it became a Monopoly-like thing – a game that absolutely everyone owns a copy of and is aware of…
Read More
I was very impressed with my first experience with Soundcore earbuds when I tested a unit last year. For a modest price, they offered quality sound and noise-cancelling features, all in a tiny form factor and slim, light case that made it so easy to throw into a bag and…
Read More
It was a surprisingly strong week for horror games this week, with an excellent remaster of a Project Zero game joining the spectacular visual novel by Square Enix, Paranormasight. In reading some of the reviews of these games I was reminded that far too often people treat Japanese and Western…
Read More
It’s a rare treat when a major publisher like Square Enix produces a visual novel like Paranormasight. I can imagine how it happened, though: A small team within the publisher had a cracking idea for a spooky story and, after seeing just how great the concept really was, Square Enix…
Read More
Finally. We have finally had the chance to play Project Zero: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse. A game that was previously exclusive to the Nintendo Wii in Japan is now available on just about everything and globally, in English, for the first time. I won’t say it was “worth the…
Read More
Ruku’s Heart Balloon is right up there with the sweetest games I’ve ever played. The developers set out to make something treacle-sweet, to the point where prolonged exposure to it may well sicken you, and they succeeded. I just wasn’t able to play it for long before desperately needing to…
Read More
With the release of the magnificent Wo Long this week (check out my review on DDNet!) we decided to have a good and in-depth chat about the genre on the podcast this week. Specifically, we talk about Soulslikes that were not developed by FromSoftware: We all know how good Dark…
Read More
Koei Tecmo is no stranger to the classic Chinese novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The entire Dynasty Warriors series is, of course, based on that classic text. In many ways, it’s what makes Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty such a captivating game, because it’s such a different creative take on…
Read More