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…
A deluge of Harvest Moon/Rune Factory/Stardew Valley-likes have come out of nowhere, but there really has been a lot of them in recent months. Perhaps it is something cultural. Perhaps developers are observing an increasingly tired and agitated community around them as the ongoing terrors of climate change, pandemics and…
Read More
Here’s the happy, warm, fuzzy news I needed this week: the absolutely wonderful Bunhouse is making the move from PC to consoles next year. The game will come to PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series, and the Nintendo Switch, which will be the absolutely perfect platform for…
Read More
I’m so excited to share this bit of news. It’s internal news for DigitallyDownloaded.net, but I wanted to share it with you all because, firstly, it’s exciting! You’re all readers of DDNet and the growth in the site (i.e. you reading us!) has allowed us to do this. Secondly, you…
Read More“Fire Emblem meets Baldur’s Gate” is certainly a five-word phrase that will get me to pay attention to something, and that’s exactly what DioField Chronicle is. With some incredibly gorgeous production values backing it up, this is a game that, almost by stealth, has come through to be one of…
Read More
Later on this week (actually, tomorrow) Penko Park will launch on Nintendo Switch. This game was something of a cult favourite on PC, where not too many people played it, but those that did absolutely loved it. It’s basically a cute-creepy take on Pokémon Snap, where you’re tasked with moving…
Read More
SongPop Party is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the finest party games in existence. It takes something that is fundamentally compelling – music trivia – and gives people a no-frills way of playing that and, importantly, doing so with the music that they actually like. Now the…
Read More
I’m a big fan of itch.io for the freedom and open platform that it allows for developers to be creative, experimental, and directly canvas the audience for feedback for games that are not yet ready for primetime on Steam and its ilk. In addition, itch.io allows you to be transgressive,…
Read More
If you love your games and art from Japan, then the Dee Dee Zine is for you. Each month we pack 56 pages of analysis, interview, feature and essay on everything to do with Japanese art, entertainment and culture. The September 2022 issue is no different… in fact, this is…
Read More
The Legend of Heroes series is famous for being impenetrable for newcomers and also having a fanbase that likes it that way. They’ll insist that you absolutely cannot play any game in this series without having magically played all the other games first. And if you like the wrong ones…
Read More
Anker Innovation’s Soundcore brand isn’t going to be as well-known to most people as the likes of Sony, EPOS, Beats, Bose or Apple’s AirPods. However, when you’ll generally be expecting to pay $200 – $300 for a set of earbuds from those companies, the Soundcore Space A40 is a relatively…
Read More