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…
One thing I can say in Splatoon 3’s favour right from the outset is that I’m finally not being struck down with migraines while playing the game. With both Splatoon 2 and the original, the extremely busy, bold, messy and overwhelmingly bright colours seemed to trigger something in my brain…
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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,…
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What was Bilbo Baggins’ great quote from Lord of the Rings (the good one, not the TV series)? “Like butter scraped over too much bread”? Something like that. It’s a great quote and also the best way to describe Temtem. As a Pokémon clone it would almost be serviceable, if…
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The Call of Duty rumour mills were working in overdrive this week, with an “insider” claiming that Call of Duty 2024 will be set during the (more recent) Iraq War. This is just a rumour at this stage, so I’m certainly not reporting on that, but what I am here…
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Over the last couple of weeks, the Anbernic W600 has quickly become my favourite toy. It might not be as powerful of a beast as the Steam Deck or the Ayn consoles are, but it also only cost me $500. Before purchasing it I was a little concerned that this…
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I did not expect that Steelrising would be a Soulslike. I don’t know if I’d just missed that bit of news in the initial announcement (I then went out of my way to avoid learning anything about this game prior to when I started playing it), or if the developer…
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More and more we’re seeing games enter into a state of perpetual, or at least long-term updates. The days where a game would be released and then that basic experience remain into perpetuity seem to have numbered. And yet, while it’s certainly a good thing to be able to patch…
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When I think back to my early efforts in game criticism, things get a bit hazy (I’ve reviewed thousands of games since, give me a break), but I’m pretty sure that La Pucelle, on the PlayStation 2, was the very first JRPG I was ever given the opportunity to review.…
Read MoreWith the Steam Deck has come a veritable flood of Windows-based handheld devices. Throw in the ability to stream blockbuster-quality games, and we now need to start asking ourselves – are handhelds going to become *the* default form factor going forward? That’s what we discuss in this section of our…
Read MoreSeptember doesn’t have too many western blockbusters (it’s sports month for western developers and publishers), but the sheer quantity of Japanese and B-tier games that are on their way is staggering. It’s going to be a nightmarish month to keep up. So! What will you be playing this month? …
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