Digitally Downloaded – Page 334 – Your specialist source of news and reviews for games, anime, manga, film and literature

Video games are being treated like Schrödinger’s art form, and it’s becoming silly

May 4, 2021

Opinion

Opinion by Matt S. We had another round of the discourse last night in the Australian video game scene. Our national broadcaster (the ABC, but no, that’s not America’s ABC) published an investigative report, titled “Are you being played,” which was, principally, a look into microtransactions, loot boxes, and whether…

Review: Dark Nights with Poe and Munro (Sony PlayStation 4)

May 4, 2021

adventure game/adventure games/FMV Game/PlayStation 4/PS4 Review/Reviews

Review by Lindsay M.If you have read any of my FMV game reviews of the past few years, you know I will always reference either The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker and The Shapeshifting Detective, the first two titles from a developer that I have come to whole-heartedly love and…

Review: Crime Opera: The Butterfly Effect (Nintendo Switch)

May 3, 2021

crime fiction/Indie/Nintendo Switch/Reviews/Switch Review/visual novel

Review by Matt S. Crime Opera is a wildly ambitious project for a development team that wasn’t quite ready for it. This visual novel features 20-odd characters, a plot that shifts between six perspectives, and, thematically, is brutal. This is a story about crime families, with a patriarch that openly…

may-2021-podcast-jrpgs-jrpgs-and-more

May 3, 2021

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The roguelike is a hot topic again, thanks to the “AAA”-roguelike, Returnal, exclusive to PlayStation 5. We chat about that this month on the podcast. We also have a good chat about photography in games, thanks to New Pokemon Snap bringing out the wildlife photographer in us… and then we…

Interesting games on itch.io: May 3

May 3, 2021

Art Game/Indie/itch/itch.io/list/point-and-click adventure/simulation/Top 10/top 5/visual novel

List by Matt S. 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…

Catch up with last week’s gameplay streams: May 3

May 3, 2021

Indie/New Pokemon Snap/streaming/Video/Video review/visual novel

News by Matt S. As some of you will know, we’ve been doing regular streams over the last year or so on the DDNet YouTube channel, showcasing the latest and greatest games, while chatting with people about those games (and just about everything else) as we go along. If you’d…

Enjoy the first key art CG for the next Dee Dee VN: A Week on the Water

April 30, 2021

A Week on the Water/Dee Dee/digitallydownloaded.net/News/visual novel

News by Matt S. Over the last couple of months, we’ve been drip-feeding bits of information regarding the next Dee Dee visual novel: A Week on the Water. We’re working with new artists and creatives for this one, so it’s taking longer to pull together, but then it’s also going…

The Week in Review: April 30, 2021

April 30, 2021

castlevania/Financial results/Microsoft/NFT/Sega/Sony/The Last Of Us/The Week in Review/Video/Video review

Video by Matt S. This week in the week in review! 1) Sony and Microsoft enjoy good financial results: https://www.siliconera.com/sonys-game-and-network-services-revenue-totals-25-billion-dollars/ And https://metro.co.uk/2021/04/28/xbox-sales-up-50-as-microsoft-has-best-year-of-sales-ever-14485047/ 2) A lost Castlevania game is re-found: https://www.kotaku.com.au/2021/04/now-you-can-play-the-cancelled-dreamcast-castlevania-prototype/ 3) A new The Last Of Us has been conceived: https://twitter.com/MattSainsb/status/1387339043185246209 4) SEGA and NFTs. Sigh: https://www.siliconera.com/sega-will-begin-selling-nft-based-on-its-ips/ 5) Citizen Kane…

devolvers-essays-on-empathy-looks-to-be

April 29, 2021

Art Game/Devolver Digital/Indie/News/release date/Release Dates/trailer/tralers

News by Matt S. Developed by Deconstructeam (what a name) and Devolver Digital, Essays on Empathy looks like exactly the kind of narrative-driven experience that I want to support. Releasing on PC next month (May 18), Essays on Empathy is a compilation of ten short stories about life. As per…

Review: Returnal (Sony PlayStation 5)

April 29, 2021

action game/Horror/Housemarque/PlayStation 5/PS5 Review/Returnal/Reviews/Roguelike/Shooter/shooters/Sony

Review by Matt S. “But optimism dribbles away when horror repeats.” I have no idea how good Tim Reed’s novel, Spider from the Well, is, but I came across this quote from that novel when researching Returnal, and I think it’s a perfect encapsulation of that game. Returnal is a…

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