Digitally Downloaded – Page 690 – Your specialist source of news and reviews for games, anime, manga, film and literature

A look at the Nintendo Switch’s launch; where it came from, and what comes next

May 1, 2017

Analyst/Features/Major Feature/Nintendo Switch/sales figures

Feature by Farida Y. If you’re reading this without a Nintendo Switch in arm’s reach, you may have endured the past seven weeks thinking you’re in the minority. As far as sales projections are concerned, you are: Nintendo’s struggling to keep up with demand, and has already sold 2.74 million…

Review: Expeditions: Viking (PC)

May 1, 2017

Expeditions: Viking/PC/PC Review/Reviews/Strategy/tactics game/Tactics RPG

Review by Ginny W. Expeditions: Viking is the latest historical RPG from Logic Artists, a Danish developer whose last offering was all about forcefully bringing the military might of Spain to faraway lands like Mexico. As the name suggests, this is a distinctly Norse-flavoured reimagining of the same sort of…

On bringing Lost Dimension – and other niche JRPGs – to PC

May 1, 2017

DDNet Premium/Ghostlight/Interview/Interviews/Lost Dimension/Ross Brierly

Interview by Matt S. Ghostlight is one of the veteran localisation outfits out there. Founded back in 2004, the company got its start in bringing various Atlus games into Europe and Australia, starting with Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer’s call in 2005, and then the excellent Digital Devil Saga titles after…

The catch-up coffee: Monday, May 1, 2017

April 30, 2017

Aksys/Armed with Wings/Armello/catch-up coffee/Collar X Malice/Forza Horizon 3/Mallow Drops/News/Nnooo/Otomate

News by Britta S. and Trent P. Welcome to Digitally Downloaded’s regular catch-up news feature. With each issue we will bring you the best news that you may have missed. Grab the biggest mug you’ve got, fill it with your favourite brew, and catch up with us (and our favourite…

The DDNet Debate: On JRPGs, narrative, and that Ian Bogost article

April 28, 2017

DDNet debate/DDNet Premium/JRPG/narrative

It’s time for this week’s DDNet debate! This week we thought we’d discuss our favourite genre of all – the JRPG, and what we look for from games in the genre. Naturally such a discussion was always going to lead us to start talking about narratives, and then this week…

Review: Chaos Code -New Sign of Catastrophe- (Sony PlayStation 4)

April 28, 2017

Arc System Works/Chaos Code -New Sign of Catastrophe-/Fighting game/fighting games/PlayStation 4/PS4 Review/Reviews

Review by Matt S. Here’s the thing: I like fighting games a great deal. I like the aesthetics of fighting games. I like the narratives that they throw up. I like speed, action, and excitement of them. I’ve spent hundreds of hours playing my favourite examples of the genres; Dead…

the-new-call-of-duty-is-certain-to-be

April 28, 2017

Activision/Call of Duty/Call of Duty: World War 2/nationalism/Opinion

Opinion by Matt S. Activision has lifted the wrapper off its latest flag waving opus to western (mostly American) ‘patriotism,’ military heroism and “values”; Call of Duty: WWII. And of course that announcement has dominated the media discussion in gaming since. Call of Duty is the big franchise out there,…

Review: MechRunner (Sony PlayStation 4)

April 27, 2017

endless runner/indie games/PS4 Review/Reviews/Shooter/Sony PlayStation 4/Spark Plug Games

Review by Matt C. MechRunner is an endless runner with guns and and a Transformer-like robot that can shift between tank and bipedal forms. That isn’t necessarily a recipe for a great game, but it should at least be a recipe for a bit of mindless fun. Unfortunately, MechRunner only…

Japanese history: On Hideyoshi Toyotomi, the artist formerly known as Monkey

April 27, 2017

DDNet Premium/Hideyoshi Toyotomi/history/Japan/Japanese History

Article by Matt S. Over recent months I’ve had a number of people ask me to write more about Japanese history and its personalities. Games from Japan, unsurprisingly, often feature references or depictions of Japan’s past, and it’s an unfortunate reality that, at least in the West, learning about Japanese…

Review: Outlast 2 (Sony PlayStation 4)

April 27, 2017

Horror/Outlast/Outlast 2/PlayStation 4/PS4 Review/Reviews/stalker horror/Survival Horror

Review by Matt S. Games academic, Ian Bogost, recently wrote a piece that proved to be controversial. In it, he laid out some of the issues in the way that game creators often try to tell stories using similar narrative structures to what those in literature and film have traditionally…

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