Over the last couple of years, payment processors such as Visa, Mastercard and PayPal have been steadily ramping up efforts to control what people can purchase. Several Japanese stores have been targeted in this way. For example, Melonbooks, a website that specialises in independently published manga, was forced to stop accepting payments by Visa and Mastercard. This has been a…
Square Enix has announced a physical retail-only compilation of all Life is Strange games to date for PlayStation 5, as the Life is Strange Collection. Launching in early October 2025, it includes Life is Strange Remastered, Life is Strange: Before the Storm Remastered, Life is Strange 2, Life is Strange:…
I wrote this article for an arts publication – unfortunately, at the…
If you’re on a certain social media platform owned by a ketamine-addicted…
Earlier this week Apple shared a promotional video for its new iPad Pro. The “thinnest product we’ve ever created,” Tim Cook boasted. “The most advanced display we’ve ever produced, with the incredible power of the M4 chip!” This should have been slam dunk hype train bait. The iPad is a…
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I’m playing through Broken Roads right now. It’s basically “if Fallout was set in Australia,” or “if Mad Max was made into a game that actually respected Mad Max as a concept,” and I’m loving it. I’ll have a full review later on this week, but I wanted to use…
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“Dune: Awakening, the survival MMO from Conan: Exiles developer Funcom, will “sidestep” religion as a main theme in its “alternate history” world set just before the events of the books.” This headline on Eurogamer, coming one day after I slammed King Arthur: Knights Tale for being developed by a team…
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I know DDNet’s been relatively quiet this week. I’ve had a Dee Dee Zine to get ready, as well as an absolutely massive JRPG to review (you’ll see soon enough). However, I do have a “fun” little rant for you all to enjoy. One that I didn’t think I’d ever…
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So, I’ve finally found a bit of time to play Silent Hill: The Short Message. Yes I know I’m behind but I’ve been working through a massive, seemingly unending parade of RPGs, and there are only so many hours in the day. Additionally, as far as a horror fix goes,…
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The iconic E3 will not be returning. Ever. Officially. I can’t image this comes to anyone’s surprise, as the expo has seen a sharp decline in interest over the past 5+ years. It has been replaced mostly by digital events such as Nintendo Direct and smaller (yet still large-scale) events…
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In 1964, Donald Horne published The Lucky Country. It was a scathing yet insightful and totally accurate deconstruction of Australia, its national identity, and its view of the world. The central thesis of it is that Australia, which has grown to become a regional power and exert global influence despite…
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“505 Games lays off 30% of staff, will focus on sequels and “previously successful” games because that’s what works.” It’s the latest headline in what has been a bloodbath year in the games industry as developers and publishers, large and small, have hemorrhaged staff and slashed their plans. Earlier this…
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Late last week, Sony PlayStation head, Jim Ryan, announced his resignation. Good. Ryan joined the company in 1994, just before the launch of the PlayStation. That’s a 30-year tenure, and there’s no doubt that he was instrumental in the company becoming the entertainment behemoth that it is today. During that…
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Here’s a tale of two very different sides of the games industry for you. On the one hand, I was recently given an hour-long look into The Plucky Squire, an upcoming Devolver Digital-published game about a character that can pop into and out of the “real world” from a book,…
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