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.
Neva’s biggest problem is that it’s an incredibly unsubtle work of art. In fact, it is downright emotionally manipulative. On the other hand, its strength is that somehow that doesn’t matter and you can’t help but be thoroughly lost within it anyway. Related reading: Our interview with the artist and creative director behind Neva, Conrad Rosset. It’s pretty obvious, almost…
Mario Party is a tentpole series that goes through its ups and downs, and those tend to coincide with how much the developers mess with the basic format of giving people a board to move around and then minigames to compete over. For some reason, there are times when they…
RPG Maker doesn’t need any introduction at this point. It’s been around…
Remaking Silent Hill 2 is not like remaking a Resident Evil game.…
On the one hand, there’s a lot to admire about Ghostwire: Tokyo. There’s a clever concept in there, and the Noh theatre influences seem to run more deeply than just the masks that you see on the antagonists and the game’s key art. It goes without saying at this point…
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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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After a month of work, the new-look DigitallyDownloaded.net is finally live, and we are absolutely thrilled with how it has turned out. I’m sure you’re all going to love a cleaner, prettier, more functional and more interesting website too. It makes our reviews and features really pop! This was the…
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Wow! It has been quite the process and drama getting this together. When a hard drive AND backup crashed and melted, no only did we miss our original January release date for A Week On The Water as we had intended… but we very nearly lost the entire game! I’ve…
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Conan Chop Chop wants to sit somewhere between Gauntlet and Hades. It wants to be an action roguelike with a moreish loot system, but also being orientated heavily towards bringing four friends together for some button-mashing chaos. Unfortunately, it’s much too inconsistent to reach the heights of either genre-defining great,…
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With its title, Triangle Strategy takes being “on the nose” to a whole other level. While that is a weakness because it is difficult not to roll the eyes at it on first impressions alone, the ideas and concept behind it are sound and make more sense the further you…
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Sometimes a game comes along and just wants to be a bright, happy bit of fan service, and to criticise it for that, and not being something that it’s not, seems a bit silly. As a bright and happy bit of fan service, Chocobo GP is wholesome, charming, cheerful and…
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Babylon’s Fall is a game that has been designed to be exclusively a “live service” multiplayer game. And so, to do something different with this review, Matt R (of Shindig and regular on DDNet fame) and I buddied up to cruise through a chunk of the game, and now, to…
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Hundred Days is one of those wish fulfilment simulators that I am so glad exists. I love vineyards. I love touring them, tasting their boutique wines, and then staying for an à la carte meal at the vineyard’s inevitably pretentious-but-tasty restaurant. The food is always perfectly matched to the wine,…
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Whenever FromSoftware releases a new game, one thing is guaranteed: the discourse of the week will be about its “difficulty”. Elden Ring, much like the Souls series and Sekiro before it, does not have an easy mode. In fact, the game is genuinely challenging. Note: It’s not difficult as some claim – it’s not like…
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