Author: Jen Allen

‘Minecraft Legends’ review: charming if not always gripping

Stick with your mates and you can’t go wrong

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Minecraft Legends – a full-on strategy game spawned from the blocky build-’em-up franchise – won’t tax the biggest of strategy fans around but it will open up the genre to a generation that may not have considered it before. It’s also a lot of fun with the charm that has worked so well for Minecraft and Minecraft Dungeons in the past. Shame it’s not as gripping as it would like to be.

If you were being flippant, you could call Minecraft Legends ‘my first strategy game’. Legends wraps up the core elements of strategy in a welcoming parcel that is sure to entice younger gamers new to the genre, as well as anyone else hankering for something more tactical. Minecraft Dungeons did the same for hack ‘n’ slash adventures while Minecraft: Story Mode tried similar for adventure-driven narratives. Minecraft Legends succeeds. Co-developed by Mojang Studios and Hardspace: Shipbreaker‘s Blackbird Interactive, action is undertaken from a zoomed-out perspective with you instructing your hero on their trusty steed to explore the typically Minecraftian world out there. Procedural generation mixes up the world differently each time, but aesthetically the key thing is that whichever player model you go for, you look adorable.

During the story mode, you’re guided through a fairly extensive tutorial that puts you through the paces. Movement is easy enough with a controller. For the most part, you’re selecting unit types through the shoulder buttons and it feels intuitive. The idea is that you’re using melodies (spells, basically) to either gather resources, build structures or create units to help you in your conquests. Picking types is down to the d-pad with the triggers and shoulder buttons navigating your options. You’ll never miss a mouse here.

Minecraft Legends. Credit: Mojang Studios.

Once you’ve got some units formed together, you can then use a rallying button to gather them together, send them out to battle or get them to focus on a certain area to flock to. It never quite feels as comfortable to round up the staff, so to speak, as it does to perform all other actions. It works but there’s a lack of tactile feedback here so you never quite feel as confident as you do with other actions.

Look past that lack of confidence and Minecraft Legends is intuitive. Its tutorial guides even the newest strategy gamers through things in a way that you just know your much younger cousin is going to end up adoring.

Combat is satisfying. An early tutorial mission has you taking down some enemy outposts while you learn the ropes. The enemies are known as Piglins and are overly cute but peskily aggressive pigs. Setting out for their outposts gives you some time to explore the luscious world of the game. It’s gorgeous. Minecraft has always had that delightful style to it but this world is intoxicating. In reality, there’s less life going on than you’d think but it’s still pretty.

Minecraft Legends. Credit: Mojang Studios.

Head over to said outposts and you start your mission by crafting spawn points. These spawners create golems that will assist you. Each golem type has a different role with some better at taking down buildings while others handle fending off the Piglins. The one type that everyone needs is mossy golems thanks to their healing abilities. Mostly though, a mixture of a few types is usually ideal, especially on harder difficulty levels. There’s actually less building involved than you’d think. The focus is squarely on cute combat. You can place down many towers such as arrow towers early on, along with walls and other structures to defend your villages or even your spawn points. Indeed, the game encourages it when you’re defending a particular area.

All of this requires resources though so you’ll need to make sure to set aside some time to stockpile with the nearest hint to traditional Minecraft going off in that direction. Once you open up the world, one moment of glee comes from acquiring a new mount — a flying giant bird that is adorable and offers slightly better travel time as you explore the vast map. More mounts steadily become available. There are ways of upgrading certain parts too, ensuring there’s always steady progression here even if the general principle is the same — smash the Piglins.

While the single-player campaign is diverting, it’s the multiplayer side of things that’s likely to see long-term success. The Lost Legends mode comprising of a monthly challenge sounds intriguing even if we didn’t get to have any time with it before launch. No doubt online co-op will make the campaign more exciting too because when did a teammate ever not help?

Minecraft Legends. Credit: Mojang Studios.

The Versus mode is where the action’s at though with battles likely to be tense with the right bunch. It’s hard to accurately gauge before launch but it effectively turns the game into a more imaginative and open-ended time. Matches can last between 20 and 45 minutes with different players approaching things differently. There’s still all the resource gathering and contemplation the story mode offers, but teams can potentially divide up actions well. One player could create a tower defence-esque layout to keep opponents away while your team could always just go for a full assault en masse. The game offers a ping system that’s rudimentary but does the job of encouraging players to get things done. As always, it’s going to come down to who you play with but it’s satisfying stuff with small teams providing intimacy if you have a strong group.

This is also where Minecraft Legends‘ staying power has its best chance. In truth, the single-player is fun but if you’ve played strategy games before, you’ve seen what it has to offer. It just now has a cute Minecraft twist. You’ll enjoy your time but it’s not exactly deep. After all, it can’t be given its target audience isn’t the traditional strategy gamer. The variety that’s likely to come from multiplayer, however, is where the fun will be had. It’s cute, charming, and just the thing for everyone to get to grips with quickly.

Minecraft Legends is out now for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, PC, Xbox Series X|S. We played it on Xbox Series X.

Verdict

Minecraft Legends is a highly accessible strategy game that won’t challenge fans of the genre. For those who have never quite gelled with it before though, this is a great intro. Online co-op is a fun diversion but it’s the game’s PvP that will offer you the variety needed to keep you coming back for more.

Pros

  • Highly accessible strategy
  • Looks gorgeous
  • Potentially very enticing PvP

Cons

  • Lacks the ‘wow’ factor
  • Could end up a flash in the pan

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Sherlock Holmes The Awakened review: a diamond in the rough

Still clunky, still ideal for the amateur detective

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Developing Sherlock Holmes The Awakened has been a bit of a rough time for Frogwares. While other developments may have trouble with bugs or perhaps funding, Frogwares has had an entire war to contend with. Sherlock Holmes The Awakened is still the ideal title for any amateur sleuth who can’t resist a great (if sometimes odd) adventure game.

There’s a young Holmes afoot again but while Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One had him teamed up with his imaginary friend, Jon, Sherlock Holmes The Awakened has him back with Watson. This is a remake of Frogwares’ original Sherlock Holmes The Awakened from back in 2007. It has a similar storyline but is an altogether entirely different game. It demonstrates how far the developer has come but that’s not to say that this isn’t a game that feels a little dated at times.

Sherlock Holmes The Awakened. Credit: Frogwares.

Young Holmes and Watson start out investigating a crime in London, moving from the relative safety of near 221B Baker Street to the dingy docks of London, barely visible thanks to the infamous fog of the era. From there, international travel and investigation become the name of the game along with a hint of strange moments for Holmes as he gets thrust into a Lovecraftian world of weirdness and that steady sense of madness that you just know Holmes is dipping into on a regular basis.

Action is much like the previous Sherlock Holmes games, although unlike Chapter One, it’s a little more tightly woven and less open-world-ish. Even better, there’s no more combat which felt jarringly awkward in the past. This is all a very good thing. Much of Chapter One had exploration for the sake of it while having a walk about now makes more sense. That’s not to say that it isn’t bewildering at times. One sequence within the London docks led me to start considering drawing up my own map. There’s an in-game map but it’s unhelpful and a strong sense of direction was vital in the deep fog.

Instead, you make your own way in this world and that’s the same with deciphering clues. Typically, you’ll come across a body or a scene that needs to be investigated. Some clues can be quite obviously highlighted while others need you to dip into concentration mode to be able to spot something more subtle. An early case has you piecing together how someone was kidnapped. You need to figure out each step that was taken with a choice of different methods in which something may have occurred.

Sherlock Holmes The Awakened. Credit: Frogwares.

There’s a certain amount of trial and error here, but you’ll also need to pay attention to what’s been said and what your growing pile of notes in-game can provide. Once in a while, a simple sentence can suddenly open up what you need to do next but the game never holds your hand here. For the most part, it’s down to you to figure out what needs doing. At times, this can be irritating if you’ve got too used to the more helpful manner of recent games although it does make it a good game to play alongside someone who might spot something you didn’t think of.

While there’s no guidance system, Frogwares does help things a little. Notably, each clue also has an icon placed above it. This icon could suggest you need to talk to someone about it, look for another connected piece of evidence, or to pin it. The latter is the method by which you can then discuss it with someone. That could be a key witness or a random person in the street. If you’ve played previous Sherlock Holmes games, you’ll know how this works but for newcomers, it’s a fairly steep learning curve in a world where games are usually more obviously laid out.

Sherlock Holmes The Awakened. Credit: Frogwares.

There’s also a hint of the old-fashioned charm (and irritation) of adventure games. One example of the strangeness an adventure game can offer up is during a sequence in a mental asylum. You need to help fix a patient’s doll by finding nails, glue, and other parts. It’s not too hard to find those parts (if you pay attention) but it feels like busy work at times. The payoff is a spectacularly creepy scene with a talking doll. A reminder of just how atmospheric Sherlock Holmes The Awakened can get.

Where things get more obtuse is when you’re occasionally thrown into the Cthulhu-esque world of Holmes’s nightmares. Were you one of those people that hated it when the Assassin’s Creed series threw you back into the present day for a time? Then you also won’t like this either. Solutions for the other world are simultaneously annoyingly obvious yet frequently difficult to see beforehand. You’ll inwardly groan at some of them because, ultimately, you’ll simply want to get back to the main part of the game. They knock you off your rhythm and the game loses momentum until you return to normality.

As with previous Sherlock Holmes games, you chip away at what unfolds. It’s easily a good game to chill with after a busy week, with pacing that lends itself to you poking around some areas casually and seeing what you uncover. Often though, you’ll need a breather, almost like a break resets your brain into thinking about how to approach something differently. Alternatively, you can pursue some of the side quests that aren’t essential to story progression but give you more insight into the world around you. It’s incredibly satisfying even if much like how not everyone wants the challenge of Elden Ring, it won’t suit everyone.

Sherlock Holmes The Awakened. Credit: Frogwares.

As the years go by, the more the Sherlock Holmes series feels like one that hangs onto the past and that’s both good and bad. For adventure game fans, it’s a breath of nostalgic air as you feel like you’re genuinely accomplishing things by yourself. However, it’s clunky for sure. Sherlock runs awkwardly at times. Many areas are blocked off in slightly unintuitive ways while the moment the great detective goes anywhere near water, things go very badly indeed.

Fortunately, this is a game that isn’t really disrupted by odd movements in motion. Instead, it has that old-school charm that a traditional point-and-click adventure once had while having a third-person overlay that makes it look better if not one to rave about visually. It’s a cliche but if you loved previous Frogwares games, you’ll easily adore this one. For everyone else, there’s still something worth checking out here if you fancy something a little calmer and more cerebral than what you usually play.

Sherlock Holmes The Awakened is out now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC. We played it on Xbox Series X.

Verdict

Sherlock Holmes The Awakened succeeds through refining and bettering the normal Sherlock Holmes formula. A return to pure exploration over combat is great to see and the game is more tightly woven than before. Our only real quibble comes from those visits to the other world but for the most part, this is pure sleuthing.

Pros

  • Satisfying puzzles and conundrums
  • More intricately designed than the last game
  • Entertaining story

Cons

  • Exploration can get confusing in certain areas
  • Minor mechanical issues

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‘Kirby’s Dream Buffet’ review: so cute yet so shallow

Charming from the start, that appeal gradually fades like a strawberry harvest

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K
irby’s Dream Buffet is frivolous, bite-sized chunks of fun that’s ideally suited for a free-to-play world and, well, it’s not free. Taking inspiration from Fall Guys which is now free-to-play, this is a bold move by Nintendo. Does it pay off? Kind of.

Riding on an awful lot of Nintendo charm, Kirby’s Dream Buffet starts out promising. It’s cute. Of course it’s cute, it’s Kirby. He might be 30 years old now but he’s just as loveable as a little puppy that’s eager to eat everything up around it. The premise is simple. You control Kirby as he negotiates four rounds of minigames alongside either other players or CPU bots. Each game only takes about 10 minutes so it’s perfectly suited for when you’ve got a spare few minutes and not enough time to dive into a longer game. It’s also intuitive to figure out so it’s ideally suited for the whole family, even if they don’t normally play games.

Everything is food-themed and adorable. For the most part, you’re either racing to the end of a food-filled obstacle course, or trying to collect strawberries in a different way. Strawberries are everything here. Race through the course, avoiding blockades and jumping over platforms, and if you reach the end where you can jump on a stack of 50, 20, or 10 strawberries. Getting the 50 strawberries before the other players is a huge advantage so there’s a fair bit of tension near the end of each course.

Kirby’s Dream Buffet. Credit: Nintendo.

The obstacle course levels are further enhanced by the use of copy abilities. These abilities give you power-ups like turning into a tornado that flies through everything or burning up into a Kirby-shaped fireball that can take out your opponents. Also, the more strawberries you eat, the ever so slightly bigger Kirby becomes which makes a key difference if you want to avoid being knocked off track by your opponent.

Other minigames include needing to grab falling strawberries faster than everyone else, such as by jumping into teacups that are littered with them. You get it. The theme is collecting strawberries.

Kirby’s Dream Buffet. Credit: Nintendo.

That’s even a battle royale at the end which feels loosely like a Smash Bros game but with strawberries (of course). You’re all in an arena and have to knock each other out, or simply focus on collecting lots and lots of strawberries. By this stage, some Kirbys are bigger than others thanks to having collected a lot of fruit beforehand and the bigger you are, the greater your advantage at the end.

Fortunately, to balance things out a little, at the very end, you’re all placed on scales and given bonus strawberries for completing certain feats such as collecting the most strawberries (who’d have thought it?), knocking down barriers, or hovering the longest amount of time. This can change things up significantly and as you play, you’ll find yourself trying to focus on these aims, especially if you know you’re lagging behind on fruit collections.

Kirby’s Dream Buffet. Credit: Nintendo.

Once things are wrapped up, you gain experience, level up, and unlock some cute collectibles and unlockable items. These include costumes, different Kirby colours, new music tracks, and new race tracks too. There’s a lot to unlock here even if most of it is a tad shallow. With a dozen or more different courses, Kirby’s Dream Buffet sounds substantial on the surface but there’s not much difference between them. It’s hard to remember which is which or even figure out what your favourite one is, all because it’s pretty shallow stuff.

Shallow is truly Kirby’s middle name right now. Kirby’s Dream Buffet is definitely fun but something you’ll play for hours? Unlikely. It lives up to its name. It’s a buffet, not a three-course meal, after all. There’s basically no fun in playing against CPU bots so it’s vital that the community is reasonably active for now, but online play is laggy.

Sometimes, I’d play a match and things would be silky smooth. Other times, I’d be moving across the obstacle course at under one frame per second and wondering if I was just about to get booted from the session. I never was so I’m guessing the online code is stronger than it seems but lag really takes all the fun out of things. There’s a split-screen two player mode but the real jewel in its crown – four player mode – is only available if you have four Switches and four copies of the game between you all. That’s an expensive way to enjoy a frivolous game that you’ll eventually abandon in favour of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe or Super Smash Bros anyway.

Kirby’s Dream Buffet. Credit: Nintendo.

Granted, despite all these flaws, Kirby’s Dream Buffet is a lot cheaper than the above games. It’s at a budget price and it needs to be, but that does make you more forgiving. Kirby’s Dream Buffet is certainly fun starting out and something you’ll dip into from time to time, but gradually, it’s going to sink down your Switch playlist as it lacks true longevity.

Kirby’s Dream Buffet is out now for Nintendo Switch.

The Verdict

Kirby’s Dream Buffet is a cute distraction. Lacking the depth of anything that will keep you coming back for a long time to come, it’s still an enjoyable ride while it lasts. A four player split-screen mode would have been a huge boon here, or just something that offered more variety, but at this low price, that never ending cuteness that Nintendo always provides continues here.

Pros

  • Very quick to learn
  • Ideal for all the family
  • Utterly adorable at times

Cons

  • Laggy online play
  • No four player split-screen mode
  • Lacks depth

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‘Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series’ review: straightforward charm

The remaster everyone forgot they wanted

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The Klonoa platforming games are a series of games that will be instantly familiar to anyone of a certain age and utterly baffling to everyone younger. That’s why a remaster in the form of Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series might seem unusual. The name doesn’t help with the title making little sense to anyone new to the games, but push through, and you get a good duo of platformers, even if there’s a lack of fan service here.

The original game – Klonoa: Door To Phantomile – came out in 1997 at a time when platformers were going through an identity crisis. Two paths were forged. There was the Super Mario 64 way of doing things with large open worlds to explore and the Crash Bandicoot method offering up 2.5D worlds to traverse. Klonoa: Door To Phantomile was a fantastically compelling example of the latter. Well designed, it drew you in before challenging you a ton in the later stages. The remaster delivers a hit of nostalgia, but also that same sense of challenge.

Technically, the version of Klonoa: Door To Phantomile within this package is a remaster of the Wii remake of the game. Purists may prefer to see the original’s visuals compared to the Wii version, but it looks pretty good – albeit distinctly of a time. Playing the game starts out incredibly simple. New to the remaster is a choice of a normal mode or an easy mode with the latter making things a breeze at the start thanks to offering infinite lives and a few other advantages. Controls are very simple. You control Klonoa (don’t ask me what he actually is) as he runs, jumps, and uses his magic ability to negotiate various platforms. He has a magic ring that is able to fire a Wind Bullet in front of him. By doing so, he inflates any enemies and grabs onto them. Once held onto, players can then use the inflated enemy like a balloon, helping them propel into the sky and essentially perform a double jump. It’s a great way to get around the levels and find some previously hidden sections.

Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series. Credit: Bandai Namco.

As you play through Klonoa: Door To Phantomile, you’ll discover there are a lot of different places to check out. At first, you might feel stuck negotiating a linear string of platforms but the game soon opens up to give you multiple branching paths. Fans of getting everything out of games will appreciate needing to backtrack to collect all the collectibles within the game. Levels tend to loop on themselves so while you’re consistently travelling left or right, you can often spot another section that you’ll need to figure out how to get to.

It’s fun stuff if a little safe at first. Occasionally, you’ll face a boss battle and these tend to be fairly logical and straightforward if a nice change of pace from simple platforming.

As things progress though, Klonoa: Door To Phantomile suffers from some difficulty spikes later in the game. It can get much tougher requiring precise jumps and use of the double jump system. By the end of the game, timing is everything and while playing on easy helps a tad, it’s still tough to get through. Although, gaining a longer reach with the Wind Bullet does help a bit with your chances.

Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series. Credit: Bandai Namco.

Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil follows a similar vein to the original. Previously a PlayStation 2 game, it does add a little more mechanical complexity. For instance, it tosses in the era’s favourite twist – hoverboard levels. Back then, every game threw in a hover/snowboard level so older gamers will knowingly nod when this happens in Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil. Luckily, these additions make the game feel more enjoyable than the first. Boss battles are better too. While the previous game often requires you to wait patiently to follow a set pattern, its sequel means you can get more involved with fending off the boss, picking your moment when it suits you.

With both games, everything is suitably charming and fun, but a touch shallow. If you love platformers, you’ll have a good time but it’s not the longest of experiences with each game taking about 5-6 hours to complete. This wouldn’t be an issue if Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series was a well-constructed remaster but it’s pretty basic. There are improved graphics and a new easy mode, but there’s little else here. A new two-player co-op option helps a little but it’s fairly basic and only really suitable if you want to team up with a younger member of the family as the second player doesn’t get much to do.

Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series. Credit: Bandai Namco.

Otherwise, there’s no fan service. While other remaster collections like Sonic Origins offer up museum features or galleries to check out, Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series is just the two games. While we wouldn’t have expected to see the less well-known Klonoa games included given we’re talking about some fairly obscure Game Boy Advance or WonderSwan titles, a few extras wouldn’t have gone amiss.

Still, if you’re a huge 2D platformer fan and you prefer the tightness of specific routes over the open-world side of things that tends to be favoured these days, you’ll enjoy what’s here. A little barebones the package may be, the two core games are still highly enjoyable and satisfying to play through.

Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC. This review is based on the PS5 version.

The Verdict

Lacking some fan service, the two games within Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series still demonstrate why the franchise is so loved by many. Huge difficulty spikes stop the games being as well balanced as they should be, but the majority of the experience is a blast. It’s fun to negotiate the well-designed worlds and collect up everything they have to offer. You’ll just wish the rewards were more substantial.

Pros

  • Consistently satisfying platforming
  • Everything about the game is cute and charming
  • Both games hold up years after their initial release

Cons

  • No fan service to speak of
  • Horrific difficulty spikes near the end of both games
  • Not a huge amount of replayability

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‘Diablo Immortal’ review: devilishly fun before the grind

Enjoy the free journey before the pricey destination

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In typical Diablo style, Diablo Immortal grabs you within seconds, and definitely doesn’t want to let go. In typical free-to-play gaming style, you’ll gradually notice the encroaching matter of money and how paying up can make a huge difference to your long-term progress. Does it matter? That all depends on why you’re playing.

See, Diablo Immortal is a lot of fun. Not fun in a trifling, mobile gaming distraction way, but in a way that meant I favoured it on my iPad over the allure of my Nintendo Switch when looking for a handheld gaming experience. It’s snackable. You can play for five minutes and feel like you’ve achieved something, or you can also happily lose a couple of hours.

Part Diablo game, part MMO, Diablo Immortal is set somewhere between Diablo 2 and Diablo 3, offering some areas and characters that may already be familiar to players (hey, Deckard Cain!) but without it being essential to have played previous instalments. All you really need to know is that it’s a game about going from quest marker to quest marker, talking to people, completing challenges, and mostly, killing an awful lot of enemies.

Killing those enemies is fun, too. Just like with past Diablo games and more recently, Lost Ark, you’re typically fending off swarms of enemies rather than individual foes. A choice between a handful of classes gives the option to focus on melee combat, ranged combat, or going down the magic route. There’s a barbarian, crusader, demon hunter, necromancer, and wizard, but I opted for a monk that loved to punch and kick everything in its way. Class roles aren’t as deep as previous Diablo games but that’s why this is Diablo Immortal, not Diablo 4.

Ultimately, combat is simple yet meaty. Virtual touch controls mean that the left hand side of your device dictates movement while the right hand side offers a button for your main attack followed by a string of skills buttons for special moves that get unlocked over time. Diablo Immortal isn’t about slow introductions, and within a short space of time, you’ll have a full arsenal of tricks up your sleeve. A mixture of targeted attacks and effect attacks are the name of the game here, with each cooling down at different rates.

It’s sometimes frantic stuff but always enjoyable, and it’s simple to get into the rhythm of working your way through the skills; even boss battles breeze by relatively quickly. The primary attack auto targets so you don’t have to worry about lining things up just right, and touch controls feel comfy and mostly accurate. There’s controller support but honestly, you don’t need it. On an iPad, it actually feels a little clunkier.

A lot of the time, you’ll be fighting yard trash, but the boss battles stand out. These tend to occur during instanced dungeons that are short yet sweet, giving you a bit more to explore aside from running around the outer world. While such boss battles are not massively challenging, many require a certain amount of strategy as you learn your latest foe’s attack patterns and figure out the best ways of dodging their blows. Often, bosses are accompanied by other, lesser enemies to pick off at the same time. Once that’s wrapped up, you get some time to pick up the plethora of loot before diving in a portal and returning back to the outside world.

Early on, after nearly every battle in fact, you’ll have achieved something. Levelling up is fast when starting out, and new items are frequently dropped. Like combat, equipping such gear is simple yet gratifying. Open up your inventory and you’re presented with arrows to suggest which piece of equipment will most improve your armour rating. It’s far from complex – which may disappoint hardened fans – but it taps into the snackable nature that Diablo Immortal is all about.

Unwanted gear, meanwhile, can be ground down into scrap materials and enchanted dust, before using it to rank up the items you are using. Nothing goes to waste here. There are legendary gems too – powerful pieces of jewellery that can be attached to your items and provide you with some impressive new powers.

And that’s where the monetisation side of Diablo Immortal starts to emerge. Sort of. Legendary gems aren’t equal and the best ones are going to be far easier gained if you spend some real money. That’s because they’re dropped through dungeons called elder rifts. These rifts only take a few minutes to complete but you can use legendary crests to improve the chances of gaining a legendary gem at the end of it, and the best way to gain those crests is to pay money. It’s not essential but it’s fairly obvious that the end game is going to turn pay-to-win in time.

Does that matter? Not necessarily. Diablo Immortal is a lot of fun, regardless. While there are various slightly dubious monetisation features scattered around the place and they’re certainly insidious at times, the journey is still pretty fun. In my mind, it’s like not going near World of Warcraft simply because you’ll never be able to devote every weekend to raiding with a guild. The end-game doesn’t have to be the most important part of a game when simply playing it for a couple of dozen hours is a blast anyhow.

It’s clear that the production values are high. Diablo Immortal looks and feels great to play. Visually, it’s dark and moody, and while you may find yourself skipping the storyline in favour of moving onto the next quest, it’s worth paying attention to. The only thing to be aware of here is that on iPad at least, the game continues to download in the background. That means you can keep on playing, but at times, you may outrace the download bar and be stuck waiting for the game to catch up. It only happens early on in the game and your mileage may vary depending on your connection, but it can be a minor nuisance.

Much like Lost Ark, momentum is lost a bit once you hit a certain level range. For Diablo Immortal, that’s around the level 30 mark, leaving you to grind more than you once did. However, that’s when you’re likely to drop down to short sessions throughout the day rather than diving in for extended sessions. You’ll still feel a sense of accomplishment, even if you stoically refuse to pay up.

Diablo Immortal is still a terrific ride. It’s hard to say at this early stage whether the end-game is truly only going to be for the elite (or the rich) but don’t let that stop you playing it for now.

Diablo Immortal is available on Android, iOS, and PC. This review was played on iOS aka an iPad Mini.

The Verdict

Diablo Immortal is a ton of fun. A five minute session can soon turn into an hour or more, with constant gratification keeping you hooked for a number of hours. The end game may turn prohibitively expensive for the perfectionist player but for everyone else, simply enjoy the experience in the meantime.

Pros

  • Instantly compelling
  • Intuitive controls
  • Great production value for a F2P game

Cons

  • End-game is likely to get very expensive
  • Lacks some depth

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Steam Deck now has per-game performance profiles

A small but pivotal improvement

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A new Steam Deck update means that players can set up per-game performance profiles.

The new feature ties into an issue that arose from the last update. That update meant that players could change the frame rate limit of games, TDP limit, as well as the refresh rate of the device. It was useful but could only be conducted on a system-wide level which soon turned irritating for certain titles.

Now, the latest update means that players can adjust performance on a game-by-game basis. The Steam Deck will remember how settings have been configured for each game, saving players the need to do so every time they load it. It’s also possible to reset everything back to its default state if needed.

It’s a small yet important update. For some users, it won’t be exciting but for others, it will save them a significant amount of time when trying to optimise a game’s performance.

Steam Deck. Credit: Valve

The update also improves a few other things. When connected to an external display, the Steam Deck interface now automatically scales to a virtual 1280 x 800 resolution. The change makes it easier to use. Also, performance has been improved when switching from offline to online modes. Additionally, there is improved availability of home screen sections when doing the same.

Other tweaks include bug fixes, keyboard corrections for certain languages, and a new Stop Streaming option to the power menu when hosting a Remote Play session.

Since its launch, the Steam Deck has been frequently updated. Last month, Valve fixed a technical issue that stopped games from being installed on it. Also, a growing number of games are now “verified” and “playable”.

In other gaming news, EA has announced that Apex Legends has made more than $2billion so far with its net bookings up 40 per cent year-on-year.

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‘Apex Legends’ has made more than $2billion so far

Not bad for a free-to-play game

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EA has announced that Apex Legends has achieved $2billion in net bookings since its launch in February 2019.

During EA’s latest earnings call, the company announced that the battle royale game achieved the impressive total during its fourth fiscal quarter which ended March 31 2022. The net bookings for the game were up 40 per cent year-on-year with half of the game’s lifetime net bookings reached during the past fiscal year.

Previously, the game had achieved over $600million during the financial year of 2020-2021 bringing its lifetime total to $1billion at that time.

The news comes at a busy time for the game. Apex Legends Mobile finally has a release date and will launch for iOS and Android next week (May 17). It has been “built specifically for mobile” and aims to tell new stories along with offering “maps, gameplay, modes, progression, and live events.”

Also, Apex Legends Season 13 has just launched. The latest major update is called Saviors and brings with it the “heroic defender” Newcastle, who turns out to be Bangalore’s long-missing brother, Jackson Williams.

Apex Legends. Credit: Respawn Entertainment

In March 2022, Apex Legends finally received PS5 and Xbox Series X|S updates. The updates added 4K and HDR output, 60Hz gameplay, higher resolution shadows and longer draw distances. At the time, Respawn promised that haptic feedback and adaptive triggers would be added to the PS5 version, with full 120Hz gameplay to come.

With no sign of slowing down, Apex Legends continues to be a huge success. EA’s chief financial officer, Chris Suh, called season 12 of the game its “most successful ever”

In other gaming news, Doom designer, John Romero, is releasing a memoir next year. Besides looking at his hugely successful career, he will also write openly about his troubled upbringing.

Elsewhere, Capcom has confirmed plans to release “multiple major new titles” in the next fiscal year.

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Capcom plans to release “multiple major new titles” in the next year

We know what some of them are

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Capcom has confirmed that it will release “multiple major new titles” by March 31 2023.

The news comes as part of the company’s financial results report for the fiscal year that ended March 31 2022. The company has announced plans to release a total of 45 units (aka games) versus the 24 games it released the year before. It is aiming to sell a total of 37 million units with 10million units coming from new games and the others stemming from older titles.

Currently, Capcom is on track to release the Sunbreak expansion pack for Monster Hunter Rise, and current-generation ports of Resident Evil 2, 3 and 7. There are also plans for Capcom Fighting Collection which is out in June 2022. Capcom also has two undated games that are tentatively lined up for the year, as noted by Gematsu.

The list includes Pragmata, a sci-fi adventure that we have not seen much of yet. All we know is that “Pragmata will take you on an unforgettable adventure set in a dystopian near-future rendition of the Moon”. Also, there is Exoprimal, a squad-based battle against dinosaurs. The latter has Dino Crisis producer, Hiroyuki Kobayashi, working on it.

There’s also Street Fighter 6 but there’s no word yet on when that will be released. That means it might slip into the following financial year.

Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak. Credit: Capcom.

Whatever happens, it still looks likely that Capcom has other major announcements to make in the future.

It’s been a good year for the Japanese giant with the firm selling over 6.1million units of Resident Evil Village. It also sold an additional 4.1million units of Monster Hunter Rise in the last fiscal year, along with over 1.5million units of Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings Of Ruin. The firm also sold an additional 1.8million units of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard during the last financial year.

In other gaming news, Nintendo has confirmed that more games will come to Nintendo Switch Online this year. Also, Apex Legends Mobile is out very soon with confirmation of an imminent release date.

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‘Apex Legends Mobile’ is out sooner than you would think

Less than a week to go

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EA and Respawn Entertainment has confirmed when Apex Legends Mobile will launch.

The mobile version of the hugely popular Battle Royale game will be released on May 17 for iOS and Android.

The game has been developed by a dedicated team at Respawn, in conjunction with Tencent‘s Lightspeed & Quantum Studios. The studio is best known for its work on PUBG Mobile as well as dozens of other mobile games.

Along with the news, a cinematic launch trailer has also been unveiled to remind players of what to expect.

Players who pre-register for the game will unlock exclusive rewards. As with the PC and console game, Apex Legends Mobile will be free-to-play and won’t offer paid items that give players an advantage. There will, however, be battle passes, cosmetics to buy, and other unique items.

The majority of modern smartphones will be able to play the game. iPhones using iOS 11 or above, and Android phones using Android 6.0 are amongst the minimum requirements.

Previously, Respawn has confirmed that the game has been “built specifically for mobile”. It also added that it will include “Legends with new stories to tell” along with new “maps, gameplay, modes, progression, and live events”.

Apex Legends Mobile was confirmed to be in development in April 2021 after beta tests began in India and the Philippines. Since then, Apex Legends has reached season 13 and also gained PS5 and Xbox Series X|S updates. The latter offered 4K and HDR output along with 60Hz gameplay, higher resolution shadows and longer draw distances.

In other gaming news, a Dead Space developer stream will unfold later today (May 12). Its focus will be on the art design of the remake.

Also, Ubisoft has confirmed that Skulls and Bones and a new Mario + Rabbids game will be released before April 2023.

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How to watch today’s ‘Dead Space’ developer stream

Prepare to be scared

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A new Dead Space remake development livestream is scheduled for later today (May 12). Here is how to watch it, what time it starts, and what to expect.

The stream will air this evening (May 12) at 6PM BST / 7PM CET / 10AM PT / 1PM ET. Fans can watch it via the official Dead Space YouTube channel or through Motive Studio’s Twitch channel.

As with previous Dead Space livestreams, details are limited so far but we do know that the focus will be on art.

The livestream has been titled Crafting the Tension. It will offer a look into various aspects of the upcoming game’s art design.

The team will show early footage into how the Frostbite engine is being used on the game to remake the original Dead Space‘s environments, along with its characters, VFX, lighting and more.

Motive has stated that the visual evolutions are from the ground up in a bid to “create a new level of immersion and quality”.

A previous livestream in March focused on how the game’s audio was being improved compared to the original Dead Space. It also suggested that an early 2023 release date was likely for the game.

Since then, Motive has changed the sound effects tied to the Plasma Cutter and Pulse Rifle weapons following fan feedback. The Plasma Cutter frequency range was rebalanced to focus more on the kick, as well as the lower end, according to EA Motive. On the Dead Space subreddit, the team explained it matched the feel of the original better.

Elsewhere in gaming, Nintendo held its Indie World Showcase yesterday (May 11). During the twenty minute presentation, it confirmed the names of twenty new games coming to the Nintendo Switch. These included Soundfall, a fast-paced, rhythm-based dungeon crawler.

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