Redfall a rare miss from Arkane, Lego Bricktales is tricky on mobile, Call of Duty is going to be a board game.

Redfall doesn’t live up to expectations

It’s too bad about Redfall. The highly anticipated game from Arkane Austin published by Bethesda promised Salem’s Lot crossed with Left 4 Dead. But the final result just doesn’t deliver.

There are great things here. The acting is solid. The four characters you get to choose from are interesting, with their own supernatural backstories. The environment and aesthetic are exactly Arkane’s thing. It’s fun to explore the island.

But the combat mechanics are loose and and enemies react mindlessly. While the four characters are distinct, playing them feels the same. There are performance issues with the animation. And the world may look great, but there’s not much to fill it in.

If you’ve got an Xbox Game Pass subscription and you really like vampire stories, give Redfall a whirl. Otherwise, it’s best to take a pass.

Redfall is available now on Windows and Xbox Series X/S. Rated mature.

Lego Bricktales comes to mobile

First released for MacOS, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S last fall, Bricktales is a game that does its very best to let you build with bricks the way you would in the real world.

It’s a puzzle game at heart and your challenge throughout is to assemble the bricks that are available to you in the way required by the game.

It’s now available on Android and iOS, and the variety of biomes you get to explore and build in are rendered beautifully.

And while I struggled with the touch controls that you’ll use to rotate objects and precisely place bricks where they need to go, I suspect that the more fluid and perceptive brains of the youngsters this game is intended for won’t have nearly the same difficulties.

Video games, board games

I’ve written recently about board games coming to your screen – consider Catan and Clue – but the reverse is happening, too.

Last week, Call of Duty: The Board Game was announced. The game will be Kickstarted, so it’s a ways away from landing on your kitchen table, but the developers at Arcane Wonders promise that it will combine, “elements of strategy, tactical planning, and combat to create an intense and immersive gaming experience.”

The board game will use iconic maps from the video games, too.