Blizzard’s newest Diablo game is made for mobile, Frogger’s latest incarnation is a bust, Resident Evil 4 is being remade for PS5 and the Callisto Protocol promises scares for your Playstation, Bioware’s next Dragon Age game is called Dreadwolf.
Diablo Immortal brings the dungeon crawler to mobile
The Diablo games from Blizzard are dungeon crawling, role playing game staples. Immortal marks the first time that the series has appeared on mobile devices (Android; iOS), and the game is indistinguishable from its cousins that you can play on consoles and computers.
Your experience will vary depending on what device you’re playing on, but overall, playing Immortal is just like playing any other Diablo game. You choose your character from the usual roster of D&D tropes and you run around the fantasy-imbued spaces – dungeons, graveyards, castles, swamps – mashing your controller to slay the waves of enemies you encounter.
Pick up loot, equip the best gear, level up and get more powerful. Repeat.
It’s wildly entertaining, and I love that I can play on my iPhone or iPad (or Android phone or tablet).
You can even connect a game controller to your device so you don’t need to navigate with a thumb on your screen, but bear in mind that there are touch screen interactions that you’ll still need to make.
You can also play Immortal on a Windows computer, and if you’ve got a Blizzard Battle.net account you can play across your devices, picking up on your computer where you left off on your phone.
The only thing that really sets out Immortal as a mobile game is that it’s free to download and play, and that you can spend real money for cosmetics and to speed up your progression through the game.
But if you’re used to ignoring those prompts – and what mobile gamer isn’t these days? – you won’t even notice. Just enjoy.
Frogger makes an appearance on your iPhone
The OG video game hopper is on Apple Arcade in Frogger and the Rumbling Ruins, but the game may not be what you’re expecting.
Frogger is no longer trying to navigate the highways and byways of the metropolis, but in this game is something of an Indiana Jones analogue trying to navigate through, well, ruins.
What you’ll be doing here is manipulating the buildings and pathways of the ruins so that Frogger can access the level’s exit. You can collect gems along the way because that’s what mobile games do these days.
And for some reason there’s a narrative here, about some dark nefarious being imprisoning frogs.
If you’re an Apple Arcade subscriber, it doesn’t cost you anything to give Frogger and the Rumbling Ruins a try, but if you want a better experience with the same game mechanics, you should go to Monument Valley+ and Monument Valley 2+ from ustwo, both of which are also on Apple Arcade.
Playstation lays out the releases coming soon to your PS5 and PS4 consoles
We’re entering announcement season, and Sony got the jump on things with its State of Play presentation last week (which you can watch right here).
Among the games announced and discussed were Resident Evil 4, a remake of the 2005 survival horror game. Capcom isn’t simply remastering the graphics, here. They are “reimagining the storyline of the game while keeping the essence of its direction”. This one releases on December 2.
Then there’s The Callisto Protocol, another action horror game. This one comes from Striking Distance Studios, and if you watch this trailer and you’ve ever played Dead Space, you won’t be suprised to learn that Glen Schofield, who heads the studio, was the creator of the Dead Space franchise for Electronic Arts.
Just as violent but with a completely different tone is Rollerdrome, which is coming in August. This one is best understood by watching the trailer.
God of War added to Playstation Plus
Just as we’re about to transition in to the new Playstation subscription program, God of War, the reboot – of sorts – of the action adventure game featuring Kratos in the land of the Norse gods, has been added to PS Plus.
That means you can download and play the game on your PS4 or PS5 if you’ve got a subscription at the Essential level.
Bioware’s new Dragon Age game is called Dreadwolf
Revealed in 2018, the new Dragon Age role-playing game from Edmonton’s Bioware Studios is called Dreadwolf, referring to the character of Solas. He’s described in the release about the game’s name as being “inscrutable … his methods sometimes questionable, earning him a reputation as something of a trickster deity—a player of dark and dangerous games.”
