Perhaps even more surprising, however, is that it’s not just coming to the next paid expansion. Diablo Immortal players can go hands-on this June while Diablo 2: Resurrected fans don’t even have to wait – it’s out today in the paid Reign of the Warlock DLC. Three paths are available – Demon for using hellspawn against their own, Eldritch for harnessing psionic forces, and Chaos to inundate foes in an elemental inferno.

Of course, there will also be new items, Runewords, and sets for every class. The DLC also updates Terror Zones, adds a new end-game challenge in The Ancients, and introduces a new loot filter. If that wasn’t enough, Stash Tabs have received a much-needed quality of life update, as you can now store gems, runes, and other resources in their own dedicated spaces.

As for Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred, it’s out on April 28th. Pre-purchasing it now grants immediate access to the Paladin class. Head here for more details.

Overwatch 2

The original Overwatch was a runaway success that garnered a sizeable player base and many awards, and many fans were understandably excited about the sequel. Overwatch 2’s announcement sparked excitement with promises of expanded PvE and a broader scope, but what we got in reality was a shooter that lost focus of what made it so special in the first place. The magic of Overwatch’s PvE was gone, and the expanded PvP options felt shallow and generic.

The company revealed an updated roster of titles appearing during the livestreams. August 21st will feature Diablo Immortal, Overwatch 2, Forza Horizon 5, Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO, and Dustborn. On August 22nd, we can expect to see Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Two Point Museum, The First Berserker: Khazan, Eternal Strands, Life is Strange: Double Exposure, and more.

Aside from Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, August 23rd will feature  Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, Path of Exile 2, The First Descendant, Tails of Iron 2, and Sea of Thieves. Stay tuned for more details when the shows unfold next week.

Subject Alpha – The Callisto Protocol

There’s only one real “boss” in The Callisto Protocol, and it’s the mutated Captain Leon Ferris, aka Subject Alpha. In the first phase, he swings here and there, sometimes grabbing you, and you just hit/shoot back. His second phase sees him mutating further, but don’t worry. Just shoot and dodge, take down the smaller Biophages, and repeat till he keels over. Mechanically boring, and one-note, but it sucks more when the game ends abruptly several minutes later.

CrossfireX

Based on Smilegate’s super-popular free-to-play shooter, CrossfireX garnered attention because Remedy was behind its campaign. However, this was little more than two short “Operations” with bad writing, cliched and boring gameplay, and terrible AI. The studio’s trademark panache was missing here, though the Northlight Engine looked decent, and the “revamped” multiplayer didn’t offer much either.

Gungrave G.O.R.E

Some games are developed for years, and you hate to see them launch as Gungrave G.O.R.E has. Any notions of style that Overdose may have had all those years ago are overridden by an ugly visual style, from the characters to the levels. The story sounds like it could make for some B-movie-level fun but ends up confusing and outright time-wasting. Gameplay-wise, the sheer amount of jank in animations, movement, and combat are just awful all around.

Source of Madness

In theory, Source of Madness sounds cool. It uses procedural generation to create its Lovecraftian-esque nightmares and neural network AI to animate them. Unfortunately, this results in unpredictable enemies, further adding to the brutal difficulty alongside the shoddy controls. Even if you can appreciate the aesthetic, the sheer lack of strategy that enemies display, horrible bosses, and lackluster progression ensures little payoff for surviving this nightmare.

Winter Ember

As a dark fantasy stealth title, Winter Ember felt pretty ambitious with its 30 arrow types, 70 passive and active skills, and open-ended gameplay. The interesting aesthetic and setting are hampered by poor combat, awful enemy AI, shoddy cover while sneaking, and the same repetitive gameplay loop. Even the audio design, an essential part of a stealth experience, is not good, executing any hope one could have for this mess.

XEL

A sci-fi adventure inspired by Zelda with an appealing art style – what could go wrong? As XEL proves, quite a lot. The sheer number of bugs and lack of polish will put you off immediately. Once you make it further in, the combat and visuals can be somewhat satisfying, but the awful story undercuts them. Too much repetition and some baffling design decisions will further kill your interest if you’re still somehow playing.

The Last Oricru

Serving as one of the poster games for the new Prime Matter label, The Last Oricru takes clear inspiration from other Souls-like titles. But that’s all it is – a shallow inspiration where everything sticks out for all the wrong reasons. It may be the annoying main character, user interface, controls or how clunky everything looks. Whatever it may be, The Last Oricru doesn’t feel good to play, look at or think about.

Dolmen

Like The Last Oricru, Dolmen is a Souls-like but sci-fi with cosmic horror. It’s also terrible, with combat missing many key features and melee combat feeling janky and poorly tuned overall. Despite how interesting the sci-fi premise looks, it’s all fluff with no real purpose or sense that fails to hook you.

MX vs ATV Legends

MX vs ATV Legends isn’t bad enough to be truly awful, but it’s enough to be annoyingly mediocre. Multiple types of vehicles to race with? Good. The slippery controls and haphazard AI? Bad, though the former has reportedly improved. The open world aspect? Good. The lack of anything to do in it? Bad. We could go on with the physics, sound design, polish, and so on. While the new Trails mode and regular tracks are decent, it’s not enough when everything else is undercooked.

The House of the Dead: Remake

With all the remakes we’ve seen in the past few years, The House of the Dead: Remake could have been something good. Maybe not great, but still good. Developer MegaPixel Studio kept almost everything as is, but the visual upgrades look too dark and ugly. The remixed soundtrack comes across as bland, and the lack of much new content (save for the missable horde mode) makes it feel overpriced. The less said about the controls and performance issues, the better.

Diablo Immortal

Maybe it’s fun on mobile, but Diablo Immortal on PC is a travesty. Its user interface is horrid, with annoying pop-ups – especially during gameplay, resulting in misclicks – and the combat is an even more dumbed-down version of Diablo 3. The campaign is there, but any interesting plot is offset by the stupid progression blockers and grinding required. The sheer scale of monetization is also appalling, to the extent that certain end-game activities are just locked off to free players. Even without it, Diablo Immortal would still be a mess as opposed to the ongoing trainwreck.

Monark

Lancarse’s track record has been a bit spotty this year, as anyone who played The DioField Chronicle will attest. There was some hope for Monark, developed by a few former Shin Megami Tensei series members. It has a school setting, Egos, and an Otherworld to explore, just like SMT and Persona. It differs, however, in the awful pacing, repetitive gameplay, and troubling characterization, to say nothing of the shallow visuals and environments. With so many other great RPG efforts this year, like Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Trails from Zero, and so on, Monark hardly warrants a look.

LEGO Brawls

A platform fighter based on LEGO sets sounds appealing in theory. The execution leaves a lot to be desired. Originally released for iOS in 2019, LEGO Brawls made its way to consoles and PC this past September. Despite its looks, the gameplay quickly becomes boring (with little difference between characters), and the sheer grind required to unlock things is a chore. The lack of stuff to do doesn’t help either.

ELEX 2

I found ELEX to be a drag, but Piranhabytes’ sci-fi action RPG garnered a dedicated cult following after its release. ELEX 2 seemed a good time to capitalize on this and deliver something better. Sadly, it’s also full of clunky combat, dull writing, boring open-world design, monotonous side quests, and an underwhelming presentation. Being able to fly with a jetpack doesn’t count for much when there are so many bugs, and the DirectX 12 rollout is a whole other rigmarole on its own.

IKAI

Despite its low production values, IKAI could have been a nice little horror title, weaving in Japanese folklore in unique ways. Alas, it falls flat. It’s very short, the plot makes little sense, and it abruptly ends with almost no payoff. This wouldn’t be too terrible if the gameplay and horror were up to par, but the former is too restrictive and lackluster, while the latter offers bland jumpscares.

Blackwind

In some alternate universe, Blackwind would have been a decent twin-stick shooter/action RPG hybrid. Unfortunately in this timeline, its premise can’t withstand the horrible story, mind-numbingly dull exploration and progression, and awful combat. The glitches and poor controls further hamper your attempts to squeeze any enjoyment out of the experience.

Of course, since this is Diablo Immortal, you can also purchase the Empowered Battle Pass and Collector’s Empowered Battle Pass to unlock all rank rewards. The latter also provides the Aspect of Justice avatar frame and a cosmetic for your portals. The battle pass is available until September 1st.

In terms of new content, there’s the new Wrathborne Invasion daily event which sees the Wrathborne attacking Sanctuary every day at noon (server time). Players can team together to stop the demons from controlling a zone, after which Gorgothra will see a powerful echo of herself. The top three damage dealers during these events will receive six Enchanted Dust.

The next limited-time event, Hungering Moon, runs from August 12th to 15th at 3 AM server time. It sees players collecting Moonslivers, trading them for Blessings and then trading seven Blessings for a random reward. Stay tuned for more details on other content and update coming to the free-to-play title in the coming months.

Diablo Immortal is available for iOS, Android and PC (open beta). It recently crossed 30 million installs.

Despite the backlash that the free-to-play title’s monetization has received, Diablo Immortal has reportedly been doing quite well in terms of monetization. Sensor Tower Store Intelligence reported last week that it had crossed $100 million in player spending worldwide on the Apple App Store and Google Play. It’s not only one of the fastest video game IPs to reach that milestone, second only to Pokemon GO, but it also became the 13th highest revenue-generating title in the world.

The majority of revenue is from the United States, followed by South Korea and Japan with 59 percent of total spending coming from the App Store. Diablo Immortal is currently in the middle of Season 2 with its Battle Pass available to purchase until August 4th. Stay tuned for more details on future updates and check out our review here.

https://twitter.com/DiabloImmortal/status/1553168502609133572

The Waylanders

Developer Gato Studio’s recent The Waylanders is an interesting concept with hints of promise here and there, but all of these good aspects come with their own sets of caveats. While the story is interesting on some levels, it’s marred down by unimpressive voice acting and pacing that’s all over the place. Then there’s the gameplay, which is engaging but is plagued with bugs and glitches galore. Taken as a whole, however – it’s recommended that you pass on this game.

It’s one of the fastest video game IPs on mobile to hit this milestone, behind Pokemon GO which took two weeks for the same. Diablo Immortal is currently the 13th highest revenue-generating mobile title globally and ranks fourth in worldwide player spending for mobile RPGs. If that weren’t enough, it’s also ranked second among MMORPGs with NetEase’s Fantasy Westward Journey on top.

The title’s performance in China has also been very good, becoming the most downloaded app in all categories for the App Store for the first two days. Along with being the third highest grossing game in the marketplace at launch, it ranked as the second highest just behind Tencent’s Honor of Kings. In terms of revenue breakup, the United States is first, followed by South Korea and Japan. Approximately 59 percent of global player spending is from the App Store while Google Play makes up 41 percent.

Blizzard confirmed last week that Diablo Immortal had crossed 20 million installs. For more details on the PC version, check out our official review here.

Even so, the game’s been enjoying success on the commercial front, it would seem. Within the first two weeks of launch, Diablo Immortal had apparently brought in over $24 million in revenue, and within roughly a week after release, it had seen over 10 million installs, becoming the biggest Diablo launch ever (at least by that metric).

Now, it’s crossed another major milestone. Taking recently to Twitter, Blizzard Entertainment announced that Diablo Immortal has now been installed over 20 million times across all platforms. Clearly, the game’s free-to-play nature has been a huge point in its favour. To commemorate this milestone, Blizzard is giving away several in-game rewards to players who log in and claim them.

Diablo Immortal is available on PC, iOS, and Android.

20M demon slayers and counting. ⚔️

Log in to claim rewards like a Legendary Crest, gold, and more. pic.twitter.com/NvjcBjuCE4

— Diablo Immortal (@DiabloImmortal) July 23, 2022