Out this week: Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition, Tales of Xillia 2, The Last Tinker and more

Even though it’s not entirely a new game, per se, Activision still chose to launch Diablo III: Reaper of Souls – Ultimate Evil Edition across the globe on Tuesday.

For the uninformed, it contains Diablo III and – for the first time on consoles – the Reaper of Souls expansion pack. The last-gen versions can be found for around £25 online, while next-gen versions are significantly more – you may even struggle to find them for less than £45. On the high street they’re priced even higher. GAME is currently charging £54.99 while HMV has it marked up at £52.99. Still, that’s cheaper than the digital version – a colossal £59.99 on both Xbox One and PS4. Eek!

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Both PS4 and Xbox One versions run at 1080p/60fps, thus preventing any tedious bickering from websites infatuated with resolutions and such. The Xbox One iteration however does need the day one patch to reach 1080p.

While there’s no doubting that Diablo III is a brilliant game, and a surprisingly accessible one at that, we’re not sure if we’d gladly fork out £50 to play it again with suped-up visuals. And that’s even bearing in mind that the expansion is present. At £25 though, we’d recommend the last-gen version to anybody who missed out on it first time round. The original Diablo III has held its price remarkably well, making this edition something of a bargain for those yet to make the jump to next-gen.

Also arriving at less-than-full-price this week – the belated PS3 and PS4 versions of Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare. Expect to pay around £20-£25 on PS3 and £25-£30 on PS4.

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Many gamers were left in dismay when EA first revealed that they were turning PopCap’s beloved Plants vs Zombies into a third-person online shooter. Thanks to some attentive nurturing though, PopCap HD managed to prove us all wrong – Garden Warfare turned out to be refreshing, fast-paced and fun. The character classes were well-balanced while the maps impeccably designed. We went on to call it “the year’s biggest surprise so far” when we reviewed it on Xbox 360 back in March.

Then we have JRPG Tales of Xillia 2 on PlayStation 3. The metacritic currently stands at 79% from 13 outlets; a score that’s dragged down slightly by a mauling from US Gamer. They handed out a mere 2/5, claiming that “It’s a 20-hour game in a 50-hour package, bloated to hell and back by a design engineered to recycle content”. They would appear to be in the minority though – other reviews have mostly been around the 8/10 mark, such as this one from IGN…and this one from God is a Geek.

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As for the week’s new downloads, the Xbox One receives The Golf Club. Going by looks alone it may give EA’s PGA Tour series – which this year disowns the Tiger Woods name, incidentally – a run for its money. Speaking of which, The Golf Club’s price may be an issue for some – it’s £27.99. With no demo and only a handful of reviews around – which include 6/10s from both God is a Geek and Videogamer – you should think twice about dropping almost £30 on it.

Over on PSN meanwhile Hotline Miami launches on PS4 – priced at £7.99, or for free for those who downloaded it on PS3 – while the PS Vita sees the release of Gravity Badgers (£3.99) and top-down shooter Crimsonland (£9.99).

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These belated conversions are being joined by Counterspy and The Last Tinker: City of Colors. In actual fact, the latter is a belated conversion too – the brightly hued platformer first launched on PC a couple of months ago. Review scores were surprisingly high – GamesMaster magazine handed out a resounding 84%, while Polygon gave it a solid 7. “[But] if The Last Tinker’s goal was to leave a smile on my face, it accomplished it every time I played”, they said.

Reviews of the retro chic side-scrolling stealth sim Counterspy have mostly been favourable too, including a 70/100 from GamesBeat and a 7.0 from IGN. “Its Cold War premise is brilliant, its art is beautiful, and its music is lovely” said the latter. It’s out now for £9.99 (or £7.99 with PS Plus) with cross-buy support across PS4, PS3 and PS Vita.

Finally, PS Plus members can now download the Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty – Alf’s Escape Mission DLC for free. Haven’t downloaded the full game yet? Good news – this deal runs until 3rd September.

Next week: Metro Redux (PS4, Xbox One, PC), Madden NFL 15 (PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360), Disgaea 4: A Promise Revisited (PS Vita), Warriors Orochi 3 Ultimate (PS4, Xbox One) and World of Tanks – Combat Ready Starter Pack (Xbox 360).

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