Out this week: Zombie Army Trilogy, ScreamRide, DmC: Definitive Edition and more

Although a fair few new games are out this week, your piggy bank shouldn’t take too much of a pounding as not a single one is being released at full price.

We’ll take a look at ScreamRide first because reviews started to appear online as far back as Monday. Developer Frontier has worked on numerous rollercoaster games in the past, but whereas the likes of Rollercoaster Tycoon focused on managing a theme park, ScreamRide is more about building scream-inducing rollercoasters and then testing them out to destruction.

It’s a unique premise and while it’s always pleasing to see Microsoft release software aimed at the younger and family markets, reviews have been more Paultons Park than Thorpe Park. By that we mean there has been dozens of middling 5/10 and 6/10 review scores floating around, such as those from GamesRadar, Videogamer, The Metro and The Official Xbox Magazine UK.

There are a handful of higher scoring reviews out there – both Polygon and IGN rather enjoyed it – but they’re in the minority. It’s a bit of a shame as we were looking forward to this one. We’re still going to take a punt on it though (we bagged a £20 pre-order deal on Amazon several weeks ago) and should have a review up sometime next week. Incidentally, we’ve seen a few websites claim that it’s an Xbox One-exclusive when in fact it’s also heading to Xbox 360. And for around a tenner less, too.

If you haven’t had your fill of zombie harming fun with last week’s Dying Light, then you’ll probably be wanting to know if Zombie Army Trilogy is worth tucking into. Reviews are hardly bountiful in number but at this moment in time all signs point to it being a ‘solid 7/10er’. “Though Zombie Army Trilogy doesn’t offer all the cinematics and huge stand-out moments of some triple-A shooters, it does offer some excellent level design, good range of enemy types and a challenging four-player co-op experience that brings the team together for a fun-filled, chaotic zombie romp,” said PlayStation Universe.

The Sixth Axis meanwhile had this to say: “Parts of the trilogy are showing their age and difficulty spikes can sap away the fun, but steel yourself for a challenge, get some mates together and there’s plenty to like about it”.

Eurogamer’s review is the only other we can find currently. “Provided all you want is the chance to shoot decomposing Nazis in the face hundreds of times over, you can’t really fault Zombie Army Trilogy for delivering on the crude grindhouse pleasures implicit in its title. It’s also hard not to wish the game didn’t do more to deviate from its amusing but repetitive blood-soaked trajectory” they mused.

Expect to pay around £25-£30 for this Sniper Elite spin-off. Speaking of which, the Sniper Elite V3: Ultimate Edition is out next week. We’re not sure if that has an impact on anybody’s Zombie Army Trilogy purchasing decision, but felt it was worth mentioning regardless.

The last big hitter of the week is DmC: Definitive Edition. Again, expect to find it for around the £25 mark. Maybe even less if you have a good poke around online. We didn’t get round to sampling Dante’s delights until DmC had been out for a month or so, and as such a review would have been mightily untimely. We did however write some words about the free Bloody Palace DLC which gave DmC a fair bit of extra mileage.

That’s included in this Definitive Edition – giving the chance to play as Virgil – while other new modes include Gods Must Die Mode, Must Style Mode and Hardcore Mode. A few other bits and pieces are being thrown in for good measure too, including character skins and a 20% faster Turbo Mode. Good old GamesMaster magazine was the first to publish a review, giving it 83%. They said Turbo Mode is a decent enough reason alone to replay it, but did point out that fuzzy textures let the overall package down.

This Friday also sees the release of Cooking Mama: Bon Appetit! and Gardening Mama: Forest Friends on 3DS, along with Pinball Arcade Season 2 (PS4) and JRPG collection The Arland Atelier Trilogy (PS3). Just like the rest of the week’s releases, they can all be found for well under £30.

There’s plenty happening on the download services too, including colourful co-op puzzler Shiftlings on Xbox One and the second Resident Evil Revelations 2 episode. That’s out now on all formats. The intriguing 1930s noir adventure White Night also heads to PS4 and Xbox One, while OlliOlli2: Welcome to Olliwood and HELLDIVERS are both due out on PS4 and PS Vita. Eurogamer gave top-down strategic shooter HELLDIVERS a thumbs up, claiming that it’s “Brutal, panic-inducing and hilarious”.

The PS Vita is also set to receive Metroidvania-style adventure La-Mulana EX and the demon battling RPG Oreshika: Tainted Bloodlines. One standout feature from the latter is the ability to form a clan of warriors based on your own appearance via the PS Vita’s camera. Now’s as good a time as any to practise your warface.

Next week: Sniper Elite 3 – Ultimate Edition (PS4, PS3, Xbox One, 360), Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea (PS3), Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters (PS3, PS Vita), Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams Directors Cut (PS4) and Ori and The Blind Forest (Xbox One).