Out this week: Dead Island Definitive Edition, One Piece: Burning Blood, Anima: Gate of Memories, Dangerous Golf and more

Dead Island and its equally mediocre sequel see current-gen revamps this week with shiny new visuals, fancy lighting effects and whatnot. Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry was quite impressed with the digital makeover, making good on that age-old saying: “You can’t polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter.”

Deep Silver are also throwing in the 16-bit style Dead Island Retro Revenge, which appears to have more in common with a modern day auto-runner than a scrolling brawler. Gameplay footage on YouTube suggests you should curb your enthusiasm – it doesn’t look particularly great.

PS4 owners should also note that only the original Dead Island is on the game disk – Riptide and Retro Revenge have to be downloaded from the PSN store. This, obviously, makes buying pre-owned copies a complete no-go.

Deep Silver’s online crime caper APB Reloaded may – or may not – be out this week too. It arrived on Xbox One in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, only to mysteriously vanish a few hours later. At the time of typing the only thing showing when searching the Xbox One store are the in-game purchases, including one for a rather extortionate £114.99. It’s a free to play release, see.

Going back to retail releases, we have One Piece: Burning Blood on PS4, Xbox One and PS Vita. IGN found the one-on-one arena brawler a case of style over substance, with a brief single-player mode and few reasons for non-fans to take a look. PlayStation Universe opted for the same score as IGN – a 6.5 – warning that “A lack of nuance in the combat, extreme difficulty spikes and the growing sense of repetition all conspire to strangle that joy right back out of the game.”

The Kickstarter backed RPG Anima: Gate of Memories arrives to mixed reviews, meanwhile. PlayStation Lifestyle was left disappointed, finding very little at all to enjoy. The visuals, presentation, level design, controls, script and voice acting were panned for their shoddiness, with the visuals allegedly resembling something from the PlayStation 2 era. They went on to give it a miserable 3.0. ZTGD on the other hand “had a blast” with the action RPG, comparing it to a mixture of Nier and El Shaddai. They went on to give it an 8.0. Then we have IXCM’s review, who found it both unfairly punishing and unrewarding. They handed out a mediocre 5/10.

That appears to be it for retail release this week. On the download services things slightly more exciting, with The Witcher 3’s Blood and Wine DLC and Hitman Episode Three – Marrakesh going down a treat. Kokatu gave Blood and Wine a thumbs up, reporting of a 15 hour runtime, while IGN gave it a lofty 9.0.

“Blood and Wine is equal parts triumphant and somber, a reminder of all the great times we’ve had with Geralt and some of the shitty things we’ve done in his shoes” said Kokatu.

As for Hitman’s new add-on, VideoGamer claimed that “It doesn’t hit the heights of Sapienza, but Marrakesh is another sterling Hitman episode”.

Xbox One owners can also turn on their console and find TurnOn, a puzzle adventure in which a lone electric spark helps restore power to a city plunged into darkness. For a game set during a power outage, it looks surprisingly colourful.

Fellow new release Fragments on Him is a whole lot more sombre and melancholy in comparison, best described as an “emotional drama”. All signs point to it being an acquired taste.

Dangerous Golf looks destined for greatness, pilfering ideas from Burnout’s legendary Crash Mode. It’s from the founders of Criterion Games, hence the similarities. As the name suggests the idea to make as much mess and cause as much carnage as possible per swing. Features include a co-op mode and online play for 8 players.

Friday also sees the release of Among the Sleep on Xbox One, a psychological horror game viewed through the eyes of a toddler. The PS4 version arrived to a mixture of 6s and 7s some time ago.

In addition to Dangerous Golf the PS4 also receives belated releases of Plague Inc: Evolved, Oxenfree, Kick & Fennick, Arcade Archives Shanghai III, Art of Balance and a PS2 re-release of Primal. They’re then joined by the somewhat newer cyberpunk shooter Neon Chrome (demo available), the XCOM alike There Came an Echo and the retro-tinged 2D shmup Score Rush Extended.

And after arriving at retail a couple of weeks ago, the very good Valkyria Chronicles Remastered finally gets a digital release. The £15.99 asking price seems more than fair to us. Nice one, SEGA.

Next week: Mirror’s Edge Catalyst (PS4/Xbox One/PC), Kirby: Planet Robobot (3DS), The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 (Wii U), Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter (Xbox One/PS4/PC), Guilty Gear Xrd -REVELATOR- (PS4/PS3), Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book (PS4), Hard Reset Redux (PS4), SteamWorld Heist (PS4/PS Vita), Fenix Furia (Xbox One), Color Symphony 2 (Xbox One), Soul Axiom (Xbox One) and In Between (Xbox One).