New Game Releases: August 15th-21st, 2014

From Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition’s assemblage of D3 with the Reaper of Souls expansion set to the ‘worlds on a disk’ of Tales of Xillia 2 and Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment, there’s easily a couple of hundred hours of gameplay found within this week’s new releases. Once The Golf Club’s rabbit hole of course design in factored into the equation, gamers could easily keep themselves occupied until the holiday season commences. Frighteningly, that event is just a little more than a month away, giving gamers just a short span to prepare their bank accounts and backlogs.

PlayStation 3
CounterSpy (PSN, $14.99, Cross-buy)
Tales of Xillia 2

PlayStation 4
CounterSpy (PSN, $14.99, Cross-buy)
Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition
Hotline Miami
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare
The Last Tinker: City of Colors

Wii U
Double Dragon II: The Revenge (eShop, $4.99)
GAIABREAKER (eShop, $14.99)
Mega Man Battle Chip Challenge (eShop, $TBA)
Soon Shine (eShop, $1.99)
XType Plus (eShop, $2.99)

Xbox One
Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition
The Golf Club

3DS
Amida’s Path (eShop, $4.99)
Gothic Masquerade (eShop, $4.99)

PS Vita
CounterSpy (PSN, $14.99, Cross-buy)
Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment

PC
Advanced Tactics Gold (Steam, $TBA)
Amazing Princess Sarah (Steam, $4.24)
Aritana and the Harpy’s Feather (Steam, $TBA)
Chess 2: The Sequel (Steam, $TBA)
Detective Grimoire (Steam, $4.89)
Hatoful Boyfriend (Steam, $8.99)
Haunted (Steam, $13.49)
Heroes and Legends: Conquerors of Kolhar (Steam, $TBA)
Mega Coin Squad (Steam, $TBA)
Nux (Steam, $6.29)
Shan Gui: Sweet Osmanthus (Steam, $4.99)
Stonerid (Steam, $3.99)
The Golf Club (Steam, $34.99)

Robert’s Pick: Although happy-go-lucky JRPGs certainly have their jubilant charms, I’ve always preferred role-playing games that aren’t afraid to extend a melancholic vibe. While Tales of Xillia 2 doesn’t descend into the despondent, the game’s tone is decidedly darker that its predecessor, as evidenced when the game’s introduction plunges its precocious protagonist, Elle Mel Marta into a railroad disaster. Plucked from peril by a young man named Ludger Kresnik, the duo are subsequently knocked out and when they awaken, they find themselves in deep debt to an unscrupulous doctor. From what I gleaned at Namco-Bandai’s E3 presentation, there’s a nice selection of moral quandaries faced by players, with potentially damaging repercussions emanating from nearly decision.

Gonçalo’s Pick: For a while now I’ve been craving a long RPG to sink my teeth into for extended periods of time. The Tales series has always known how to strike a balance between length, engaging story-telling and fast, flashy combat.  So even though I’ve just finished playing and reviewing the extremely fun Mega Coin Squad, my pick this week goes to Namco-Bandai’s Tales of Xillia 2.