Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - Ultimate Evil Edition

Eleven months ago, the Reaper of Souls expansion pack for PC versions of Diablo III was announced. This was closely followed by the console release of Diablo III a month later. I pre-ordered a copy with the intention of playing it at a later time. That time arrived, and I managed to reach complete most of the first act with my chosen character.

Then life and other games got in the way, and Diablo III sat neglected in my gaming box for a while. Recently I begun playing Diablo III as my primary game again (I often swap between two or more titles, when I get stuck, or have simply had enough of a particular genre), and now I am quite excited about the news regarding the Reaper of Souls console release in the form of the Ultimate Evil Edition.

OK, so the news hit nearly two months ago now, but I've been a little preoccupied with arranging a wedding and stuff. Last month the PlayStation exclusive items were announced, and once again they're centred around tie-ins with PS exclusive titles. This time round the games are The Last of Us, and Shadow of the Colossus, neither of which I've played. There is also an additional piece of armour available as a pre-order incentive, the Infernal Pauldrons, which should look pretty neat when paired with the Infernal Helm pre-order incentive from the console base game.

While I'm mentioning the base game, it will be included in Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - Ultimate Evil Edition. That means if you have yet to get a copy of Diablo III for your console, all you'll need to buy in order to join in on the console experience is the Ultimate Evil Edition. Not a bad deal at all considering PS3/ Xbox 360 version is retailing at only R 419. The same retailer is selling the PC version of the Reaper of Souls expansion for R 379, and that excludes the base game, which is required to play, and will set you back another R 451.

For those who already own console versions of Diablo III, and only want to add the Reaper of Souls expansion, digital downloads will be available through the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live closer to the release date. I'm thinking that for only R 419, I may as well buy a physical copy of the Ultimate Evil Edition, as I like to have physical discs over digital downloads. Call me old-fashioned, or whatever, but if I ever decide to delete games from my PS3 harddrive, I want to know that I will still be able to play them again in the future, without having to waste time downloading them again.

That said, I'll wait and see what the price difference between the physical and digital versions of Reaper of Souls are before committing to either. At the moment though, I'm still leaning towards buying a physical copy.