Cheap This Week - 25/05/11

It's Wednesday, so it's time for our weekly roundup of cut-price games. This week's comprehensive selection includes a classic from yesteryear, a hidden gem that you might have missed at its lowest price yet, a cheap pre-order and a couple of new releases nicely discounted. If you want more cheap games pumped into your web browser around the clock, get yourself over to SavyGamer.co.uk, the home of cheap gaming in the UK.

Here are this week's deals:

Demon's Souls, PS3 - £11.57 delivered

This is an ex-rental deal, but I've bought ex-rental games from Boomerang Rentals several times, and they are always in good as new condition. They only rent out the disc, so the packaging and manual have all been kept pristine in storage. They also thoroughly check the discs, and all the ones I've received haven't had a single scratch.

Demon's Souls is tough as nails, and is all the better for it. Keza was spot on when she said:

"It's stoic, uncompromising, difficult to get to know, but also deep, intriguingly disturbed and perversely rewarding. You can learn to love Demon's Souls like few other games in the world. But only if you're prepared to give yourself over to it."

It's absolutely deserving of the 9/10 score. If you're still eagerly awaiting the spiritual sequel, Dark Souls, you should check out Christian's preview to find out what's in store.

Nintendogs + Cats, 3DS - £17.85 delivered

You get to pick which flavour of dog you want, there's: Golden Retriever and New Friends, French Bulldog and New Friends & Toy Poodle and New Friends.

This is one of the three games from Nintendo in the 3DS's launch period, and a follow up to one of the best selling original DS games.

The graphics are way shinier than the DS original, and of the 3DS games I've played, Nintendogs + Cats use of the 3D effect is possibly the most subtle.

New 3DS features include AR card support, that lets you take 3D pictures of your digital dog superimposed on the real world, and the bark mode from the original games is now integrated into StreetPass.

Check out Keza's review here.

F1 2011, PC - £23.50 delivered

This isn't out until September, but you can save yourself a cool couple of quid by getting your order in now.

Last year's F1 game from Codies got a Eurogamer 8/10 from Joao, but it had it's fair share of technical issues at launch. They sorted out a lot of the problems with extensive patching, but hopefully they'll be able to be solid out of the gate for this new one.

If you do decide to order this now, you might want to keep an eye on SavyGamer.co.uk in the run up to release. It's pretty common for the various online retailers to compete on price these days, especially for PC games, so it's highly plausible that someone else might beat this price before release.

New Play Control! Pikmin, Wii - £5 delivered

Yes, everyone is all excited about Project Café now, and yes this is an old GameCube game repurposed with waggle controls, but Pikmin is still to this day brilliant.

The New Play Control series for the Wii were a bit hit and miss, with some games playing better with the original GameCube controls - and despite the Wii having GameCube controller ports they don't support the original pad.

Pikmin, however, is vastly improved with the Wiimote and Nunchuck combo, to the point that it almost feels like it was originally designed for it. Check out Oli's review for the specifics on how it works.

With E3 just around the corner, and news that Pikmin 3 is "well under way", I reckon Pikmin 3 is a likely Café launch title.

Deal of the Week

L.A. Noire & Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate Of Two Worlds – £44 delivered on Xbox 360 and PS3

The deal here is buy any chart game and get L.A. Noire for £25, but all the other games included in the offer are full price, and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is only £19.

L.A. Noire wowed Oli to the tune of 8/10, and he said this:

"L.A. Noire is slow but quietly engrossing; its mechanics are suspect, but you can't fault the ambition, attention to detail and commitment that went into its making."

Simon also gave Marvel vs. Capcom 3 an 8/10 in his review:

"Ultimately, Marvel vs. Capcom 3's appeal will depend on your own disposition. Far more welcoming to button-mashers than Street Fighter IV, this is a game in which you can tap stuff and watch sparkly miracles happen. But to begin to understand and master its systems will take just as much practice as it did in Ono's game – and quicker reactions to boot."

£44 for both these games is a pretty sweet deal, especially since many retailers are charging the full £40 for L.A. Noire alone.

Also of note this week...

• AssBro, PC - £12.85 delivered
• Precursors, PC - £9.98
• Ubisoft week on Steam.

Visit SavyGamer.co.uk for your gaming bargain needs throughout the week, and hassle me on Twitter if you ever want a particular game for cheap.