Cheap This Week - 29/06/11

I hope you're not still paying full price for games are you? As this week's selection goes to show, there's a pretty huge difference in what prices all the different retailers charge for identical items, and Cheap This Week is your essential guide to finding the best deals around across all formats.

To ensure you've always got the low down on what games are cheap at all times, get yourself over to SavyGamer.co.uk.

Here are this week's deals:

Child of Eden, PS3 - £26.09 pre-order. Apply coupon "CHESTER".

We had a cheap price for this on the 360 last week, and now here's an ever cheaper price for the PS3 version. The PS3 version – which won't be out until later this year - lacks the Kinect enabled hand wave controls of the 360 version, but Simon indicated in his review that in some ways standard controls are a bit more suited to Child of Eden:

"But once you've experienced the jaw-dropping sights on offer, the more gritty business of competition and completion begins. Within these parameters, Child of Eden is indisputably best played like Rez: with a controller. The accuracy of the analogue stick combined with the short jabbing motions required to switch between shot types make this a more precise, controlled experience."

And then there's of course the very real possibility that Child of Eden on PlayStation 3 will use the Move, as well as throwing in 3D support to boot – features that are likely to be announced in the run-up to release, and are likely to make you feel quite smug for bagging the game at a discount rate.

Silent Hill HD Collection, PS3 - £23.80 delivered

Amazon has got the best pre-order price for this PS3 exclusive prettied up collection of Silent Hill 2 & 3. In addition to shinier graphics, this HD collection adds some redone voice work and trophy support.

Of the second game, back in the day, Tom said:

"Resident Evil has become tired and overdone, and Capcom haven't really scared anybody with it in a year or so. Silent Hill 2 is a much better game than any in the RE series, and it solves a number of problems that have dogged the survival-horror genre forever."

And of the third, Kristan said:

"Silent Hill 3 pushes all the right buttons in the adventure genre. While it arguably does little in term of innovation, it has some classic puzzles, far more satisfying combat elements than ever before, some truly horrifying sections, fantastic visuals, gruesome audio and a quality storyline that kicks most of the embarrassing competition out of sight. It's hard to think of many titles as unnervingly compelling as Silent Hill 3, and as such already ranks as one of the games of the year. Classic stuff."

Mortal Kombat, Xbox 360 - £20 delivered

This is pre-owned, so you'll almost certainly have to fork out an extra 800 MS Points if you want to be allowed to play online, although I've bought pre-owned games from blockbuster that came with unused serials before, so you might get lucky. Even taking into account that additional cost, this is still the best price going, and if you're not bothered about online play, you're quids in.

Matt wasn't so sure about this, to the tune of a Eurogamer 7 out of 10:

"Evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of Mortal Kombat is a tricky business. On the one hand, if offers a single-player experience that's very comprehensive, but as a competitive fighting game, it falls short of the Japanese competition by a wide margin. The less restrictive combo system is a step in the right direction, but an overburdened super gauge doesn't pick this out as a future tournament favourite. And while it's also too early to be making calls on the character balancing, an abundance of easy-to-abuse specials is still cause for concern."

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, Xbox 360 – 600 MS Points

Crystal Dynamics took the Tomb Raider series in a different direction for this spin off game, and it absolutely paid off. Keza couldn't sing its praises loud enough back when it came out:

"It's a radical departure from every game in the series to date, both in its isometric 3D viewpoint and its arcade-style controls. And yet, it's still unmistakeably Tomb Raider: still a cerebral and exciting mix of puzzles and action. Once you get used to the change in perspective, you forget that things were ever otherwise."

Great fun in co-op and single player alike, Lara Croft: Guardia of Light is probably one of the best ways to spend your MS points there's been in a while.

Deal of the week

Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, PC – £15.29 delivered. Apply coupon "CHESTER".

Considering that this is being sold to owners of Super Street Fighter 4 on the 360/PS3 as £12 DLC, just over £15 for the whole thing seems fantastic value.

In his review, Matt said:

"So Arcade Edition is exactly what it appears to be: a tempered update that lacks the immediate wow factor of its predecessor, but offers an extra layer of refinement on an already winning formula. Casual players can compare the new dragon punches, while the hardcore have sheets of revised frame data to analyse while coming up with fiendish strategies to beat the new dive kick shenanigans. And if this is truly the third and final strike for the Street Fighter IV series, then it's a fitting end for what's been one of the most intense joyrides in gaming."

Although I'm not even slightly convinced that this is the last we'll be seeing of Street Fighter 4 just yet; Capcom probably can't stop itself from fiddling with it.

Also of note this week...

• Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines, PC - £7.50
• Hydrophobia: Prophecy, PC - £2.25

Xbox Live Gold subscribers only:

• Comic Jumper, Xbox 360 – 400 MS Points
• Hard Corps: Uprising, Xbox 360 – 600 MS Points
• Zeno Clash [Ultimate Edition], Xbox 360 – 600 MS Points