Cheap This Week - 29/06/11

Street Fighter! Mortal Kombat! Lara!

Feature by Lewie Procter Contributor

Updated on 29 Jun 2011

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.

Incredible power.

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...