Renting games for Thanksgiving

In case anyone hasn’t figured it out, I really love video games.  So much so that I just can’t buy all the games I want to play. 

Most of the time, new games just aren’t worth buying.  They cost too much or you get through them way too quickly.  Sometimes the game just isn’t worth $60… which is what happened when I purchased The Darkness.  You can now pick it up for $5 at a used bin. 

So, I started renting video games.  If you’re a nut for Xbox gamer points, then this is definately the way to go.  You can play through games to get much of the 1000 points that each game offers, without going broke in the process. 

For example, the Lost game is incredibly easy, and you can get through it (and earn the 1000 gamer points) in an afternoon.  The beauty of this is that I didn’t have to buy this crappy game.  Don’t get me wrong: it’s a decent game that any Lost fan will like, but it’s nowhere near worth $30 or more.  You play it once and are done with it.

I became a member of GameFly over 6 months ago, primarially so I can write reviews on games (at least the ones that the sponsors don’t send me).  Overall this has been great, but the really “hot” games have low availability.  I like it so much that I recently upgraded my account to have 3 games out at one time.

When purchasing used games at GameCrazy yesterday, I noticed that they are renting games for $7 for 5 days.  This is abolutely crazy.  If I wanted to rent 3 games for 5 days, it would cost the same as a GameFly subscription…  Hmm… which is better: $21 for 5 days or $29 for a whole month?

If I can find a used game for $10 then I’ll buy it.  I bought Crackdown and FEAR for $11 each… so I’ll be playing them over the Thanksgiving holiday.  I also have 3 GameFly games to extract gamer points out of, too.

I also bought Resistance: Fall of Man for the PS3.  There are only a few exclusive games for the PS3 that are worth having.  Since I already have an Xbox 360, I will buy games for that platform just because the 360 has a much bigger online community; and for the gamer points.  PS3’s network is free, and newer games are supporting “trophies”, but somehow it just doesn’t feel as connected as the Xbox Live network.

So, I also bought a full band kit and invited a few friends *cough* Donandhisgirlfriend */cough* over to play Rock Band and Guitar Hero 4… and they totally cancelled on me.  I guess I’ll have to recruit the neighbors.