Suskie's Enslaved: Odyssey to the West review

This was a terrific review, Mike! I had already picked up a PS3 copy of the game based on the merit of Heavenly Sword and the comments I've been hearing about how pretty and interesting this new title is, so your review didn't convince me to buy the game the way it otherwise would have. Instead, it refueled my interest in opening the game and playing it right now. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to do that thanks to other commitments. Either way, it's nice to see this review on the site and I hope it has as much impact on other readers as it did me.

True's review had already convinced me... now I'm doubly convinced.

Thanks a lot. After sleeping on it, I eventually decided that Enslaved is a game that everyone needs to play despite everything it does wrong, so I'm glad that came through. I would've recommended renting it, though. I did that and came away satisfied.

I'm pretty sure that (literally) the last game I rented was one of the Dreamcast launch titles. Rentals are too expensive around here. I literally lose less money (by the time you factor in store sales and my employee discount) if I buy a game and play it, decide I don't like it and sell it on eBay at a minor loss from the retail price. That might cost me a buck or two in a lot of instances, and that would've probably applied in this case. Of course, if I keep a game I lose a lot of money... and I pretty much always keep 'em.

Renting games, to me, isn't always about simply trying them out. I typically only buy games if I'm sure they'll give me a lot of value for my money, either because they're long or because they've got things like multiplayer or extra modes to extend the playtime. Games like Enslaved I only tend to play once anyway, so if I can finish them within the period of a rental, then I'm getting all of the value I can out of the game and I pay a fraction of the price.

I got into that habit last year, when there was a video place near me that offered two-day game rentals for four bucks. I got used to playing through games very quickly and paying a minuscule fraction of the retail price.

Renting games is a lot more difficult now that Hollywood Video is closed. There is that netflix-like game rental site somewhere.

Blockbusters are closing down everywhere, but there are still a few near me. There actually used to be a Hollywood Video in my area, like, a decade ago, and then it shut down and was replaced by a Blockbuster. Now that's gone, too.