You know what I've recently discovered that I wish I had done sooner? I've discovered the best way to get a feel for a game before buying it. Forget demos. Forget rental. Just watch someone playing through it on Youtube. By that I don't mean developer commentary playthrough, I mean some regular gamer who records themselves playing the entire game from beginning to end. They're all over Youtube now.
Odds are you won't have to watch for very long before you start to get an idea of whether a game looks worthwhile or not. Especially with me and 3rd person melee action games because every single one this year has been really really terrible with the exception of maaaaybe Darksiders. A few minutes watching The Force Unleashed 2 and Splatterhouse and the usual by-the-book unstrategic repetitive quick time event garbage gameplay and boom, you've saved yourself time, money and heartache by not bothering.
Odds are you won't have to watch for very long before you start to get an idea of whether a game looks worthwhile or not. Especially with me and 3rd person melee action games because every single one this year has been really really terrible with the exception of maaaaybe Darksiders. A few minutes watching The Force Unleashed 2 and Splatterhouse and the usual by-the-book unstrategic repetitive quick time event garbage gameplay and boom, you've saved yourself time, money and heartache by not bothering.