There are times when you just can’t play a game at release, as money is tight or time is being wasted doing less important things. Well, good things come to those who wait. These are games that won’t hurt your wallet, and offer hours of entertainment. It’s a little something I like to call Thrillhouse’s Cheap(er) Picks:

Game: The Darkness

The Xbox 360 version has sharper textures and less jaggies, but the PS3 version takes advantage of the extra blu-ray space and offers hours more in-game TV viewing content.

Price: 30 bucks at Gamestop

You might have missed this when it was originally released, and now is a great time to go find it. Gamestop currently has it on sale for 30 bucks, and at that price it really is worth a look.

I reviewed this over here, but in short:

The Darkness offers solid FPS gameplay, interesting and entertaining super power abilities, a great and well told story, and interactive heart eating (How many games can say they offer that? You can’t get enough heart eating.).

You play as Jackie, a mob hit man infected with the darkness, and are on a quest for revenge. It sounds typical, and in a way it is, but the game manages to disguise its averageness behind a think wall of style. The voice acting is top notch, the digital actors look great (especially Jackie during the loading scenes), and the whole of New York (and others) are just covered in deep murky darkness. It really succeeds at creating a gritty atmosphere.

The shooting is fun, the darkness powers entertaining (Try impaling a man, and holding him over a barrel. When he catches fire I dare you not to smile.), and you really feel like a powerful monster in the night.

Sadly the multiplayer is broken, and won’t hold your attention, but the single player story weighs in from 10-12 hours. But for 30 bucks, you really can’t complain, as it’s an excellent title.

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