I was in the same position 1 week ago. I decided to buy it because friends were wanting to play it and I had liked previous iterations of the game. I was finally tired of COD2 and traded it in.
There are a ton of unlockable costumes(big deal), and quite a few unlockable characters, including a spartan that looks identical to Master Chief in Halo. The game looks graphically similar to DOA3. The levels are by far the most entertaining levels in a fighting game so far. Most of them provide a seemingly endless amount of terrain to battle across.
The online play is still very active. You won't have a problem finding a game at anytime of the day...I do mean anytime. I have limited time to play games, so when I do, I really do. I unlocked all the characters and costumes in one sitting(I didn't go to sleep that night). Now, the game is rather boring. Online fighting can be very difficult and frustrating as many people are complete masters of this game and will destroy anyone who is not. Oh, story mode is short and the ending videos are pretty much unrelated to anything that makes sense. Many of them seem to come from ideas after tearing through a dime bag.
It's now 1 week later and I'm ready to sell the game. I don't recommend waiting for gears of war to come out, but I also don't say that this is a must buy. Nothing makes someone cuss like a fighting game.
Playing the hell out of it as a rental should give you an understanding if you should buy.
This post has been edited by CreziB: Jul 23 2006, 05:53 AM