I’ve tried a number of video game rental services as of late. The majority has been quite a let down. Let’s see how they did.
I tried Gamerang.com and even after I paid the first two months up front they sent me hardly any games. When a game said it was available, I would move it to the top of my list, within a few hours to a day, the game would eventually change from ‘Available’ to ‘Short Wait’ or something similar. During the two months (remember I’ve already prepaid right) the credit card I used with them happened to expire. Well, I never went to my Gamerang account to update the expired card. I thought it wouldn’t matter, they already had my money for the first two months and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue the service past that. I wait more than two weeks for a new game in the mail. Nothing. I email them and they tell me, now, their system put my account on an automatic hold until my credit card info is updated. Before this, they never sent me any notices that this was the case. So I update my card info and in the next couple days they finally start sending me games again. Yeah, they suck.
Gottaplay.com
I also tried Gottaplay.com. This service provided much more promise. They have a much better site and they actually send you email updates when things happen with your account. the problem again, failure to send games! I waited for over two weeks for a new game from them before contacting them about it. You know what they said? “Unfortunately, we are currently experiencing some technical difficulties at this time that results in a possible delay in shipping. We are working diligently on resolving that issue. In the mean time, we would like to sincerely apologize and we thank you so much for your patience and understanding of this matter.” That’s a direct quote from customer service at Gottaplay. I tried replying to ask about a possible account credit. It’s only reasonable to not pay for what you’re not getting right? That was a week ago, I never heard back on my request and have since canceled my account.
The other service I tried was Gameznflix.com. I got to hand it to them, they are cheap, they have both games and movies (including Blu-Ray and HD DVD). However, there’s a reason for the cost. They have the worst game selection of the bunch. A pretty lack luster movie selection too. They get most of their games and movies much later than the other services. I added around 18 games to my “nQueue” and only received a few of the older, more available games like, Lost Planet, and Rainbow Six: Vegas, not that those are bad games, but they aren’t exactly new. The newest game I received on my list was Mario Party for the Wii (BTW, simply dreadful game). It’s cheap if you don’t mind getting old games. When I say cheap, I mean as low as $12.95 for 3 games (or movies) out at a time.
Okay, so now we get to the good. The reason I’ve sold out. GameFly. Yup, the most well known video game rental service out there is possibly the best. Who knew? The day I signed up, they sent me, not only two games from my “Que”, but the games had just been released, namely Super Mario Galaxy and Mass Effect. Same day. After checking out the other services, their price doesn’t seem as unreasonable either. They offer a free 10 day trial. After the first month for 2 out at a time you’ll be paying around $22.95 per month.
That’s all. I spent about two months or so with each service. The final verdict is GameFly. If you really don’t care what games you get and you don’t want to spend much, try Gameznflix, it’s really cheap.
Boom!