GameFly Review

I thought I would give one of these online rental places a try.  GameFly is the most established so I'm giving them a try first.  The basic deal is you pony up $20 a month and you get two games to use, you can trade these in via postage paid envelopes as many times as you like.  You are paying a set fee each month and can rotate out the games you play as often as you like.  They even offer to let you purchase the one you have if you want to keep it and then start renting another one, sounds pretty good we shall see.

11/19/03 So I signed up at about 9AM on a Wednesday, selected the two games I wanted to rent at the local video store (but of course the video store was out) "Grand Theft Auto Vice City" and "Need for Speed: Underground".  Since these are both very recent games I was kind of thinking that it would be some time before they were able to ship them but I got one email at 3PM saying that GTA Vice City had shipped and another after 7PM saying that NFS: Underground had shipped.  Now I wait patiently...

11/22/03 Not bad both disc's arrived two full days after I had ordered and since they were shipped postal service they were delivered with the normal mail.  Services like UPS and FedEx don't come around on Saturday.

Each envelope serves as its own return envelope, and there is a little cardboard protector to add some stiffness to the package.  Pretty ingenious.  The games are in prime condition but don't look new, couple little scratches nothing to worry about.

GameFly's online account system is easy to use but does not load pages as quickly as I would like to see.  They have a good selection...  well that's a bit of an understatement I think they might have every game made!  Lets see how they do when I return a game, I'm sure when you are a new customer you get bumped to the top of the list for sending out titles but what will happen when I trade in to get my next game "Rainbow Six 3"?  The system says Availability=Short Wait...  wonder if their definition of short wait and mine are the same?

Now the final test...  Are their claims of a 10 day free trial up to the mark?  Can the Llamma rent 4 titles within the 10 day period and still get a 100% refund...  Stay tuned more to come.  

3/25/04  Well I never canceled the service so I don't know about the refund, but who cares, I like the service and have just kept cycling through new games.  They run a tight ship, stuff gets back to me in about 4-5 days from the time I put it in my mailbox.  Not too shabby.

10/11/04 Still using the service and like it...  Short wait doesn't seem to be too long 24-48hrs, but if you have another selection in your queue they will go to the next in the list, so it may be a good idea to clear the list so only the game you really want is available as an option for them to ship to you.

11/8/04 In a side note I was disappointed to see my normal mail carrier deliver the games rather than the hot sweaty babe pictured in their advertising... bait and switch I say! :-)

These services are available at the external site www.gamefly.com

-Llamma