XBox 360 Rally

Video game rentals, we all have to do it. With titles that come out like Shadowrun, that may seem “kinda cool” in some ways, but you know in your heart you can’t justify plunking down $60 for a game you just aren’t sure about, we as gamers have to rely on game rental services. I started writing this a little over a month ago, noticing that Blockbuster had 6 copies of Transformers (all on the shelf), while their one copy of Overlord they ordered for the store had not even arrived yet. Quickly, I went home with a copy of F.E.A.R. and the desire to find something better. Let it be known, I have been using the Blockbuster GamePass service through my little brother for well over a year now, the most obvious problem with them however, is they are Blockbuster, or as I know them, ‘the devil.’ I have been using Netflix for many many moons now and with that I have a certain bitterness with Blockbuster as far as late fees plus crappy selection of movies, but hey, this is about the games.

Off to the Internets, I knew that Gamefly was the big contender here, but I wanted to find something else, I had already heard the stories of Gamefly discs being stolen by mailmen as well as their horrid turnaround shipping times. I remember the company Gameznflix.com, they have to be good, they were smart enough to jump into the extremely small market of online video game rentals early on, and at the same time compete with Netflix to be the Blockbuster of online (I am ignoring that ‘the devil’ has an online service of their own, damn my bias). So off to check online reviews of GameznFlix… oh man, not good. Coming from the CAG forums, in a sea of many quotes I could pull from, here is my favorite, “I’m done with Gameznflix. I had 20 games in my queue, half new, half old, and they failed to ship me a single game after 14 days.” Even the guys at XBL Radio have dropped support of the company. Want more current GameznFlix issues, look no further than NeoGAF.

Off to the Internets again. Gottaplay.com, seems to be right under GameznFlix in terms of exposure, however I could not find many reviews, just their name. So in the interest of good journalism (not my desire to get Overlord of course), I went ahead and signed up to at the least, check out their availability.

July 2nd, 11:56pm, signed up, put in “The Darkness” and “Overlord” .. both came up with GameStatus not available. Account Canceled right away, damn I am impatient.

July 2nd (technically the 3rd) 12:08am, signed up on Gamefly. What is this, a deal, only $15.65 a month for the first 3 months and a free subscription to “Official Xbox Magazine,” im sold, thoughts of evil mailmen and bad shipping times are tossed aside. I throw in my queue The Darkness and Overlord.

July 5th hits, Overlord is still in “Low Availability” and The Darkness has now moved into “Very Low” status. Out of the other games in my queue, Condemned for whatever reason has moved down to “Medium.” Later in the night when adding more games to my queue, I note Overlord is now “Very Low” … but.. The Darkness has been shipped!

July 8th, I receive two games. I want to make note I am enjoying the Spider-Man 3 game waaaay more than I though I would, still, I decided to send it back as a test to see how long it takes before I get another game (c’mon, I wasn’t going to give up The Darkness, which I still currently have).

July 12th, though Spider-Man 3 is listed as a game I still have out, my next game in queue (well not truly next game… but one that was available on the list) is now being sent, thanks to that “Fast Return” service which I was kind of questionable on. I have to note something about GameFly that I do find nice, is a feature in the Xbox 360 section, a list of original Xbox games that are playable on the 360, already all separated for you. Its a simple thing, but nice for those non-internet geeks that may not know the full list of games off hand (nor want to know that).

July 16th, they finally received the Spider-Man 3 game I turned in last week. So a full week turn around time, not that great, I want to give GameFly the benefit of the doubt and say that this isn’t like a movie off Netflix, where you watch it once, maybe twice, and then return. Where as you tend to have a game title for at least a week, so while playing one, you maybe don’t worry about that week turn around time. However, not giving them the benefit of the doubt, a week is a long ass time, thank Jeebus for this “Fast Return” service, the east coast shipping facility seems to be broken, as I haven’t received any games from them yet (August 13th), so far all from the California shipping facility.

(Skip ahead a few weeks, as I have been playing The Darkness and a copy of Overlord that my brother was able to nab eventually from Blockbuster)

August 3rd, mailed out Big Brain Academy Wii. I didn’t even play it, I realized if it has been sitting on my desk for that long, maybe it was time to just go ahead and forget about it so I can already get the next game in my queue.

August 9th, they FINALLY received it. No “Fast Return” service was used on this title, I wonder what why. Next game shipped out, but it was one way down on my queue, bah, I really want to play Condemned. That’s it, this comparison is over!

Blockbuster has owned GameFly in my quest for Overlord, but overall it is still kind of hard to say either service has truly outdone the other. I am not canceling my GameFly account yet, but this is only because I am up odd hours where I am basically either working or sleeping during most of Blockbuster’s open hours (I am nearly graveyard shift), however, I definitely know this is not the case of John Q Public. Blockbuster ties you down to one store if you use GamePass, that sucks as you are limited to that store’s selection, on top of, if you just want to rent games with them, enjoy spending almost ten bucks plus whatever late fees occur after the week you get to have with your rental. GameFly, I am trying to have faith in them, I will be sticking with them for a little while more, I remember reading an article that had found through some Internet Matlockery, they are going to open up a facility in Texas (link). I pray that this will help not only with their turnaround time, but their availability as well.

So it comes down to, if you want speed and don’t mind paying more for it, Blockbuster, if you want selection at a cheaper cost, give GameFly a try (and do it through this link, referral credit ftw). I really believe the service only has one way to go, up, unless Netflix smartens up and starts a video game division, then it’s all over for these other online rental services.