GameFly Review

Author
GT
Date
9/25/2009
In Short
We give online game rental a try...

You don't need me to tell you that games are expensive. Spending as much as $70 on a game isn't easy, and it just plain hurts when the game isn't very good (I'm sure that you've seen those GameFly commercials on TV). Game rentals have always been an option, but unless you have a rental place very close to home that always has the latest releases in stock, then renting may not be an option for you. However, there is another option that works quite well: GameFly.

If you're familiar with Netflix, then you'll already have a pretty good idea of how GameFly works. You visit the GameFly website and select the games that you'd like to rent and place them into your rental queue. Depending on your subscription level, GameFly will then take the top one, two, or three games from your queue and mail them to your home. You can keep the games as long as you'd like, and when you are done with a game you put it into the included postage-paid mailer and drop it into the mail. When GameFly receives the game, it takes the next game at the front of your queue and sends it out to you. The games are sent without their cases or instruction manuals, but you can find the manuals online on the GameFly site.

GameFly has numerous mailing centers around the country to receive and process games, but your turnaround time will vary depending on where you live. From Los Angeles, the turnaround time between the time the game was mailed and the time the next game arrived is two days - drop the game in the mail and you can expect the next one to come two days later. With a three game at a time subscription this turnaround time is plenty fast enough to ensure that you almost always have one game on hand to play.

GameFly has games for each home console and portable system, and even carries UMD movies for the PSP. The website is nicely organized, and you can search for games, see which are the most popular, and even put upcoming releases on your queue so that they'll be ready to rent as soon as the games become available.  There will be times when the most popular new releases are not available and you'll get the next game down on your queue, but you GameFly keeps enough games on-hand to avoid weeks-long waits to get the newset games.  There are some other nice features to the site. For example, the site keeps track of the systems that you own and will warn you when you try and rent a game for a system that you might not have at home. Parents will also appreciate the parental controls feature of the site that lets them block games for rental by the game ratings. All that you need to do as a parent is to specify the allowed ratings and then you can let your kids manage their own queue.

If you find that you really enjoy a game that you have rented, then you have another option to just holding on to the game for a long time and using up one of your available rental game slots. Most games include a keep-it price that is significantly cheaper than buying the game new at retail. Just go to the website and specify that you want to keep the game that you currently have rented. GameFly will charge the card that you keep on your account and then send you the next game on your rental queue. A day or two later you will receive the game's case and manual in the mail. If you've purchased used games before then you've probably had to accept a little wear and tear on the games manual and case. However this is not the case with GameFly. Since GameFly does not send the manuals with the rental games, when you receive the manual and case for the game you are keeping they're in brand new condition.

GameFly is a great service for anyone who wants to play more games for less money. As long as you're diligent about playing the games that you rent and then returning them for new ones, you'll save a lot of money in your gaming budget.

Final Rating:




Transmitted: 7/3/2025 5:52:19 AM