THE GOOD: Ultimately, you get to play a ton of games that you may not otherwise play. Since having the Atari 2600 as a kid, I have bought games that ended up being horrible and have missed games that were awesome because I wasn’t sure. With Gamefly, you can try out all the games you are interested. If they are good, keep it as long as you are playing it. For me, some games no matter how good they are I may only play through once or twice. I currently have Bioshock 2 at home. It’s great and I am glad I could rent it. It’s a good game, but I don’t think I will play through it more than once. It’s very similar to the first. But I have it as long as I am playing and then it goes back. One the other hand, bad games like Stoked went back in the mail the next day. Or Dragon Age: Origins. I know people like that game, but I couldn’t get into it. It’s just didn’t hold me, so it also went in the mail.
To play a lot of games and different types of games, this is awesome and well worth the money. You will spend less then you would to buy the games and you can play many more than you would otherwise.
THE BAD: Now, I understand that games cost more than DVD’s, however, Gamefly is more expensive than I think it should be. 1 game plan is $16, where as with Netflix the 1 movie plan is $9.
The service for Gamefly is slow. With Netflix if you put a movie in the mail on Monday, you will receive the next in your queue by Wednesday. With Gamefly, it takes longer and sometimes much longer. For me, the turn around time has been at least a week. It will post in the account that a new one has been sent, but it is generally about 3 more days before it arrive at home.
You don’t always receive what’s next in your queue. You will receive something from your queue, you just don’t know what it is until it arrives. This is probably attributed to high price of games. The high price means that have a lower stock of all games, so you are sent whatever is next that they have in stock.
Finally, I am not able to sell games back to them. This has something to do with Florida. In other states you can sell games back to Gamefly much like you would with Gamestop. For some unknown reason, people in Florida are not allowed to do this. While this could be a good thing, for me it isn’t.
IS IT FOR YOU: If you tend to buy at least four games a year, then I think Gamefly is right for you and would recommend it, especially if you like a variety of games. There’s a 1 game, 2 games, 3 games, and 4 game plan. I can’t suggest anything more than the 2 game plan, though. The others just don’t make since. For me, I tend to play a game solely until it is complete. Any more than two games would just be overkill. With the slow turn around times and unpredictability in what you will receive, it just wouldn’t make since to have more than two at a time.
If you like to play a variety of games and will purchase 4 or more games in a year, this is definitely for you. If you only like one style of games, FPS’s for example, or solely play Modern Warfare, then don’t bother. It would be a waste of time and a waste of your money.
