Giving Gamefly another shot

Honestly I’m not a fan of Gamefly. It feels too expensive and in the past the service has been really slow for me. But I had a ‘secret code’ to get two months for the price of one (click the joystick at the top right corner and enter code “Confirmed” to get the deal – that code comes from the Weekend Confirmed podcast) so I figured I’d give it another shot, given the thoughts fluttering around in my head.

After watching E3 I got a hankering to go back and play some games that have sequels coming out this year. I loved Resistance: Fall of Man back when the PS3 launched, but I never played Resistance 2 (and never heard much good about it) but with Resistance 3 coming soon, I had the urge to get a copy of R2, put it on Easy Difficulty and blow through it in order to catch up with the story.

Ditto Gears of War 3. I played about half of Gears 1 but Epic’s Cliff Bleszinski was lamenting the fact that no one ever talks about the Gears storyline, which he thinks is quite good. I was willing to give it another go, but no longer own Gears 1 and never tried Gears 2.

And etc, etc. But the point was, I was in the mood to get copies of these games and blast through them on easy mode and as quickly as possible. That sounded like a good match for Gamefly.

We’ll see. I signed up yesterday and today they’re sending out my first game, Crysis 2 (PS3) which was somewhere around #5 on my queue. I do want to play Crysis 2 so I’m not complaining but it was odd that a relatively new game that far down my queue is what’s getting sent, when old and unloved Resistance 2 is sitting in position 1. I guess it’s a matter of inventory, though.

I’m expecting to be disappointed with the service, but we’ll see. If the game arrives before the weekend I’ll be pleasantly surprised, and honestly I’m already feeling a bit of buyer’s remorse from having signed up.

11 thoughts on “Giving Gamefly another shot

  1. This is my 2nd time to try GameFly. This time, I have decided to limit the number of games in my queue to around ten (not counting reservations for unreleased games). In other words, I’m sticking to my A- and B-list interests, rather than giving GF the option of sending me games I’m only mildly interested in.

    GameFly is completely unlike Netflix in that I don’t believe GF has ever sent me a game at the top of my list. Poor availability is my main complaint. One’s odds of receiving a recent release or popular game seem very low.

    Let me know when / if they send you one of the Gears games, and I’ll add the same to my list. I wouldn’t mind playing some Gears co-op again, but I traded my copies in long ago.

  2. I’ve tried it twice and each time gave it an honest go for at least three months, and also each time I’ve regretted it by the end. I have a blockbuster nearby that I can do their game pass for about the same amount (maybe a little more) and at least when the game I want to play isn’t available I van grab something else that interests me in the interim. And I’m never without a game, unlike the 1.5-2 weeks I’d go in-between games with GF. It’s a great idea with terrible implementation, IMO.

  3. Scopique, they also seemed to indicated they’ve added a distribution center in the NE, so we’ll see…

    Aaron, yeah, I have 12 games in my queue, but some are dupes (I put both PS3 and Xbox versions in there, then if they ship one I’ll delete the other) because I remember from previous use it was like they’d go through your queue and find the worst games in it and send you those!

    Gears 1 is listed as ‘low availability’ so we’ll see if it ever even ships.

  4. Richard (sorry, we cross-posted) – I almost considered going for the 2-games plan to combat that dead time, but it starts to feel like ‘real money’ at that point.

    Yeah, I’m already kind of regretting it. But I tried Blockbuster’s by-mail service and they had so few games. And Redbox is going to charge $2/day which seemed OK to me until @Scopique and I discussed it a bit and I realized that could hit $8 for a weekend rental (picked up Friday and not returned until Monday after work, for instance). That seems steep, too.

  5. I hear ya. Yeah, I’ve never tried BB by-mail service. Luckily I have a brick and mortar store right where the bus drops me off everyday, so it’s real easy for me. I realize that a dwindling amount I’d the population has for real BB’s nearby, and that my store may disappear overnight, but for now it’s my best option. If that goes away, I’ll be an exclusive used/sale priced gamer lol

  6. I’m a sale guy now, and probably this Gamefly experiment won’t change that. In fact I just looked and Resistance 2 is $15 from Amazon, new. I should’ve just bought it!

    As I retreat more and more to single player gaming I realize I don’t need games on Day 1 if I’m going to be playing them alone. The only thing to worry about is spoilers when a game is story-heavy. Otherwise, games tend to get better in the months following release as patches and possibly additional content roll out.

  7. See, I’m right there with you on that. There’s very few games I want on day one (Dungeon Siege 3 being my recent exception). I’ve found that I can get a better value by waiting for sale prices and/or GOTY or gild versions that include DLC and other goodies for a reduced price. And I don’t really care much about spoilers, they’ve never really ruined the experience for me.

  8. Richard, I hadn’t even thought of Blockbuster. It’s been so long since I’ve been to one (since I stream Netflix) that I had no idea they have a game plan. There’s a brick-and-mortar right around the corner, so I’ll have to check it out. Thanks.

    If Redbox charges $2 per day, it would be excellent as a payed demo service. Two dollars would be well worth a chance to try certain games before deciding to buy them. I just worry that, if that becomes popular, it could discourage game developers from producing free demos.

  9. Yeah, Scopique had the same thought about Redbox (paid demo) and I have to agree. Rent a game on Friday evening, play it and then take it back on Saturday and go buy a copy if you liked it.

  10. I used to use GF as a way to play old games that just didn’t quite make it to my to-buy list or that I didn’t get a chance to play when they came out…but over time it’s met the same fate as my Netflix DVD subscription, as in the disc just ends up sitting on the coffee table untouched for months, while I focus on a constant stream of new games that I actually deem good enough TO buy. I should just accept that my to-play list is never going to get small enough to fit in GF again.

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