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"[GAMES] - Lovefilm Game/DVD Rental Service"

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Sun 15/03/09 at 23:45
Regular
"Braaains"
Posts: 439
These days it's a no-brainer to buy games outright. Granted, there are some games that have lasting playability, such as Saints Row 2 or Grand Theft Auto 4, but that's not usually the case. More often than not, you buy a game, play it once or maybe twice, and then you're done with it. So what do you do then? You could swap it at Game or Gamestation, but then you're lucky if you get half the game's value back in credit.

No, a far better option is just to rent games, and this is where the internet can help. Instead of wandering down to Blockbuster to rent a game, you pay a monthly subscription, usually fifteen pounds a month or so, and add titles that you want to play to your list on the company's website. The company then sends you the games out , and you post them back when you're done. You can rent one or two at a time depending on the price plan you choose, and the money you save on buying games makes it well worth it. Plus, you can always go out and buy the games if you decide to keep them.

Having used several games rental companies, I decided to give Lovefilm a go. Why? Because Lovefilm also let you rent DVDs as well as games, and as a big film fan, this seemed like a good idea. And I can honestly say that Lovefilm is the least worst rental service I've used to date! 'Least worst?' you may be wondering? Yes, it's an odd turn of phrase, but I didn't want to use the word 'best' because that implies a fantastic quality of service. Something that Lovefilm doesn't quite provide.

There are two problems with Lovefilm. The first is that they artificially restrict how many DVDs or games you can have a week. Should you undertake Lovefilm's free trial option, you'll find that a new DVD or game gets sent out to you as soon as they receive your old one back in the post. However, when you switch to the full rental plan, they can wait up to two days before sending you a DVD out. The small print does cover this, but its clear they do have stock in, and are just doing this to stop people from renting what they deem to be too many films or games per week.

Secondly, the way they allocate titles is slightly odd. You're not guaranteed to get the titles at the top of your priority list as soon as they're out, which is understandable given how heavily in demand they are. What is less understandable is why DVD rentals seem to be given priority over game rentals - to the point where if you have the same number of game rentals and DVD rentals in your queue, you'll nearly always get the DVD rentals sent out first. Regardless of whether you've marked then as high, low or medium priority. You can sort of get round this by having more games in your queue than DVDs - but it seems odd to say the least.

All in all, Lovefilm is an okay service, especially if you want to rent DVDs and games at the same time. And it will save you money. But it's not an amazing service - and as soon as another service crops up that offers DVD and game rental, I'll be given them a go and switching if they offer a superior service.
There have been no replies to this thread yet.
Sun 15/03/09 at 23:45
Regular
"Braaains"
Posts: 439
These days it's a no-brainer to buy games outright. Granted, there are some games that have lasting playability, such as Saints Row 2 or Grand Theft Auto 4, but that's not usually the case. More often than not, you buy a game, play it once or maybe twice, and then you're done with it. So what do you do then? You could swap it at Game or Gamestation, but then you're lucky if you get half the game's value back in credit.

No, a far better option is just to rent games, and this is where the internet can help. Instead of wandering down to Blockbuster to rent a game, you pay a monthly subscription, usually fifteen pounds a month or so, and add titles that you want to play to your list on the company's website. The company then sends you the games out , and you post them back when you're done. You can rent one or two at a time depending on the price plan you choose, and the money you save on buying games makes it well worth it. Plus, you can always go out and buy the games if you decide to keep them.

Having used several games rental companies, I decided to give Lovefilm a go. Why? Because Lovefilm also let you rent DVDs as well as games, and as a big film fan, this seemed like a good idea. And I can honestly say that Lovefilm is the least worst rental service I've used to date! 'Least worst?' you may be wondering? Yes, it's an odd turn of phrase, but I didn't want to use the word 'best' because that implies a fantastic quality of service. Something that Lovefilm doesn't quite provide.

There are two problems with Lovefilm. The first is that they artificially restrict how many DVDs or games you can have a week. Should you undertake Lovefilm's free trial option, you'll find that a new DVD or game gets sent out to you as soon as they receive your old one back in the post. However, when you switch to the full rental plan, they can wait up to two days before sending you a DVD out. The small print does cover this, but its clear they do have stock in, and are just doing this to stop people from renting what they deem to be too many films or games per week.

Secondly, the way they allocate titles is slightly odd. You're not guaranteed to get the titles at the top of your priority list as soon as they're out, which is understandable given how heavily in demand they are. What is less understandable is why DVD rentals seem to be given priority over game rentals - to the point where if you have the same number of game rentals and DVD rentals in your queue, you'll nearly always get the DVD rentals sent out first. Regardless of whether you've marked then as high, low or medium priority. You can sort of get round this by having more games in your queue than DVDs - but it seems odd to say the least.

All in all, Lovefilm is an okay service, especially if you want to rent DVDs and games at the same time. And it will save you money. But it's not an amazing service - and as soon as another service crops up that offers DVD and game rental, I'll be given them a go and switching if they offer a superior service.

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