Anyone rented a game at redbox?

[HaRuMaN]

Looks like redbox is now offering Wii, 360, and PS3 games for $2 a night...  anyone tried it yet?  I might pick up the new Duke Nukem to try for the weekend.

[SNAAKE]

lol thats a crappy deal

gamefly is much better tbh..its like netflix for games

[HaRuMaN]

Yeah, I don't want to spend $25 a month on something I'm not going to use that much...

[grasspuddle]

I think 2$ is actually a sane deal. I'd try a game for a day. Never rented from redbox.

[Mikezilla]

If youre going to get Duke, dont get mad because you are getting ripped off. 

[ark_ader]

How many times have you bought a game only to be disappointed.

I would prefer a $2 tryout, and then maybe crap game developers would pick their game [sorry] up.

[scofthe7seas]

If youre going to get Duke, dont get mad because you are getting ripped off. 

Hey, come on now!

Duke does have some dodgy parts (ugh, endless monster truck area..) But I think people's expectations are greater than they should be. What do people think they are going to get for a game that's been cooking for like 15 years? It's got the "duke" flavor/atmosphere, and maybe if your tastes have changed since then, than you won't like it. But, being someone who's actually been waiting for it since it was announced, I don't think it's that bad. I've played worse.

As far as redbox vs gamefly.. no shipping wait times! Plus, as has been said, if you want a game for one or two days only 2-4 bucks isn't so bad. If they have James Bond : Blood Stone there, I'd grab it. It's super short and pretty fun. Good deal for 2-4 bucks.

[SavannahLion]

I've never used redbox. How does the kiosk ensure the correct movie/game is returned and not some blank DVD? Does it use RFID tags?

I thought about using it but I'm not interested in getting the shaft because some ---fudgesicle--- before me stole the diac....

[versapak]

I've never used redbox. How does the kiosk ensure the correct movie/game is returned and not some blank DVD? Does it use RFID tags?

I thought about using it but I'm not interested in getting the shaft because some ---fudgesicle--- before me stole the diac....

The discs have a sticker with a dot code around the clear part in the middle if the disc.

[Samstag]

lol thats a crappy deal

gamefly is much better tbh..its like netflix for games

It's like netflix except for the week-long turnaround for a game at the bottom of your queue.  And the high price.  But other than those issues it's identical.

[SNAAKE]

actually I never used gamefly. I just assumed it would be like netflix. at least cheaper than $25/month

[shmokes]

$25 sounds like a pretty damned good price to me if you're a fairly heavy gamer.  I mean . . . I assume that you can manage to average at least three or four games per month and have them out long enough to complete them.  Not many games take longer than a week of semi-regular play to get through the whole thing.  Three games normally would cost you $150-$180 and then you might be able to trade them in for like $60 total if you're lucky.  So buying/selling would cost you like $90 (probably more like $150-$180 since most people never sell their old games; they just collect dust once completed until like 8 years later when you're like, "what am I doing with all this," and you give it all away to your little cousins or something).  

Hell . . . even if you only average one game out per month, let's say you got Red Dead Redemption when it was released and kept it an entire month.  That game cost you $25 through Gamefly.  If you'd purchased it at retail for $60, though, and then sold it to Gamestop a month later for $20, Gamefly would have saved you $15 for exactly the same thing.

It seems to me that it's hard to imagine a scenario where Gamefly is a poor value proposition unless you just get a game and then totally forget about it for like two months or more.  All this is with the caveat, though, that I've never used the service.  My little brother used to use it, though, and I seem to remember him thinking it was great.

[Donkbaca]

I used to do gamefly, it was cheaper, i think it was like 20 bucks a month for 2 games.  Figured if I kept a game for three months, I would basically be breaking even, its great if you play games a lot, really great for sports games, because after about 3 months you won't want to play madden anymore and the resale on those is crappy.

I gave it up though after they raised the price, and the price of games falls pretty quickly.  If a game comes out, I mostly just wait 6 months to see what the buzz is on them, then I can usually find them for around 20 bucks.

[Samstag]

$25 sounds like a pretty damned good price to me if you're a fairly heavy gamer.  I mean . . . I assume that you can manage to average at least three or four games per month and have them out long enough to complete them.

I can get 3 games per month if I send them back the day after I get them.  On a 31 day month with no postal holidays and a lot of luck I might get 4.  It was a lot worse when I was more than 1 mailing day away from the shipping center.  They just take forever to turn games around, even when they list 3-4 of my games as available.

[scofthe7seas]

even when they list 3-4 of my games as available.

This is an important detail, also. Their stock is not amazing. I mean, I know Netflix has wait times on the most popular movies, but the wait time on the gamefly games are often in the realm of "You're just never going to get this game."

As for the average game taking a week, I mean.. maybe, if you don't work, cook, clean up, etc. Plus, factor in the turn around time as mentioned.. I mean, it's a decent enough service, I used it for quite a while, for PS3 games that I didn't want to buy full retail. Another bonus to Gamefly is that you have the option to keep a game you've rented, often at a decent price. Plus there are coupons and bonuses if you have kept your membership. If you just want to check games out, then Redbox is probably a good idea. Gamefly will save you some money for longer games, but just don't set your expectations very high for turnaround and availability.

[shmokes]

I see.  Still, even at one game per month (so long as you can get a hold of a game while it would still cost full-price at retail) Gamefly seems like a pretty decent value.

[scofthe7seas]

Haha, well, I suppose it's not like you can't do both Get gamefly, and use redbox if you just want to check something out!

[Mikezilla]

I see.  Still, even at one game per month (so long as you can get a hold of a game while it would still cost full-price at retail) Gamefly seems like a pretty decent value.

I was thinking of doing gamefly after the disappointment that was Duke Nukem, and a plethora of other games. Nothing pisses me off more than paying 65 bucks to buy a game, and having it suck completely. As Shmokes pointed out, the gamefly model that he listed is a pretty good deal IMO. I still rent games at Blockbuster, but they are 11 bucks for a week, so I guess if I REALLY like it, I can beat it, but only if I have nothing going on that week, which is pretty rare. I was thinking of trying it out though.

[Samstag]

I recommend just not buying any game at full price.  Every game is discounted at least 20% at some point shortly after release, and games that don't sell well can usually be had for 60% off or more a couple of months later.  That's plenty of time to find out through the grapevine whether it's a bargain gem or still not worth a buy.

[pointdablame]

I recommend just not buying any game at full price.  Every game is discounted at least 20% at some point shortly after release, and games that don't sell well can usually be had for 60% off or more a couple of months later.  That's plenty of time to find out through the grapevine whether it's a bargain gem or still not worth a buy.

This is what I do.  For all but those few games that I just know I must have on day one, I wait it out.  For me, top tier (to me) games that I don't need instantly are purchases at $35-40, and any others (the vast majority) I wait until they are $20 or less.  It means I have to wait, but that's fine.  It also means I have time to hear opinions on it.  Plus, with the backlog of games I already have (and have bought cheap) I have no shortage of things to play.

I never beat games quickly enough to have trade-ins work for me, and I don't play regularly enough to have GameFly work for me necessarily, so this is how I've done it for quite a while now.  It means I can amass a collection for relatively cheap, and play the games whenever I have time.  GameFly might work out to be cheaper overall, but only if you can play regularly.  For me, sometimes I can play through 3 games a month, and other times it'll be 2-3 months to finish a game.

Just my 0.02

EDIT:  To comment on the original RedBox post though, I really like the idea.  There are a decent number of games that I'd love to try over a weekend for $6 and be done with it.  DNF springs to mind, but there are others.  In those cases, it'd take ages to wait until that game drops to $6, so I'd definitely use RedBox.  I haven't used them yet, but definitely would.

[shmokes]

That's what I do.  I (unfortunately) spend so little time playing videogames that there are just too many games I'm dying to play for price to be an issue.  There's always at least one of my absolute must-haves in the $20-$30 brand-new category.  By the time I finally get through that one, at least another one is down in that price-range.  I just can't keep up with games enough to buy full-priced games.

[scofthe7seas]

Dude, I'm playing Splinter Cell 4 now, because it finally worked its way up my list of "must play" games.

[Dartful Dodger]

I rarely play games anymore and I only buy about 1 or 2 a year. I have to be really bored or the game needs to be really good, before I buy one.
The last two games I bought were, Modnation (02/2011) for under $30 and Battlefield 2 (03/2010) when it was released.
The demo for UFC Undisputed is a lot of fun, but I won't buy it because I'm worried that the full game is going to be painfully frustrating.

Renting it for a day or two sounds perfect.

[scofthe7seas]

The demo for UFC Undisputed is a lot of fun, but I won't buy it because I'm worried that the full game is going to be painfully frustrating.

Renting it for a day or two sounds perfect.

In 2010 certain modes are frustrating, and actually totally cheap. The campaign is alright, but ultimately repetitive and unrewarding. Plus, after you've played it a while, good luck finding any local friends to play that you don't immediately destroy.

[Dartful Dodger]

In 2010 certain modes are frustrating, and actually totally cheap. The campaign is alright, but ultimately repetitive and unrewarding. Plus, after you've played it a while, good luck finding any local friends to play that you don't immediately destroy.

That's what I was afraid of. The demo is a lot of fun. The few times I played it we were throwing punches and kicks, and when we saw an opening we'd mash buttons, trying to perform a grappling move.

There seemed to be a huge learning curve and it seemed like if two people don't have exactly the same amount of skill with the game, there wouldn't be any fun in playing it.

[kaspar]

Renting in Redbox is more for trying out the game, and if the game is good; buy it.