Redoctane ceased offering game rentals in 2007, though confusingly, its site is still up--we leave this review up for posterity.
RedOctane was the first online video games rental service (opening August 1999) and remains a simple, no frills site which nonetheless delivers on its promise. If you're on a dial-up connection in particular, this simplicity will probably be much appreciated.
RedOctane, based in California, boasts a somewhat modest 2,500+ titles, listed in an impressive 10 genres for easy browsing. They're also good at importing games, so you get more than just the US offerings as with most of the other rental companies, quite a plus.
We like their game title info screen, with a game box picture, paragraph description, and fields for publisher, players, release date, online, ESRB rating, genres, as well as their rating and average customer ratings and controller used--the only company we've seen to list that field. They also list Availability, In Stock, Out of Stock, Pre-Order, and estimated availability for out of stock products, usually measured in weeks.
There are several minor functions we like about RedOctane, like emailing both shipping and return receipt confirmations. Another quirk, they have a rather unique extra of renting Anime DVDs.
Unfortunately, they don't have a customer service phone line, which would have been a major plus, but it probably lets them keep costs down for the consumer. One unpleasant quirk not found at many companies you should keep in mind is that you must cancel subscriptions by the 27th of the month, and you then have a generous 10 days to return any outstanding games.
Prices: Redoctane does not offer a free trial. Prices for unlimited rentals are $18.95 for 2 games out at a time, and $23.95 for 3 games out at a time.
Video Game Rental Basics