Geek Challenge: 30 Games in 30 Days

While waiting for my girlfriend outside a Pharmaprix in Montreal, I noticed a large banner advertising Game Access. They are an online company that ships rental games to your house, just like NetFlix  and their movie rentals. Unlike NetFlix though, they ship to Canada since they're located in Canada. I was largely intrigued because I have always been curious about this new form of online rental. Its a great idea where you can keep a rental game until you finish it. Its a lot better than the old way of going to your rental store down the street and trying to beat the game with the 2-3 rental period.

The basic membership is 17.95$ a month (9.99$ for the first month) which is reasonable since you will be keeping most games for at least a week. That means you can play and beat nearly 4 games a month for less than 20$. Considering games can cost over 60$ each, the savings are considerable. Oh, and it has free shipping. I hate paying shipping fees in Canada and avoid it whenever possible.

Its been a few months since I first saw that banner when I got an idea. Can I rent 30 games within 30 days? So I contacted Game Access and they liked my idea. They are giving me a 24.95$/month account which lets me rent 2 games out at a time. I also get  Fast Returns which allows me to return and receive games faster. They will ship a game when I put it the one I currently have into the mail box. They have an online button that lets me do this and it costs 3.99$/month extra. They deserve a special thanks forgiving me a free account. Also, they gave me coupon codes for readers; use "JAIMEYU15" to get 15 days FREE of rentals.

On to the rules since a challenge isn't fun without some rules.

1. I will try each game for about an hour (depending on workload).
2. I will return each game the same day I receive it. Update: Just realized post office doesn't do pick up weekends. If the game is good, I will drop it off on Sundays. Hehe, I do want to enjoy some games ;)
3. I will rent popular games. I won't fill my queue with filler games such as "Barbie's _INSERT CUTE ANIMAL_ Farm".
4. I must attempt to play 30 different rental games within 30 days. Starting today, November 10th, 2009 and ending December 10th, 2009.
   

Getting 30 games in 30 days will be difficult since they may be stuck in transit. I signed up last night and 2 games have already been shipped. The question is, when will they arrive? They are about 30 minutes by car from my house (<5 minutes back when I used to live downtown) so I'm counting on Canada Post to get my games to me as soon as possible.

So stay tune to see what games I get. Email game suggestions to jaime@jaimeyu.com.