Into the Game appears to have gone out of business (at least their site was down) as of late 2007; this review is kept up for posterity's sake.
California-based Into The Game has some interesting features, but appears a bit behind the times--though they support the latest generation of consoles, the graphic on their homepage (or several or their bottom-of-page menus) doesn't even list the Xbox 360, not an encouraging sign. They actually still support the PS1, Dreamcast, Sega CD, Sega Saturn, and Sega Genesis (for anyone who still plays those dinosaurs). A downside is ease of navigation--the site looks excellent, but user friendless could be improved.
They have a link to a forum prominently displayed on the site and in their About Us literature, but the link was broken when we tried it. It's this lack of site maintenance and attention to detail which has us concerned.
We're not pleased with the fact that you cannot cancel your account if you have games out; most other companies allow you 7, or even 14 days' grace to return your rented games after you cancel--here you can't do that until every game is back and acknowledged by Into The Game; we can see the potential for problems there.
Despite the issues, they do have fairly cheap prices, and this may be a good choice for a hardcore gamer interested in value. They reportedly have some short shipping times, though this is definitely a West Coast site, with up to five days reported to reach the East Coast.
Likewise, we especially like the often-long narrative descriptions of the games, with front and back cover graphics, though hyperlinking the genre, console, publisher and developer would be a step in the right direction, as many other companies have done. The 10 genres are laid out under each console selection in the menu structure, not on the front page sidebar like most companies, but this approach is also good, as generally you'll be renting for only one console and want to see only the new games for your system. But then, the latest generation consoles don't have any genres listed yet, just a smorgasbord of 92 Xbox 360 games, 26 Wii games, and 17 PS3 games in one big list when looked in March 2006; again, one of those niggling, but minor problems which seems to plague Into The Game. In short, the site has potential, but doesn't quite live up to it yet.
Prices:Into The Game offers a 14-day free trial (except for 1 game out, which is a whopping 21 days). Prices for unlimited rentals are $13.95 per month for one game out at a time, $19.95 for 2 games out at a time, $24.95 for 3 games out at a time, and $29.95 for 4 games out.
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