Online Video Game Rental - Gametap

Gametap

The Rundown

Gametap is an online video game service that gives you access to an expanding library of games for a monthly fee of $14.99. It gives you access to a collection of PC and DOS games, as well as several older console games. Gametap currently offers hundreds of titles, with new titles being added every week.

The majority of the games are classics from yesteryear (I.E. DOS, Commodore 64, Atari, Genesis), with some newer PC games thrown in for good measure. Oh, and they offer a few Dreamcast titles, which I like to think is to pay tribute to a system that died well before its time.

They also offer extra features such as walkthroughs, cheats, development interviews, and more. Lots of the sort of stuff you would expect from a gaming publication or G4 TV.

How it Works

The Gametap interface is very sleek and fancy, but it doesn’t sacrifice effectiveness in the process. It’s extremely easy to find what you’re looking for. You can view the games either by console or genre, as well as a little selection named “Gametap picks.” Once you find a game that you like, you can save it in your favorites so that its even easier to get back to. Downloading games can take any length of time, depending on the size of the game, but once it’s been downloaded, it’ll start up in a flash. The games you download go into a folder you specify and can only be run through the Gametap client. While downloading games, Gametap will keep you entertained by playing little videos for you. These range from interviews, to fan-made video game movies, to exclusive shows. If you don’t find any of the above to be worth your time, you can also minimize Gamtap and let it download games in the background. Gametap does this very well, and will play a little confirmation sound when the game is done downloading.

Wrap-Up

I honestly couldn’t be happier with how Gametap turned out. They offer a good, varied selection of games -- more than enough to keep any person happy -- and they add more titles faster than you can play through them all. And for a measly $15 a month, you couldn’t ask for a better deal. Gametap is constantly improving their service. A little while back, it was hard to tell when new games were added, but they didn’t hesitate in adding an email notification feature, as well as marking the games in the interface with a “New Game” banner. On-line multiplayer isn’t functional, but given how new Gametap is and how much effort they put into pleasing their customer base, I would bet a shiny nickel that it becomes a feature somewhere down the road. All in all, I give Gametap a solid recommendation.

Play Video Games Online with Gametap

• Go ahead, give Gametap a try.