I’m not a big fan of my local Blockbuster. They have a pretty ass-backward system of displaying their games. The actual game boxes sit out on the shelf, but give you no indication whatsoever as to how many copies are in stock. You must go up to the person behind the counter and find out if a particular game is in stock.

The average Blockbuster seems to keep 1-2 copies of any given game, unless it was really hyped up (like Enter the Matrix, then they’ll have 5 copies). So, there is very little chance of the game you want to be in stock.

Nonetheless, I got suckered into their Games Freedom Pass program. $20 a month for unlimited rentals? How could you go wrong? I have already saved myself a good amount of money by getting this pass. It is really too bad that my local Blockbuster has such a terrible method for picking games out.

So far, I have rented:

1. Midnight Club II [Xbox]: I thought this game was terrible. Perhaps Burnout 2 spoiled me, but I think that a game that has you racing against computer-controlled opponents as well as avoid computer-controlled traffic, then the traffic shouldn’t gun for YOU and ONLY YOU. Why are these guys blocking me while letting the others pass? Burnout 2 did a much better job with this. I wanted to like this game, since it is a Live-enabled racing game.
2. Mega Man Network Transmission [GCN]: I gave tthis game 30 minutes and thoroughly hated it. It made me sick to my stomach, seeing what Mega Man has been de-evolved to.
3. Mace Griffin Bounty Hunter [Xbox]: This is the game I have in my possession now. It wants to be Halo, but at the same time it tries hard to make sure you know it isn’t. For example, there is no way to set your controls so that you can imitate Halo or Brute Force (both games have nearly identical controls). At the same time, the first mission places you on board a ship that has been invaded by alien forces and you must get off alive (first mission of Halo anyone?). I’m not going to pass judgement on this one too quickly - I’ve played it longer than the other two games.

So, I have rented $18 worth of games so far, and the month just started! Not too shabby.

By the way, more images are in the gallery.