Tesco's game rental option is really run in large part by Lovefilm; but if you like their system, we suggest you cut out the middleman and sign up with Lovefilm directly (especially as they cost the same at the one-disc level). The Tesco site lacks the rich additional feature and extra content on Lovefilm (no downloads, no telephone customer service number, etc.). Just compare screenshots to the right to get a sense for the difference--they haven't changed that Indiana Jones pic for over a year now...
Tesco does benefit from Lovefilm's major expansion into game rental in 2007 and 2008, featuring 6,500 unique titles across seven gaming platforms. And if you want the odd DVD with your game rentals, then their unmatched catalogue of 56,000+ films (not quite the 65,000 of Lovefilm itself, adult films among others aren't carried by Tesco) makes them a good games-movie combo choice. However, you won't have access to Lovefilm's movie download service--the way fo the future--that only comes direct to Lovefilm subscribers.
Tesco's site also hasn't been doing game rentals for too long, which is why we only added them in mid-2008 when we noticed that. The site is certainly easy to navigate. Games are easy to browse by console and then by genre within each console as well
There were some customer service issues following the October 2006 merger of Tesco with rival Screenselect, but these have diminished over time. We generally find we hear more customer complaints of the Lovefilm "powered by" companies than for Lovefilm itself (perhaps as there is no customer service line to call and people get more frustrated).
From our own experience, we suggest if it is games you are after more than DVDs, allocate a disproportionate amount of your wishlist as games, and keep your wishlist short. This effectively encourages them to send games out rather than DVDs.
Prices: Tesco offer good value for DVD only plans, but their DVD and game rental packages cost two pounds more then DVDs alone. For one game/DVD out per month at a time it cost £9.97 per month ( a mere two pence cheaper than the much richer Lovefilm site). 2 games/DVDs at-a-time are £13.97, and 3 at-a-time is £17.97. Tesco's standard free trial is 14 days--they used to offer 30 days, then 21, but the recession has probably bitten and caused them reduce the time.
Rental Basics