Being a chronic gamer means one of two things - either I'm dishing out huge amounts of money to buy games only to find out that they suck, or I'm constantly disappointed because a game I want to rent is never available.

If that also sounds like you, there is an alternative: RedOctane. This is an online service that gives you the means to rent PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube and other system games for the same price as you would pay at a chain rental store.

For example, say you want to rent Jedi Starfighter for the PS2 so you can try it out for a week before determining whether or not it's worth the full purchase. Go to www.redoctane.com, set up an account, pick your games, give them a credit card number and the games appear in your mailbox within a week.

You can set up your account one of two ways - for a monthly fee of $18.95, you can rent an unlimited number of games per month. Or you can rent games individually for a price between $4.99 and $6.99 for a week. Recent releases are usually priced at $6.99, but that's the same as you pay for a five-day rental at a major chain.

Games arrive in a self-contained mailer, with the manual (!), that converts into a postage-paid return mailer. No stamps, no hassle, just gaming goodness.

I'm harping on this point because I've already used their service and am very satisfied. I want them to stay in business, mostly for my own selfish reasons, and hope to get as many people to use them as possible so this service doesn't tank.