Direct2Drive trialling online game rental service

Download service Direct2Drive has introduced a rental system, allowing users to pay a fixed fee for temporary access to selected PC games.

$5 'rents' five hours of playtime. The system is broadly similar to that of OnLive, but in Direct2Drive's case necessitates downloading the entire game before play, rather than streaming it. However, visual quality is likely to be higher than OnLive's compressed video delivery system.

If a game is purchased for permanent access, the $5 rental fee is deducted from the payment.

So far, only four games are offered - Silent Hill: Homecoming, Grid, FEAR and Divinity 2.