If you're looking to get your casual fix day-to-day, there are only so many places you can look. For something a lot meatier than free flash games, it can be difficult to find a single site where games from a number of different companies are showcased for a reasonable price. Big Fish Games is a subscription download service that offers an impressive catalogue of casual games for a price that won't break your wallet - but how good is the service, really?

On paper, it's pretty simple. If you subscribe to Big Fish Games by creating an account for their Game Club and paying a monthly fee of $6.99, you get a few things. First, one game credit in the amount of $6.99, which is enough to pay for pretty much every game on the site. Most games carry the $6.99 price point or less with the only more expensive games being collector editions that contain a bevy of extra content. Big Fish is able to maintain a catalog of titles from a number of different top-tier casual developers including PopCap (Bejeweled) and PlayFirst (Diner Dash), pricing their games at the cost of $6.99. The way the Game Club works is that each month, your account is charged $6.99 and a game credit is added to your account. While you can purchase additional credits, purchasing at least one a month is a requirement.

The downside to the service is that you can't buy the games unless you join the Game Club. In order to purchase any games on the site, you have to sign up for the Big Fish Game Club and purchase credits to buy games. There is no way to simply take out a credit card and pay for a single game without signing up for an account and an account can't be made without subscribing to the service - a definite downside. While the subscription can be cancelled, it is a bit of a hassle to do so, much like any subscription service. However, the upside is that when you join the club, you get access to a bevy of benefits, including the ability to purchase Tomorrow's Game Today, a punch card detailing how many games you've bought (when you get to 10, you get a free game) and just recently, Big Fish added a program that allows club members to test a game weeks and/or months before its release. Subscribers also get access to The Daily Deal, a single game available for one day at the price of $2.99 instead of the normal $6.99.

However, these benefits mean nothing if the games aren't of a high caliber. As mentioned previously, Big Fish has a number of titles by some of the best casual developers around. While their catalogue does include top tier hits like Diner Dash, Bejeweled and Peggle, there are also a bunch of hidden gems like Fairway Solitaire (a personal favorite of mine), a mahjong type game played with cards with the spin of golf; Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove, a hidden objects game that allows players to solve a mystery by finding clues; and Be Rich, a SimCity type game that lets you build houses and communities in order to make the most amount of money. Big Fish offers games for both Mac and PC, and while their PC catalogue is definitely bigger than their Mac offerings, their Mac selection is much better than many other sites in terms of both quality and quantity, making Big Fish stand out from the crowd.

As one of the better known game services around, Big Fish also has a number of exclusive games. PlayFirst, the creators of Diner Dash, only offered the Diner Dash 5 collector edition through Big Fish Games when it first premiered a few months ago. The most recent exclusive, Awakening: The Dreamless Castle, is a hidden object game with an emphasis on puzzle solving to escape from the mysterious castle. With a credit forcing you to buy games each month as a result of the subscription, it makes for an excellent way to introduce players to new games they might otherwise have no interest in trying. Adding to this is the ability to try any game in the Big Fish catalogue for a full hour before deciding to buy it. What is most lacking here is the user ability to provide reviews on the actual page of the game.

The interface of the website is also well designed, making it easy for users to navigate to different parts of the site. When you click on the game of your choice to bring up its profile page, Big Fish displays the top games in that genre to the right. This is an excellent design choice because it gives users a better idea of what's popular in the genres they enjoy. In addition, there is a Top 100 games tab, which gives users a better idea of what's rising and falling in terms of popularity within the Big Fish catalogue. There is also a free section of the site that offers a sackful of flash games for your enjoyment as well as forums to build a community within Big Fish users.

Probably one of my favorite parts of the service, though it is a bit odd, is that when you've been an active member (no cancellation of subscription) for one continuous year, Big Fish sends you a plush toy of their mascot. While it may not be a casual game, it certainly would look good next to my plush zombie.

PROS:
• Great selection of games for both PC and Mac
• Reasonable prices for what you're getting
• Subscription and one-hour-trials force you to try new games that you might not try otherwise.
• Lots of great exclusive titles and benefits to being a member

CONS:
• Subscription to game club required to buy games
• Most games seem heavily weighted to Hidden Object and Match-3
• No user reviews found on game profile pages