And I must say I'm pretty pleased with it. For those who don't know Onlive is a gaming service like Steam only cloud based. It's not perfect, but the positives far outweigh the negatives, at lest in my opinion. So, let's get the bad out of the way first.
In order to use the service you'll need a broadband connection of at least 3 Mbps. If your connection is anything less, you can't use the service. Also if you're on a WiFi network with a lot of people on it at the same time, you'll probably run into some problems, such as delayed controller inputs and poor video quality. I, myself am on a shared network and on occasion have been kicked off the service. Some people have also complained that the video quality is like watching Youtube videos. Lastly, there are a very limited amount of titles to choose from; currently there are forty six available, more if you subscribe to their Playback service. One more thing that might bug some people is that that due to the fact that it is a streaming service, any games you purchase won't be downloaded onto you're hard drive. Some or most people take that as not really owning what you pay for, which is true to an extent. This may not be a complete list of problems everyone may occur when using the service so, don't take it as gospel. Now, let's talk about the good.
Those who use Steam for the convenience of games on demand might enjoy onlive, the big difference, as I said earlier, is the you don't download the software onto your hard drive. People who don't have a high end gaming computer can still play games in high quality regardless of the power of your PC. I should know, my PC is a piece of shit that can barley run PowerPoint without crashing and yet running onlive works great. Let me put it this way, I tried to run Batman: Arkham Asylum on Steam and it crashed fifteen minutes into play even with all the graphic options on low, then I tried it on onlive and it ran flawlessly with all the graphic options on high. That's what I call a 100% positive result.
It also saved me a lot of money. If I had actually wanted to get Arkham Asylum to work on my PC I would have had to have spent two hundred dollars on hardware ontop of the price for the game itself which would have come to about two hundred sixty bucks. I spent thirty on onlive. The service itself is free and while you still must pay for games individually(unless you subscribe to their playback service), you can demo most games for free or rent them for a reduced price. That alone has save me from making some bad spending decisions on games that were utter failures.
Their are a few other gimmicks as well. People who like to take screen shot now haw "Brag clips" which record 10 seconds of gameplay and saves it to you profile. You may ask, "Why not just use Fraps?". First, that's an excellent point. Second, if you want, you still can as far as I know. Speaking of which, if you're the kind of guy who likes watching Let's plays, you now have the "Arena"! A swath of live gaming sessions streamed right to your PC. It's just like watching a real Let's play without the annoying commentary and poor attempts at humor. But, if you want the annoying commentary and poor attempts at humor, now you can have that too, live and uncut with streaming spectator voice chat! Yes now you too can give you're two cents about another players performance via microphone. You won't believe the crazy stuff that comes out of peoples mouths! ;D Of course, this is all optional but it's there if you want it. As stated before, the game list is short but new games are being added and the genres are nicely varied.
Man, I wasn't expecting this post to be so long. Recommending onlive is a bit tricky, mostly because it's a matter of personal taste. For me, I haven't had enough problems with the service for it to be a deal breaker and since I can't afford a high end gaming platform I see no reason to stop using the service. Anyone who has used the service, please post your thoughts.
In order to use the service you'll need a broadband connection of at least 3 Mbps. If your connection is anything less, you can't use the service. Also if you're on a WiFi network with a lot of people on it at the same time, you'll probably run into some problems, such as delayed controller inputs and poor video quality. I, myself am on a shared network and on occasion have been kicked off the service. Some people have also complained that the video quality is like watching Youtube videos. Lastly, there are a very limited amount of titles to choose from; currently there are forty six available, more if you subscribe to their Playback service. One more thing that might bug some people is that that due to the fact that it is a streaming service, any games you purchase won't be downloaded onto you're hard drive. Some or most people take that as not really owning what you pay for, which is true to an extent. This may not be a complete list of problems everyone may occur when using the service so, don't take it as gospel. Now, let's talk about the good.
Those who use Steam for the convenience of games on demand might enjoy onlive, the big difference, as I said earlier, is the you don't download the software onto your hard drive. People who don't have a high end gaming computer can still play games in high quality regardless of the power of your PC. I should know, my PC is a piece of shit that can barley run PowerPoint without crashing and yet running onlive works great. Let me put it this way, I tried to run Batman: Arkham Asylum on Steam and it crashed fifteen minutes into play even with all the graphic options on low, then I tried it on onlive and it ran flawlessly with all the graphic options on high. That's what I call a 100% positive result.
It also saved me a lot of money. If I had actually wanted to get Arkham Asylum to work on my PC I would have had to have spent two hundred dollars on hardware ontop of the price for the game itself which would have come to about two hundred sixty bucks. I spent thirty on onlive. The service itself is free and while you still must pay for games individually(unless you subscribe to their playback service), you can demo most games for free or rent them for a reduced price. That alone has save me from making some bad spending decisions on games that were utter failures.
Their are a few other gimmicks as well. People who like to take screen shot now haw "Brag clips" which record 10 seconds of gameplay and saves it to you profile. You may ask, "Why not just use Fraps?". First, that's an excellent point. Second, if you want, you still can as far as I know. Speaking of which, if you're the kind of guy who likes watching Let's plays, you now have the "Arena"! A swath of live gaming sessions streamed right to your PC. It's just like watching a real Let's play without the annoying commentary and poor attempts at humor. But, if you want the annoying commentary and poor attempts at humor, now you can have that too, live and uncut with streaming spectator voice chat! Yes now you too can give you're two cents about another players performance via microphone. You won't believe the crazy stuff that comes out of peoples mouths! ;D Of course, this is all optional but it's there if you want it. As stated before, the game list is short but new games are being added and the genres are nicely varied.
Man, I wasn't expecting this post to be so long. Recommending onlive is a bit tricky, mostly because it's a matter of personal taste. For me, I haven't had enough problems with the service for it to be a deal breaker and since I can't afford a high end gaming platform I see no reason to stop using the service. Anyone who has used the service, please post your thoughts.