OnLive Review

By Dan Whitehead Published 28 September, 2011

Merrily down the stream?

Version tested: OnLive

Game streaming service OnLive launched in the UK at the Eurogamer Expo last week. We've been running two tests of it since. This review, conducted by Dan at home, approaches it from the perspective of the man in the street. On Saturday, we'll present a full technical performance analysis by Digital Foundry's Rich Leadbetter.

Live gameplay, streamed directly to your home. Instant access to the latest games, with no downloads or installation. You press a button, and a computer hundreds (even thousands) of miles away responds instantly. It sounds like science fiction, but OnLive is now up and running in the UK, so we can finally put the claims to the test in a real-life domestic setting. Are we witnessing the majestic birth of a new era in cloud-based gaming, or a clumsy newborn that needs time to find its feet?

The answer, perhaps unsurprisingly, is a bit of both.

First, let's take a moment to pick apart exactly what OnLive actually offers. It's accessible via your PC or Mac at the OnLive website, downloading an app that then connects you to the OnLive servers. Sign-up is free, and you can then make purchases as and when you want, try 30-minute demos, rent games for three or five days, or sign up for a monthly PlayPass for £6.99 which grants you unlimited access to a selection of around 100 titles.

But OnLive is also a console, or at least a "micro console". This standalone kit costs £69.99, plugs directly into your broadband and HDTV and comes with its own wireless controller. You then access the same account and content, but from the comfort of your sofa.

The micro console

It's the micro console that most clearly reveals OnLive's ambitions. This is a service with at least one eye firmly on the living room. It's also here that the technology grinds most obviously against the limits of the real world and the expectations of mainstream consumers.

The micro console itself is a discreet little thing. Packaged in a sleek black box with tasteful orange highlights, it looks for all the world like you've picked up a really expensive pair of trainers. Inside is the console itself, a small, slim oblong about the same size as a 3DS. It's glossy, weighty and the prospect of using something so minimalist to pipe gameplay straight into your telly is tantalising.

1

The spectator arena, where you can watch other players live, is the sort of great idea that sets OnLive apart from Xbox Live and PSN.

You also get a wireless controller, unashamedly based on the 360 game pad design, right down to the "home" button in the middle with "back" and "start" to either side (although the positions of the left stick and superior d-pad are reversed). It's substantial, if slightly awkward in the hand: in design, feel and function it brings to mind any number of third-party Xbox peripherals, although the build quality is better than most. It does have rumble, a nice touch that could easily have been omitted.

Also in the box is the expected bundle of wires, including an HDMI cable for your TV. It's here that impulse purchasers will get their first shock. Since it demands so much bandwidth, the micro console has no wi-fi as standard. You can hook it up to an external wireless bridge but the recommendation is to use a direct ethernet connection to your router. There's a cable in the box, but at just five feet in length it's going to be of no use to anyone who doesn't already have their router within spitting distance of the TV. You'll either need to rearrange your home network or fork out for a longer cable.

It's the sort of essential info that isn't to be found on the swanky black box, and is the first of several awkward short-cuts that will make the OnLive experience a tough sell for the mass market.

Setting it up

Customer service is another. Upon plugging the micro console in and firing it up for the first time, I couldn't get it to connect to OnLive's server. The support section of the OnLive UK website simply forwards you on to the US site, which has some not entirely helpful FAQs and links out to networking guides on other sites. It's a bit like taking your iPhone to the Apple Store and being told that there's a bloke on the market who can sort it out for you.

I couldn't use the live text chat helpline, because it's American and they were all asleep. So I submit a question using the standard form and wait for a reply. There are also no forums on the official site, so I Google around until I find onlivefans.com, where it seems other people are having similar difficulties. No single answer presents itself and port forwarding doesn't help, so I'm reduced to the most rudimentary technical fixes I can think of.

The micro console's "no frills" approach really hurts it here, as there's no way to manually enter network settings. Eventually, after power cycling the thing for a few hours, it connects and I'm off and running. What was the problem? I guess I'll never know, but if I were a normal dad trying to get the thing working on Christmas morning, I'd probably be even more frustrated than I already was.

The next morning I finally get a response from the tech support team in the US. The paraphrased version: "Just keep trying and it'll connect eventually."

2

Individual game pages are well designed, with trailers, live feeds, DLC and even the metacritic rating all on display.

There are other curious quirks brought about by the limited functionality of the micro console, so let's get those out of the way now. A lot of functions are delegated to the website rather than the console dashboard, for example. Setting up a new user, making any changes to your gamer profile and authorising access to Facebook are all beyond the scope of the limited dashboard.

There's also no power switch or reset button... [Correction: OnLive has been in touch to inform us that there is indeed a power button on the console - quite well disguised as one of the lights on the front of the unit. Our mistake! We've removed our criticisms here.]

That's a lot of niggling irritations for a new hardware launch to shoulder, especially as the console itself is so stark and unhelpful when it comes to finding solutions. Thankfully, once it's up and running, there are more positive things to focus on.

The front end

Those positive things include the Arena, which lets you drop in and spectate on what others are playing as they play. Voice chat is supported (in a beta form, at least) and it's a great way to get a feel for a game. As well as navigating the feeds from a vast video wall, you can also find specific Arena links on the marketplace page for each game.

Similar in execution are the Brag Clips, which can be activated by hitting the "record" button on the base of the controller. This then automatically saves the last ten seconds of gameplay as a video clip, and will even post it direct to Facebook. These aren't terribly well explained from within the dashboard, but it's easy to see how having such a function applied across every game you play could lead to something worthwhile further down the line.

3

OnLive's dashboard is a model of calm and simplicity compared to certain consoles...

The marketplace itself is well laid out and refreshingly free of advertising. Just search for what you want or browse by genre and decide how to pay. Bang in your password to authorise the sale and you're away. You can go from making the purchase to playing the game in thirty seconds. It's incredibly impressive.

Choosing a game isn't quite as intuitive as you'd hope, since there's seemingly little consistency as to which games are available under which pricing schemes. Batman: Arkham Asylum, for instance, is available as a full purchase, a three-day or five-day rental, as part of the £6.99 monthly PlayPass and also has a free trial. However you want to play it, you're well catered for. THQ's Homefront, on the other hand, is just available for £29.99 with no other options - not even a free trial.

Some games won't even work on the micro console, as sold. Since OnLive is streaming PC games, some require keyboard and mouse and simply won't run with the micro console controller. It's an inherent limitation of the technology chosen, but it does make the offering a confused one.

[Editor's note: OnLive has pointed out that it's possible to plug a keyboard and mouse into the console via USB to play these games. This is true, but it's an additional purchase that may leave micro console owners wondering why they're not just playing on PC. Even stranger is that some of the games marked keyboard-only already have controller-compatible versions on the Xbox or PS3. We feel our point about the confusing proposition stands, but it is fair to clarify that the micro console is capable of running every OnLive game with the right peripherals.]

Playing OnLive

What can't be avoided is the question of performance, and it's here that OnLive manages to play both sides of the pitch. When it works, it's genuinely amazing. Live streaming gameplay, conjured instantly into your home by some wondrous magic. The visual quality is never going to please HD purists, but it's functional enough that you quickly stop pondering the technology and just get into the games - just as it should be.

But that's when it works, which isn't all the time. The minimum downstream required is apparently 3 Mbps, with 5 Mbps the recommended limit. I have BT Broadband, OnLive's official UK partner, and my download speed is 7.9 Mbps (the UK average is 6.8 Mbps, according to Which?). Even exceeding the requirements, my experience was variable to say the least. Catch OnLive at a good time and everything is smooth as butter, albeit with some grubby textures and a tinge of Autotune to some of the audio. Controller latency is slightly noticeable, but nothing you can't get used to. Not perfect, then - but perfectly adequate.

But then it can completely fall to pieces. Frame rates plummet, input lag skyrockets and the game comes crashing to a halt. Sometimes the cause is clear. At one point, I sent an email and was able to see the slowdown in FEAR 3 as the message chugged through the clogged data pipes. But then, moments later, I was able to play Lego Batman for an hour while my PC happily ran the BBC iPlayer, with no obvious detriment to either experience.

Indie platformer Trine ran beautifully, but Dirt 3 became a glitchy disaster within a few minutes. Deus Ex: Human Revolution was mostly fine, but Homefront was virtually uncontrollable. Try them again a few hours later, or the next day, and you'd get a completely different experience. And since everything you see on-screen is being streamed, even the dashboard can fall prey to network issues, with text prompts that might as well be hieroglyphics.

4

The marketplace is easy to navigate at the moment, but that could change as the amount of games increases.

It's this inconsistency that can make OnLive so maddening. Is it a problem with the service itself? Noise on the line? A hiccup in BT's network? There's no way of knowing, but it kills the gameplay experience stone dead. If the connection is deemed too bad then OnLive simply quits, kicking you back to a menu screen while a five-minute countdown runs to see if you'll be able to carry on where you left off, or if you'll have to restart.

A quick straw poll of fellow users revealed some with lower download speeds and better experiences. Others had robust 100 Mbps connections and were plagued with problems. Given such a range of experiences, it's hard to unequivocally recommend OnLive, purely because it's either revelation or purgatory depending on factors that are beyond your control. Fortunately, you can at least test it out on any home computer for free.

If the network issues can be smoothed out, or if the UK magically receives a glittering fibre-optic data network overnight, then OnLive could genuinely revolutionise the way we buy and play games. Certainly, for PC owners who have opted out of the hardware arms race, it's a great way to try new games without spending a fortune on new kit.

But as a challenge to the status quo, and as a standalone console offering? It's got a long way to go before it becomes a mass market proposition.

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About Dan Whitehead

Dan has been writing for Eurogamer since 2006 and specialises in RPGs, shooters and games for children. His bestest game ever is Julian Gollop's Chaos.

Read more articles from Dan by visiting the Dan Whitehead archive page.

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Comments (129) Latest comment 8 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • CaptainQuint #1 8 months ago

    How long did that ace tagline delay the publication of this review? Fifteen, twenty minutes?

    Really EG, you're always bloody late with your reviews!

    Holy shit I just popped back in to find my post was taken completely seriously! Oops.

    Edited by CaptainQuint at 28/09/11 @ 16:55

  • StolenGlory #2 8 months ago

    Yeah, I don't see OnLive attending next year's EG Expo somehow.

  • Oli Verified Reviews Editor, Eurogamer.net #3 8 months ago

    @CaptainQuint

    There was no option to use OnLive in the UK before the service launched last Thursday, and we felt with a unique offering like this is was best to live with it for a few days rather than rush a review up. Besides, it wasn't working for much of the first day.

  • HyperTails #4 8 months ago

    Onlive is crap. When it first launched I checked it out before lunchtime, and it was brilliant. Played lag free, logged in straight away and had a good time. Tried later on and kept getting 'Onlive is currently full, please try again later'. And its not the only time I ever got that message.

    THEN when I did manage to get on, I got network issues, black screens with sound, and unberable lag. And its not my connection being crap (though its not the greatest connection in the world), because I can DL off PSN quickly, I can stream videos and such fine. I can, basically, do everything that makes me satisfied EXCEPT play Onlive.

    If the future of gaming is not being allowed to play because its 'full', and network issues, then that's a future I will NOT be part of.

    Edit: Yeah, negged down because i've had a crap experience with Onlive. So you think the 'future' of gaming is acceptable to not allow you to get in to play a game because its 'full', do you?
    Edited by HyperTails at 28/09/11 @ 15:36

  • makeamazing #5 8 months ago


    Vamos, having tried Online on my Mac on a 20MB unlimitted account, i can tell you, Dan is spot on with his review. The performance is varied, and to be honest, the problem is that the internet can give different speed issues due to throttling, which is pretty much out of Onlives ability to manage.

    As many people have said before, its a great concept, but with the internet in the UK being pretty awful, its going to be another 5-10 years until this is better... but unfortunately the amount of data we will be downloading will also increase, its a problem that will not go away easily. Because in 5-10 years, many TV channels will probably be broadcasting live over the internet...some already are, but companies all companies will want to do this. Just think of millions of homes using the internet to watch tv....

    So bandwidth is going to be a problem for a long time to come i'm afraid. Especially at the rate of fibre implementation.
    Edited by makeamazing at 28/09/11 @ 15:33

  • TheRealBadabing #6 8 months ago

    Unfortunately any review of a service like this will inevitably become a critique of the UK broadband infrastructure. Not sure why anyone would want to start a business entirely dependant on the whims of BT Wholesale.

  • Stu #7 8 months ago

    I think we're seeing a technology that's arrived too soon.

    One day all games will work this way, but not yet.

  • henro_ben #8 8 months ago

    Hmmm.... to be honest 'adequate' isn't really the experience I'd want after spending £70 on a console. Sounds frustrating, especially as you have no idea of what might be causing the problems.

    Played it at the expo and was surprised at how little noticeable controller lag it had, although the graphics themselves did show noticeable artifacting. Felt like everything had been smeared with vasaline.

    Impressive tech demo, but not a product I'd actually be willing to spend real money on. At least not yet...

  • HL706 #9 8 months ago

    In 10 years time this kind of technology will be awesome!

    As it is, it's a nice proof of concept that offers a glimpse of things to come. Sadly for the OnLive guys, somebody else will proably come along and do it better and grab the market share.

  • Retro_ #10 8 months ago

    So, as most of us already know, it's a good idea that is five to ten years too early.

  • InsoFox #11 8 months ago

    Yes, this seems remarkably similar to my experiences: infuriatingly variable, but like magic when it works. I put an account of my experiences in the first 24 hours here: http://nukezilla.com/2011/09/27/onlive-u...

    But as I say in the article, OnLive have at least shown the tech to be work*able* even if it doesn't quite yet, uh, work. Cloud Gaming could have a healthy future alongside all the other ways we play, and I look forward to a time when I can use it with confidence - I think it's when, now, rather than if. I just hope that OnLive haven't killed themselves by jumping in too early, because as a first attempt it's pretty smartly done and it'd be a shame to see them fail.

  • makeamazing #12 8 months ago

    @therealbadabing... exactly, BT are a joke. They use two companies to implement (one to install the other to sell) and neither of them know what the other is doing.

    I was looking at moving from SKY back to BT to have inifinity, but as usual BT are being a bunch of unprofessional muppets.. who have no idea about the service they are implementing. I partly blame previous governments who made BT incapable of doing anything.. and are always about 5 - 10 years behind...lol..

    Onlive cant be successful in its own right, it has to rely on others to implement the backbone technology.. not something that is a sensible business model to be honest.. and i suspect it will fail because of that.

  • DDevil #13 8 months ago

    My experience with the microconsole echoes Dan's exactly it would seem. Sometimes it feels like the future of gaming, sometimes it's complete unusable balls.

    Still, I got it free thanks to the Expo, and thanks to Onlive for the free beer too... So there's that.

  • fnagwaa #14 8 months ago

    I had a similar problem trying to turn the console on with the controller but my friend then told me that the light on the front is also a power on button!

  • azic #15 8 months ago

    Playing this reminds me of "Mega CD" You really feel like your disconnected from the Hardware, and like your just playing an FMV game.

  • wizlon #16 8 months ago

    If they can iron the bugs out then this could be amazing, I'll give it a few months before I give it a try again, here's hoping.

  • Whizzo #17 8 months ago

    I'm almost certainly going to end up using my freebie Onlive micro console to demo play games and then buy them on a platform I know isn't going to stop working if my internet connection has a slight cold.

  • SuperFLI #18 8 months ago

    its still sounds like an interesting dream setup. streaming gaming direct with little of the hassles that you would normally face with console gaming (i don't really know what those are reall, but some people believes this will get around them).
    but its new tech, and its under developed and still not fully past the tweaking phase. it won't run smoothly, it won't be problem free, and it won't satisfy everyone coming to it this early.
    whether or not it will get better and gain more support and is a question of time and tolerance. for those that like it, hopefully that means people won't dump it before improvements to the network and streaming are done to present a better experienc. but for myself, i prefer the idea that the games i purchase are playable by me without being forced to connect to the interent. i have been in situations where internet connection is not an option, and i shudder to imagine how i would play the games i had bought and paid for without internet.

  • MiniAmin #19 8 months ago

    I do love the spectator arena. I have often thought that a similar feature would be a brilliant addition to XBL or PSN. It'd be cool to watch friends play games which you're thinking of buying. Do it Microsoft! Do it Sony! Do it Ninten- oh who am I kidding?

    Still, i'd LOVE to see this feature on XBL and PSN.

  • mr_pink #20 8 months ago

    Great, never own your games again. (The "full purchase" is fine until on-live goes under - and no, Steam isn't quite the same). Never sell them on. Never lend them to friends. Pay premium prices for a technically inferior experience.

    This might be ok for the kind of games you only rent, but even then you're scuppered if you have connectivity problems. It has the same problems as Ubisoft's always-online DRM.

  • cianchristopher #21 8 months ago

    Of course it's gonna be crap right now, but if they stick it out... in 8-10 years it may well be awesome.

    Not this decade, though. Sorry Steve Perlman.

  • repeater #22 8 months ago

    Read like a 7/10.

  • BSMR #23 8 months ago

    No power button = no sale.

  • f01re #24 8 months ago

    In ten years time (when consoles are a thing if the past), this is one of those reviews we'll re-read for it's retro value :)

  • HyperTails #25 8 months ago

    @mr_pink

    I agree with you on the fact you buying the games and then being able to play them is at the mercy of your connection/OnLive up and running. I'm not too hot on the idea of cloud gaming being the future, but i'm always willing to try new things out before judging them, which is why I gave OnLive a try. Unfortunately, a limit to the amount of players being able to play, and network issues made my experience rather bad.

    Though, in all honesty, i'd rather have a DL only future than a cloud only one.

  • megalomaniac_uk #26 8 months ago

    Technically I find this very impressive, to think it's not long ago everyone said it wasn't possible. However, the idea of gaming as a service horrifies me, I want to own my games not rent them and I certainly don't want to be reliant on a single company and an internet connection for access to my games library.

  • patch #27 8 months ago

    I did think there'd be a tie up announcement with Virgin Media, maybe free Onlive subscription with their 100mbps broadband or something. From what I hear, they'll need to modify their traffic shaping (read throttling) to optimise for these services anyhow.

    Could be asking too much here, but does anyone know what ISP Onlive use in the UK? Would have thought if you're dedicated enough you could switch to that supplier and maybe get better performance?

  • makeamazing #28 8 months ago

    I think they are using BT in the UK Patch, but i could be wrong. I am sure i also read that BT purchased a small stake in them at some point.

  • berelain #29 8 months ago

    I'd like to point out a couple of factual issues here.

    "Some games won't even work on the micro console. Since OnLive is streaming PC games, some require keyboard and mouse and simply won't run with the micro console controller."

    Or you can plug a keyboard and mouse into the USB ports on the console, like the website suggests, and play them after all.

    "There's also no power switch or reset button."

    Apart from the button at the front of the console between the USB ports that, in my experience at least, turns the console on and off.

    I agree with many of the comments, but I do actually quite like OnLive. The appeal of an instant-access library of games is one that shouldn't be understated - I find myself firing up OnLive for a quick blast on games like Unreal Tournament 3, which I don't keep installed on my PC but like to play every once in a while.

  • Zombie-Hamster #30 8 months ago

    Well at least being plagued with network issues wasn't just my experience then! I've only bought Deus Ex but I've tried it twice. On Sunday it was unplayable, and last night it was mostly ok but with moments where I got network errors. Luckily I was doing a stealth bit so I was able to wait it out in hiding!

    Couple of observations/questions though:

    - I think the minimum requirement is 2Mbps, not 3 (although I'm on 6Mbps and get problems)
    - can't you plug in a mouse and keyboard on the MicroConsole if you want to play a game that needs them? I thought you could but haven't tried
    - There's a small button between the USB ports on the front of the MicroConsole which seems to work for me to turn it on and off. I haven't had to resort to using the plug to reboot at all!

    Only other thing I would say is regarding WiFi - really big mistake not to include that and it almost prompted an immediate posting on eBay from me! Luckily I was able to re-arrange my home network so I wouldn't need a cable running halfway through the house but I reckon that will put off a lot of people.

    Edit: Berelain just beat me to it on a couple of points there!

    Otherwise, I also just wanted to say that overall I think this is a great idea. Hopefully the current problems are mainly just teething issues which will be ironed out in time. I plan to give it the benefit of the doubt for now as if they can get it working pretty smoothly, it's a really good value offering. And it'll be even better if they can do a WiFi compatible console!
    Edited by Zombie-Hamster at 28/09/11 @ 16:06

  • southside_wolf #31 8 months ago

    I'm not sure it would ever happen, but I'd love to see technology like this deployed on the PSN/XBL stores for example, so you could preview content immediately without the huge download time for a demo that you're not even that arsed about by the time it arrives. Like I say, whether Sony or Microsoft would embrace technology that's at almost total odds with their business models is doubtful.
    Edited by southside_wolf at 28/09/11 @ 16:15

  • jonbwfc #32 8 months ago

    " Fortunately, you can at least test it out on any home computer for free"
    what's the point? if the experience can be anywhere between perfect and unusable pretty much at random, what does any given test on any given PC actually tell you? That at that moment the experience was good/bad and pretty much nothing else related to any other time you might fire the system up. It's useless. My PS3 doesn't not perform whenever it feels like it, so how is onlive comparable?

    Actually, that gave me a notion - Onlive is the Carlos Tevez of video gaming!

    "Or you can plug a keyboard and mouse into the USB ports on the console, like the website suggests, and play them after all. "
    So not only does the console have to be near the router, you now have to sit near the console (how many keyboard or mouse USB cables are more than a couple of feet)? That's a wonderful solution that is.


    Edited by jonbwfc at 28/09/11 @ 16:18

  • tommi2000 #33 8 months ago

    On the basis of what some users have been saying above, it appears that there ís a very real consumer affairs question that Onlive need to face up to: Is it acceptable to charge £70 for a product that simply doesn't deliver the goods consistently? If I buy a product, I don't buy it in the hope that it will work 'sometimes'. Onlive should not be absolved from the responsibility of providing a reliable service on the basis that it is a new technology.

  • kingcrowbar #34 8 months ago

    How do the games that normally need a GfWL gamertag like Batman:AA or DiRT 3 work? Do you still need the gamertag or are these custom versions without GfWL?

  • smurphs #35 8 months ago

    I was amazed to find the service actually works! Then I tried dirt 3, and although the service seemed to be working perfectly i didn't feel in complete control due to slight lag. My brain was trying to compensate but failing.

    I can see that the service would be perfect for platform/strategy games though.

  • Irien #36 8 months ago

    It would have been helpful if the review mentioned how much bandwidth was being used up for a given length of play session (roughly) as many/most people have at least some limits on their maximum download per month (even if they don't realise it). As someone an inch away from their 80gb monthly limit as I type, I can't help worrying that OnLive would be hopeless.

  • FearCrads #37 8 months ago

    Ill stick with my PS3 and 360 thanks.

  • ThrowingTuba #38 8 months ago

    I've been trying Deus Ex on the Mac version of Onlive, and while it's very impressive, I can't help but feel that it's a poor mans version of what seems to be a great title.

    Perhaps it's got something to do with the fact that I haven't played a game on a desktop for about eight years, but I just can't get the hang of it.

  • DannyXanny #39 8 months ago

    Sounds like a good idea but with UK broadband in the state its in atm it doesnt sound that great. Maybe with virgin 50mb but i wouldnt like to try it on sky or bt's 20mb (1mb).

  • AaronTurner #40 8 months ago

    I'm very impressed with it. Whilst my connection wasn't up to the task in the peak hours (not Onlive's fault), when I played offpeak it was absolutely flawless and no perceptible lag.

    Whilst there are obvious hurdles to overcome the service can only improve as broadband improves in the country.

    At the moment I'll hold off buying a full priced game though. I find the wording of the small print slightly worrying in that they can introduce a subscription fee at any time and if you are unwilling to pay it then you lose access to all your games. Also they seem to only promise that you'll have access to a game that you buy for 3 years, for those of use that play older games regularly this isn't really a whole lot of time. My Steam list is populated with many older games that I still enjoy today. Of course, they may well allow access to the games beyond 3 years and may never introduce a subscription service, but it's still somewhat of a gamble.

  • super_monty #41 8 months ago

    So extreme DRM is here

  • Whitster #42 8 months ago

    I have a fair to middleing connection that fluctuates between 3-5 meg and despite it always being fine for downloads and online gaming I've had no end of trouble with onlive through my laptop. Firstly after signing up the client wouldn't sign in for 30 mins as the service was full? Following that it decides that there are intermitant drops in connection that would ruin my experience, which is strange seeing as the PS3 and 360 don't seem to notice them during onling games. Tried some demos like this and it run with more jerk than a west indian BBQ.

    Since I'm lucky enough to have my router in the living room I decided to try it wired, forgetting that I had no spare ports, meaning I had to disconnect either my TV, Sky Box, PS3 or 360 in order to use it. Still had no more luck, so have given up completely at this point. Considering they're asking £35 for newer games anyway I'd much rather by the disc based version for one of the consoles and be able to make some money back when I'm done and not tie up the household internet while I play.
    Edited by Whitster at 28/09/11 @ 16:43

  • HyperTails #43 8 months ago

    @vamos

    I'm sure they won't exist in 10 years, but its here now, with problems, and it gets judged today.

  • madeinbeats #44 8 months ago

    Maybe Virgin Media should strike up a deal with these guys, offered as another service from VM, because anyone who's on ADSL it's no way Pedro!!

  • lockload #45 8 months ago

    It too inconisitent performance wise, i would NEVER buy something on the service but i dont mind using it to try out the 30 minute demos as that saves a lot of download time

    Charging £79 for the shoddy sounding microconsole sounds a total ripoff, it could at least have a power button
    Edited by lockload at 28/09/11 @ 16:47

  • hiddenranbir #46 8 months ago

    So a failure of a product, who expected it!

  • berelain #47 8 months ago

    @jonbwfc "So not only does the console have to be near the router, you now have to sit near the console (how many keyboard or mouse USB cables are more than a couple of feet)? That's a wonderful solution that is."

    Wireless keyboards and mice are supported as well - basically if you can plug-and-play on your PC, it should work with OnLive.

  • RawNinjaKid #48 8 months ago

    Even if cloud gaming becomes the way you game; Sony, MSFT and N are NOT going to publish them on Onlive! It's going to be on their own cloud platform with their own propriety hardware. So what's the point of this?? And what's the difference between this and PC gaming?



    Edited by RawNinjaKid at 28/09/11 @ 16:56

  • Bagpuss #49 8 months ago

    Lol..the dream of a streaming games service meets the reality of a shit UK broadband network infrastructure..never saw that one coming.

  • MrVengeance #50 8 months ago

    I'd rather a boxed, physical cartridge inside in my fucking Game Boy ta.

  • Ryze #51 8 months ago

    Odd that a USB keyboard and mouse can't be used with the Microconsole. A SILLY limitation.

  • apoc_reg #52 8 months ago

    I just like owning stuff and being in charge of how it operates.... This isnt for me

  • berelain #53 8 months ago

    @Ryze - BUT IT CAN!

  • swede #54 8 months ago

    My experiences:

    My provider is PlusNet (8Mb DSL)..
    Until yesterday, the service was throttled (Bronze priority they called it). Yesterday morning it was put into their traffic management database to allow at line speed (Titanium priority I think it's called). The difference at peak time for me went from unusable to mostly playable. This was wi-fi on my laptop 80.211g... I tried wired on my desktop... still playable but flaky. This was all before 10pm last night....
    I tried the US server at the same time and..... it was perfect. Not one glitch in about 30mins gaming for me.

    My conclusion is that Onlive UK is still swamped by demand and that it will settle down in a few weeks or so... or they will get more servers/bandwidth or whatever the problem is. The queues may not be a problem after everything has settle down also.

    I couldn't really tell any difference between wifi or wired. I tried DIRT3 and found it pretty bad as others have mentioned. The lag is a problem for driving game I think.

    Overall, the service is good for what it is. The game for £1 is a good offer. The subscription is not worth it (for me) as I have most of the 'premium' games there and have no desire to play the casual ones. (Hidden object games make a fair chunk of it!).

    I will be using it to play my £1 copy of Space Marine and my £1 copy of Splinter Cell on my wife's account ;) and I will be using it to demo new releases that may appear there.

  • Ryze #55 8 months ago

    ^
    ^

    Good stuff. I thought that would be an horrendous omission.

    Now they need to investigate something called QoS, and push their servers closer to the players as they grow.

  • kangarootoo #56 8 months ago

    "When it works, it's genuinely amazing"

    Nothing I read after this point sounded amazing.

    I guess someone had to do it first, and the first outing of any new tech is always a bit ropey. I don't doubt streaming is the future of mass market gaming though (a few luddites won't halt that progress, as they never have for any new technology). I'm just not personally interested in being part of the first wave.


    I will echo some of the sentiment voiced on here regarding full price sales however. This is simply NOT the kind of platform on which you want to own anything. It makes little sense to do so. To those saying "but you never really own your games" my response would be "why would you want to own them?". Before you neg me into next week, hear me out. Think about what the experience of gaming really is at its heart. If you aren't gaming, your games are just sitting there. When you are gaming, you want variety and choice.

    Gaming is in essence a consumable pastime. A flat (reasonably priced) rate makes perfect sense for most gamers. of course the price has to be right (for the widest success in the real market, it has to be competetive compared to buying and trading pre-owned). If you work out how much money you spend per month buying and trading games, and its less than £6.99, I guess this makes sense (assuming it works, which it might appear it does not... very well). If you buy and trade frequently, the idea of ownership doesn't really feature anyway.

  • Spooke #57 8 months ago

    I've had the micro console for just under a week and I have 20mb virgin connection and in all the time I have been playing I haven't had a single slowdown or drop out. So I think if you are skimping on your broadband then you get what you deserve, buy quality bandwidth and this is a great service.

  • Alkohallick #58 8 months ago

    I honestly believe this needs to be picked up and implemented in the next Xbox/PS to really take off.

  • Quixz #59 8 months ago

    I had a go with my Virgin 50mb over Wifi and it was OK.. the picture wasn't all that great but still acceptable if you sit far from you TV/monitor.

    One thing that I like was the perfect 360 controller support including rumble and the Guide button bring up the menus.
    Edited by Quixz at 28/09/11 @ 17:25

  • captain-future #60 8 months ago

    if if if ... a lot of ifs whiel I keep playing on my console ^^

  • bobfish09 #61 8 months ago

    Quality of connection is much more important than speed of connection for online gaming.

  • Jos #62 8 months ago

    I'll throw one in for the supporters. On BT Infinity and have had a great experiance with onlive on a laptop over wireless.

    There have been a few onlive is full moments but I kind of expected that when they gave all BT's customers a free sub for three months.

    It'll settle down, and it won't need 10 years. I'm surprised so many people are getting so hot under the collar about a company that has provided a service lots of people said was physically impossible, given Eurogamer expo peeps free consoles, sorted out free trials... They seem like they are the good guys to me.

    I get the pricing issues. Not sure I'd pay full whack for a game when the T's and C's make it feel like a three year rental, but the playpack stuff works well for me. And pricing is going to evolve as they work out what makes money - plain and simple.

    And seriously Eurogamer - it's a bit poor to slag the micro console off for not supporting mice and keyboards and on/off switches when it does. I love the site but that sounds like a mistake my Dad might make, not a video games journo. Go punish yourself for a bit.

  • Incarta #63 8 months ago

    Once this service becomes reliable, I'll give it a whirl. As in, works 99% of the time, like my average connection.

  • smirny #64 8 months ago

    just downloaded the cliwnt to have a look, and was very impressed with the arena mode, even if I don;t really intend to use it for gaming. The fact I can spectate on a bunch of games i'm interested in to see what they're like is a very very interesting feature, i recommend taking a look at it for that alone.

  • digitalash #65 8 months ago

    Hey, they gave me a £1 version of AssBro. I'd be disappointed though if I spent more than that on it. And they're giving the Micro Console away with everything, so give them some credit. It looks superb, almost console quality in cutscenes but terrible as soon as you start running around or get into a fight. And the lag, while not terrible definitely makes the game hard to play. It's also rubbish when you're trying to look at something in the distance or finding a ledge etc. that the algorithm isn't prioritising and looks like it's smeared in butter. Adds a whole separate, unwanted layer to the gameplay; you actively find yourself trying not to move the camera about too much so as to preserve the image. I can see it working for RTS or PnC Adventures but definitely not in action games. AC is relatively sedate, but I simply can't imagine playing, say, Counter Strike using this. This is with an 8mps connection. Not quite there yet.

  • ozzzy189 #66 8 months ago

    Only question I have is..... WHY?

  • moggsy #67 8 months ago

    Christ people are quick to write the service off! It’s not been going a week yet and with anything network based there will be a bedding in process where thousands upon thousands of people try the service. Only when the dust has settled will the OnLive people be able to properly predict demand and adjust their hardware appropriately.

    My experience of the service so far has been very positive. My set up is:
    • Macbook Pro
    • Virgin 10Mb cable broadband
    • Wired connection to a modern router.

    I found it was essential to set up port forwarding (as instructed on the OnLive website) but after that my 9pm onwards sessions for the last few nights have been pretty much seamless. I’ve mainly been playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution and have really enjoyed the experience. I’ve now signed up for the subscription and pre-ordered Saint Row 3 to get a free console.

    It really suits how I want to play games allowing me to dip in and out of many different ones without the expense of having to buy them. I use Spotify for my music and I now use OnLive for my gaming.

  • echoblade #68 8 months ago

    It was a nice surprise to find out I could get one of these consoles at the Eurogamer Expo last week. Plugging it in the next day I found it really easy to use and got reacquainted with Borderlands (for 30 minutes anyway) but I really enjoyed it. The quality was better than I thought it was going to be and I found myself thinking about going for the subscription. For now I think I'll keep it for trialling games and see how it develops.

  • Snake_2011 #69 8 months ago

    load of rubbish 2gb a hour what a joke I can get a game for that much & have it on my HD it is a lag filled mess.

    on 50 mb virgin it still has lag time will tell imo next year it will be a very small circle using neg all you want.

    gameS industry would love it if we all fell for this we would never own anything they would make loads more money long live the DISC.
    Edited by Snake_2011 at 28/09/11 @ 22:17

  • 0dd84ll #70 8 months ago

    I signed up on Monday night, have been using it for 2 nights since in the evenings. I generally get between 4 & 6 mb so wasn't expecting much but was pleasantly surprised, Dirt 3 ran well for me on the 30 min demo which then made me decide to pay the £1 offer and get Deux Ex Augmented Addition. since then I have had great fun with the service only once did I run into some serious lag around about 8pm at night for a few seconds but it quickly settled down. As others have said HD purists won't like it but the video quality is pretty good, it does feel like magic at times!
    My set up is a 2010 iMac plugged directly into my router. For info I don't use wireless for any of my multiplayer console gaming as even my wireless N set up isn't the most consistent of connections at times.
    Is it perfect no but I can see this only get better and better

  • kangarootoo #71 8 months ago

    There are a lot of negs flying about for any post that suggest streaming of games might be a) a good thing, or b) the way things are headed.

    Without explanation, what can we conclude from this? Fingers, meet ears.

  • StooMonster #72 8 months ago

    kangarootoo: what can we conclude from this?

    That PC gamers don't like the idea perhaps?

    In my opinion the business model of OnLive could be critically flawed because of lack of understanding as to who their customer actually is.

    Who I don't think the service is for is PC gamers. Why do some gamers choose PC as their platform rather than consoles is the key question. PC gaming is certainly not the mainstream choice either, it's more complex to maintain and operate than console gaming. I think the reason some people are PC gamers is because they want a higher quality experience than console, be it higher resolutions or more FPS or more AA or more everything. OnLive doesn't provide that, it gives a lower quality of service; hence I don't think it appears to core PC gamers.

    Who their customer could be is someone using the service in a hotel, but seeing that most hotels have trouble connecting up analogue coax to their room's flatscreens let alone HDMI HD games I'm sceptical (and it's just as bad in US as here, if not worse). Perhaps their customer could be someone who has a very low spec PC/Mac and doesn't own a console and wants to play PC games, some of the posts above talk about using notebooks to game so maybe.

    But I think their only customer could be someone who wants to game with as little cost as possible, and doesn't care about the quality (720p on a PC, welcome to 1996) or lag. The problem with this is it relies on OnLive being cheap, which I don't believe that it is.

  • Quixz #73 8 months ago

    Spooke is getting negged for having a good experience with the service. Right..

  • mr2ange #74 8 months ago

    I hope this thing fails, but i expect in the future the concept will probably succeed, wether its this company or another.

    I just hate the fact that when they say that game has run its toll, its gone. Forever.

  • steveb07 #75 8 months ago

    I tried it a number of times with my 5-6mb connection but it kept saying it encountered a problem. I think it needs a faster more stable connection.

  • mingster #76 8 months ago

    I've got 50mb Virgin broadband running onlive via a wired ethernet PC. It works perfectly. No lag. looks great. I completed all the first set of tracks in Dirt 3 within the 30min time demo.
    I was so impressed i've preordered saints row 3 to get the free micro console.
    I even got 30% off for paying for a 1 month pass and got space maarine for £1.
    I think thats a pretty good deal a free console 2 full games a rental of another 100 games for a month all for £35.

  • Badassbab #77 8 months ago

    I like the idea but UK has crap average braodband speeds and unless we get to South Korean levels, I can't see it being that great.

  • AnotherIdiot #78 8 months ago

    I'm on BT not the fibreoptic infinity shit, the normal ADSL. It runs fine and well for me, no complaints.

    Btw, you don't have to sit near your router just because they supply a short cable, that's just silly, other consoles have supplied short cables, you buy longer one if you need a longer one.

  • gandhimaster #79 8 months ago

    I have personally had no lag or problems since I signed up. Got deus ex via my MacBook air, wireless connection on a 10mb virgin cable line.

    Awaiting my micro console after pre ordering saints row 3. I think, think, I would be prepared to use such a service as my only gaming experience. But that would mean all my fav games being on the service, which obviously will never happen. (FIFA, halo, gears, god of war etc etc)... I have used Spotify for couple of years (ish) and so this is something I am used to.

  • Caimbeul #80 8 months ago

    no thank you.

  • Xboxfanuk #81 8 months ago

    I am only on around 3.5mbs with Sky. Not too bad considering. On PC with an Xbox 360 controller this feels exactly like the console except the onlive UI.

    If you have an old laptop or PC/MAC and a controller, save your £70.00 for the console until the service is improved and enjoy it if you can.

    Other then lag issues (mostly due to my speeds) it is pretty cool. ATM content is really light for the price.

  • Vedfolner #82 8 months ago

    Not for me. I like to own my games.

  • zubnut #83 8 months ago

    i give it about as long as the gizmondo thing had.

    the way the uk broadband infrastructure is 'growing,' this product is at least 10 years too early.
    most core gamers (whom i think who they are targeting first) seem to demand HD gaming as a standard now, and by the time everyone has superfast broadband enough to cope with the HD streaming and negligible lag OnLive needs, super HD/4k will be everywhere, and the core gamers will want/expect more.

    and when the service dies its inevitable death, what will you be left with to play the games that you bought for it?
    most people i know are too attached to the concept of physical product to go for this - and you only have to read the comments on this site alone to know about the devil's spawn that is DLC...

  • monkfishjoe #84 8 months ago

    Well, I've just 'bought' Human Revolution for £1 and have been playing for a while and it's good. A tiny bit of lag from time to time, but, hell, it's worth it for a quid!

  • syra #85 8 months ago

    tldr?

  • azic #86 8 months ago

    Works great on Virgin 50MB,but I just feel so disconnected from the hardware. There is something about looking at My PC, seeing all the Hardware churning out sexy better than HD resolutions!I know it sounds geeky but, it's satisfying knowing you have saved up for top end PC parts, carefully put it all together a labour of love, and it's all right there on or under your desk pushing out way to much heat burning up silly wattage but giving you the ultimate Gaming experience for said game!

    You also get to control it, and use mods etc.
    No I can't watch a film, I want to play it, be in the middle of it, hear the fans winning up, check my temps, overclock etc etc
    Edited by azic at 28/09/11 @ 21:30

  • manuel_garcia #87 8 months ago

    Er... there is a power button. It's a raised switch on the front of the box, and also incorporates the power light.

  • RGDfleet #88 8 months ago

    Cant believe the console doesn't have Wi-Fi! So damn annoying!

  • johnson81 #89 8 months ago

    Reading alot of the comments, it does seem most people who have enjoyed the experience are with Virgin. I signed up for he playpack as it has worked perfectly for me, i am on 50mb broadband though. I don't think i'll ever buy a full playpass but for seven quid a month, i'm enjoying playing through some classics again and some games I never thought of playing first time round.

  • TRUTH #90 8 months ago

    Hmm! A very interesting idea only let down by the broadband!...Apparently this can surpass super high end PC's. But this all depends on the broadband infrastructure and service . I like the idea of switching between games quickly and easily, choosing a whole load of games at your finger tips - renting, previewing or playing full game. Once in can play Fight Night Champs(online), Fifa, Rage, Gears Of Wars 3, Battlefield, Cyisis 1 ..etc; and all heavy dependent games that have great sound, graphics and AI without downgrading the game in anyway, then this thing will be HOT!

    I'll hold it off for at least a couple of years to see how it progresses.
    Edited by TRUTH at 28/09/11 @ 21:57

  • Snake_2011 #91 8 months ago

    on my 50mb connection I can get a full game on my harddrive so fast whats the point in me rinsing 2gb every hour with Onlive?

  • Farzlepot #92 8 months ago

    Every now and then, I like to pull out my old Master System, Saturn, Dreamcast or whathaveyou and have a crack at some of my old favourites. I imagine I'll be doing the same thing with my PS3 and 360 in twenty years time, if I/they survive that long.

    Will I be able to do this with Onlive?

    No?

    Then I don't want it.

  • Farzlepot #93 8 months ago

    Oh, and the Onlive controller looks more like the standard PlayStation layout than the 360, only bulked up a bit.

  • funkateer #94 8 months ago

    Sure, it's an interesting development and there's a market for this, just don't expect to get the best bang for your buck.

    Even in the most ideal circumstances, you'll still stuck with a degraded image and sound due to heavy compression, no matter how powerful the PCs are at the other end of the line. And added lag.
    Of course those PCs are in the end paid for, by you, but they're not really yours. And neither are the games. And you're paying to keep those servers online 24/7 in heavily cooled data centers, eating energy like there's no tomorrow, even when they're not used. And all those things have to be maintained by people, who need to be paid. By you. Something's gotta give....

  • funkateer #95 8 months ago

    An OnLive vs Console face-off would be enlightening I'd imagine.

  • obscured021 #96 8 months ago

    i have 100mbs line with a 15-25ms ping to most local game servers and on live still lags, Fps games are not playable on it, but slower paced games work great

  • mcmothercruncher #97 8 months ago

    Virgin throttle me (broadband-ily, not literally) on a 10Mb line after a certain amount of bandwidth has been used. Usually via the compulsive masturbation.
    So, I'd get about an hour of onlive before it all went batshit. And I'd probably trip over the enormous ethernet cable running down my stairs too unless I spend another £100 on a mains electric piggyback network.

    A nice idea but probably doomed in the near future due to the limited number of clients that can meet the technical requirements.

    Whether enough money can be pumped into it to keep it afloat long enough for BT to get their foot off the UK broadband hosepipe remains to be seen.

  • Lucodeath #98 8 months ago

    Call it " I"onlive an knobs will pay quadruple the price and think its wonderfull:D

  • Diomedes #99 8 months ago

    Not interested on it, I actually want to own my games, not loan some time on them and only be able to play them while Onlive offers them....

  • talhamid #100 8 months ago

    And it proves what? Cloud=fail. Yes, you can deal with it for your email etc, but for things that you OWN, it simply does not work consistently enough.

  • super_monty #101 8 months ago

    I played this last night the 105 FREE GAMES for 3 months to BT customers with no obligation and your 1st purchase for £1 was a deal breaker.If you want this deal click on the BT ad then enter your telephone number.

    Within 3 mins these games were on the screen and up and running the picture looks SD, there was no notacable latenct playing multiplayes games on Home front, Unreal T.

    The interace is superb, the grapihics a bit fuzzt by the muliplayer games I played felt superb better than psn or live, no host advantage etc seemed present, but can I put up with the graphics.

    I also bouight STAKER for £1.

    That 100 bundle would normally cost £6.99 a month,(cancel anytime) what a bargain.

    I say try it there is no commitment and the cost of rentals are really good,

  • DisneyJon #102 8 months ago

    At £70 a console and rrp new games .....why not just buy a cheap 360 4gb? Playpack isn't strong enough compared to us version IMO .

  • technotica #103 8 months ago

    About the owning thing. I still have the discs of games from almost 20 years ago, I still play some of them too, some games are worth returning to. With onlive or future iterations, once a game isn't on their service anymore you will never be able to play it again.

  • pomegran #104 8 months ago

    I used it for the first time yesterday on PC on BT Infinity. Used an XBOX 360 controller plugged in and played it for an hour. My experience was flawless if i'm honest.

    I first played Saints Row 2. Really choppy but then again that Saint's Row! So I tried Lego Batman and that was superb. Rock solid frame rate. Just cause 2 was next and again was a really positive experience.

    I was a sceptic but I was surprised. Will I pay 6.99 a month at the end of the trial? I think I might. What really appeals to me is the possibility of running retro stuff. A previous person mentioned that he can't get his old consoles out and play them with in future but with emulation the way it is, why not? Dig out the Saturn (or SSF emulator!) and play Radiant etc. MAME etc. And as these games run at lower resolutions, should make things even better.

    So, a converted sceptic? Maybe so. I know there is a lot of negativity around on this but I was truly impressed. Well done OnLive and when things settle down on the UK side, who knows.

  • Ryze #105 8 months ago

    @funkateer

    I can't WAIT to see an Onlive vs. Console face off. Everyone'll hate it and say it's biased due to the Internet connection of the reviewer, regardless of what they say.

  • kangarootoo #106 8 months ago

    @StooMonster

    No doubt some people don't like the idea, but without explanation we can also conclude that they don't feel confident in saying why. And of course its not all PC gamers, just the vocal minority. Most PC gamers will have no strong feelings on the matter, whereas the vocal minority seem to feel threatened by it.

    And of course the first version of a streamed gaming service is not everything streamed gaming can or will be. It will get better, and more companies will eventually follow the model, and this potential for success also seems to make some people strangely unconfortable. I don't use the term luddite to be rude, it is simply a description of what I think we are seeing.

  • kangarootoo #107 8 months ago

    @gotyourmoney

    "What OnLive failed to realise..."

    But did they? Did they really fail to realise your straight forward observation of what the internet is? I know we like to spout this stuff from on high, but did they really not look at the internet properly before launching into this venture?

    Clearly there are issues associated with running over a network that is not within your control, but did they truly fail to realise this? Or did they work to accomodate it?


    This is what I meant about fingers in ears earlier. I'm not an evangenlist for this service, I have no personal intention of using it, but in our collective dislike of "not owning stuff" we are starting to... well, talk nonsense to put it in simple terms.

  • Oli Verified Reviews Editor, Eurogamer.net #108 8 months ago

    Hi guys - OnLive has been in touch with some reasonable feedback about this review. To that end I've made a correction and a clarification on page 2 relating to the power button issue, and the micro console's ability to play keyboard-and-mouse games.

  • Tonne #109 8 months ago

    if this becomes the standerd in gaming then i quit gaming all together, i dont want downloads or cloud based gaming, i want a wall full of steel cases, collecters editions, special editions etc etc. i want to hold the game in my hand before sliding it in a console or pc.

  • FlipC #110 8 months ago

    @Quixz - No Spooke is getting negged for blaming us for not buying decent broadband when the majority of the UK doesn't have that as an available option.

  • mcmothercruncher #111 8 months ago

    And I want a capital letter or ten in my sentences but we can't have it all Tonne.

  • CHAZBIGPOTATO #112 8 months ago

    Might give this a whirl, why not?

  • Bigglesworth #113 8 months ago

    I must admit, I have some qualms concerning ownership too.

    As has been brought up a few times now, when a particular game gets removed from the OnLive roster then its gone, and you don't get to play it anymore. This limits choice. Also, tough luck if you're 1hr short of completing it - I guess you can see the end on YouTube though.

    The other point is this notion of 'consumabilty' that kanga raised. I can certainly appreciate it, and it describes a lot of the games scene pretty well. But not all of it. Is a Final Fantasy title a consumable game? Is Gran Turismo or Grand Theft Auto? Ico? I don't want to consume these games piecemeal; I want to own them and experience them at my leisure.

    Seems to me that OnLive is an attempt to put the town centre video arcade in your living room. There's certainly some crossover in the types of games that best suit the two arenas.

    But what's that you say? The video game arcade in your town closed down as consoles and home PCs took over? Hmmm. Interesting, that.

  • KopparbergDave #114 8 months ago

    Just trialled it and had a go on Dirt 3 on my Mac. There was no more lag than playing on a console and while the resolution is obviously a bit blurry given it's streaming video, I'm pretty impressed by it. Give it 10 years where hopefully the infrastruture is in place and frankly I see no reason why MS or Sony won't barge past these guys, buy their idea off them and come up with a whole new console idea, one we can buy once, pretty cheaply and use for 10-15 years, never having to worry about graphics upgrades, only whether the net is working or not! Right now of course there will be problems and until everyone is online with a fast connection, be it through wires or satellites, then this won't be ideal for everyone, but when that day comes wave bye bye to what we think of now as traditional gaming. Awesome stuff.

  • KopparbergDave #115 8 months ago

    Also, imagine SOny and Microsoft's eyes widening when they realise this implementation of gaming is completely piracy proof, which I'm surprised I've not seen mentioned so far. They control it completely and as long as there's a decent subscription service that's not taking the piss everyone wins. Once the tech is full proof it will quite radically change everything we know about gaming, don't you think?!

  • Snake_2011 #116 8 months ago

    KopparbergDave without customers it can be anything proof this time next year we will all see if Onlive has stood or failed Sony MS get to watch free of charge if it works or fails not for me Onlive guess some will be fooled by it.

    that dirt 3 comment is a lie I got lag on 50mb virgin they say it is high end PC quality me thinks NO.

    I swear Onlive employes are trolling this site lol.
    Edited by Snake_2011 at 29/09/11 @ 16:34

  • Jonoridge #117 8 months ago

    Some people are moaning saying if Onlive goes under they won't have access to their games so they are essentially being robbed of money ect

    Onlive says in the terms and conditions in the extremely rare chance that Onlive ceases to be any games bought in the last 3 years will be refunded to the user...

    Happy now? I get it's not for everyone but jeez some people just moan and moan... I don't have any lag and it's not Onlive's fault that your internet sucks...

  • KopparbergDave #118 8 months ago

    @Snake_2011 I'm not an Onlive agent, haha. I only played a Gymkhana event on my Macbook Pro, using the keyboard so couldn't play it properly, but when I pressed the accelerator it responded just fine like any other racing game, no discernible lag for me, yes really.

    I'm on O2, get something like max 6 megs connection but the connection can be pretty patchy at times but when it does work it was working reasonably well. I tried Borderlands as well, and the lag there was more discernible, seems maybe not perfect for a FPS game where true millisecond timing is pretty important. As I say though, when we have internet infrastructures which rival some of the east asian countries (South Korea I think has fibre optic 100Mbps connections very wide spread), then really the lag won't be anything worse than the normal console lag and TV lag, at hopefully at true 1080p streaming resolutions someday. There's real potential here, it'll just take time for technology to catch up to the concept.

    I'd love to see this concept applied to other applications. Serious video editing requires seriously quick and powerful equipment and stupid amounts of storage. The thought of uploading footage to a service like this then using professional software which responds quicker than if it was running natively on your own system... it's a very powerful concept. Plus it could be so much cheaper to do things like this compared with the only alternative you have in the real world. Could video edit, Photoshop, whatever, no matter how resource hungry, even on a device like an iPad using tech like this once it's perfected. True cloud computing. I like.

  • gandhimaster #119 8 months ago

    snake 2011 - Not everybody is getting lag, and bad connection issues as you can see by this thread.

    Mine is ok, for example.

    We are not lying, just very lucky it seems.

  • MikkyX #120 8 months ago

    Trialled the US service very, VERY briefly - by which I mean I played Virtua Tennis for about 20 minutes and Dirt 3 for about 10, so I thought I'd give the UK service a bash.

    Have got DE:HR Augmented for a quid (eventually - NatWest blocked the initial transaction so I had to use another card. Bastards.) but it's not showing up in My Games list yet *fume*

    Also subscribed to the PlayPack for a month to give it a fair crack of the whip, and played some Flatout 2. Virgin Media cable, 50mb and I have to say I was impressed. No noticeable lag, good quality full screen streaming, and some random fella spectating me who cheered when I took the lead. Which was nice.

    Will have to give some of the other games (including DE when they see fit to stick it in My Games) a shot and we'll see how it goes. Seems OK so far. No substitute for a proper gaming PC of course, but I've got a Mac....

  • FlipC #121 8 months ago

    For those discussing ownership let me put this into a wider picture - it's the same model for any digital distribution system. At no time are you buying a game or movie; you are renting it. That may be for a fixed period or it may be for an indefinite one. It may be for a subscription or a one-off payment. In any case you have never and will never own it and access to it is dependent on the distributor who will have added such into the small print that anyone signing up to the service has to agree to.

    In theory there's nothing to stop, say, Sony having a spat with Time Warner and removing all their movies from their catalogue despite you potentially having bought the right to view such at any time.

    This is no different. The only thing stopping such from happening is public opinion and negative publicity.

  • MikkyX #122 8 months ago

    The blurry morning after the fairly clear night before - at work. 4mb each way contention free leased line and when I opened OnLive - a warning: "your network connection may reduce your video quality" or words to that effect. Bugger.

    Regardless, I pressed on and fired up some FlatOut 2 again and was surprised to find it remains playable. Sure, the video quality IS significantly worse here and it did stutter once or twice but it was just about good enough to play. It looked sort of like when you blow up a postage-size stamp MPEG to full screen. On a 27 inch monitor. Artifact-tastic. Still managed to win though :D
    Edited by MikkyX at 30/09/11 @ 11:55

  • InsoFox #123 8 months ago

    I don't understand what a lot of peoples problems are - I mean, I understand that it's not working well for a lot of people, but the model itself, assuming the infrastructure supports it in the future. It seems to me OnLive have never been anything less than upfront that you are paying for access. I don't feel like I need to 'own' every game I play, so I am happy to pay less to access it for a limited time. And the subscription model seems like it could grow into something really cool, even if the selection isn't quite there yet. The Full Passes aren't really something I'd consider right now with the service how it is, but in the future, if there's a game I think I'll want to play and replay but have no special attachment to, why not? There's a definite place for this sort of gaming, and you don't need to worry about it ruining everything, because... well... http://surplusgamer.tumblr.com/post/1072... I guess.

  • Bayonetto #124 8 months ago

    I don't buy the 'No more upgrades' thing. Are they telling me the service and box will be the same one I'm using after 2018? 2025?

  • Quak #125 8 months ago

    Interesting article, though I found this a bit of a weak cop-out:

    Even stranger is that some of the games marked keyboard-only already have controller-compatible versions on the Xbox or PS3.

    Yes, because those are console versions. Let's not make ourselves look stupid here just to try and back up an earlier point, eh?

  • JamieR #126 8 months ago

    Can't have many uses i was able to grab the gamertag JamieR for onlive too.

  • Farzlepot #127 8 months ago

    vamos,

    Even if the service is successful and lasts for decades, from what I've been reading, when you buy a game they guarantee its availability for only three years. Even if they don't cut support immediately after three years and leave it running for a year or two longer, what are the chances of it still being available in ten or twenty?

    This is my whole beef with digital distribution and, now, cloud-based gaming as well - our continued enjoyment of a game we have paid for is completely and utterly at the whims of the company and its policies. So far, there haven't really been any problems with these services in this regard, because none of them have really been running long enough yet. My Mega Drive games will continue to function for as long as the console itself does, and even if that breaks you can get replacements on eBay easily enough. When the next Xbox is launched, and Microsoft chooses to cut support for LIVE on the 360, how do I re-download my purchased games in the very likely event that I'm forced to by a hardware failure of some kind?

    OnLive has the same problem. Aside from the obvious vulnerability of the company at the moment, there's no guarantee that they'll keep a game running indefinitely. I realise that a lot of people treat games as disposable, but I never have - I've never sold or thrown away a single one. And it is people such as myself who will suffer when physical media goes the way of the dodo.

  • t3hfunk3r #128 8 months ago

    Something which the article fails to mention is UK download caps (which I believe dont exist (yet) within the USA).

    I have a 30 gig download cap and an 8 meg download speed. Even at 5 meg download Im going to hit my data cap after 11 HOURS of gaming using this service...... and thats WITHOUT using my interweb connection for ANYTHING else...... Combine this with a poor network infrastructure that BT is failing to do anything about in a hurry......

    So if I purchase or rent 3 games I get to play each of them for about 4 hours in total over the course of the entire month.

    Most products these days carry warning labels. This should as well. And it should read

    "Not Suitable for the UK Market"
    Edited by t3hfunk3r at 02/10/11 @ 07:57

  • Madder-Max #129 8 months ago

    I dont think you can replace buying a game on tangible media, putting the disc in and playing whenever you want. Having to rely on a service just for access to what you have paid for is plain wrong.