OnLive now FREE and WORKS in the UK!

I like the system. Far from perfect, but getting there.

Opens up opportunities for those unable to spend loads on a gaming PC or fancy HDTV and console. Enables people to use the most basic of hardware to play the latest releases, can only be a good thing imo.
 
There are a lot of people eating humble pie having not believed in this or slating it.

Dont think I would buy full priced newly released title on there yet though but as said above, gives those with mediocre/Notebooks access to the latest games.

Was a smart business move gettign rid of the subscriptions.

Are games on your account permanently? Last I looked it was for 3 years or something.

Would prefer it if this was available as an add-on service on Steam though, best of both worlds.

Scarily, I am sure someone like Bobby Kottick would LOVE to have his grubby mits on this though, zero piracy.

The service has some great features though, like being able to watch others play and cheer/jeer them - LOL

Steam is nowhere near anything like that.

What Onlive does do is take the community integration which Steam brought us and takes it a step further.

Their 3/5 day rental packages are great value too, especially for single player games.

Thumbs up if a Steam/Onlive alliance would rock your boat?

Like it or hate it, Onlive is the future of gaming. Platform agnostic is surely the way to go?

EDIT:

MY WORD - Supreme Commander 1/Forged Alliance is on there - Mmmm
 
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I had a crack on this a few months back - my PC is a six year old off the shelf job and I must say I was stunned as the visuals of the latest Alien VS Predator trial. Looked lovely! (As did Borderlands)

However, even though I had a perfect 10MB connection at the time, the stuttering and buffering made the games unplayable for me.

It's a shame though as if the connection wasn't a problem I'd seriously consider it as a viable alternative to upgrading my current PC. As it stands, the saving continues. :p
 
I'm still not sure what BT's role is in this. They are designated as official partner. Does it mean flaky service if you're not with them as your ISP? Or just marketing blurb with no real substance?
 
I do think this is the future, maybe within 10-15 years - cloud based services with only a thin client to access them. Once this country gets 100MB internet at a cheap price, I would expect these services to become very popular. The era with £700+ machines just to play a game on high will all but become a niche due to services like OnLive.
 
But it's not to do with raw speed, it's the latency. I've just used up the 30 minute trial of Deus Ex. Maybe because it's an old game and there isn't much data to send but it was crystal clear and I was engrossed from start to finish. Hardly noticed any lag at all but I am used to consoles. LOL.

The system itself is beautiful - to not have to faff about with settings, cloud saves on everything, a game library with everything clearly presented, etc.
 
I'm quite looking forward to it. Hopefully when I move and get my 30Mb connection, I will be able to test it out properly. Very hit and miss on my 4-5Mb ADSL line here, but I do really like the whole concept.
 
ic1male said:
But it's not to do with raw speed, it's the latency. I've just used up the 30 minute trial of Deus Ex. Maybe because it's an old game and there isn't much data to send but it was crystal clear and I was engrossed from start to finish. Hardly noticed any lag at all but I am used to consoles. LOL.

The system itself is beautiful - to not have to faff about with settings, cloud saves on everything, a game library with everything clearly presented, etc.
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The latency is the big issue indeed. Admittedly i haven't tried OnLive for a while now, but shortly after it went 'Free' i downloaded it and tried a Free demo play of Dirt 2 on a machine capable of easily running Dirt2 at 60FPS on highest details.

The result was at best a 720p video stream, suffering from heavy video compression and the game was clearly dropping to 15-20FPS at times. Add on top that massive latency that meant you had to turn from a corner at least a second before you needed to made the whole thing totally unplable.

That was on a VM 50Mbit connection at the time hitting London/Linx in 13-14ms.

I know the latency aspect will get better with the UK servers, but while it will be better, it will never be as good as playing on a 'real' machine locally. I personally found the whole thing probably the worst gaming experience i had ever had (In over 20 years gaming).

I can see the great use it could have on phones or low powered laptops, opening up games simply not possible there, but i cannot see how OnLive is any realistic replacement for true gaming. Maybe in 10 years when we all have 4ms latency fibre backbones to the home and the software and backend is matured, but right now i simply can't see it.
 
DarkBahamut said:
I can see the great use it could have on phones or low powered laptops, opening up games simply not possible there, but i cannot see how OnLive is any realistic replacement for true gaming. Maybe in 10 years when we all have 4ms latency fibre backbones to the home and the software and backend is matured, but right now i simply can't see it.
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I don't think they have ever aimed at us PC enthusiasts really they would love to branch it out to all home uses, imagine the generally Wii loving family being able to play Crysis at reasonable settings and quality without having to worry about installing, mods, graphics drivers and such.

The problem is we are the market that is in the way of all that :p It needs the word of mouth from the "core" gamers to spread to the family homes and with it being so technical the average family probably doesn't understand latency and such and would find it hard understanding it as a video stream that you are controlling.

I think this does bring a lot of potential but it's just something that can't replace my rig due to not having any control over the game (mods and graphic settings and such). But I hope it does well for the average to casual gamers :)
 
Just noticed the news about the 22nd of September launch.

Love the idea of this but agree that it's maybe a fraction too early in terms of our network infrastructure.

Saying that, it works fantastically for me.

DarkBahamut - I think you miss the point of it. You've got a computer that can run these games fine. What I would use OnLive for, if I was you, is to try out the demos of games - for free.

I on the other hand will be buying 5 or 6 consoles so that I can play while making the tea or sitting on the porcelain throne :)

Point to note is that from the emails I've been getting while signed up to the US accounts you're probably better off waiting a month or two after launch and instead of picking up a console with free game, pick up a game with free console!
 
I've just had a go at this using the US version and I am really really surprised at how well it all works!

Considering I'm in the UK and this is the US service, I was expecting a little lag - Heck, I didn't even think it would work when the service comes to the UK... But it worked flawlessly!

I've been trialing a few of the games (you get a 30 minute go at most games), and they load instantly!

As someone that has recently turned to the Mac, this is really good news! I've been missing a few games that aren't available on the Mac (Or you have to spend loads of cash to get the Mac version...) - With this, I can play games that aren't even Mac supported, and in full graphics settings! :D

I've read about a monthly subscription charge that allows you access to all the games - as long as they continue to update their games library, I think I'd be very happy to part with some cash :)
 
Gimpymoo said:
There are a lot of people eating humble pie having not believed in this or slating it.

Dont think I would buy full priced newly released title on there yet though but as said above, gives those with mediocre/Notebooks access to the latest games.

Was a smart business move gettign rid of the subscriptions.

Are games on your account permanently? Last I looked it was for 3 years or something.

Would prefer it if this was available as an add-on service on Steam though, best of both worlds.

Scarily, I am sure someone like Bobby Kottick would LOVE to have his grubby mits on this though, zero piracy.

The service has some great features though, like being able to watch others play and cheer/jeer them - LOL

Steam is nowhere near anything like that.

What Onlive does do is take the community integration which Steam brought us and takes it a step further.

Their 3/5 day rental packages are great value too, especially for single player games.

Thumbs up if a Steam/Onlive alliance would rock your boat?

Like it or hate it, Onlive is the future of gaming. Platform agnostic is surely the way to go?

EDIT:

MY WORD - Supreme Commander 1/Forged Alliance is on there - Mmmm
Click to expand...

I'm sure if the fact it didn't change to free it would not be getting anywhere or they would not of felt the need to go free before success.

So you can't ask people to eat humble pie when the circumstances was very different at the time when the goal posts have moved.
 
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