Onlive, what's your opinion on it?

Martini1991 · 26 Apr 2012 at 15:48

So, it's been quite a while since Onlive has been launched within the UK, has anyone got any experience or opinions on it?

Personally, I'm absolutely kicking myself over not taking advantage of the "Buy first game for a quid deal". I could have made a bunch of accounts and bought a game specific for that account to use on my netbook.

I think Onlive has a lot of potential, I have an Xperia Play Mobile Phone so Onlive on that is quite amazing, I'm able to play games such as Assassins Creed on my mobile phone using the phones game pad.

My problems with Onlive is that I'm not prepared to buy the games on it for the prices they're asking, I have no problem buying games on Steam during sales etc, because usually I'm only paying a fraction of the real asking price.

When Onlive was first announced, I thought the whole service would have been subscribe (Which I would be prepared to pay for) right now the only section of Onlive that is similar to that is the playpack (Which I don't think is that great)

I suppose the 5 pound for X days game pass isn't that bad, but it's still not the same.

So, discuss

Aeleys · 26 Apr 2012 at 15:56

makes the games look like 16bit version of the real thing...

If you have no other option but to play games using that its ok i guess, but if you have other means there is no point at all.

i tried it and never went back. so i think that speaks for its self

Martini1991 · 26 Apr 2012 at 15:58

Aeleys said:
makes the games look like 16bit version of the real thing...

If you have no other option but to play games using that its ok i guess, but if you have other means there is no point at all.

i tried it and never went back. so i think that speaks for its self

On my tiny Xperia Screen it's far from that, same as on the netbook too, was perfect.
Games that neither in a million years my two devices could attempt to play natively.

Bleek · 26 Apr 2012 at 16:03

In time it could work but as of now even on a 50mbit connection it's choppy and the graphics are pretty dire, it looks like a compressed jpeg of a game.

FrenchTart · 26 Apr 2012 at 16:04

As mentioned in the previous threads, awful and laggy. The quality of the graphics doesn't bother me massively (though it's far from perfect) but the input lag is hideous and..as I've said before, this was tested on my work machine, which is on a 100mbit up/down JANET connection and has far less latency than any home connection.

It's a nice idea but it's only suitable for the most casual of players/games.

arc@css · 26 Apr 2012 at 16:20

As above really. Nice idea but lag was very noticeable, therefore it would only be on the very rare occasion that I might consider using it.

orderoftheflame · 26 Apr 2012 at 16:31

Shocking. People complain about console graphics, but it's far worse. Played the Dirt 3 demo and it looked like a bad Game Cube game.

ThomBassmonkey · 26 Apr 2012 at 16:42

As others have said, great idea but the internet isn't up to it yet.

Once everyone has internet capable of streaming full 1080p+ constantly, it'll be better. The input lag will stop it ever being a complete success though since any game that relies on twich reactions just won't work.

Rroff · 26 Apr 2012 at 16:47

Not quite along the lines of what you were asking but my Galaxy Note can play the original GTA3 with all settings high and only half the draw distance of the PC version at 1280x800 perfectly fine and playable - mixed with the the poor performance you'd get on onlive away from a good wifi connection and I think its window of being attractive to mobile device users is likely to be pretty small.

orderoftheflame · 26 Apr 2012 at 16:57

Rroff said:
Not quite along the lines of what you were asking but my Galaxy Note can play the original GTA3 with all settings high and only half the draw distance of the PC version at 1280x800 perfectly fine and playable - mixed with the the poor performance you'd get on onlive away from a good wifi connection and I think its window of being attractive to mobile device users is likely to be pretty small.

Mentioning this... I downloaded the iPhone Max Payne port and it looks and runs great. Looks a lot crisper than the blurrthon onlive games.

I worry that the idea behind onlive is a step back. Why bother making games look better on the given hardware and use more resource, instead they're going to make games that can run more instances on the hardware even if they're sacrificing the looks.

Martini1991 · 26 Apr 2012 at 17:05

Rroff said:
Not quite along the lines of what you were asking but my Galaxy Note can play the original GTA3 with all settings high and only half the draw distance of the PC version at 1280x800 perfectly fine and playable - mixed with the the poor performance you'd get on onlive away from a good wifi connection and I think its window of being attractive to mobile device users is likely to be pretty small.

Xperia Play isn't the most powerful phone (Because SE like to drop the ball a lot)
GTA III for me runs fairly well almost maxed out, lowering the draw distance and lighting.

If I could get around to flashing my phone and running a 50% clock on the CPU it'd probably be a lot better.

uv · 26 Apr 2012 at 17:08

I tried it, and the lag made me want to vomit.

It's a bit bad when a game that could actually run fine on a netbook (eg. Faster Than Light) lags to ****.

Haggisman · 26 Apr 2012 at 17:16

ThomBassmonkey said:
As others have said, great idea but the speed of light isn't up to it yet.

Once everyone has internet capable of streaming full 1080p+ constantly, it'll be better. The input lag will stop it ever being a complete success though since any game that relies on twich reactions just won't work.

Fixed.

Someone did some calculations that showed even with data travelling at the speed of light unless there was a server within a certain (quite low) distance the lag would be more noticeable than on first gen LCD monitors.

Kosmiche · 26 Apr 2012 at 17:18

It put me off Metro 2033.

My first experience of it was with onlive, and it was so laggy, ugly and unbearable it totally put me off getting the "proper" game.

FrenchTart · 26 Apr 2012 at 17:22

Haggisman said:
Fixed.

Someone did some calculations that showed even with data travelling at the speed of light unless there was a server within a certain (quite low) distance the lag would be more noticeable than on first gen LCD monitors.

Exactly right. It is simply never going to be unlaggy, sadly.

Disjunto · 26 Apr 2012 at 17:56

When I first tested it, the lag wasn't actually all that bad, and most most games was easily playable (and I forgot about it after a while) but for any twitch shooters or high precision games it was awful.

I just love being able to spec people and have people spec me, laughing at failures in both directions.

Saying that, about 99.9% of the time I play games on my gaming PC, only rarely when I don't have access do I think about loading onlive up on a 7 year old laptop that can barely handle a 720p movie without killing itself