I don't mean to advertise, as honestly I won't be using OnLive for many reasons...
- I don't like that I don't physically own games.
- I don't like I can't play without an internet connection.
- I don't like that any lag can mess up even single player games.
- I don't like that if I can't pay the monthly or yearly fee or whatever that I'm left completely game-less.
However!
OnLive is really &%^#ing cool! I honestly thought this idea was awesome since I first heard about it, but I was skeptical since the idea of it has a lot of problems. There's a free trial out now though, no credit card, no commitment or obligation, so I decided to give it a shot.
After making an account, installing the really small piece of software, I was playing Mafia II on my crappy Intel graphic chipset laptop in minutes. There was no downloading or installing, I just waited like 2 minutes for the game to start and it went. The demo's are free and they aren't real demo's, they're full versions of the games you have access too for 30 minutes.
The video quality was crap (about as good as watching a YouTube video full screen) but I was impressed nonetheless. Even on my somewhat unstable wireless connection the game ran pretty smoothly. I'm confident after a little time even average wireless connections will probably work well on it, they even say the Wi-fi support is currently in beta.
One thing I enjoyed the most though, was that you could watch other people playing games. As uninteresting as that probably can be, I was just amazed because it was literally seamless. You go into a screen with tons of videos of people playing games and click one and it loads up instantly and you're watching someone play. Pretty cool since I wanted to check out more Mafia II footage and seeing people play live is a fun idea.
Anyways, it's free, there's no obligation for the trial. Just figured I'd bring it to peoples attentions. Also curious to hear your opinion as well I guess... :P
Wow, OnLive is really *$&^ing cool...
