Wow, OnLive is really *$&^ing cool...

[Dreakon]

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.

https://www.onlive.com/go/signup

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

Enjoy!

[Mahdino]

Not that i would pay for it myself ... but has there been any news about OnLive coming to Europe ?

[IronyTaken]

The quality is pretty ugly.
It requires a super high bandwidth speed for anything average.
So it requires a very high cost internet.
It requires a huge amount of bandwidth space. This means you cannot really use it if you have a bandwidth limit.
And most ISP will throttle your connection when you go over a certain number.

The membership alone would add up to an ok gaming PC after all those years of playing.
Plus the internet cost should add up too.

I guess if you can afford to pay for high bandwidth speeds with unlimited space then go for it.

But if you can afford that then you can easily afford a gaming PC.

[SnOwBunZz]

- 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.

Let's add:
- I don't like the ranting e-mails from my ISP. (bandwith usage on hi-def version is 140gbs/month when playing 2hrs every day)
- I don't like that I can't mod games.
- I don't like that I lose EVERYTHING when Onlive closes. (inb4steam, MMOs are another thing)

Scratch the physically owning part, as Steam has a similar set-up.

[Hatashi]

If anyone really ''plans'' on buying/paying for it OnLive, I suggest NOT to do that.
Save up the money you would spend on OnLive, per month, and for the games.
When you have enough, upgrade your PC, and you can play anything.

[IronyTaken]

Alright, lets try looking this through.

Membership = $15/month.
Game pricing.



Lets say my PC can't run ''Splinter Cell: Conviction'', and ''Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sands'', but though, I really want to play them.

I purchase a 6 month membership subscription, that is ''$15 x 6 = $90''.
I pay the $90, but now, I am required to purchase both games in order to play them.
Splinter Cell: Conviction : $59.99.
Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sands: $49.99.
$59.99 + $49.00 = $108.99.
That comes down to $90 + $108.99 = $198.99.


Now lets see, a decent video card that will play most new games on Low/Medium will cost me what? Like, below $250 right?
How about a CPU? Yeah, under $250.
(Remember, not the top-notch hardware, but below average ones that will run on LOW/MEDIUM).

Now you have these choices.
Either use OnLive, pay insane amounts of money on your internet, subscription, and games, and have lag issues, even in offline games, low resolution issues, low graphics quality issues

Or, save up the money you would spend on OnLive, buy a new GPU/CPU, enjoy lag-less games (offline mode), stunning graphics etc etc.

The average smart person would know the correct choice without even looking at the advantages/disadvantages.

Well a gpu that can play most games at high or max at 1680x1050 costs around 90-100USD.
A cpu that won't bottleneck that gpu will only cost around 50-60USD.

[BadpcGuy]

I'll try the trial out right now.

[Hatashi]

Well a gpu that can play most games at high or max at 1680x1050 costs around 90-100USD.
A cpu that won't bottleneck that gpu will only cost around 50-60USD.

That makes the OnLive choice even shittier .

That even makes you able to buy them both.

[SnOwBunZz]

Are you making a joke like negative AA or something?

You finally got it.

@pic, full price for certain games?
In that case you must be REALLY desperate to play it.

[Hatashi]

You finally got it.

@pic, full price for certain games?
In that case you must be REALLY desperate to play it.

Yep, thats the price list that they revealed a short time ago.