Sneaky-Pie - OnLive (Beta) Impressions UPDATED

[Sneaky-Pie]

[HEADING=2]OnLive - What is it?[/HEADING]

According to OnLive's website, "The OnLive Game Service is a revolutionary, on-demand video game platform capable of delivering the latest and most advanced games instantly over a broadband connection on virtually any PC or Mac, or on an HDTV, via OnLive's MicroConsole TV Adapter. The OnLive Game Service enables an entirely new way to discover, explore, purchase and experience the hottest video games from the world's leading publishers."

I can describe it in a single word: brilliant.

I can also offer a better explanation. OnLive is strictly an internet based service which allows you to digitally purchase games (like Steam) and stream those games to you whenever you wish to play them. Notice is said "stream." The only thing I had to download was the OnLive installer and nothing else. What OnLive does is that it runs the games on their servers and then streams that data to you through the interwebs. This basically means you can play anything no matter what kind of hardware you have.

Sound too good to be true? Well, there are some drawbacks, but they're purely subjective.

[HEADING=2]OnLive - How much does it cost?[/HEADING]

As of right now, you can still get in on the beta and get one year of the OnLive subscription free. Every month after that is $4.95. On top of that subscription fee, you also have to pay full price for the games or rent them for a certain duration of time. What's also nice is that there is a demo for each game. What they do is give you thirty minutes to play what is essentially the full game.

According to the website, OnLive offers a total of eleven games. Despite that, however, I noticed a few titles that were not mentioned such as FEAR 2. I have listed the current games available as well as the ones which are planned in being released soon in the spoiler below.

Spoiler: Current list of games

aaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity
Assassin's Creed II
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Borderlands
Brain Challenge
Defense Grid: Gold
Dirt 2
Dragon Age: Origins
FEAR 2: Project Origin
Just Cause 2
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
Madballs in Babo: Invasion
Mass Effect 2
MLB 2K10
NBA 2K10
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Puzzle Chronicles
Red Faction Guerrilla
Shatter
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction
Trine
Unreal Tournament III
World of Goo

There was something that I did find which was a bit disheartening:

Now, I may just be reading this wrong, but It appears that there is a chance that when you purchase a game, you don't permanently own it, you just really subscribe to play it whenever you wish. Notice in the image that it says "Game will be available until at least June 17th, 2013." Based on that statement, I get the impression you don't pay to own, but rather pay to rent for a really, really long time. Only time will tell about this one, but it's a pretty big concern to me.

[sub]This is now a fact. Source: http://dvice.com/archives/2010/06/even-the-games.php
Also sections 12 and 13, of the User Agreement: http://www.onlive.com/legal/termsofservice [/sub]

[HEADING=2]OnLive - How does it look and feel?[/HEADING]

While OnLive does all the work on their end to enable you to play games with pitiful hardware, it all comes with a price. Quality. Now, I have a pretty nice PC which can run most games maxed out so it was kind of a shock to see FEAR 2 look like this:

Spoiler: For more images, click here.

[sub](My apologies for the cropped images, an error occurred when obtaining them. Enough information is still there for you all to get the idea)[/sub]

The full resolution on that image is 1440x900 and it hasn't been manipulated in any way. That's pretty blurry. This is a deal breaker for most people, but with technology like this, the graphic quality will increase over time as better bandwidth is available. Still, to be able to get the above quality with sub-par hardware is still a feat in itself. I personally would not use the service as I have a machine more than capable of doing a lot better, but for those with a older laptop may find this a God send.

The user interface is pretty nice. I found it to be simple and fluid to use on the first try. You can tell it was well thought out and logically designed. I never once got lost or frustrated.

Perhaps the greatest annoyance that I had with the setup was that I was unable to use my wireless connection and was forced to be plugged in to my router via an ethernet cable. This is not a permanent thing as OnLive in the future will support wireless connections, but I figured I would mention it incase others may be interested in trying it out.

Spoiler: Here's the current system requirements

Here's the current system requirements:
- PC: Windows® 7 or Vista (32 or 64-bit) or XP (32-bit)
- Mac: Mac OS X 10.6 or later
- Processor: Dual-core CPU
- Screen Resolution: 1280x720
- Internet Connection: 5 Mbps located inside the contiguous United States (wired connection required)

I did experience a few hiccups concerning gameplay when I test drove FEAR 2. I'm fortunate to have a 10Mb line at home and I still detected a little bit of lag here and found myself moving the mouse a little bit slower in order not to get any sudden jumps which would sometimes end up getting myself killed. This is something they're working on and it will probably be fixed by the time OnLive is out of beta.

[HEADING=2]OnLive - Final Thoughts[/HEADING]

So is OnLive the harbinger of PC gaming for the masses and the coming death of consoles everywhere? Probably not, but it is certainly a step in that direction and it will be exciting to see where this technology leads. In a year or so, OnLive could very well be a competitive solution to the console market especially once their game box and controller are released. As of right now, I would certainly recommend it to someone who's interested in gaming but doesn't have the funds to spend on a nice PC or a console, but I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone else.

Time will tell.

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

A pretty easy question: isn't there a non-disclosure agreement for the beta?
Other than that, good preview, this sounds interesting.

 

[DividedUnity]

I'm never buying this. It's like renting a house or a car. If something goes wrong and you can't afford a months sub for whatever reason, no games for you even if you've alreay paid through the teeth for a huge library of games.

For those who do buy this fair play. I'll be over here with my disc based games I actually own

 

[Sneaky-Pie]

Good review, or rather preview I should say, since you mentioned a lot of things that aren't currently available, or that are being improved.

I feel the need to clarify an uncertainty you had, yes, when you buy a game on OnLive, you only own the game as long as you are subscribing to OnLive, or so long as the service is available to you. That means if you buy a bunch of games, but the service itself goes out of business, you will be left with nothing. Also, if you get banned from the service for some reason, you will no longer have access to your "purchases," nor will they be refunded. It's kind of a buyer beware thing.

Do you have a source for that? I've been trying to find one, but I suppose I haven't been trying just hard enough. If it is true, that's unfortunate news and certainly places OnLive in a more negative light.

A pretty easy question: isn't there a non-disclosure agreement for the beta?
Other than that, good preview, this sounds interesting.

Ever since OnLive went into open beta, it's been fair game as anyone now can get access to it.

 

[Sneaky-Pie]

Updated content about the purchasing of games.

 

[Baby Tea]

Updated content about the purchasing of games.

Doesn't that urk you huge?
I mean, I get that something like this would be cool for me who only owns a Netbook, but the idea of not actually owning my games in any sense at all really is a deal-breaker. At least with Steam I can play offline, and have the files on my computer in the event of no internet connection or something, and since they aren't hosting something as huge as digitally streaming the game, then Steam will probably host games for far far longer then these guys will. And if I buy a hard copy I'll never be not able to play (Unless I get an Ubisoft game).

The limitations for this seem to really, really outweigh the benefits of lesser hardware restrictions.

 

[tomtom94]

The over-pricing and the NOT ACTUALLY OWNING THE GAMES means this will fail badly.
However this should not discourage the industry long-term.