There are many skeptics out there saying that an online, cloud-based gaming platform like OnLive wouldn’t work. Well, apparently it can, it does, and I’ve been playing with it for close to 30 hours and having a ball. Let’s talk a bit about OnLive this week.
Playing Crysis on a Netbook
OnLive is gaming in the cloud. You don’t download the game, rather you actually play it on OnLive’s hardware through your enhanced browser. While this may sound lame, it actually works rather well if you have enough bandwidth. Generally, you need a fairly good high speed connection to make this work right; using this service over any wireless network is currently not an option as its blocked right now. However a DSL connection, according to a friend of mine using one, is acceptable, while my high-end Comcast connection works surprisingly well.
Since you are running the game on OnLive’s hardware, all you need in order to play it is a PC running a current-generation browser and dual-core CPU or better. Some connected netbooks can even run Crysis. Also, since you are running the game centrally, the system remembers where you saved your game so you can log off mid-game on one machine and log back in on another and pick up just as if you had been playing on the same machine. So if you’ve been blasting away at home and have some free time at work you can pick up where you left off and continue your adventure. It’s actually kind of cool.
The OnLive Experience
The experience is better than I expected. The company tunes your connection to limit lag, and I haven’t noticed any significant game degradation. It is dependent on your network connection though, and if you have issues you’ll likely lose your connection. You won’t be playing this on a plane anytime soon, for instance.
I played a wide variety of games. They have around 20 and up at the moment, ranging from A-list titles like Batman: Arkham Asylum to independents that I hadn’t heard of. It turns out it is a great way to demo games as well, because you don’t have to download and install them, just play the demo on the service.
Installing the client takes around 2 to 3 minutes, depending on how fast your computer is. Loading the actual game takes around 15 to 20 seconds on average, so you are gaming fast. You are playing the game remotely, and they are streaming a compressed high-definition image back to you real time, so there is some slight degradation in image quality when taken against a high end gaming machine. For instance, on my nine-screen Eyefinity rig, it would only expand to about 80 percent of the overall screen area. But these are six 22-inch screens, and a massive display that I rarely can see all of anyway, so that wasn’t a problem.
If a virus scan or other process starts up on your PC, the game continues without a hiccup, and it was interesting to note that I could play in Windowed mode and not have any visible impact on anything else that was running.
You buy a game much like you would buy a movie from a streaming service. As with those services, you actually are buying the right to play the game, and you don’t get anything you can sell or physically hold. For me, the tradeoff of being able to play on any PC that had a wired connection anyplace was worth it.
Peeping Tom
The arena function was surprisingly interesting. This is where you can drop in and see the stream from someone else’s game. This is not only kind of fun to watch, but a great way to see if you wanted to buy a game without actually working through a demo.
I found I could open an arena window and leave it running with the RTS game I’m playing, and see if anyone was having luck with a level that was giving me difficulty. Granted, the farther I got in the game, the harder it was to find anyone close to my level, but still it was fun to look up every once awhile and see someone dealing with the massive waves of alien invaders that swarm on the defended positions at the end of each level. You have to be a bit careful, as this can suck up a lot of time.
A Streaming Future
I’m hooked by this service, but realize this is only the beginning of something that could easily grow to be even more amazing. Apple iTunes didn’t have many titles when it started, and my first cable service was OnTV, which was only one channel of movies without even the concept of on-demand. If you can pass through a great gaming experience, why not performance applications that won’t run on your PC, or rather than having to buy a software package you may only use every few months, why not allow you to rent it for a day and run it remotely? I think we are seeing a small glimpse of what OnLive will become, and by the end of this decade we’ll wonder, much like many of us do with cable, how we ever accepted running software or connected games any other way.
The concept of “Cloud Computing” is more a part of the future than many people realize.
I work with cloud computing daily and it is the future, anyone that doubts it is living in the past, much like individuals that made comments to the effect that the entire world only needs 3 computers, or that computers would one day take up massive ammounts of space. I work for CenterBeam and we do everything over the cloud, instead of having an in house IT department we manage networks for hundreds of companies from 1 location eliminating the need for small buisnesses to have an internal IT group and we do it over the cloud just like onlives service.
The argument is that cloud computing isn't the kind of service everyone in gaming should be forced to adhere to, because it has some serious limitations, from basic convenience through to elements that affect gameplay. We all agree it's a technology that'll be helpful in the future. Maybe in IT world it's all fine and dandy, but gaming isn't IT (surprise surprise).
I have a 10mbps connection with comcast, but like Becks said there is still lag. Especially when it comes to the response of action on the screen from when you hit the command on your keyboard. Once they fix that, it'll be worth it.
B4 you get all gaga over this remember 4 things.
1. Some lag exists. regardless of how fast "your" connection is.
2.After the free 12 months you will pay about $5.00 /month
3. All the games are full retail price.
4. When, and if you decide to cancel your subscription all of those games you purchased go bye, bye.
the games are not full retaiul. they start at 5 dollars for theree days, eight dollars for five and then 30 dollars for unlimited use (or untill they stop making the game available). to me that mean you will never fully own a game , but for the average consumer, most people only play and game for a motnh or two before they get bored or get a new one anyways. unless your a hardcore gamer, or a collector, this is a great sevice. For those of you having lag problems, this service is still under construction for all intensive purposes. It will get better. Also, your upload and download speeds can be adjusted through your router if you know what your doing. and lastly, Dereks numbers are skewed. BVraodband internet is available almost everywhere. Accesss is really a matter of spending money to get it. Granted, there is a large portion of the populace that cannot afford high end internet speeds, but the market has already proven that the population who has it cqan also afford to spend ungodly amounts of money on hardware and software.
I have fios 35mb up 35mb down and it runs like a charm. I live in st petersburg fl
Wow man
I have a 25 MBs connection and onlive still has lag issues for me. They really should do regional roll outs. If you aren't near a data center the latency is just awful.
This cloud online is the future. Right now Steam is the best cloud services.
Future? For you, perhaps. For me? I'll stick with physical copies. I like having control over what I purchased.
If by control, you mean that the distributor or author of the software can request you destroy or return your copy of the game at any time for any reason they request. (You can check both Copyright Laws and most games TOS included with the package if you don't believe me)
Now for the best part:
35-40% of America doesn't even have the option of having broadband internet (I'm one of them). Now, how many have greater than 3-5mb connections? I bet only 35% of Americans fall into the category of having 3mb broadband or better, and even that is being optimistic. They've already stated in the past that anything under 3mb won't work well. So, how is this going to "takeover" in the next ten years when 65% of the nation can't even use the "system" or service?
It's called the Google Fiber Optic network Derek. Sheesh, get with the program.
So this is a paid ad for OnLive right?