Gaming using Mobile Broadband

Hi,

As the cost of mobile broadband has fallen dramatically here in the UK, I am currently comparing various deals. I would appreciate any information regarding the typical data download & upload rates during say an average FPS e.g. COD4, CRYSIS, UT3 etc. (OK, I'm sure it will vary from one game to another, but a ball park figure would be really helpful). That way I could see what monthly download limit/cost package would be the most suitable.

Thanks in anticipation,

Ic.

 

Gaming on mobile broadband is not worth it. Your ping will be in the 300's constantly.

 

Interesting. That's something I honestly didn't consider. Is it really so bad ??

 

Do you enjoying playing Hop-Scotch across the map?

 

If you are playing games like World of Warcraft that are not twitch based, you'll be fine. But unless you have a REALLY special connection, games like Counter Strike and Team Fortress 2 will stuggle with the latency.

I've actually used a mobile broadband setup before and was getting a fairly decent 140ms ping. That was a couple years ago, who knows, maybe its gotten better!

 

I'm with 02(ireland) and when my broadband was actually working i'd get below 100 ping concistant in team fortress 2 Halo was usually below 200. Can't play any more though because 02 are A**HOLES Now my ping would be around 2000-3000. Avoid 02

 

I don't really know anything about the network differences in the UK versus the 3g and HSDPA (or whatever the hell at&t calls it) used in the US so keep that in mind. IMO mobile broadband is not ideal for fast paced games and unless the UK is far more advanced look for another provider.

I have alot of downtime at work so I purchased a 3g modem from Sprint last year so I could play WOW at work. In my experience mobile broadband works fine for slower paced games like WOW but it struggles in FEAR and TF2. For me the problem is not that the download or upload speeds are not adequate but that the latency is high, usually between 300-500ms. For example I can't play any server in FEAR that uses punkbuster because it detects my latency and auto boots me.

And as far as how much data is transferred I can't quote you hard numbers right now (I guess I could reset the connection and run FEAR for a bit if you would like me to) but I know that the amount of data WOW sent was very small. I could play for a few hours and only use 30-50mbs, and that figure may be overestimating (keep in mind WOW runs fine on 56k dialup). I use much more bandwidth browsing the internet than I would playing a game for the same amount of time. It really comes down to how much time your gonna play but I would recommend an unlimited plan just to be safe if you do choose to game with mobile broadband.

 

Thanks for your replies guys. Unlimited download isn't available here yet (At least not at affordable prices !!). I'd be playing UT3 & COD4, so the general consensus seems to be that on UT3, I'd be teleporting all over the place, and getting kicked for unknowingly glitching !

 

mobile broadband = high latency times... In the US, we do have some unlimited options, so it is possible but I would only recommend this for turn-based games.

 

As hinted at above the concern is not so much the pure bandwidth or speed of the internet is the ping or latency. Satalite based internet in general has a very far distance for the signal to travel and in a gaming environment where your constantly trading data back and forth from yourself to other players in a real time environment latency is just as important as the bandwidth if not even more important.

That said there is always yahoo games Well honestly there is probably quite a few games you can play but FPS and MMORPG are probably not good ones to go with.

 

My pings on verizon with 64 bit vista is around 100-130 consistently in Sacrameno with 1.5-2.5mb/s download and 600kb/s upload. In San Francisco, I get more than 2mb/s consistently with 700+kb/s upload. Just a thought.