Onlive - how does cloud gaming shape up?

Anyone have this? how is it? what platform do you use it on?

Id imagine your telecom company's BW and reliability is extremely important?

Worth getting or no? Are they gonna be around for the long term also? I'd hate to pay 20 bucks for full pass and have it gone in a few years.

 

Their most attractive offering was the full playpass that grants you access to a library of games at a flat rate per month.

- that selection is quite small. It's not every game they have for sale
- normal games are very expensive. The overall selection is also very limited.
- Performance and quality is ok but not great, assuming very fast Internet speed
- even though the game purchases are very expensive, they are technically a rental and will expire.

If you aren't willing to switch to them completely, it doesnt make sense to use them at all, because if you have hardware that can run games anyway, you might as well just run the game. You get more value, better graphics and better performance.

 

I've used Onlive quite a bit last month during their free Play Pass beta test. So here is some of my thoughts and impressions on the service.

I have 3mb cable internet from Cox of Arizona and it struggled to keep a good stream unless all other network activity ceased. As soon as my wife queued up a youtube video or *cringe* a netflix stream, it would all go to hell. The video would compress into a blocky mess and the network warning message would pop up. This is the most network sensitive program you will ever use. Also, this service is only supported in certain areas due to restrictions they place on distance from their service centers, so I don't really know if it can be considered a "take with you" kinda service. I honestly wouldn't commit to this service unless I had 5mb or faster cable service with very good ping.

I used the service both on my G73 and my older Thinkpad T60 with an ATI X1300. I am happy to say that the service worked equally well on both of them. There are minimum hardware requirements, but they aren't high as most all the work is done on their end, but your machine still needs to be able to handle some video processing and decompression.

I used the Onlive both with mouse and keyboard, as well as using my Xbox 360 controller which is natively supported.

Now for performance: It was "acceptable". Regardless of the monstrous fancy super computers they have running these games, the picture quality is severely squashed by the massive amounts of video compression. Also, the input lag is real, and it can affect gameplay. It's acceptable in most games, but it was there and most notable in FPS's.

Overall, I did "like" the service for a few reasons, and I may consider using it in the future. First, Onlive does have several things that no other system or platform has or can possibly offer. Instant game availability is a very nice feature of the service, not downloading or installing a game is great. I very much like how Onlive lets you try a 30 minute demo of all the games available on their service and there is no install or download. Also, cloud gaming is the next gaming system for my kid. He scratches/loses all his game discs, this service solves all that. Also, there is no hardware for me to buy (as long as you already own a PC), which is a big plus if you currently have no consoles in the home.

The Play Pack seems like a decent deal, as long as they keep freshening it up and offering new games to play. It's nice that it's a monthly/unlimited subscription too, with no contract. Yeah, their library isn't that great but it will hopefully get better. I'd defnitely stear clear of purchasing a game there, Play Pack or nothing.

 

Very good summary / review rschauby. I tried it and just couldn't get used to it. The input lag drove me nuts as did the low quality graphics. I have 10Mbps internet and it handled it well.

The playpack is nice, but I still think they need to just open up their entire library for a monthly fee or allow users to select X number of games to put in their own playable library that they can change on a weekly or monthly basis. Otherwise it makes zero sense to buy a game in their service.

 

I supported them throughout there initial push into the market before there website was even built and no one had ever heard of them. I very much liked there service, untill a few weeks ago when I hooked up my logitech duel action gamepad. It wont play there games for some extremely stupid reason. Apparently onlive found it necessary to only make a few gamepads work with there service. I uninstalled onlive after that lol.

Also I have no use for onlive as they are there own network, its like xbox or ps3 networks, you can only play with ppl from there own network so onlive ppl while they have games that are for the PC cant play with the people online that have the normal pc game in the multiplayer parts.

Even so, if onlive had those features it wouldnt make a difference. People sheer hate for the product cant help this software out. I have argued with more then my share of people about onlive. I suppose people don't like to be told there hardware can be used without using the guts/inards that they payed so much for. New technology isnt always perceived well, cloud gaming is awesome and should be thought of as a milestone for advancement in electronics. Now if they could only advance there milestone a bit further and include support for my duel action gamepad

 

I like the idea of cloud gaming, but at the moment, as previous people have mentioned its just not going to work outside of places with very high speed, low latency internet connections, and even then its always going to be slightly inferior to the 'real thing'.

Most places like Europe have both bandwidth limitations, and also, regardess of how you hide it, you simply cannot eliminate the input lag. People who spend tons on a PC will not be happy to suddenly have issues with input lag, poorly compressed video, drop outs and the like. The input lag, with a control pad will probably feel closer to a console game, and quite frankly to PC FPS gamers used to mouse and keypad, thats going to feel poor.

It's not about 'new technology' being unpopular, its about justified issues with it.

 

it oo also like the idea of cloud gaming, however, i wish it worked independently of private services. i wish i could independently do the same thing by streaming games from my desktop to my notebook.

 

Problem for OnLive is that many of the ISPs in North America are moving towards the pay for bandwidth used model. So you now have a 40GB limit per month $45 ridiculous price.

OnLive alone would eat that bandwidth easily.

 

In canada yes, the states have many unlimited BW ones based on reasonable non-overusage

 

I said moving towards, I didn't say all. And the trend will likely catch on in the US faster also. There have been numerous quotes from major ISPs in USA complaining of bandwidth costs over the year. Already there have been suspicions that major ISPs in the US limit bandwidth speeds after you download so much or during peak hours etc. So in their own way, they already do limit bandwidth.

 

I didnt say you said all either. But I think the pay per use model isnt so bad as long as the rates are fine and the speeds are not throttled. Honestly I dont use all my bandwidth and it doesnt get rolled over to the next month so in effect I am getting ripped off. I'd be happy with a pay per use model as long as the rates are reasonable and generally non-fluctuating.

 

It's already at a pay per use many places. They just don't tell you it in their advertising. Comcast for example, you 'pay' for 250GB a month.

 

Yeah, 250GB a month is a LOT, but I reached 220GB one month from downloading the rest of my entire Steam collection of games (approaching 700GB ). There was a gamespot article on OnLive I believe, and mentioned that about 3 hours per day of gaming with Onlive used over 200GB of data. And Comcast is actually generous as far as caps go. There's many out there that are much lower.

I think OnLive has its advantages, but I think they are marketing it wrong. It really is a game console replacement to be played using a game controller, not keyboard and mouse because of the lag. I can see Comcast or other cable networks offering it as a service for a monthly fee to play any games in the catalog, and have it not count towards your internet data quota. This way the cable company can make a good buck off it too.

 

how much are you paying for 250GB? you guys actually have it good. in canada ppl pay $60 for 60gb

 

Thankfully the company has shown a great pioneering spirit and have made changes quickly when things didn't seem to work (like their initial and laughable pricing scheme).

And I pay $29/mo for unlimited 3mb cable service.

 

I dunno. I get a package deal with my HD cable TV (with an HD DVR and two boxes), 10 Mbps internet, phone for $140/mo. Before taxes/fees of course.