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So I've Tried OnLive
Introduction
So somewhere in the all the E3 news, I ran into a link to a sign up for an OnLive promotional deal where you would get a whole year free (free as in you don't pay the monthly fee, not free as in they give you the games too) so they could test the system. Like most people, I'm feeling pretty dubious about paying a monthly fee to get the privilege to buy games I'll lose if I ever stop paying, but if I could try it for free and for a whole year, why the hell not? Also, I figure it would be good for those games you know you'll play once or twice and then never pick up again. So today I get an e-mail saying I'm invited to be a part of the promotional deal and go sign up. I had to give them credit card info (they swear they haven't billed me), but that was to be expected. One thing that caught my eye was an optional 2nd year for a promotional price of $4.95 a month. That makes me think that the final price will be significantly higher.
After a very quick installation, I had the program itself running. The first thing it tells me is that my connection may have latency issues. It's true that it has been slower lately, but I have no choice but to press on. The program itself runs in 1280x720. This can't be changed. In fact, the Audio/Video settings tab consists of nothing more than a check-box for enabling or disabling sound (you can toggle full screen by pressing alt-enter). I figure this'll be fixed later, but I know this would really bug some people. Also, I run dual monitors and sometimes the program starts up and tries to stretch itself across both. Toggling full screen on and off fixed the problem.
Currently, the following games are available: AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!!, Assassin's Creed II, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Borderlands, Brain Challenge, Defense Grid Gold, DiRT2, Fear 2, Just Cause 2 (man, that's a lot of 2's), LEGO Harry Potter, Madballs in Babo: Invasion, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, Puzzle Chronicles, Red Faction: Guerrilla, Shatter, Splinter Cell Conviction, Trine, Unreal Tournament III: Titan Pack and World of Goo.
Not really sure what to try first, I decide to demo a game I've already played just to compare. I'm a tower defense fanatic and have put in hours and hours into Defense Grid, so I try that first.
A word on Demoing
As far as I can tell, all games can be played on demo with no restrictions except for a 30 minute time limit. It seems that, at least for now, this timer resets if you leave the gameplay session and come back. I don't know if they intend to leave it like this, but if so it will make for plenty of free fun. For instance, you can multiplayer while on demo; more on that later.
Anyway, on to the gameplay:
Gamplay: Defense Grid
When it comes to OnLive, everyone is worried about lag, and it was there. Fortunately it was minor. The mouse would jump a bit every so often, but it was nothing that interfered with playing a TD game. Other than that, it was just like playing the game on my high end PC, and there's not much else to say, which is good I guess.
Notice the notification in the upper left. People can jump in and spectate you at any time. Being somewhat anti-social, this kinda creeped me out. During my 30 minute trial, about 10 people came in and watched me with their beady yet invisible internet eyes. I found the setting to turn off allowing spectators after the demo was over.
More on spectating
By going to the "Arena" section you get this:
Each of those squares is an actual stream of someone's gamplay. As far as I can tell, it just throws people up randomly and lets you move around to pick someone to zoom in on. You can also vote the stream up or down (I'm not sure if this is specific to the play session, the player, the player playing that specific game or what). This is actually really cool and I found myself just watching random people for a little while. This feature seems like it would be handy in seeing more of a game before buying. The downside is that it doesn't seem to let you filter in any way what games come up.
I found myself watching someone play Unreal Tournament and decided I need to try that next.
Gameplay: Unreal Tournament
Ah, a true test. A fast paced FPS game with multiplayer. If OnLive had lag issues, they would surely show up here.
OnLive automatically set up a profile for me so all I had to do was go through the character customization and then I was off to frag some noobs.
Keep in mind that I had noticeable lag while playing my first game. That said, the first thing I have to say about playing UT multiplayer on OnLive is, f*** rocket launchers. Seriously, has any game properly balanced rocket launchers? And the fact that that is my first thought should tell you a lot. I didn't notice any lag except for a few minor spikes that would throw off my aim for a split second. It was only a minor annoyance though. In fact, in some ways the lag didn't seem any worse than playing any other FPS I'd played. I played several rounds and despite never playing UT before, I had a lot of fun and did pretty well in most of my matches. I forgot I was playing on some new-fangled service and I was just enjoying the game.
Now, I did try to come back later and play some more UT, but found that there weren't very many servers up anymore. I find that strange as this was about 8pm CST, which should be prime time. I'm not sure why there'd be less people playing then than earlier in the day. Maybe this is the first day they were open and there was an initial rush of people who wanted to play that later died down?
Pricing
Buying a full access "PlayPass" on OnLive costs exactly as much as a retail copy. I find that rather disappointing; they really should be able to drop the price.
Some games have the option of buying a 5 day PlayPass and/or a 3 day PlayPass for a reduced price. There are a few things I find bizarre about this. First, the pricing seems completely arbitrary. Some games have 5 day passes for $6.99, some are for $8.99 and the difference doesn't seem to correlate with the retail price. For instance, the 5 day pass for Defense Grid, a game that costs $13.99 including all DLC's was $6.99. The 5 day pass for Batman: Arkham Asylum was also $6.99 even though the game retails for $39.99 on Steam. That brings me to another bizarre thing. Batman didn't have the option for a full pass! Your only choices are a 3 day or 5 day pass. Wtf? Seriously, I don't know whats up with that. Even if the game is short, it seems strange that they wouldn't even give you the option of a full pass. To be fair though, that was the only game I noticed that on.
On the UI
Snazzy is the word I'm looking for. Games have a streaming preview next to them, the arena is just a huge board of various videos. In general, it's very busy yet slick and eye catching.
One thing that bothered me is that the market had sorting options but no search function. That's ok for now since they have so few games, but that won't fly if they get up to a decent catalog size.
Brag Clips
Brag clips are 10 second clips of gameplay that you can have the server keep under your profile (like spectating, whether they show up publicly or just to your friends is a setting). As with the Arena, it was fun to click around a bit on the public ones and see what others thought was worth bragging about.
I did notice that some of these were a bit glitchy and didn't actually show anything.
Conclusion
Try to get into the free promotional deal so you can play the demos. You'll be surprised at how smooth the UI and gameplay is. But I don't plan on giving them money as of right now.
(Note: OnLive's website does say that anyone participating in a beta is bound by an NDA, but the OnLive Founding Members program is not considered a beta. In fact, you can't even sign up for beta right now. It seems like they'll use betas later to test new features.)
Comments
Nice review.
From what I've heard, they plan to charge around $15 per month for the service.
It's a very interesting service, and has the potential to make a big impact on PC gaming. Right now you're only option to play the latest and greatest PC games is to buy an expensive high-end PC. That cuts out a lot of potential customers. Now with OnLive, someone could play Splinter Cell Conviction with smooth framerate on an old Pentium 2 PC with on-board video. That is mind-blowing.
I don't expect that I'll ever use it. I'm sure most of us who are PC game fanatics already have high-end PCs, and prefer running the game on our own systems. But I expect there are a lot of people out there who could really benefit from OnLive. And who knows... the tech is brand new. If they can really perfect it, if someday average internet speeds get faster (i.e. fiber optic networks), maybe this really will completely replace the need for high end gaming PCs.
a quick question: At what resolution is the game running? Is it crispy as in a gaming pc or blurry like a dvd movie /consoles games?
Sounds less like a "review" and more like a sales pitch.
Anyway, no thanks. I prefer to own my games and play them when I want. I also like to make and use mods, good luck with that using Onlive. And while you're waiting for "server maintanence" or "downtime because the server overheated" or some other "inconvenience, I'll be happily playing my game I paid for. And without paying a monthly fee.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
I don't know, I really like the idea of onlive, I just think that charging the monthly fee while making you still buy the games is kind of bull. I understand the monthly fee is mainly paying for the server costs for them to host it, but honestly if they still charge full price for the game and you don't physically own it or you can't play it anymore once the monthly fee is done, then why would that be worth it.
Sounds like a sales pitch? Did you actually read what he wrote? Numerous times he says the pricing appears too high especially with a monthly fee and then in the conclusion he states: "Try to get into the free promotional deal so you can play the demos. You'll be surprised at how smooth the UI and gameplay is. But I don't plan on giving them money as of right now." So a sales pitch for you is designed around the concept of utilizing a free product and not spending any money?
As for resolution, as the op said right now it's only 1280x720 i think. The quality in my experience is as good as what I get on my xbox but definitely lower res. However to be able to play on a laptop that normally wouldn't run these games, which are generally lower resoution machines anyway, it's pretty cool to see. There's a few hiccups of lag here and there, but nothing really noticable. Personally, I agree with the OP: definitely worth checking out now, especially if you can get the free service like the op and I did, but I wouldn't shell out any money any time soon. If you already have a nice gaming rig, console and hdtv, or w/e this service probably will never appeal to you unless the prices come down significantly.
Steam: Neph
If you're a player than you will have to upgrade your pc at least once in 4 years. If you sub to onlive for 4 years you will pay 720$ and will not need to upgrade your pc. Which would had cost you far more than 720 anyway.
When I purchase the right to use a computer application that application is going to be on my computer. Not in some cloud somewhere that isn't on my computer.
Thumbs down to Onlive.
Thanks for the info, Harabeck!
For me, the resolution thing is an issue, with a 22" lcd. Back in the CRT days, it wasn't bad, and that isn't a bad rez, but anything other than native rez on an LCD just looks like pure crap to me. So that means I'd have to run it windowed.
It still sounds very impressive what they've managed to do, and the potential is staggering. But until they allow for full resolutions, folks like me will be out.
That's pretty much what ive read elsewhere on the net, mostly positive from the technical side, latency not being a major issue, with issues mostly with pricing and management of actual games. But that can easily be fixed. I would LOVE to try it out myself, if only i werent in Europe... The review is appreciated.
Well actually with a keen eye and good research one could build a pc themselves that will run most games fairly well for under 720 dollars. Easily in fact if all your replacing is just the tower.
As for On-Live, a nice idea but I'll have to wait to see how it all pans out.
Very true. Most people who make the "upgrading PC's is much more expensive than X" argument have either a.) never built one in their life, b.) built one but overpaid for everything because research made their brain hurt, or c.) think Alienware is a good deal.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
I thought that OnLive was a great idea until I actually got a chance to try it out.
I live in Hawaii, so the lag that the OP didn't have to deal with his me full force (in the face). That's not OnLive's fault. I'm simply stating a fact, and a limitation of the service.
Also I don't agree with the price structure, as I feel it is way too expensive. When I first heard about OnLive I thought you would pay a monthly payment and get access to a library of games, kind of like paying $15 to Napster gets you unlimited streaming of their entire music library for that month.
So unfortunately I won't be participating in this very cool idea.
"There is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer."
A review from the perspective a high-end gamer/hardware enthusiast
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/onlive-gaming-cloud,2671-3.html
Absolutely. No doubt they've never visited Newegg, either. I think they have an asinine notion in their head that you have to buy EVERYTHING all over again... keyboard, mouse, case, monitor, etc. THEN you may be talking $720. Most of those things you can keep, even the hard drive. SOMETIMES the power supply needs to be updated. That's about it.
MB/CPU/Memory combos can be had for as low as 125 bucks for decent stuff to REALLY good stuff for around $400. Then it's a matter of picking a vid card. Most cards $200 and over will be viable for 4 about years.
They also neglect the most important factor. Most people will end up buying a home PC anyway, and will replace it every 4-5 years. the expense for a standard, non-gaming PC will be at least half that of a good gaming PC. May as well double your investment and go gaming PC than starting from scratch with a console.
Back on topic, If Onlive can eventually build itself into a service that's like cable or Netflix, where you can pay a flat monthly fee for a little hardware interface and access to 100's of games at once, THEN I think they'll be a force to be reckoned with.
*EDIT*: Just read a little more about it, and it looks like that might be the way they're going with the TV interface. To me, this is much more a danger to the console market than PC. It has proven it can't touch the quality of PC gfx. But it's certainly on the tail of the PS3 and 360. And when the next generation comes around at $800 bucks and Onlive is there with its sub-100 interface...
Ya, I'd say OnLive is exciting if for no other reason than as a proof of concept. Hopefully, they'll either work out the kinks in their business model or someone else will down the road.
OnLive and its ilk are products that consumers don't need and haven't asked for. The entire reason they exist is to turn people into renters instead of owners; the platform, heck even the concept behind it, is nothing more than thinly veiled DRM. Why the hell would I want to pay a monthly fee to stream Arkham Asylum or whatever when I can pay 50 bucks and play it whenever I want, forever?
People that can't afford a $500.00 computer or a $200.00 console have more urgent concerns than not being able to afford gaming, and people that can afford to game don't need to be renting their content.
I'm a techhead too, and normally I love new technology as it normally benefits the consumer, but this crap is so transparent in its draconian aims as to be laughable. I can't believe anyone with a passion for video games and an eye for consumer choice would ever support this stuff.
It is utter garbage.
I have to say tat Onlive is a good idea. But is it really there yet?
Also the pricing structure needs work.
Another great example of Moore's Law. Give people access to that much space (developers and users alike) and they'll find uses for it that you can never imagine. "640K ought to be enough for anybody" - Bill Gates 1981