Onlive - September 22nd

[Dirty Frank]

Anyone interested in this service? I wont be signing up at first, will wait to see how it goes because it looks too good to be true imo.

http://onlive.co.uk/

You buy your games and they run them for you in the cloud, so you dont ever need a ninja PC to play them. In America you can pay $99 to got the micro console and wireless control pad so you can just play them on your TV. Full res, full details and they do all the processing for you.

[Dirty Frank]

Here's a list of current games, any that are "Included" are available in the play pack which is $9.99 a month with no ongoing commitment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_OnLive_games

[freecar]

I've seen a review of the service that said it was too good to be true, i.e. it didn't deliver a decent playable experience. I personally haven't looked into it any further.

[T84]

I've used it, the review is wrong, it's excellent and I was playing on 5mb/s internet.

[freecar]

http://www.gamesradar.com/onlive-review/?page=1

Hmm, looking at the screenshots, I wouldn't fancy it. I suppose if you aren't that serious about playing games it would work but I wouldn't like to try to play some of the more complicated modern games on it.

I'm also not sure how well it would work with limited broadband, I've seen the data rates of my ps3 when it is running in full swing and you'd soon eat up your allowance with a couple of hours gaming.

[T84]

The graphics are processed before sending back to you, so it doesn't matter how complicated the game is, it's like receiving an HD video

[freecar]

T84 said:

The graphics are processed before sending back to you, so it doesn't matter how complicated the game is, it's like receiving an HD video

Well according to gamesradar even with a 15Mbps connection it failed to send HD graphics and was like playing through a youtube filter.

[ZeeTacoe]

Tried it with red faction (there wasn't a standard demo) the graphics were horrendous and the input lag massive.

[JDMDrifter]

I'll give it a try as it sounds like a great idea but i've seen mixed reviews

[Dirty Frank]

freecar said:

Well according to gamesradar even with a 15Mbps connection it failed to send HD graphics and was like playing through a youtube filter.

They have a max of 720p and it does state resolutions before you purchase.

It sounds like they are failing to deliver, shame really. Its gunna be mega when someone gets it right though.

[Mr Obertshaw]

Whats the deal with this then? A friend said that it was coming out soon, but I've been using it since March as far as I recall, doesn't say anything about it being a beta either.

It plays reasonably well with no noticeable lag on button presses, and I have incredibly slow internet. The graphics do look a bit playstation 2 though as I assume they reduce quality of the video stream for low connections.

Here is a screenshot of tom clancy Hawk I took.


Screenshot Tom clancy Hawx -Onlive by Mat Robertshaw, on Flickr

To be honest I'd still much rather use my xbox though...

[Dirty Frank]

You will be using the American/international service. The UK service is UK based servers, UK based customer support and help, it "should" mean a better service all round...but I doubt it makes too much of a difference.

[freecar]

Dirty Frank said:

freecar said:

Well according to gamesradar even with a 15Mbps connection it failed to send HD graphics and was like playing through a youtube filter.

They have a max of 720p and it does state resolutions before you purchase.

It sounds like they are failing to deliver, shame really. Its gunna be mega when someone gets it right though.

Hmm, I read claims about 1080p and 60fps, then it said you need more bandwidth for a bigger screen and totally blew it!

Of course this means that any graphical claim they have is acheived through upscaling, I can upscale Dad's Army to 1080p doesn't make it HD though!

[ZeeTacoe]

That HAWX. Screenshot doesn't look too brilliant. He text is especially bad.