OnLive Streaming game console

[jbanes]

What if your internet connection goes down during gameplay. Will your progression be saved or is all lost and you have to start over a level all new.

 

Depends on the game and how it handles the situation. Most games seem to have regular save points, so I have not lost any real progress yet.

 

FWIW, I was extremely cynical that this was going to be a real, working product back when it was announced. As a software engineer by trade, it just didn't seem like it was feasible. But I have to admit, OnLive did it! They've managed to keep latencies low enough to where games feel just as good as playing them on a local console. Just with BETTER graphics. (Shocking! I know!)

 

Even more impressive is that OnLive takes care of their customers like they're kin. For example, I bought a game for ~$3.00 when it was on sale. Just so I could say that I own a piece of the OnLive cloud. They rewarded me with a free month of their all-you-can-play service. No strings attached, just logon and play! It's too bad I don't like modern games more, because there was a lot of stuff there! (Don't worry. I did play some of it. )

 

I've heard of similar gifts being given to early adopters and people who ordered the console. Thanks to their generally excellent handling of customers, I ended up purchasing an unlimited play pass for Braid. Which works just fine with my Street Fighter IV game controller! Truly an excellent product.

 

As it stands, I have a custom-built quad-core i5 system with 16 GB of RAM in front of me. There is very little it can't run. But with service this excellent, no-hassle execution of games, the ability to watch other people play before taking the plunge, time-limited demos of FULL games (which remember your progress if you buy them!), and other great features, OnLive is on my list of favorite companies.

 

The only real down side (other than requiring a beefy internet connection) is that their game selection is limited. This is changing slowly, but changing nonetheless. I'm hoping that time will resolve this little problem. Especially once publishers realize that OnLive games can't be pirated and pre-release games to OnLive months ahead of console and PC. (Mark my words. It will happen.)

[jbanes]

I just got this from OnLive:

 

If you haven't checked out the games in the OnLive PlayPack Beta, you still can, FREE, with no commitment required. OnLive has extended the Free Beta period on its PlayPack subscription plan and opened it up to all OnLive members, meaning you now have unlimited access to the growing list of PlayPack games until January 31*. Play any game you want, as often as you want. But do it now while the Free Beta lasts!

 

What are you waiting for? Go play some free games!!!

[Austin]

Yep, I was just about to mention that, haha. The unlimited PlayPack is basically up for anyone to try until the end of January.. So for anyone that wants to play FEAR 2, Unreal Tournament 3 and quite a few others for free, sign up and give the PC version of OnLive a shot.

[Flojomojo]

OnLive is awesome, and I love the little microconsole. I've been doing 95% of my video game playing on iPhone or OnLive lately, and haven't bought a disc (or cartridge)-based game in months. It really feels like the future is here.

 

On days that I mess around with OnLive, my data usage is massive, like 10GB for a few hours of Just Cause 2. So long as Verizon doesn't try to put a download cap on me, and OnLive can keep the quality games coming, I'll be a subscriber.

[+LS650]

Where I live, my high-speed internet is talking about capping subscribers at 60 GB a month, and charging a $1.50 for every gigabyte over the cap.

 

Doesn't look like I'll be getting one of these streaming consoles any time soon.

[nathanallan]

I was watching TV when I saw a commercial for Gamefly. It seems they use the Atari 2600 joystick over there. I head over there and sure enough, right on the main page, is a picture of the Atari 2600 joystick in all its glory. Now, if only you could rent Atari 2600 games...

Okay that post is from another thread, but I think it is relevant here because one would be able to play the games on the OnLive system if the roms are there to be had. AND a person could in theory could use a 2600 joystick to do it.

 

OnLive is still a neat thing, and I really hope people port and make homebrews for it.

[Itchy Koala]

OnLive is awesome, and I love the little microconsole. I've been doing 95% of my video game playing on iPhone or OnLive lately, and haven't bought a disc (or cartridge)-based game in months. It really feels like the future is here.

 

On days that I mess around with OnLive, my data usage is massive, like 10GB for a few hours of Just Cause 2. So long as Verizon doesn't try to put a download cap on me, and OnLive can keep the quality games coming, I'll be a subscriber.

 

This saddens the Koala

[Flojomojo]

Why? You don't need a ROM chip to have a good time.

[Itchy Koala]

It may be just me, but I don't want to see hard copies of games become extinct. There's nothing fun about having a 500 game collection sitting on an external hard drive. I WANT OLD DUSTY CRAPPY DISCS AND CARTS DAMNIT!

 

 

[Austin]

OnLive is still a neat thing, and I really hope people port and make homebrews for it.

 

Now, I would be interested to see if hackers can do anything with it. The system itself supposedly has a dual-core ARM-based CPU with 512 MB RAM. There's no 3D accelerator, but I wonder what kind of 2D emulation it can handle if the whole concept is even possible. Someone would also have to figure out a way to get it to read other USB devices (external HDs and thumb drives), but still.. It would be neat if something like this happens, if only to be able to still make use of this box if the company ever goes under.

 

It may be just me, but I don't want to see hard copies of games become extinct. There's nothing fun about having a 500 game collection sitting on an external hard drive. I WANT OLD DUSTY CRAPPY DISCS AND CARTS DAMNIT!

 

The convenience factor somewhat pays for itself.. I just enjoy the option of being able to use a streaming console OR purchase hard media. Hopefully it stays that way.

 

By the way, since this topic has been resurrected, if anyone is interested in the system, they had it on discount for about $50 a week or two ago. Not sure if they still do, but it may be worth a look.

 

*edit: Looking at their site, they have a deal where if you pre-order Homefront for OnLive, you get a free console as well as a free Play Pass for Metro 2033. Not a bad deal at all.. Two full games and a system for $50!

[Flojomojo]

OnLive is awesome, and I love the little microconsole. I've been doing 95% of my video game playing on iPhone or OnLive lately, and haven't bought a disc (or cartridge)-based game in months. It really feels like the future is here.

 

On days that I mess around with OnLive, my data usage is massive, like 10GB for a few hours of Just Cause 2. So long as Verizon doesn't try to put a download cap on me, and OnLive can keep the quality games coming, I'll be a subscriber.

 

Heheh, check out baby me, calling 10GB of bandwidth usage "massive" in 2011.

[Austin]

And look at baby me, trying to be optimistic about the whole thing!


...when in reality, OnLive was trash.

[Reaperman]

weirdly coincidentally, a few days ago I ordered the onlive universal controller for pc gaming use. They're going for under $20 shipped on the ebays, and I remembered how much I liked the feel of the one that came with the microconsole. It really was a nice controller. It looks a lot like it was designed by the same person/team that did amazon's controller a few years later.

 

I wonder if there's any use for a microconsole in today's world. Probably not, but they came in a nice box and feel pretty solidly built.

[Bill Loguidice]

weirdly coincidentally, a few days ago I ordered the onlive universal controller for pc gaming use. They're going for under $20 shipped on the ebays, and I remembered how much I liked the feel of the one that came with the microconsole. It really was a nice controller. It looks a lot like it was designed by the same person/team that did amazon's controller a few years later.

 

I wonder if there's any use for a microconsole in today's world. Probably not, but they came in a nice box and feel pretty solidly built.

 

When I purged much of my collection last year, obviously all of my microconsoles went out, as did my two universal controllers. I didn't bother to keep them because I found they really weren't all that universal, at least for the various things I tried them with. Hopefully you'll have better luck than I did. What I personally use on PC these days are my extra Xbox One controllers (the Bluetooth ones), although I do also have a little-used Steam controller.

[Reaperman]

 

When I purged much of my collection last year, obviously all of my microconsoles went out, as did my two universal controllers. I didn't bother to keep them because I found they really weren't all that universal, at least for the various things I tried them with. Hopefully you'll have better luck than I did. What I personally use on PC these days are my extra Xbox One controllers (the Bluetooth ones), although I do also have a little-used Steam controller.

 

yeah, the xbox ones are the standard--I stick with the 2.4g 360 controllers, myself. Everything just has button mappings for the xbox stuff built in.

 

The onlive universal controllers, for whatever reason, need every little thing mapped. The left analog defaults to being correct, but all the other sticks/dpads/buttons need mapping, and I'm finding that not all games feature that level of customization, which has turned out to be annoying. However, what is nice is that all the special buttons, including the onlive button and the row of video/sharing buttons along the bottom are mappable, which I'm hoping will come in handy for more complex sims. Also IIRC, I find the analog triggers to be much more comfortable on the onlive controller. I know my index fingers tend to eventually cramp up when doing arcade racers, for example, on my 360 pads, and I'm hoping that this can resolve some of that. Of course the one I tried didn't have enough customization to get the triggers going, so yeah on not being so universal.

[jhd]

When I purged much of my collection last year, obviously all of my microconsoles went out,

 

Now that the supporting infrastructure is long-gone, is the hardware still usable at all?