OnLive: Review

“Onlive game Service:  Power On.  Start Gaming.  In the time it takes you to read this, you could be gaming already.”  That’s quite a claim taken from the Onlive website.  It seems to insinuate that the time it takes to load a game on their system is quicker than others, right?  Well, we put that claim to the test.  We tested the OnLive console against my 3-year old Xbox 360.  Since I had Darksiders available on both consoles, we went ahead and used it for the test.  Now, let’s be clear here, this test in no ways is a scientific one.  It is simply a “cold start to game play” test using what I had available.  Obviously there are probably too many variables to make it scientific but we did it anyway.  What we found is that on average we could be gaming in about 1:49 on the Xbox and in 1:55 on the OnLive.  In the big scheme of things, not a big enough deal to decide your choice of gaming console anyways, right?  More importantly, you would be looking at cost, graphics quality, choice of games, the controller’s ease of use, etc.  So let’s take a look at these things.

First of all, if you are not familiar with the OnLive console, we should probably explain why it is different.  This console is not actually a “console” like the Sony/Microsoft ones.  It actually is a way of Gaming in the “Cloud.”  You are remotely accessing the OnLive gaming servers which in turn send the video signal back to your TV which is encoded to HiDef quality.  Oh yeah, and you can access them from any computer as well.  This is what sets it apart.  You can purchase your access to any listed games and they become available to you anywhere you are without lugging around a heavy console and your whole library of games.  You instead sign on to the website from a computer or you can connect the very small “console” to any TV and internet access and viola you have access to your entire OnLive library.  Got your attention yet?  Definitely an interesting concept.

But how do the graphics compare to the Xbox 360 or PS3 you ask?  As a matter of fact, quite well actually.  I had both of the test subjects hooked up to my 42” plasma with 720p/1080i quality and I couldn’t tell them apart.  Both have HDMI output and the video quality was excellent.

Gaming over an internet ‘cloud’ setup leaves one question lingering in everyone’s mind. Will there be lag?  With my setup we did not experience any lag with the OnLive system.  That, however, may change based on the quality/speed of your ISP.  I have Cox’s premium service which exceeds 50 mbps download and 8 mbps upload.  I had them both hardwired into the Gigabit ports on my router.  This is, of course, the optimum setup.  I did test the wireless option on my Netgear N600 Dual Band Gigabit Router but those results were not as good.  We did experience some lag while playing back video clips and while playing RTS games like Warhammer 40k.  We switched back to hardwired and were pleased with the results.

So, what does the game library look like?  At the time of this writing there were 49 games available.  Mostly older titles with some relatively new ones like Arkham Asylum, Homefront, and Assassin’s Creed – Brotherhood.  Not a bad assortment either.  There were RTS, FPS, RPG and Driving games available.  Not bad.

So would the Onlive system be a better choice than the others?  This question is not so easy to answer.  There are a few inherent flaws that I should point out.  First of all, when you “buy” a game with OnLive, you are actually buying ACCESS to the game not the game itself.   I feel that some people may not trust this.  They may ask “what if OnLive goes out of business?  What happens to my games?”  Well, you can imagine the answer to that.  In my opinion, they would be better served with a “Napster” or “Netflix” business model.  Instead of paying $49 for access to one game, how about $19.99 a month for access to all of them?  Maybe different levels of access, maybe silver and gold?  Silver for older games and a premium “gold” membership for access to the new ones?  Seems like a no brainer to me.

Another inherent flaw is the necessary internet speed.  If you live somewhere that still has slow connectivity you will quickly become frustrated with the choppy video and laggy game play.  Although, if you are blessed with glorious bandwidth, you will be pleasantly surprised.

In summary, I enjoyed the system.  Would it replace my Xbox 360 or PS3?  I doubt it.  Right now it seems more like a novelty than a serious alternative.  For the right price, I would definitely add it to my array of gaming devices and who knows, maybe for once, I would be ahead of the technology curve.

Guest Writer: Nick McGuire