MrGrandTheftAuto Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 (edited) Cloud gaming service ‘OnLive’ has finally launched in the UK. The way you buy and play games may never be the same again. Seriously... Cloud gaming means that you don’t physically own the games you play – you don’t even need a high-end PC or fancy console to play them on. Instead, players become subscribers who merely control the action, while all the processing takes place on powerful remote servers. Access to games is practically instant, and all user inputs are effectively streamed back in near real-time. The standard OnLive set-up costs £69.99 and consists of a slick joypad and the OnLive ‘Microconsole’. The latter, which is as tiny as the name suggests, plugs straight into your broadband router and out to your TV via HDMI. All the necessary cables are included in the box. Alternatively, players can hook up on PC or Macintosh. A small browser download is required, and users can opt to plug in a compatible joypad – a wired Xbox 360 controller worked for us. Otherwise the service is exactly the same. OnLive launches with a range of over 100 games, including many big name releases such as ‘Batman: Arkham Asylum’, ‘Dirt 3’, Deus Ex: Human Revolution’, ‘LEGO Harry Potter and many more. All are priced from £1.99 to £39.99, but your very first purchase will cost just £1. Three or five day rentals are an option if you’re not looking for lifetime (virtual) ownership. However, the most tempting offer is the all-you-can-eat ‘PlayPass’, which gives unlimited access to most games in the OnLive library and costs just £6.99 a month. BT Broadband customers are offered the first three months absolutely FREE. Speaking of freebies. OnLive is giving away the Microsconsole package at this weekend’s Eurogamer Expo – Earls Court, September 22-25. Stocks are limited, though, so act quickly to avoid disappointment. So what are the catches with OnLive? They’re very few, in fact. Users will need a moderate internet connection – a 3MB line is recommended – there’s no SCART output for older model TVS and the service is not supposed to be used by players under 13 years of age. The upsides are that it’s cheap, easy to use, most games have free demos and any there’s very little lag between player inputs and the on-screen results. Edited September 22, 2011 by MrGrandTheftAuto Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrGrandTheftAuto Posted September 22, 2011 Author Share Posted September 22, 2011 (edited) OnLive May Be Bringing Rockstar Games, Specifically L.A. Noire to the Service OnLive will be bringing several EA published games to their service. This was groundbreaking news because of the mere fact that we found out that Electronic Arts, a publisher who had been a known partner with OnLive would finally bring games to the service. In an interview with Steve Perlman last night, EuroGamer discovered a little more. Perlman said, “We have different tiers of servers. Virtua Tennis is running on one of our lower-end ones, as is Lego Harry Potter and so on, whereas Deus Ex: Human Revolution is running on one of our higher-end servers. And Batman: Arkham City will be, and we have a number of games that are coming out that are pretty high-performance – L.A. Noire and so on.” The significance to seeing L.A. Noire is more than at the surface. Besides the fact that the game has aMetascore of 89, and that it is certainly a game that OnLive fans will welcome with opened arms, there is one more aspect to it. L.A. Noire is from publisher Rockstar Games; the company behind games such as Grand Theft Auto, Midnight Club, Manhunt, Max Payne, Red Dead, and The Warriors, among others. While OnLive has had a decent relationship with their parent company, Take-Two Interactive in the past, they have not yet seen any games specifically from Rockstar. Don’t get your hopes up too soon though. L.A. Noire was NOT on the list of coming soon titles that we reported on last night. It may have been a mistake on Steve Perlman’s part to announce this, or perhaps it was a typo on the part of EuroGamer. Doubtful though. If however, this is true, the odds are that this game won’t be seen for OnLive until at least December 29, 2011, when the PC version releases. The game currently is available for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. OnLive will surely prefer to port the PC version over to their service. It really appears as though Steve Perlman wasn’t lying when he told OnLiveFans.com in June that he had plans to bring games from every major publisher to the service. Edited September 22, 2011 by MrGrandTheftAuto Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miles Pedro Prower Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 OnLive already works here in Brazil. But with 300kbps costing $40, I don't think I'd be able to use it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrGrandTheftAuto Posted September 23, 2011 Author Share Posted September 23, 2011 £40 are £25.89. With Virgin Media here, you can get 10MB Broadband for £21 (1250kbps) in dollars its $32.45 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bossman Posted September 25, 2011 Share Posted September 25, 2011 Tried out AC Brotherhood, and wasn't impressed. SD graphics, stuttering every few seconds, slow to respond, and not fun to play. We're not ready for this in the UK, our broadband is all slow shitty 4 MBPS on average. Rather stick to consoles for the foreseeable future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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