Cheap PC Gaming: OnLive

Gareth Chadwick 36 Comments

When OnLive was first announced I looked on with derision and skepticism. There was no way that they could stream an entire game to my lowly little laptop without crippling lag and swear-inducing bugs. I genuinely didn’t think it could happen, there was no chance. I saw people saying it could work, my own father amongst them, and I argued against it.

I explained why I thought so, I explained the bandwidth implications, the horrible internet cap issues I already had, that if the service goes down I wouldn’t be able to play my games and I refused to believe it would work. It was too incredible, too sci-fi to work.

I am not one to refuse to admit when I was wrong about something, so here it is: I was wrong. I was genuinely, 100% wrong. And I’m happy to admit that, because OnLive is amazing. I’ve been using computers and playing games on them for a good three quarters of my 21 years; I went through PSOne-PS2-PS3 technological advancements, the first games I played when I was a kid were 2D and the pixels themselves were visible, but nothing, and I mean nothing, has ever amazed me quite as much as OnLive.

Let me just explain that to you. This is streaming games – entire goddamn games – to your PC, laptop or OnLive console. It requires next-to-no hardware on your end and, in return, you can play any game available on the service, from Capsized to Dirt 3, Deus Ex to, well, Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

[drop]Now, this feature is based entirely on my own experiences with the service. I’ve tried it in three different ways on two different connections: My PC (wired) and my laptop (wifi) on my 50mb connection, and my laptop (wifi) via a 2.5mb connection. I tried a variety of games, including (but not limited to); Batman: Arkham Asylum, Homefront (Multiplayer only), Alpha Protocol, Warhammer 40k: Space Marine and Saints Row 2.

The difference between the wifi and wired 50mb connection were negligible and could easily have been attributed to the screen on my laptop versus the 40 inch Bravia I use for my PC. I did get ‘Network Problem’ whilst playing over wifi a couple of times but it didn’t seem to affect the actual game in any way; it just popped up in the top right corner and I continued to play as if it didn’t. Graphically on both connections the games looked good – it’s obvious the game isn’t installed on the system itself, as text (particularly white text) can be a tiny bit grainy and difficult to read, and the colours are less vibrant than they would be were I to play the game natively.

The 2.5mb wifi connection was a little more interesting. Graphically, there was an obvious step down. There were artifacts, things could get a little grainy and Space Marine was unplayable the one time I tried it (I don’t really know how to describe the problem other than ‘big red splotches on the character and prominent, sticky-out bits in the scenery’, it was just impossible to see what was going on properly). All of the other games were easily playable, however, despite the obvious graphical step downs.

Controls on all 3 setups were, however, flawless. I’ve heard reports of input lag but I have only experienced it once (and that was almost certainly because my mouse’s batteries were low, it was on the 50mb wired connection and was gone once I changed them). Personally, this is what amazed me, how it’s possible for me to move a mouse and have it moved for me on another computer in a different part of the country at the same time is well beyond my comprehension, but I was playing games like they were on the computer and I continue even now, two weeks after starting to use OnLive often (ever day for those two weeks, in fact), am still amazed.

Perhaps the only real problem with OnLive is the game selection. Make no mistake, there are big games in the OnLive Marketplace, with Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Assassin’s Creed 2/Brotherhood, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Warhammer 40k: Space Marine and Just Cause 2 being perhaps the most prominent, along with pre-orders of Batman: Arkham City and Saints Row 3 available, but there are a distinct lack of killer games. Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 would be ideal candidates to make the service really kick off (not that they’re likely to appear on the service, whatever the rumours say), and some other big names would definitely help.

[drop2]As this is Cheap PC Gaming, I’m obligated to mention the cheap part. Other than the possible saving on buying super-powered PCs, there are two distinctly exciting offers in OnLive at the moment. First, there is the PlayPack. This is a subscription that costs £7 a month and, at the time of writing, features around 105 games.

Admittedly, a lot of those games are fillers and things I’ve never heard of, but the pack includes the multiplayer portion of Homefront (still my favourite FPS multiplayer at the moment), Batman: Arkham Asylum, Just Cause 2 (as well as the it’s predecessor if you’re interested), the original Deus Ex, Fear 2, Fear 3’s multiplayer, Alpha Protocol, Borderlands… the list goes on, and is added to every month with new games (Arkham Asylum is a new addition).

The most surprising offer, however, is this; if you’re in the UK, your first game costs £1. It has to be a game that’s already out (so no pre-orders) and it has to show up on the game’s screen in the OnLive app (it’ll just say it costs £1 if you can use it with the offer). Personally, I got Space Marine. For £1. It’s probably the best deal I’ve ever seen.

Oh, did I mention the free trails? There are few games on OnLive that don’t have a 30 minute free trial that you can try without even having to enter any card details – just register, install the app, log in and choose your first game to trial. You can trial that for 30 minutes and and saves you make will stay there in case you buy the game afterwards – or you can just buy it from within the game when the time expires and carry on playing.

Don’t want to use a mouse and keyboard? Plug in a wired 360 controller, boot up the app and any game that supports it will be happy to let you use it. The interface is actually better suited to a controller than a mouse, anyway.

Really, go to OnLive.co.uk. You should at least register and try one of the game trials, it doesn’t cost you anything, after all.

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36 Comments

  1. Im really taken by OnLive too, Its not seen much action these past few days because of the release of FIFA12 but, Ill be back to it very soon.
    It should also be noted that if you pay the £7 a month subscription to the PlayPack you then get 33% of all other purchases, meaning that on relase of Saints Row 3 and Batman: Arkham City it is possible to get them for £27

  2. Probably one of the most useful articles I’ve read on TSA :)
    Given I’m the sort of gamer who sits there in the evening thinking “I wish I could play ” only to then buy a copy and play it a short while before moving onto something else, this seemed like an ideal service for me. The only thing what put me off was that I only get about 2.5-3MB in the evenings, but your article has restored my confidence.
    I’ll register and download a couple of trials this evening. Thanks!

    • Download? It’s streamed!!

      • lol sorry, force of habit

      • Haha, I didn’t see that hehe

      • Technically you are still downloading whilst streaming, you just don’t keep the stuff you download afterwards [/melvin]

  3. “The F5D8636uk4A will not allow you to forward enough ports to run OnLive”

    Boo hiss!!

  4. As cool as it is, because the amount of data it uses and the fact that you don’t have a hard copy of the game means you’ll have to have faith that OnLive will never go out of business, and an ISP that has no fair usage policy. I like having hard copies always… :P

    • I think I’m getting over the need for hard copies for PC games. I mostly buy from Steam and Onlive now.

    • Same I would prefer to use Steam or anything else downloady… Having a code to download the game from Impulse,Steam and Origin is a great thing, No more discs!!!

  5. I prefer having hard copies and I’m with Virgin media and their optic fibre is the worst for gaming so OnLive is a no go.

    • I am with Virgin Media ;-)

      • Well every time I get host in COD, I lag n my game plays slow whereas everyone else in the lobby is playing fine, happens on all consoles. Sky on my house works fine.
        I hate Virgin Media 30meg and the superdud with a passion. Bring on BT Infinity December 2012 :)

      • Sounds like your using the Virgin Media Superhub ie
        http://tinyurl.com/69mchnu

        Luckly I do not have a Superhub but Modem and router for my 50meg.

        Superhub has a history of issues!
        http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/14/virgin_media_superhub_update_modem_mode/

        It recomed that use latest update the firmware.
        http://tinyurl.com/Superhub-R30

      • Yes, the Superhub is a pile of shit, genuinely the worst piece of hardware I’ve used. However, I don’t know what’s wrong with your connection, 30mb should be perfectly fine. Are you over wifi or wired? If you’re over wifi try going wired, as the wifi on that mess of a router is atrocious.

      • I rang up, they sent a new SuperDud which was Dead On Arrival lol figures, eh? Had to resort back to the old SuperDud whilst a “technician” comes on Friday to see why the new SuperDud isn’t picking up a connection

        Wired or Wireless, issues with gaming on both, although that later firmware was reduced the amount of times the Dud would go off in the middle of the night and flashing lights in the morning.
        It is a P.O.S, the other day, every time my MacBook connected to the router, my PS3 would lose connection and vice versa.

  6. I am on Virgin Media (50Meg) and it works a treat for me. In fact on the same connection I have
    1 x OnLive MicroConsole
    2 x Computers (OnLive Laucher)

    All runing at same time playing games. So that 3 connections being made to OnLive that are playing games at the same time.

    The things you have look for is connections hogs. If downloading a file even playing flash video flash. But worst of all is p2p software and I not just talking about BitTorrent here. Also look at other p2p software like Skype, Spotify etc these are all p2p software. Even if your not using them, they could be using up lot of you connection.

    One thing also worth mention is WiFi, OnLive works on WiFi but OnLive dosn’t recommend it. Also check that someone else isn’t leaching your WiFi connection. Leching someone WiFi is a crime. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/6958429.stm

    What sort upload/download are your geting at
    http://www.speedtest.net/
    If not what you expecting then first do the “The IT Crowd” tryed and tested solution. Turn off (Modem/Router) then wait 60 seconds then turn it on again. If dosn’t work and have no other ideas left then phone Virgin.

    I hope you are able to get it working. Then have another avenue to gaming, best of luck.

  7. Ugh while its nice to have boxes for various games… I’d rather download pc and PSP games..

    I wouldn’t do the same on PS3… since well some of the games don’t tend to last months or a year and well maybe because you can trade them… Onlive is great so far, for a renting service it would be great for myself. Some of the games on the Playback have been good fun..

    Seriously though? Ninja Blade? hidden ninja gem?

  8. my connection is so fast the point of using onlive is pointless just download a full game & own it & play it offline.

  9. What is OnLive doing in _cheap_ PC gaming?

    • Its cheap for 3 months at first because its free :)

      To the average person, OnLive isn’t very good, as most people have crap routers supplied by the providers (including me, BT) and don’t have unlimited usage.

      It costs me less to get unlimited 3G Internet on my mobile than it does with BT broadband lol.

    • £7 a month for unlimited gaming, from 105 (and counting) games.. and £1 for the first game. Isn’t that cheap? It sure seems it to me compared to buying everything individually..

      • so saints row 3 batman will be under the £7 a month package?

    • I already explained that in the article…

      • Sorry. :) I know you had to squeeze it through, not your fault obviously!

  10. The problem with this for me was highlighted very early in the article:

    “if the service goes down I wouldn’t be able to play my games”

    This is exactly what i would be concerned about. Well, that & the fact that you would never own anything that you could hold in your hand &/or trade. That is pretty much a killer for me.

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