OnLive First Impressions
OnLive Screen
OnLive was released on June 17th of 2010. Members are being accepted in rolling admissions, and the public now gets to have their crack at this new, potentially revolutionary, gaming service. How does OnLive perform?
Start off knowing that one of OnLive’s prominent features, or at least one of the heavily stressed features during conferences and events, was the ability to play high definition, graphically demanding, games on a low-end PC or netbook. At launch, however, neither Wifi nor the OnLive game console are supported as of now. My main attraction to this service was to be able to play games such as Crysis on this cheap, low-end, Toshiba laptop, but that will apparently have to wait for some time until they have worked out the kinks in the service.
Having been accepted into the founding members program, I have received a 1 year membership for free, and the 2nd year for an optional $5 a month. The install is very fluid. Right after acceptance, you go through a one – two minute install. After that, you are directed to the launcher and straight into OnLive. Immediately, I noticed one problem I had with the service is its lack of support for many game pads. Apparently, the only gamepad it supports is the Xbox 360 wired controller. I guess that’s okay for Xbox 360 owners, but I personally do not want to have to purchase one for use just on OnLive. But that is a minor qualm, considering the keyboard controls for most supported games are manageable.
The first game I played was Splinter Cell: Conviction, the thirty minute demo. The quality of the video was subpar. The animation of the game was very fluid, as if I was playing the actual game. The sound effects were on time and the reaction time of my mouse clicks were as if the game was installed on my hard drive. However, bringing it back to the video quality, it really lagged behind the quality of the other visual components. When standing still, the quality was crisp and clear, and you could appreciate the game for what it is worth. When in movement or if a lot of action is taking place on the screen, the video compression would sort of stutter and the quality would really become something un-enjoyable.
OnLive Menu
OnLive is still in its early stages, however. So ones first impressions must be considerate of that fact. OnLive has not fulfilled every promise yet, and the service is still being worked on and upgraded to meet the needs of the consumers. The mini-console is still slated for release and Wifi will be added in a couple of months time. By the time Wifi is supported, all of the kinks regarding video compression and poor video quality should be fixed or lessened to a tolerable standard.
Besides graphics, the whole setup of OnLive is amazing, in terms of the community. When you are about to hop into the demo of the game of your choice, during the loading, you actually spectate a player of that game at that very moment. This can help you get an insight into what you may come to expect, but this also may spoil an important scene of the story. You can literally spend hours in the arena, watching other players play the game, whether on multiplayer or on a single player campaign. This is pretty entertaining for the social networking aspect of OnLive. You can just be spectating your friend, helping or guiding him or her through the level, or just chatting with them.
OnLive Controller and Hub
Another minor gripe I have with OnLive is its lackluster gaming library. I know I cannot call them out on it just yet, because the service is new and not many people are expected to throw their support behind the service so early in the stage, but some of the games that are advertised on the website are not even up for download yet. Some of the games that I purposely downloaded OnLive solely for, such as Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins. Two of the, arguably, best roleplaying-games on the market. However, for the first person shooter/action adventure enthusiast, you may find much to enjoy with your selection. You will have the choice of getting games such as Boarderlands, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Unreal Tournament III: Titan Pack, and more.
All in all, OnLive has managed to turn a skeptic into a supporter. OnLive is a service that will revolutionize the video game industry, and possibly become a force to be reckoned with. The response times are exactly that of what they said, negligible, assuming you have the proper Internet connection. If the development team can manage to improve the video compression, and possibly lessen the requirements for playing, this service will easily come to dominate the video game industry. My first impression of OnLive has definitely turned out to be a good one.
