Since OnLive has dropped their subscription fee I thought I would give it a try. I have to say it was pretty decent though not as good as playing games directly off my computer but not everyone has a computer that is able to play those types of video games. The game selection is also kinda limited but I'm sure that will change soon. Have any of you tried it and if so what are your thoughts?

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Original post by SteveDeFacto OnLive has dropped their subscription fee...

Trial ends at the end of this year. Have always been curious but I also heard that the graphics settings they use aren't especially high. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

Yeah, the graphics are quite shoddy in parts. I think there is a full review by Digital Foundry lying around somewhere, but Eurogamer has condensed it down a bit and there are quite a few videos showing side by side comparisons. Some of them such as the Batman game have a very noticeable difference in quality.

Eurogamer Review

NB.

I'll be honest, I'm impressed and quite surprised at the final results. No, if you have a good rig, OnLive will not surpass hard drive play. But considering you can play just about any game assuming you have the bandwidth, it's very interesting. I was expecting bad frame lag and latency, there were some jitters and probably about 150ms of lag but certainly still playable and enjoyable. The graphics were a little compressed but the settings were still relatively high so the games still looked good.

I'm still miffed at how this works but I guess they figured it out so kudos to them.

Another plus, getting an account, installing, and playing were all very quick and easy. I was literally playing a game within 2 minutes of going to the site, so again kudos to them for streamlining the install and download process.

The only really negative thing I have to say about it is price. I guess you have to be in the target market (ie shitty comp) to appreciate this service but I would never pay full price for these games. I'd think they'd get more mileage with a monthly fee and letting you play all games.

I played Assassins Creed 2 with something like 384K DSL and its playable. There is a bit of lag and the image is much worse then it would be for me locally (Raedon 5850) but if you didn't have a higher end computer I could maybe see this doing something. Although even with a super high speed line there would still be some lag so I don't think this will ever be good for twitch games like FPS.

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Original post by stupid_programmer I played Assassins Creed 2 with something like 384K DSL and its playable. There is a bit of lag and the image is much worse then it would be for me locally (Raedon 5850) but if you didn't have a higher end computer I could maybe see this doing something. Although even with a super high speed line there would still be some lag so I don't think this will ever be good for twitch games like FPS.

nah on a high speed low latency line it's fine. I've had OnLive since it first released and used it at work for a while. Fiber optic cable + 8 ms latency to their server. Feels like a local game. Also their algorithm degrades quality dynamically based on your bandwidth. If you don't have the full bandwidth of 4.7 to 5.3 mbps aka 4800 kbps to 5450 kbps you're probably going to see artifacts. (I wrote a post here that listed some information).

I'm still waiting for 1080p and more games. They have a few games on their list for future games so it should be interesting. Their last message in the blog "Improved video quality and lower latency." has me interested.

Should be interesting if services like this pressure ISPs to up their bandwidth for customers so that they can target more users.

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Original post by GameCreator Quote: Original post by SteveDeFacto OnLive has dropped their subscription fee... Trial ends at the end of this year. Have always been curious but I also heard that the graphics settings they use aren't especially high. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

No when I said they dropped their subscription fee I meant it: It is free forever! But you do have to buy the games if you want to play them for more then 30 minute of course but that's reasonable to me.

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Original post by NewBreed Yeah, the graphics are quite shoddy in parts.

I think it is decent but they should offer higher bandwidth and video quality if you pay some type of VIP subscription. Also they should let everyone play all the games for free but they should drop the free users resolution, game settings, and bandwidth so that the games are still playable but if you can afford it you would want to pay for the VIP subscription.

In my opinion that would be a better business model then making the users pay full price for something they would be better off getting on steam. However, the current business model is most beneficial to those who do not have gaming rigs.

for me it seems like they are marketing it the wrong way

rather than selling it direct to the public, they should turn their setup portable,deal with the game licensing part and license the service to cable tv/isps

would be Bobby Kotick's wet dream

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Original post by Alch for me it seems like they are marketing it the wrong way rather than selling it direct to the public, they should turn their setup portable,deal with the game licensing part and license the service to cable tv/isps would be Bobby Kotick's wet dream

If they didn't put it on the computer I would not use it because I don't have cable or a TV...