Geek Syndicate Feb. 2012 | Page 8
Geek Syndicate
OnLive - True Cloud Gaming?
Quest. The catalogue of games is impressive and includes some classics such as Deus Ex however new releases generally appear later than on other systems. For example Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 (released in September 2011 in the United States and October 2011 in the UK is available only as a preorder for UK OnLivers in midJanuary 2012.
OnLive Logo © 2012, OnLive Ltd.
save game is stored on the OnLive servers and you are free to pick up where you left off. OnLive also offers a subscription service to their “Play Pack”. Subscribers get a discount to game purchases of around 30% on every game on offer. Of course, since OnLive is effectively a closed market system - there can be no shopping around for the best deal! The Play Pack is a subscription which provides you with over 100 games to play when you want and as much as you want. The games tend to be older titles such as Arkham Asylum and Borderlands, however pack offers a wide range of games and more titles get added regularly. The current cost is around £7 a month which is good value for me as I play a few of the games nearly every week so I feel like I get my money’s worth. However if you just want to play one or two of the Play Pack games you’ll be better just buying them outright.
The Cost of Cloud Gaming
There are several different pricing structures on OnLive. First of all there is the simple full access, which is generally sold at the retail price of a PC game and allows unlimited access to the title purchased. Then there are 3 day and 5 day passes, the price of which vary from game to game, but are generally around £4 and £6 respectively. As their name suggests, these allow access to the game for a certain number of days. Many games also offer a free trial available which usually lasts about half an hour.
Four months after its UK launch OnLive still seems a relatively “underground” service. Not many people I speak to know much about it, except it must have pumped some big money into advertising on YouTube. OnLive is a cloud computer gaming company that streams games to “any” of your internet enabled devices, using either a small application or their custom console that can be plugged directly into a television set. The OnLive application itself is a small program that currently runs on Apple Mac, Windows, Android Operating Systems. On Mac and Windows it requires very little space (approximately 7.5 MB) and a decent internet connection, which OnLive believes to be 5Mbps, so it is the perfect for netbooks as well as high spec gaming rigs. OnLive currently hosts a large range of games from the latest action games Assassins Creed Revelations to casual puzzle games such as Puzzle
8
OnLive In Action
I use OnLive on both Mac and Windows based computers and also on their console system, which I got free for pre-ordering Saints Row The Third when the system was first launched.
OnLive Pricing © 2012, OnLive Ltd.
If you op ?? H ?X[?^[[Z]Y \??\??]? ? ^H[?H]H?] \?H]H
Z]\?[??\? \??? \??\?[?? H?[YH?] ?Y?
K [? \?H\????YY ? ?\??\? H [?\???\?Y[?[?YX??K [?\? ?]?Y?[Y\?\?H ??Y? H?]?H ?\??\?? ?X?YX[?? [?H?[?]\?[ H ?? ^Z[????H]?X?H[? ?\? ?\?H [?HY????[??\? ?X???YH\?H Y?HY ?[?Y?K?H[???H?Z[??X?H ?? \?\??