You may know about Onlive’s cloud gaming service, but for those that are reading that don’t know what it is over the course of this article I am going to inform you about a really revolutionary way of playing top-tier video games on a multitude of devices regardless of your hardware specifications.
How Does OnLive Work?
OnLive is a cloud gaming service founded in 2003 by Steve Perlman that allows you to connect to their remote cloud servers and play an astonishing amount of games in 720p resolution without having to download them to your computer at all, the only limitation with OnLive is your internet connection. OnLive Personally recommends a 5 Mbit/s or faster for optimal game play however, a 2 Mbit/s connection will pass the minimum system checks.
OnLive is not restricted to Windows-based computers with Onlive applications working on Intel-based Macs, Android and iOS Devices. The great thing about OnLive is all the hardwork is done by their remote cloud-servers meaning you could potentially enjoy a game of Call of Duty while sitting on the toilet.
What is OnLive Gameplay Like?
OnLive is very dependent on your internet connection, so while you can get the OnLive application for your Android or Apple based mobile device, don’t expect to be busting head shots at the bus stop unless you have a decent connection however, your hardware will not affect FPS or game performance as the workload is handled by OnLive’s cloud servers.
Since Onlive was unleashed onto America in 2010 and later the United Kingdom in 2011 the service and quality of game play has improved drastically, when I first tried out the service there was a very noticeable delay between sending a command and the command being executed even on my 10 Mbit/s cable connection with extremely low latency but that was in a way – kind of to be expected, the special codec they developed for the service was still in its infancy and a revolution in its own right.
Over the course of OnLive’s lifespan I have tried it out on a multitude of different connections such as Cable, DSL, 3G and different devices as well.
The OnLive service was a little sketchy when it was first launched but the service has improved drastically with it working for me in the United Kingdom on a 3 Mbit/s DSL connection, that is with no noticeable delays between issuing a command and the command being executed, I don’t get disconnected from server and I can play some really awesome game on the toilet.
OnLive Cloud gaming is perfect for those times you cant be bothered to leave the office for lunch or extended periods on the toilet.
Another huge advantage of OnLive unlike other services such as Steam is you don’t have to store the games on your computer at all (although you can opt to) – everything is taken care of by OnLive’s cloud-servers.
Whats the Game Support Like?
While OnLives marketing strategy has not been very aggressive they have put a lot of time and effort into collaborating with game publishers to make sure you are never left without a game to play, after all a tree without roots cannot stand.
A few video game publisher that can be found on the OnLive cloud-gaming service:
- Take-Two Interactive
- Sega
- Ubisoft
- Epic Games
- Atari
- Codemasters
- THQ
- Warner Bros.
- Eidos Interactive
How do I sign up to OnLive?
Its quite simple, head over to OnLive’s sign-up page and sign up for a free account which will enable you to download OnLive’s desktop application for one of your chosen devices or computers and get a feel for the service. OnLive does allow you to play timed amounts of some cloud based games so you can test it out and get a feel for the service before committing to buying any games from them at all, the service is very dependent on the speed and quality of your internet connection
OnLive is definitely a cloud-gaming platform to watch out for over the coming years, with video games becoming more and more demanding as each year goes on and with fewer people upgrading their computers having the infinite scalability of a cloud-based server array to handle the brunt is maybe just what we need.
