OnLive Cloud Gaming Console Review

Performance is what really matters when it comes to a system like this, that actual hardware under your tv is little more than through put device, it contains a video scaler and some network hardware, but little else, there is no big CPU, no real graphics card to speak of, not even any built in storage, everything you do with OnLive is handled in the cloud with the OnLive data servers, working much in the same way as services like Netflix, Youtube and many other streaming services, the only difference is your playing games.

So when you fire up the console, you need an internet connection, no internet, no games, its as simple as that. When you login, even the startup and menu screens are being streamed to you as video, select a game and OnLive loads your save game on to the server that will be doing that hard work of rendering for you and your game loads and it loads very quickly too.

Graphics are a big part of gaming, thanks to the way OnLive works, there is no concern over having the latest graphics card at your disposal or any other components required for that matter, with games like Batman Arkham city which can require a fairly expensive PC to run being streamed to you at their maximum graphics settings via OnLive.

Obviously this required a good internet connection, while OnLive state that a minimum of 1.5mb connection is required, I get optimal results on a 5mb connection, while services like speedtest.net might say you have a fast connection, it only measures your burst speed, or peek rate, while OnLive requires an internet connection that can handle a sustained download speed and ideally one that doesn’t have a usage cap applied to it, since a short gaming session of two hours is much like streaming 720p movie end to end, your data rates could go through the roof if you don’t have the right package from your internet provider.

Ping time is another important factor to consider here, when you think in terms of the time from your button press on the controller, lets say the accelerator on a car in Dirt 3, to the time that action actually happens on screen on a home console can generally be around 40-60ms, that amount of time includes your TV in put lag, processing and rending time by both the games engine, graphics card and cpu. When using Onlive a good internet connection ping time is vital to enjoying the experience, anything over 150ms will tend to cause a visible delay in response times. Fortunately this isn’t an issue, while it was a problem that was around when OnLive launched, things on their end in terms of rendering time and server speed has definitely improved and brought those times down to something close to consoles, meaning that in all my gameplay, I couldn’t feel any lag compared to playing the games locally on systems like the PS3 and 360.

While some games (at least on my internet connection) suffered from a few video compression artefacts while using the PC software for OnLive this really wasn’t the case on the console version, I don’t know how that is possible, but may have something to do with the dedicated video scaling hardware in the console its self, but playing the PC editions Arkham City and Dirt 3 in HD, with maximum graphics settings on my 46″ TV, with a console the size of my wallet is certainly an impressive technical achievement.

Games available on the service range from casual puzzle titles, indie games and AAA titles like Batman, Dirt, Borderlands, Darksiders and 100’s more, with no need to download or install the games before play you’re able to select a title, pick how you want to play, 30min free trial offers you a timed trial of the game, but instead of a demo, you get the full title for that 30 min, bonus is you can trial the same game over and over as many times as you like, although save games are not maintained in this mode, you can rent a game for 3-5 days for a small amount, meaning you could work your way through the latest Assassins Creed for only a few pounds (or dollars if your from the US) and not have to worry about returning the title once the rental has expired, or you can purchase the title out right, which is a strange concept, considering you don’t actually “get” the title, it just permanently unlocks it on the service.

The last option is the most notable one, the OnLive Playpack, which is essentially a subscription that costs £6.99 ($9.99) a month, which unlocks a whopping 200+ (235 at time of writing) games and OnLive claim this to be “the best deal in gaming” and to be honest, I think they might be right, since I subscribed I have been able to play some amazing titles from this list, ok there is a lot of junk in there too, but more than enough to keep you entertained and way more than enough to justify the asking price of the package.