You can now play any PC game on your PC or Mac regardless of specs

[Werthead]

The OnLive gaming service went online in the UK yesterday. It's been running already for a few months in the USA and has been surprisingly low-key in its marketing, despite the fact that it is - potentially, at least - one of the most revolutionary steps forward in PC gaming history.

 

Up until now, the ability to run a game on your PC has been determined by the specifications of its components: how much memory it has, how much hard disk space and, most importantly, how powerful and capable your graphics card is. Playing games on PC has traditionally been an expensive proposition, requiring a reasonably heavy outlay to start with (usually around £500 at a minimum in the UK, more expensive than even the PS3 at launch) and then requiring upgrades every few years to stay current. An awful lot of traditional PC gamers got tired of this treadmill and with the arrival of the current consoles jumped ship a few years back.

 

OnLive essentially removes almost all of these barriers in playing a game on your PC. All you need is a keyboard, mouse and a reasonably good internet connection.

 

Basically, it's cloud gaming. The actual game is running on a super-PC somewhere else in the world. Your commands (mouse movements and keyboard processes) are transmitted to the remote PC and the graphics are updated and fired back at your PC, which displays the transmitted image. Achievements and saved games are stored on the cloud server. Nothing is stored on your PC (or Mac) at all, save only the OnLive app. OnLive's technology is based around reducing lag and latency as much as is technically possible, and the results so far are extremely impressive.

 

For the purposes of trying out the service, I chose to play SPACE MARINE, a virtually brand-new release. My PC is a five-year-old single-core machine that would barely be able to boot the game, and would not be able to play it at all even with all the details on minimum. On OnLive, the game runs at reasonably high spec. Image quality is not as 100% crisp and stunning as it would look running natively on a top-tier machine but compared to, for example, not being able to run the game at all, it is excellent. The speed of the game is stunning. There is no discernible lag or latency at all. I move the mouse and the character responds instantly. I have worse lag on playing some games off the hard disk. I played most of the game in a single 5-hour sitting and encountered no slowdown either (and SPACE MARINE can get pretty hectic at times, with huge outdoor areas and hundreds of Orks on-screen at once).

 

I haven't tested other games yet, so experiences may vary. In addition and probably crucially, I have an excellent broadband connection: a 10mb service from Virgin UK, plugged directly into the cable (no router) and my house is very close to the exchange. I suspect running the service on a shared router with a slower speed will be a dicier prospect.

 

Aside from the internet speed issue, there are a couple of other drawbacks. Obviously, nothing from the game is sitting on your hard disk, so creating and running fan mods or altering source files is of course impossible. The service also only works online, so in that respect is the ultimate form of DRM, but that is inherent to the service. Also, whilst the games look great, they definitely don't look as good as running a game natively on a top-tier system at high resolution. But then that sort of gamer is not whom the service is aimed at.

 

On top of the obvious benefits of the service, there are quite a few others as well. Firstly, most of the games have trial periods attached to them, allowing you play the first 30-60 minutes of the game for free before you buy. This is obviously useful to everyone, even hardcore gamers, allowing you to try before you buy (a vital service in these days where demos either don't come out at all, or only months after the game is released). Secondly, the service can output to PC, Mac or even a tablet. The (somewhat under-sold) side-effect of this is that Mac users can now play every single PC game ever released (er, on the service) without having to faff around with a Windows installation or hoping that a Mac version of a game is released. Thirdly, the pricing model allows you to pay for 'access' to a game for a few days rather than buying the whole thing. For example, I knew from reviews that SPACE MARINE's single player campaign only lasts for 5 hours, so I paid £4 for a 5-day pass to ensure that I'd have enough time to complete it. Basically, it has a built-in, instant-access rental service.

 

The prospects for the service are amazing. Obviously there are the caveats that you need a good Internet service and that the service is in its infancy. How well it works at peak times with millions of people trying to log in at once is something that remains to be seen. But right now, it's a really impressive service. Plus when you sign up you get a full game for a quid, so for the outlay of £1 I can now play DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION, which would melt my PC if I tried to run it 'properly' :-)

[SinisterDeath]

Having to upgrade a pc every 2 years, 1 year, 6 months is a myth. You can buy a pc, andc still use it to play modern games 6 years later with no new parts.

 

I built mine in 07' for 600 usd or what 300 euro?

I'm still playing new release games with ease, and at high qualtity graghics.

 

But thats not because those are the best pc has to offer... Its cause consoles are the benchmark now. They dont up them on pc anymore, they keep it status qou... And you can thank MS for that.

 

Also HDDs are the cheapest part about a pc. The fact they segregate consoles by capacity is pretty laughable, i could make a 1.5tb ps3 for probalby 75 USD today.

Nah it comes down to your

Memory (Ram)

CPU (proccessor)

GPU (video card)

 

everything else is basically fluff.

 

As for onlive gaming. Great in theory but really not worth it imo unless you have an upspeed equal to your down speed or at least isnt 1% of it.

 

Plus theres the

what if it fails?

 

Steam, i can backup a physical copy of my game if they failed...

But onlive?

Lose everything...

 

And one other thing

 

PC has always lead the way in game mods.

Be it CS.

War/Star Craft

MorrowindHOblivion...

 

Not possible onlive..

[Werthead]

Having to upgrade a pc every 2 years, 1 year, 6 months is a myth.

 

That's a myth, yeah. Getting about 4 years from purchase of even a mid-ranking system is pretty common.

 

You can buy a pc, andc still use it to play modern games 6 years later with no new parts.

 

This is a huge stretch. You could maybe just do that if you got a cutting-edge, state of the art PC in 2005 with multiple cores (then a technology in its infancy) and spent thousands on it. Much less than that and you'd have had to have added at least more memory or upgraded the video card since then.

 

But thats not because those are the best pc has to offer... Its cause consoles are the benchmark now. They dont up them on pc anymore, they keep it status qou... And you can thank MS for that.

 

This was more true a couple of years ago. However, quite a few companies (including id and CryTek) have more recently expressed frustration that graphics quality is not being pushed forwards by the PC like it used to, due to the consoles' static configurations retarding development. In the previous generation this was not a problem as the PC games sales were so high that they could push things forward. This isn't happening now (though there are signs of movement, as with CryTek's PC-only version of CRYSIS 2 that leaves the 360 and PS3 versions so far behind they look antiquated). As a result, the jump forwards in graphical quality from PS3/360 to PS4/X-Box 3 is going to be quite modest compared to the quantum leap forward between the last two generations.

 

As for onlive gaming. Great in theory but really not worth it imo unless you have an upspeed equal to your down speed or at least isnt 1% of it.

 

Indeed. This is a problem in countries or areas which do not have good Internet. Though I should note that my upload speed is 20% of my DL at best and the service runs fine.

 

what if it fails?

 

This is much more of a problem. Though OnLive has some huge financial backers behind it and has signed up some massive companies to support it, it could still fall flat on its face (though its US uptake has been impressive and its UK uptake has smashed expectations). This is why I would not recommend 'buying' a game permanantly on the service (for shelf RRP) at the moment. For now, I would suggest using the budget prices, the rental model (for a lot of modern games that you can finish in an afternoon, it's crazy to pay £30 for them new anyway), signing up to get the first game for £1 and then never using it again, or even never spending a penny on the service and purely using it as a demo service.

 

PC has always lead the way in game mods.

Be it CS.

War/Star Craft

MorrowindHOblivion...

 

Not possible onlive..

 

True, but not possible now anyway on a lot of games. Blizzard have dropped mod support for their post-STARCRAFT 2 games, so no mods for DIABLO III or (at the moment) any future release. The creators of the highly-modded TOTAL WAR games have dropped modding support from EMPIRE: TOTAL WAR onwards (you can fiddle with stats but nothing more). Unfortunately, modding is something that increasingly few games are supporting, so it's not as huge an issue as it would have been a few years ago.

 

The other weakness, of needing always to be online, is also less of an issue than a few years ago as increasingly more and more companies are demanding that you be online at all times to play the game anyway with DRM.

[SinisterDeath]

True, but not possible now anyway on a lot of games. Blizzard have dropped mod support for their post-STARCRAFT 2 games, so no mods for DIABLO III or (at the moment) any future release. The creators of the highly-modded TOTAL WAR games have dropped modding support from EMPIRE: TOTAL WAR onwards (you can fiddle with stats but nothing more). Unfortunately, modding is something that increasingly few games are supporting, so it's not as huge an issue as it would have been a few years ago.

 

Misinfomration.

 

Diablo sereis has NEVER had official modding support. Only Warcraft/Starcraft have.

 

You can create new maps in shogun 2 Total war if I'm not mistaken, which is the latest.

 

Skyrim offers modding

Fallout 3 offers modding

Sims still offers modding

Dragon Age. (though, haven't noticed is DA2 has it or not)

 

Counter-Strike: Go still allows mods (they even made new game modes based on player mods)

There out there, many games support it Officially. (MineCraft)

 

there is a huge difference between hacks. (Diablo mods) And Modding that is offically supported, like with War/starcraft, Bethsoft games, ect. Even a simple Map editor for creating new maps.. IS modding.

 

Hacking a game file to change gameplay, isn't really supported modding (Course You have to do that to make new models for bethsoft, but thats a minor point).

 

The only games I know of for console that allows 'modding'... Is Little big Planet.

[Werthead]

Diablo sereis has NEVER had official modding support. Only Warcraft/Starcraft have.

 

Not officially no, but mods for Diablo 2 have and do exist, regardless of how they are made.

 

You can create new maps in shogun 2 Total war if I'm not mistaken, which is the latest.

 

You can generate new battle maps. You cannot create or change new campaign maps, however.

 

Skyrim offers modding

Fallout 3 offers modding

Sims still offers modding

Dragon Age.

 

Counter-Strike: Go still allows mods (they even made new game modes based on player mods)

There out there, many games support it Officially. (MineCraft)

 

Sure, a lot of games do still offer it. But it is a dying art, and if you do want to use mods, you buy the game. OnLive isn't a replacement for 'normal' gaming but either an addendum to it or a service that allows people whose PCs cannot handle modern games to play them, in which case it has no bearing on it (since if your PC can't run a game natively, you can't run mods on it in the first place).

 

Even a simple Map editor for creating new maps.. IS modding.

 

Technically, no. The term 'mod' means 'modification', including alterations to the source files and adjusting facets of the core game. Using a map editor to create new maps but that's it is using an integeral feature of the game, not making any modifications to it.

[SinisterDeath]

Technically, no. The term 'mod' means 'modification', including alterations to the source files and adjusting facets of the core game. Using a map editor to create new maps but that's it is using an integeral feature of the game, not making any modifications to it.

 

Then by your very definition, making a 'mod'for morrowind/fallout/oblivion isn't a mod becuase your just using a map editor.

 

But that is the very definition of supported mods; new maps aren't part of the game, and can change gameplay just by there existnace.

 

Anything that requires hacking the game files is more of a Hack than a Mod, even though yes, it technically is a modifcation.

 

Those other 'mods' for total war you mention outside of map editting, were more towards hack than mod, but thats a caveit in that, The company supported those types of mods, where as blizzard, does NOT support hack-modifications to the gameplay.

[Vam]

if i cant play in 1920x1080 with 16x anti-aliasing and all the filters and shaders on --- i'm not interested!!

 

so basically... its like playing a game over an RDP session....

 

i'm not suprised you can do it. I've watched blu-ray movies over an RDP session... over a wireless N connection.... it worked almost flawlessly.