I actually remember briefly hearing about Onlive a long time ago, however, very recently I've begun to hear more and more about it, and with good reason to. Onlive actually has the potential to compete with current gen systems. I mean, just going through this system, I can point out several things this game has going for it.
1) Price
Possibly one of the biggest things going for Onlive is the price. While searching through their list of games, I've found that a lot of games were cheaper then their 360/PS3/Wii counterparts. Sometimes even upwards of $15-20 cheaper, and if you're like me, if you can find a cheaper option, odds are you're gonna go ahead and pay for the cheaper option. The other cool thing about this system is it has two ways you can play. There's a flat, monthly rate you can pay, which gives you unlimited access to any game in the library. Or, if you feel like you probably wouldn't play that often, or if you have a select group of games you want to buy, you can purchase them on a game by game basis. Onlive itself is free, however if you want to have the controller and the system that allows you to to connect that controller, it's gonna run you about $100, which, you may or may not need, depending on what sort of game you're looking to play. Something like Assassin's Creed, you'd probably want the controller, however, you might not need it as much if you were playing say, Borderlands.
2) Portablility
Obviously this is the biggest selling point of the Onlive system. If you have a laptop and wifi somewhere nearby, you can play any game in your library in that location. Starbucks, the library, anywhere with a wifi connection. And from what it seems, your wifi connection doesn't need to be particularly powerful, nor do you need an up to date system like you would if you bought the hard pc version of a lot of these games, simply because rather than downloading anything to your computer like a disc or Steam would, this system streams the game to your computer. Which again, you'd probably want a reliable wifi, but you don't need a particularly powerful one. And with the system coming to iPads and Android tablet devices, WITH a universal controller that is going to connect to these devices, the portability just gets better and better
3) Convenience
Although this may not be the biggest attraction, it is a big deal in itself. In case you've been living under a rock, you may have noticed stores like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video going out of business, which for some, REALLY puts a hamper on renting videos for some people, and a lot of you probably liked to rent games before you committed to buying them, right? Well this system takes that a step forward. I'm sure back when you did rent games, you probably didn't like the idea of paying $10 for a game, then $50 more if you ended up liking the game, right? Well this system allows you demo a game for up to 30 minutes FOR FREE. Plus there is a rental system for some games, if maybe you wanted to play a game, and you figured you could probably get all you wanted out of it in just a few days, so you didn't wanna buy the game. It has all of these options there that are really really convenient to it's users.
4) Built in Spectating
I know you've had moments yourself when you probably didn't really feel like actually playing, but maybe watching a friend play instead. Well, this system has a built in spectator mode, where you can watch anyone play any game they may be playing. Of course, if you don't want people watching, this may actually translate to a bad thing, and I'm not 100% if there is an option to turn this off. However, for those who are bold enough to let people watch, and those who like to chill out and watch someone play, here is your ultimate spectator sport.
The Bad:
1 (and only)) Trade ins
Yeah, I'll be honest with you, about the only actually bad thing I could actually think of that I consider a negative was the fact that there really is no trade in system. This is a problem, of course, with any downloaded game. Once you buy it, thats it. There is no return value at all. Which, again, if you're like me, sometimes getting new games for you depends on trading in old ones that you're done with. All in all though, it's a small gripe.
Suggestions:
Honestly, there were only two things I could think of as suggestions. And one isn't really a suggestion, but really rather a given. So I guess, the given:
1) More games.
That's really about the biggest thing holding this system back, is the small list of games. Looking at the list of games, there's not a whole lot that really interests me, and those that do interest me, quite a few of them I've owned already. Of course, I'll probably buy them due to the reasons I posted above, but what would make this system SO MUCH more of a contender is if they could get more supporters behind this system. They've already gotten a few, like Ubisoft and Epic on board, just to name a few, but if they could get ALL the thrid party developers on board, that would be great
2) Better online
This is about the biggest thing I would miss, should i have to give up my X-Box 360 to play Onlive (not saying I will, mind you), is the ability to have parties, and chat with friends while playing games. To be honest, I really think that any system that has online play should be adapting to the idea of friends and parties, but this rings especially true for Onlive, and it's spectating ability. If I'm gonna watch a friend (or even a random stranger) play a game, I'd like to be able to taunt/advice/talk to that individual through something simmilar to my X-Box headset. And of course too, if one was playing online multiplayer, this would be nice too.
Final verdict:
There's been talk for a while of simply developing ONE system, and having everyone be a sort of third party developer for that ONE system. And if we were going to get to that point, in some ways, I would like this to be that ONE system. The ability to play anywhere is nice, and the simple convience of how the games work, backed by all of the video game companies, would be amazing. But then, on the other hand, I wouldn't, because then, for one, gaming becomes EVEN MORE tied to an internet connection, plus, if gaming wasn't expensive before, now it gets REALLY expensive, as that would probably eliminate the "cheaper games" factor, and eliminate the idea of trading in games to get other ones. However, for what it's worth, it does seem like a nice system that, when the iPad version and universal controller comes out, and quite frankly, I'd reccomend to others as well.
My Perscription: Check it out. Maybe try some of the free demos before you commit to using the system.
-Dr. Buck
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