21st January 2010, 2:30 PM
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=859&type=expert
It's a lengthy, quite review and summary. Go read it, I won't quote the whole six page thing.
These are some of the major points brought up in the article, both good, bad, and either way, depending on your perspective.
-Resolution is locked at 1280x720, in the beta at least.
-Graphics options can mostly not be changed. Attempting to change them will usually either just crash the client or restart it with the old settings. Settings are NOT max -- a good gaming PC will look better than OnLive.
-The reviewer was outside the service area and averaged an 80-85ms ping.
-Wired internet only -- will not work on wireless.
-A few times the reviewer could not connect to OnLive because his internet speed was not running fast enough that day for OnLive to allow him to access the service. (In the article the autho says "Note that this only happened on one single evening where my cable provider was providing 1-1.5 Mb/s downstream as opposed to the normal 20-25 Mb/s downstream." about this, but it definitely is something worth noting!)
-Because of lag issues, some games like Rainbow Six Vegas 2 were more playable with gamepad than keyboard. Unreal Tournament 3 didn't play well at all. Slower-paced games work better with the service.
-Much cheaper than getting a good gaming PC...
-Gets rid of the hassle of dealing with hardware problems, installing games, configuring settings and troubleshooting hardware issues, drivers, etc., for people who do not like doing those things.
-No piracy (so far at least)
-No control over your games or hardware -- they are all at a remote location, so any DRM issues, problems you have, etc. will have to be solved over the phone with the OnLive people, not by yourself at home.
-No physical copies of your games, and no way to get them period. It's DD only.
It sounds like the "might be okay for casuals who don't mind some lag and using gamepads for stuff, but awful for most hardcore gamers" thing that it's always sounded like it'll be. You have latency, you can't really control the graphics options and the settings are definitely not maxed out, it has input lag particularly for people outside of the service areas, DRM, you have no control over the hardware and software, you must have internet access in order to play anything, etc... but yeah, casuals might not care about those things. The question is whether they'll actually buy it.
Anyway, it's a comprehensive, long review of the service, and it's something any PC gamer should read really.
It's a lengthy, quite review and summary. Go read it, I won't quote the whole six page thing.
These are some of the major points brought up in the article, both good, bad, and either way, depending on your perspective.
-Resolution is locked at 1280x720, in the beta at least.
-Graphics options can mostly not be changed. Attempting to change them will usually either just crash the client or restart it with the old settings. Settings are NOT max -- a good gaming PC will look better than OnLive.
-The reviewer was outside the service area and averaged an 80-85ms ping.
-Wired internet only -- will not work on wireless.
-A few times the reviewer could not connect to OnLive because his internet speed was not running fast enough that day for OnLive to allow him to access the service. (In the article the autho says "Note that this only happened on one single evening where my cable provider was providing 1-1.5 Mb/s downstream as opposed to the normal 20-25 Mb/s downstream." about this, but it definitely is something worth noting!)
-Because of lag issues, some games like Rainbow Six Vegas 2 were more playable with gamepad than keyboard. Unreal Tournament 3 didn't play well at all. Slower-paced games work better with the service.
-Much cheaper than getting a good gaming PC...
-Gets rid of the hassle of dealing with hardware problems, installing games, configuring settings and troubleshooting hardware issues, drivers, etc., for people who do not like doing those things.
-No piracy (so far at least)
-No control over your games or hardware -- they are all at a remote location, so any DRM issues, problems you have, etc. will have to be solved over the phone with the OnLive people, not by yourself at home.
-No physical copies of your games, and no way to get them period. It's DD only.
It sounds like the "might be okay for casuals who don't mind some lag and using gamepads for stuff, but awful for most hardcore gamers" thing that it's always sounded like it'll be. You have latency, you can't really control the graphics options and the settings are definitely not maxed out, it has input lag particularly for people outside of the service areas, DRM, you have no control over the hardware and software, you must have internet access in order to play anything, etc... but yeah, casuals might not care about those things. The question is whether they'll actually buy it.
Anyway, it's a comprehensive, long review of the service, and it's something any PC gamer should read really.