Hiccup
05-03-2010, 01:03 AM
Old I know but coming soon so!
OnLive: The Future of Video Games (http://www.onlive.com/index.html)
Looking over the main site and reading what people are saying about it, it sounds like it plays commercial, retail games (Crysis, Mirror's Edge, Bioshock, etc) from their database sending all vital data back and forth using the internet. That means a couple of things...
a) Your computers specifications do not matter whatsoever, as long as it has an internet connection. That means you can play next-gen games on your PC or on your TV (if you buy special hardware), even if your PC is just barely good enough to run Dungeon Fighter Online. All the upgrades are done on their end to the hardware, so you never have to upgrade any hardware... no matter how advanced the games get. Depending on the games they get, you may never need to upgrade consoles either.
b) Since all data is sent online, you never physically own any games. I don't know if you pay individually for games or if you pay a monthly/yearly fee and play anything you like as much as you like, the paying scheme isn't worked out yet. There's an obvious downside to this of course. You cannot play the games if you don't have an internet connection, or perhaps if your connection isn't good enough to handle it.
According to the site however, the games apparently start up pretty much instantly, have all of the single-player and multiplayer functions they always had and are always regularly updated. No downloading patches or even downloading games, it's all just a click away.
c) It completely eliminates piracy and probably hacking for that matter. If you don't have the game files anywhere near you, how can you alter them? The only problem with that though, is it completely eliminates mods as well... though I think I read somewhere they might actually be able to support mods, but they'd have to be like approved by them and they allow you to load the mods with the game (kind of like how you select the mods you want with Morrowind/Oblivion and the Max Payne games). I could be very wrong though.
If you're interested in a better explanation of exactly how this works, check out this blog entry:
Server Hopping with OnLive OnLive Blog
The first qualified 25,000 users who successfully register for OnLive’s Game Service will have the monthly Service Fee waived for the first 3 months of usage. The monthly service fee is currently $14.95, subject to change.
Waiver of Service Fee includes free access to OnLive’s Game Service including game demos, video profiles and community features, but does not include playing full versions of games, which are to be purchased or rented separately.
My thoughts?
If this is all true, the price is fair and it isn't too strenuous on internet connections, I think I could fall in love with this service. For someone like me who generally tends to be several generations behind as far as my PC is concerned, the ability to play next-gen games on my crappy little laptop is nothing short of incredible. People will be pissed though if this actually takes off, as it'll make their monster PC's and consoles obsolete.
/posted on DFOSource
OnLive: The Future of Video Games (http://www.onlive.com/index.html)
Looking over the main site and reading what people are saying about it, it sounds like it plays commercial, retail games (Crysis, Mirror's Edge, Bioshock, etc) from their database sending all vital data back and forth using the internet. That means a couple of things...
a) Your computers specifications do not matter whatsoever, as long as it has an internet connection. That means you can play next-gen games on your PC or on your TV (if you buy special hardware), even if your PC is just barely good enough to run Dungeon Fighter Online. All the upgrades are done on their end to the hardware, so you never have to upgrade any hardware... no matter how advanced the games get. Depending on the games they get, you may never need to upgrade consoles either.
b) Since all data is sent online, you never physically own any games. I don't know if you pay individually for games or if you pay a monthly/yearly fee and play anything you like as much as you like, the paying scheme isn't worked out yet. There's an obvious downside to this of course. You cannot play the games if you don't have an internet connection, or perhaps if your connection isn't good enough to handle it.
According to the site however, the games apparently start up pretty much instantly, have all of the single-player and multiplayer functions they always had and are always regularly updated. No downloading patches or even downloading games, it's all just a click away.
c) It completely eliminates piracy and probably hacking for that matter. If you don't have the game files anywhere near you, how can you alter them? The only problem with that though, is it completely eliminates mods as well... though I think I read somewhere they might actually be able to support mods, but they'd have to be like approved by them and they allow you to load the mods with the game (kind of like how you select the mods you want with Morrowind/Oblivion and the Max Payne games). I could be very wrong though.
If you're interested in a better explanation of exactly how this works, check out this blog entry:
Server Hopping with OnLive OnLive Blog
The first qualified 25,000 users who successfully register for OnLive’s Game Service will have the monthly Service Fee waived for the first 3 months of usage. The monthly service fee is currently $14.95, subject to change.
Waiver of Service Fee includes free access to OnLive’s Game Service including game demos, video profiles and community features, but does not include playing full versions of games, which are to be purchased or rented separately.
My thoughts?
If this is all true, the price is fair and it isn't too strenuous on internet connections, I think I could fall in love with this service. For someone like me who generally tends to be several generations behind as far as my PC is concerned, the ability to play next-gen games on my crappy little laptop is nothing short of incredible. People will be pissed though if this actually takes off, as it'll make their monster PC's and consoles obsolete.
/posted on DFOSource