My mini Onlive review

[BumbleBee]

I think OnLive would have more appeal if it licensed XBOX 360 and PS3 exclusive titles but that will never happen which is sad because their current line up lacks PC exclusives and Triple A titles.

 

[NdMk2o1o]

It's too early in the morning, oh wait it's 11.30, well I am way to hung over to read that essay of a post right now, scratch that have read it and I will reply to your "points.


It seems you think my opinion is biased, let me first tell you I am based in the UK oh noes, but hey let me also tell you as you don't seem to have read the bloody thread, that my ping to the onlive game servers is 30ms, so your 1st argument is fail.

The fact is, that there is a lot of server side compression going on and because of that it A: adds latency totalling up to about 200ms which makes FPS unplayable and B: makes the quality sucky, you can tell from the screenshots that there is a lot of compression going on, if you like shit graphics and latency then hey good for you.

I have maesured the bloody bandwidth being used, again read the thread you idiot, it was using a constant 6.5mb/s I know the difference between mb/s and MB/s either way 6.5megabit is a lot of bandwidth. And I fail to see how the TV appliance uses less, either provide proof or gtfo.

Again referring to the video quality, it doesnt matter that it's 720p, the problem is compression, doing any kind of compression sacrifices quality, I wouldn't mind of it looked good and it was 720p, but it doesn't. Your arguments are fail.

I could care less about the cost, hence I didn't mention it, I wanted to review on the service and quality.

Also if your internet goes down, you won't be playing at all, PS3/Xbox 360 and PC you can play online or offline anytime you like, again your argument doesn't work.

Sure it might be pointless for you right now, but wait until the next generation consoles come out. OnLive will be running those next-gen games just as well as Xbox 720 or PS4 without any other fees. When your 360 red rings or your PS3 yellow lights you want to be sitting there for weeks waiting for it to come back from being repaired? Or even worse, your console is out of warrenty so now you have to pay even MORE to get it back. $99 or a basic computer and you can be on your games playing online.

Next gen consoles? the quality isn't on par with current consoles, so how are they going to be able to improve it that much in line with next gen? and if they do, I can see the bandwidth requirements also increasing at 6.5mb/s already.....

You keep mentioning $99, that is just the cost of the TV appliance, the subscription is $9.99 a month and you don't get to keep anything, the games you "buy" are only supported for 3 years so after that you have nothing, the cost is about right for what you are actually getting, lower quality games that you don't own, it's just a service.

And this "basic computer" you refer to is recommended to have a dual core and 2gb ram, all you need to do is pend $99.00 on a GPU and you will be able to play any games you want on a rig like that and at better quality...

My intention wasn't to slate Onlive or their service and I think I gave credit where credit was due, though trying to defend it whenit wasn't under attack suggests to me that my points have touched a nerve, sorry for that.

 

[Mussels]

NdMk2o1o: he was quoting those arguments from their forums, they arent his opinions (so he says)

 

[NdMk2o1o]

Well I did say I am hungover lol , though seems like a troll post to me judging by the size of it and his name...

 

[Mussels]

Well I did say I am hungover lol , though seems like a troll post to me judging by the size of it and his name...

i know. read my post, i already had a go at the wall of text.

 

[NdMk2o1o]

haha I did see it though thought I would bite back, really funny how 2 new users have registered just to defend Onlive.....

 

[johny236]

In your first post you wrote:

Now before I go into detail, I will say 1st and foremost I have the best consumer broadband available in the UK at this moment in time, that's a 50mb cable connection with a 2mb upload. Typically I get 49.5mb/s download, 1.5mb/s upload and anywhere between 12ms and 25ms ping on speedtest.net on local servers.

In a following post you wrote this:

It seems you think my opinion is biased, let me first tell you I am based in the UK oh noes, but hey let me also tell you as you don't seem to have read the bloody thread, that my ping to the onlive game servers is 30ms, so your 1st argument is fail.

Since you are having up to 25 ms ping to local servers, 30 ms to the OnLive US east coast server would be amazing. Can you do a traceroute to a server that is very near OnLive(D.C. area). Remember, you can't ping OnLives servers directly, so the ping to their server might not be correct and stands for a server before OnLives data center.

 

[Disparia]

At IAAPA 2010, there was an Online booth across from us. I spit on it.

Note: My review may be biased.


NdMk2o1o - More or less on topic... who do you think has the best technology over a LAN at the moment? I'm trying to get a test rig together to try out the latest Hyper-V and it's DirectX 9 vGPU driver with a host GPU. If it works well enough, I believe it supports up to four host GPUs and 'RemoteFX' add-in cards will be available shortly for compression off-load.

 

[Over_Lord]

It's too early in the morning, oh wait it's 11.30, well I am way to hung over to read that essay of a post right now, scratch that have read it and I will reply to your "points.


It seems you think my opinion is biased, let me first tell you I am based in the UK oh noes, but hey let me also tell you as you don't seem to have read the bloody thread, that my ping to the onlive game servers is 30ms, so your 1st argument is fail.

The fact is, that there is a lot of server side compression going on and because of that it A: adds latency totalling up to about 200ms which makes FPS unplayable and B: makes the quality sucky, you can tell from the screenshots that there is a lot of compression going on, if you like shit graphics and latency then hey good for you.

I have maesured the bloody bandwidth being used, again read the thread you idiot, it was using a constant 6.5mb/s I know the difference between mb/s and MB/s either way 6.5megabit is a lot of bandwidth. And I fail to see how the TV appliance uses less, either provide proof or gtfo.

Again referring to the video quality, it doesnt matter that it's 720p, the problem is compression, doing any kind of compression sacrifices quality, I wouldn't mind of it looked good and it was 720p, but it doesn't. Your arguments are fail.

I could care less about the cost, hence I didn't mention it, I wanted to review on the service and quality.

Also if your internet goes down, you won't be playing at all, PS3/Xbox 360 and PC you can play online or offline anytime you like, again your argument doesn't work.



Next gen consoles? the quality isn't on par with current consoles, so how are they going to be able to improve it that much in line with next gen? and if they do, I can see the bandwidth requirements also increasing at 6.5mb/s already.....

You keep mentioning $99, that is just the cost of the TV appliance, the subscription is $9.99 a month and you don't get to keep anything, the games you "buy" are only supported for 3 years so after that you have nothing, the cost is about right for what you are actually getting, lower quality games that you don't own, it's just a service.

And this "basic computer" you refer to is recommended to have a dual core and 2gb ram, all you need to do is pend $99.00 on a GPU and you will be able to play any games you want on a rig like that and at better quality...

My intention wasn't to slate Onlive or their service and I think I gave credit where credit was due, though trying to defend it whenit wasn't under attack suggests to me that my points have touched a nerve, sorry for that.

hmm, if you consider the cost of buying 3 Xbox 360s since launch (stupid thing RRODs on me, but this time I got the upper hand, X360 S doesnt have red light HAHAHA faggot M$), the total bill comes up quiet hefty, and then ad GOLD membership @ 60$/annum

Also, pay 60$/game and what if the disc reads errors after 2 years?? I'm dead ZOMG what to do now oh my god it's like camel is chewing my hair....

OnLive can give great experience on low resolution TV's too, about 1440x900 HDTV's 32" which are quiet cheap nowadays..... Plus, 3 years, that's enuf, price of old game will be lesser, so 30$ now, 10$ 3 yeas later, still sounds like a better deal than 60$ and possible disc error....

Oh wait, best part, no Xbox360 no PS3 exclusive game(if that happens on OnLive, I'll say it's the ULTIMATE WINNER)

 

[NdMk2o1o]

In your first post you wrote:

In a following post you wrote this:


Since you are having up to 25 ms ping to local servers, 30 ms to the OnLive US east coast server would be amazing. Can you do a traceroute to a server that is very near OnLive(D.C. area). Remember, you can't ping OnLives servers directly, so the ping to their server might not be correct and stands for a server before OnLives data center.

tracert screenshot attached.

I am not saying anything about xbox 360's where did I mention a 360? if you had 3 die on you and didnt return them under warranty thats your own problem, MS replaces RROD 360's afaik.

Again I didn't mention cost in my review this wasn't about cost though since it was mentioned I gave an opinion, is it value for money to me? no thats my opinion as I just wouldn't pay it, it's too immature and the library is too small for my liking, I am sure it will improve in the future, though right now It's just not quite there. If you choose to pay for it then you see the value in it.

 

[johny236]

tracert screenshot attached.

I am not saying anything about xbox 360's where did I mention a 360? if you had 3 die on you and didnt return them under warranty thats your own problem, MS replaces RROD 360's afaik.

Again I didn't mention cost in my review this wasn't about cost though since it was mentioned I gave an opinion, is it value for money to me? no thats my opinion as I just wouldn't pay it, it's too immature and the library is too small for my liking, I am sure it will improve in the future, though right now It's just not quite there. If you choose to pay for it then you see the value in it.

As evident in your screenshot, your ping to the US east coast server of OnLive is way higher than 30 ms, i would say it's typical ping for the UK. So your latency with the OnLive service isn't very surprising. The speed of your conection isn't important above sustained 6 Mb/s, what most matters is the ping.

 

[0nl1v3f4n]

none needed.

LOL hey I'm all for a good tear down. =P I just hoped that maybe some of that info was stuff that people on these forums may not have seen yet. Simply trying to educate a little bit, as I am in the US and based fairly close to an Onlive server ( less than 1000 miles ) I can't use my personal experience to explain the service as I am above par compared to most users. Onlive has its MANY flaws don't get me wrong, but I just hate to see people who let old info clog their judgement, like the monthly fee. There is ZERO monthly fee required so yes it really is totally free to just download and try out the service. You DO have to pay a monthly fee for the Playpack with will have about 40 titles when it premiers in January. And yes, these titles are pretty old and not the best games out there but I have found myself really enjoying most of them. I am not a fanboy, lol even though my user name may suggest that. I walked away from Onlive for quite a while, but being a founder member they sent me a FREE micro console so I was alllllllll for it at that point. I have about ten games that I own on onlive, they gave me a free micro console which still included a free game ( $50 ) and also have received about 5 other FREE full playpasses, so the value is there if you look in the right places. For now I agree with EVERYTHING you guys have said in response, Onlive really is just a lot of talk right now, but as of now they have held to their word and I think they will continue to do so. No trolling here, just up for some fun conversation. Cheers!

 

[KainXS]

I just have to know,

where did you get that, was it onlivefans because your username = OnliveFan

 

[DaveK]

The OnLive controller has been praised by reviewers, many stating that its higher quality than first party controllers for Xbox 360 and PS3.

Wow, that must be one sweet control because the 360 control is built like a tank, god knows how many times I've thrown my control at a wall and it's perfectly fine.

When your 360 red rings or your PS3 yellow lights you want to be sitting there for weeks waiting for it to come back from being repaired? Or even worse, your console is out of warrenty so now you have to pay even MORE to get it back. $99 or a basic computer and you can be on your games playing online.

All 360s have a 3 year warranty with Microsoft, it's repaired for free and if it's under the store 1 year warranty they'll replace it right there and then, no questions asked.

Seems like they're desperate to sound like they're better than the obvious alternative to a PC, the 360 and PS3.

 

[0nl1v3f4n]

I just have to know,

where did you get that, was it onlivefans because your username = OnliveFan

Simple answer: Yes. lol picked this name for lack of a better one.

 

[BumbleBee]

the new XBOX 360 is smaller, quieter and doesn't red ring anymore. you can buy a XBOX 360 4GB for $199. XBOX 360 has a 44.6 million install base and the OnLive subscription is more expensive than XBOX Live.

 

[johny236]

http://www.laptopdrv.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/new-xbox-gb-examination-5.jpg

the new XBOX 360 is smaller, quieter and doesn't red ring anymore. you can buy a XBOX 360 4GB for $199. XBOX 360 has a 44.6 million install base and the OnLive subscription is more expensive than XBOX Live.

What subscription do you mean? OnLive is free to use.

 

[BumbleBee]

What subscription do you mean? OnLive is free to use.

no. playpack is $10 a month starting January 15th. that's $120 a year. it lets you play select games but any new titles added to the system you will have to rent or buy retail. Playpack is in beta until January 14th that is why it's free. I think it's like XBOX Live Silver and Gold.

 

[qubit]

Having read through this thread, OnLive so far seems to be a rather expensive service that delivers laggy games with blurry, crappy graphics. On top of that, after three years, you lose access to the game that you "bought". The perfect DRM nightmare.

Wow, what a deal... count me out.

Mussels: awesome reply to 0nl1v3f4n's original post. And credit to 0nl1v3f4n for his open-minded response to you (said everything you said is correct. This sort of admission is really quite unusual from a defending party).

 

[streetfighter 2]

This is a great preview/review. Many thanks to NdMk2o1o.

It's amusing to see the reaction of the TPU community to a service like this because we all generally have gaming capable PCs. Onlive does not appeal to me because of the latency and resolution issue. The part I enjoy most about having my own gaming PC is that I can tweak the game and my PC to get everything exactly how I like it.

I know the difference between mb/s and MB/s either way 6.5megabit is a lot of bandwidth.

I do too. . . And technically mb/s = milli bits per second. I think you meant Mb/s.

I think OnLive would have more appeal if it licensed XBOX 360 and PS3 exclusive titles but that will never happen which is sad because their current line up lacks PC exclusives and Triple A titles.

I'm not sure if this is true, but I definitely agree with it if it is.

 

[johny236]

http://www.onlive.com/images/store/hero_start.jpg

no. playpack is $10 a month starting January 15th. that's $120 a year. it lets you play select games but any new titles added to the system you will have to rent or buy retail. Playpack is in beta until January 14th that is why it's free. I think it's like XBOX Live Silver and Gold.

The OnLive account is free. With it you can demo, rent and buy any new games. You can subscribe to the playpack after you created your free OnLive account and play the games selection included, which are usualy older games.

 

[BumbleBee]

The OnLive account is free. With it you can demo, rent and buy any new games. You can subscribe to the playpack after you created your free OnLive account and play the games selection included, which are usualy older games.

they have a indy package coming out too.

I haven't handled the OnLive controller but the specs for the Razer Onza are going to give it a run for it's money.

it has mechanical switches, rubber coating, 15 foot. braided cable, new d-pad, extra shoulder buttons, Mad Catz style triggers, remapping, analog stick tension control.

 

[johny236]

they have a indy package coming out too.

I haven't handled the OnLive controller but the specs for the Razer Onza are going to give it a run for it's money.

it has mechanical switches, rubber coating, 15 foot. braided cable, new d-pad, extra shoulder buttons, Mad Catz style triggers, remapping, analog stick tension control.

OnLive curently only supports mice and keyboards, XInput controlers, so basicaly the Xbox 360 controller and third party Xbox 360 controllers and offcourse it's own wireles controller on the Microconsole. Here's a list straight from their support page:

The controllers currently supported are:

OnLive Wireless Controller (OnLive Game System only)
Microsoft® Xbox 360® Controller for Windows
Microsoft Xbox 360 Wireless Controller for Windows (requires the Microsoft Wireless Gaming Receiver)
Logitech® ChillStream™
Logitech® F510
Saitek® P3200 Rumble Pad
Mad Catz® GamePad
When playing on a PC or Mac, you will need the correct drivers for your particular controller. The OnLive Game System works with these controllers automatically and supports up to four controllers in use simultaneously

.

I don't know if this controller is XInput, but you have to be careful what controller to use with OnLive.

 

[GAMERIG]

Posters,

Do you believe this ?- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=addmpwcZ9Uo&feature=related

Onlivefans forum is GARBAGE than techpowerup's forums!

 

[NdMk2o1o]

What subscription do you mean? OnLive is free to use.

So is Xbox live silver, you can subscribe to xbox live gold if you want, Onlive is free to to use to play demos, I can download them demos and play them for free also, whats your point?