OnLive is Now Free to Play With No Monthly Fee
By - Source: Tom's Hardware US
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44 comments
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If you're weak in the hardware department but you're strong with internet bandwidth, then OnLive could be the gaming solution for you.
OnLive is the gaming service that streams your game input and output over the internet. There's a little lag, but you can actually play modern PC games on machines that would have never dreamed of it.
The game streaming service announced that it has dropped plans for a monthly base fee to access the service. That means that anyone can join and play demos, spectate and interact with other members for free. Playing full games requires payment, of course.
No credit card is needed until the user chooses to purchase time to play.
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While many people don't, the big companies sure do. They don't want us to own anything. After all, you may be able to convert your old stuff to new formats and not re-buy everything in the new format.
I support the idea though.
Big thumbs up to Onlive, all we need now is a rock-solid 24mb connection
Unfortunately though, this sounds a lot like it might be the service's dying breath. I don't know much about their business success/failure at the moment, but they are pushing price cuts and free days and what not frantically lately. Good service, I just don't know if it has a niche here in the U.S. yet.
This requires you to stay online at all times as well. The internet of today sinply arent stable enough to ensure 100% interuption/lag free game enviroment. A single dos attack would make EVERY player unable to play their games.
Cloudcomputing is a great idea however the link between the server and the client is the weak link, especially in game enviroment where latency and disconects are fatal!
NO THX - Even if its free!
have you tried it?dont comment without trying it.. its really impressive tbh.. although i think its a few years before it can fully go.
TRY THE DEMO'S AND THEN COMMENT
Enforce...? Nobodies "enforcing" anything. They're offering a service. Oh wait, its another Dunkin Donuts! They're enforcing cinnamon glazed muffins upon you! What a world what a world o0o0...Whats up with all the tinfoil hattery and conspiracy BS lately?
I had no issues with mine, but I also wonder if it had something to do with the location and load of their servers. I'm not 100% sure of where the server I was connecting to was located, I think they only have 2 or 3 clusters across the country.
Picture wasn't bad, seems a little blurry to me (was running it on my 46" TV) but I'm not aware what the quality of the feed was (1080p, 720p), there wasn't any option to view or change it.
Not a bad program for people who travel a lot in their work and don't want to haul around a 15-20lb desktop replacement, as long as they can get on a strong network. Otherwise as a home option, meh, if you can afford a fast connection (AKA the premium and up tiers) at about $50/mo and up for your net to have reliability on this service, you can probably afford an at least halfway decent gaming rig.