OnLive, the gaming subscription service which uses server side machines to let you play high power games on any screen and any machine, has been keeping its cards close to its chest since announcing its tech last year. But now the first independent videos, showing how it compares to a PC in your own home, are finally out. Read on to see if it works!
OnLive’s premise is certainly an attractive one: with its server farms doing all the grunt work and graphics chomping for you, you’d be able to play graphic intensive games like Crysis on a lowly Eee PC. All you’d need is a broadband connection. But OnLive’s reluctance to demo its tech remotely has had critics calling Snake Oil on it.
Until now, that is. PC Perspective managed to test out OnLive’s online service, and kindly recorded us some comparison videos to boot. The results are interesting: Unreal 3 is actually playable at a medium setting 1280×720 resolution. Twitch gaming pros will definitely notice the lag, and PC Perspective bemoaned the laggy camera view movements, but if you just want to play against your friends, it looks tolerable.
OnLive: everything you need to know
Fortunately, games which require a less itchy trigger finger worked well on OnLive, with the tester finding Tom Clancy’s HAWX and Burnout: Paradise to be enjoyable.
You can check out the full OnLive preview below, but from these videos alone, we’re hopeful that faster broadband speeds could eventually make this technology mainstream – imagine being able to play World of Warcraft on your iPhone. Now if only OnLive would hurry up and announce some European plans.
Out TBC | £TBC | OnLive (Via PC Perspective)
