Onlive if you don't know is an upcoming cloud gaming service, which up until now has been based in America. Today it crosses the pond and makes its way to the UK. You can now sign up for free, which I did shortly before writing this, purely to see what it's like. So I downloaded and install the OnLive program, first thing I noticed was it is in fact a full screen application, I just assumed it would come in the format of a desktop client like Steam or Origin.
The layout of the program is seemingly simple and very easy to navigate. Once you get the program up and running you have a simple menu with 9 options which are: Arena, Profile, Marketplace, Showcase, the OnLive logo, My Games, Last Played, Brag Clips and Friends. Most of these menus are self explanatory.
'Arena' brings you to a menu where you can actually watch people who are currently playing games through this service letting you either watch and listen, or start a voice chat with them while they play which is a pretty cool feature. We then have the showcase menu which is pretty much their advertising page, letting you see what deals and offers they have on the go. The 'Onlive logo' brings you to the settings menu, which you can also get to by pressing escape. Last we have the 'Brag Clips' menu and according the email I received from them which says 'Create Brag Clip Videos of your finest moves or most hilarious fails and share them friends of Facebook or the whole OnLive community'. So it would seem like they have a built in game play recorder which is a nice touch.
I had a look in the marketplace and they do seem to have a fairly decent selection of games which you can either buy out right to play whenever you choose or you can rent them. Which I can see being quite popular as there isn't really a market for renting PC games these days due to the amount of drm and digital downloads about leading to the demise of the PC rental market being none existent. They do have quite a good deal on at the moment with their 'Playpack Bundle' which gives you access to 100+ games to play whenever you choose for £6.99 a month which is more than a decent offer. This bundle includes games such as Bioshock, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Deus Ex, Unreal Tournament 3 and Just Cause 2 to name a few, full list of games in this bundle can be found on their website. Along with all these games you will also receive a 30% discount off all other purchases. You also have the chance to test out games before you buy and or rent them with their game demos. I believe this is every game on their system, but don't quote me on that.
I think this is a frankly great idea and do wish the OnLive guys luck with it, with internet connections these days constantly getting upgraded and faster this is a good way to go on the gaming front. My connection at the minute isn't the greatest, it should be alright for this though. Once I get some disposable income available I am going to try this out as recently my graphics card crapped out on me leading to me having to downgrade to my brothers old ATI 3850, so until I get a new graphics card funded I'm sat on lowest settings on any relatively new game. I'll see how OnLive compares.
Last thing before I finish this post. If you register before the 9th October, OnLive has an offer letting you get your first game from them for a mere one pound, this offer is valid on any game which isn't a pre-order game. Also if you happen to have your internet though BT, you will have access to the 'PlayPack' bundle for 3 months for free and OnLive data will not count towards your usage limits on BT until at least the 2nd of January.
Showing posts with label Onlive. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Onlive. Show all posts
Thursday, 22 September 2011
Sunday, 28 August 2011
Gamestop Apologise
Recently Gamestop have been in the news due to the fact they were taking out coupons for a streamed version of Deus Ex on Onlive, which seem to have got a little more publicity than they would have with the coupons alone. Shortly after this they pulled the game and stopped selling it all together. Now they have officially apologised and are offering a free $50 GameStop gift card and a Buy 2 Get 1 Free pre-owned purchase. All you need to do is take in the apologetic email and your store receipt to your nearest GameStop and they will give you your bribe. I kinda wished I ordered the game from GameStop to get these free coupons actually. It's good to see them at least attempting to make up for there shady business.
Wednesday, 24 August 2011
GameStop takes out Deus Ex coupons from Retail Copies
Retail PC copies of the new Deus Ex game apparently along side having a physical disc of the game also got a coupon for the game to use at Onlive (a service I haven't used but do think is a hell of an idea, cloud gaming, even if you have a shitty computer you can still play the latest games so long as you have a decent internet connection).
Apparently the higher ups at Game Stop have been telling employees to remove the added version of the game. Whether this is happening at every Game Stop we don't know, we don't know why they are doing this as of yet, hopefully we'll get an update on the situation soon enough. It does seem a strange move though, I think it may just be a bit of a dick move hoping they will get more people downloading from Impulse (gamestops DD service), while Impulse and Onlive aren't exactly the same thing they are quite similar and I would say on the same level, no where near up to Steam level but still do okay for themselves. That's pure speculation though though is quite possible as Game Stop have been known to do shady things in the past. Neither Onlive or Square Enix (who made a deal from the coupons to be there) have made a comment on the matter. It all seems a bit shady to me to be honest.
There has been user comments on articles about this defending GameStop saying it's okay they are just reducing competition. Or that it's a low move by Onlive to have coupons for there service selling at game stop. To these type of comments, I say bullshit. Yes removing the vouchers would be reducing competition, does that make it okay? Hell no it doesn't, especially when they remove it, rewrap the code and still sell it as new and don't mention the voucher has been removed. If the game has been opened between Square Enix shipping them off and me buying the game, it's is technically used, maybe not the disc. But the customer should be the first person to open it, whether or not this is illegal, I don't know but it is a dick move by them. As for the Onlive shouldn't be promoting there system through someone elses. Again bullshit, the fact of the matter is there is a voucher in every PC retail copy so they are not trying to have a go at GameStop and Impulse they are merely doing what companies do and trying to widen there customer market. GameStop is in the wrong here, if you disagree frankly you are wrong. Onlive did nothing wrong except promoting there company. They made a deal with a games developer. These things happen and they always will. By the logic of stopping competition they shouldn't sell the likes of Battlefield 3 as it needs Origin, making the need to buy from Gamestop or download from impulse unnecessary, we can't have any competition trying to better themselves now can we. Anyway I'm going to end my rant here.
Apparently the higher ups at Game Stop have been telling employees to remove the added version of the game. Whether this is happening at every Game Stop we don't know, we don't know why they are doing this as of yet, hopefully we'll get an update on the situation soon enough. It does seem a strange move though, I think it may just be a bit of a dick move hoping they will get more people downloading from Impulse (gamestops DD service), while Impulse and Onlive aren't exactly the same thing they are quite similar and I would say on the same level, no where near up to Steam level but still do okay for themselves. That's pure speculation though though is quite possible as Game Stop have been known to do shady things in the past. Neither Onlive or Square Enix (who made a deal from the coupons to be there) have made a comment on the matter. It all seems a bit shady to me to be honest.
There has been user comments on articles about this defending GameStop saying it's okay they are just reducing competition. Or that it's a low move by Onlive to have coupons for there service selling at game stop. To these type of comments, I say bullshit. Yes removing the vouchers would be reducing competition, does that make it okay? Hell no it doesn't, especially when they remove it, rewrap the code and still sell it as new and don't mention the voucher has been removed. If the game has been opened between Square Enix shipping them off and me buying the game, it's is technically used, maybe not the disc. But the customer should be the first person to open it, whether or not this is illegal, I don't know but it is a dick move by them. As for the Onlive shouldn't be promoting there system through someone elses. Again bullshit, the fact of the matter is there is a voucher in every PC retail copy so they are not trying to have a go at GameStop and Impulse they are merely doing what companies do and trying to widen there customer market. GameStop is in the wrong here, if you disagree frankly you are wrong. Onlive did nothing wrong except promoting there company. They made a deal with a games developer. These things happen and they always will. By the logic of stopping competition they shouldn't sell the likes of Battlefield 3 as it needs Origin, making the need to buy from Gamestop or download from impulse unnecessary, we can't have any competition trying to better themselves now can we. Anyway I'm going to end my rant here.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)