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Game Blog | OnLive reviewed

Game Blog | OnLive reviewed

by Glen Ferris, Feb 6, 2012

In this week’s Power Up! Gaming Blog, Glen Ferris tries his hand at the OnLive cloud-based gaming service, looks forward to Lollipop Chainsaw and busts a move with Street Fighter X Tekken.

OnLive – Review

If you’re one of those minimalist types who doesn’t like consoles and boxes and instruction manuals clogging up your home, then you’ve probably been keeping an eye on the slow but steady development of cloud-based gaming.

The theory behind the concept is that you will no longer need to have a physical disc to put in your actual console to get your game on. It’s an idea that comes with a huge array of potential applications but it’s never quite been doable. Until now. Kind of.

OnLive takes the first credible stab at making pick-up-and-play games available from the cloud, but it’s not without its problems.
The service is simplicity itself. You just sign up for free, pay for the monthly bundle (which gives you access to more than 100 games) or choose an individual title and then start playing from either your laptop, tablet, smart phone or – and this is pretty smart - a micro-console that streams the service through your TV.

The upside to all this is that you can play games the traditional way on your telly and then pick up where you left off on the train or in the office or at school depending on what devices you have and how long you can get away with it before your boss/teacher notices.

Apple users especially will be over the moon at being able to play the likes of Batman: Arkham Asylum or Assassin’s Creed: Revelations on their iProducts.

The whole shebang is made even easier if you treat yourself to the OnLive controller which comes complete with an infra-red USB to make it easier to play in a console stylee no matter where you be. The micro-console, meanwhile, is remarkably titchy and comes with a controller and a HDMI cable to make the most of the HD games on offer.

Although some major releases are notable by their absence due to licensing issues from rivals such as Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony, you do have 50-plus big-name developers – including the likes of Take-Two, Ubisoft, Codemasters, THQ, Warner Bros. and Eidos Interactive - signed up to the service, so you’ll never be short of a big-name game.

If this is all sounding pretty ace so far, that’s because it really is. The service is easy to use and pretty good value for money, it’s a treat to be able to crack on with a game while you’re away from home and there are many quirks such as the ability to jump straight into multiplayer games and then post Brag Clips when you do something you’re particularly proud of.

Your appreciation of OnLive, however, will live and die by the speed of your broadband connection. You’ll really need around 8mbps to get the most from the HD titles and to ensure there’s no lagging in streaming or blockiness of graphics. At home, this could be arranged (at some cost depending on who provides your broadband) but when you’re on the move the chances of picking up the speed you need from Wi-Fi networks would be pretty slim.

All in all, this is a service with its eye on the future. Super-fast broadband is only around the corner and will be available to most, while Wi-Fi strength is getting better all the time. With that in mind, OnLive may not be the essential purchase it would like to be right now, but we fully advise you get signed up anyway – pretty soon, we’ll all be playing their way.

Byte-Sized Bits

• If you love Buffy The Vampire Slayer but always thought it could have done with less blood-suckers and more zombies, then you’re in for a treat with Lollipop Chainsaw. Written by James Gunn (director of Slither and scribe of Dawn Of The Dead), this twisted tale about a sweet-sucking cheerleader who uses her rainbow-decalled weapon to hack and slash her way through hordes of the undead is shaping up to be the cult gaming hit of 2012. What’s more, we’ve just heard that the soundtrack will feature the musical stylings of Jimmy Euringer, aka Little Jimmy Urine, frontman for the band Mindless Self Indulgence. Wee Jimmy Wee-Wee (as he’s possibly known to his friends) will join legendary game soundtracker Akira Yamaoka in creating some banging choons to kill baddies by, so expect serious sonic shenanigans to complement the on-screen mayhem.

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• Do you think you can out-Hadouken Ryu or surpass Chun-Li’s Spinning Bird Kick? If so, then the gauntlet has been laid down for you to prove it. To commemorate the release of the upcoming Street Fighter X Tekken at a console near you, Capcom, dance group One Motion and the charity CALM are challenging body-moving gamers to act out their favourite special moves on camera. Simply take a look at the videos below for inspiration and then send your entries to competition@capcom.com. Two finalists will battle in a live event for the chance to get their routine professionally filmed and tickets to Move It 2012. More info can be found right here.