What’s that? Tyler’s writing about OnLive again? Oh joy, what vile shall he spit out today?
First, shut the hell up, you stupid ignorant piece of pie apple! Or, whatever. I write about what interests me, and the passion that I have for this one single company… By god, there’s just no comparison. OnLive is awesome. They have cool technology that made Sony and Microsoft look almost insignificant back when they were first announced. Seriously, to see such a small startup company that no one has ever heard of basically walk up onto the stage and steal E3 away from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo? That was a magical moment that I shall never forget! And that Crysis demo… On a netbook…. Speechless!
However, that version of OnLive no longer exists. It has since been replaced by a subscription model service that removed most of the useful functionality and ideas that put OnLive a step above whatever little competition they had. CloudLift is a joke, with no real games to actually take advantage of the service. The only reason I used OnLive over my traditional gaming computer or home console? I could take my games with me anywhere, and play on any device. Unfortunately, that is no longer possible, as OnLive doesn’t seem to give a damn about the smart phone and tablet market, and removed touch support from their service entirely. Now, if you want to play on any device, like what they advertise, you need to bring a controller along with you, which kind of defeats the point of the service.
That isn’t to say that OnLive doesn’t still have major potential to be a real force in the PC gaming arena. While Steam gamers don’t really give a shit about the service, and the lack of quality games on OnLive really doesn’t encourage a subscription, if OnLive were to start streaming graphically intensive games with insanely high system requirements, and if OnLive does so at a stable frame rate while at maximum graphical settings? I can see this service skyrocketing in popularity.
Screen resolution aside, imagine playing something like Watch Dogs at max settings on a very low end computer. I personally would subscribe to CloudLift just for that, as my computer, like most, isn’t powerful enough to run WatchDogs at Max settings. Sure, I could probably pull it off if I lowered my screen resolution to 720p, which is what OnLive outputs at, I would never be able to do that while using my low end laptop from 2007. Hell, I doubt my laptop would even get past the menu system before it overheated. OnLive, on the other hand, would allow me to play WatchDogs at Max settings on my laptop, so I could literally play this years most anticipated game anywhere I damn well wanted. That’s pretty awesome.
Problem is, there’s no word if OnLive actually intends to support such major titles like WatchDogs. While having this game on their service would be a major selling point, I still couldn’t justify a monthly subscription just for a single high end video game. Well, I probably could, as I love open world type games, but I wouldn’t subscribe for long. Maybe a month or two, if lucky. OnLive needs more games worth playing, and fast, before they can be considered a real service. Right now, I can’t help but laugh at how far backwards they’ve gone since getting bought out. Hopefully this changes, and OnLive becomes a decent service that the gaming community will praise, rather than laugh at.
Until that happens, don’t sign up for CloudLift, unless you have a really shitty computer and already own every damn game available on OnLive. Otherwise, why sign up for a new monthly subscription, if the service itself is useless to you?
It all comes down to the games, and right now, OnLive’s just not worth it. The PlayPack, on the other hand? Best deal in gaming, period,