OnLive Cloud Gaming Console Review

Please check out the video below, where I demonstrate how easy it is to login and get playing via OnLive, show a little gameplay, some of the menus involved and how quickly you can change games.

Please note the video was captured on the PC software for OnLive using fraps, due to not being able to capture video via the HDMI cable, the overall video quality on both the software and especially the console its self was a lot sharper than is displayed in the video and is in no way an indication of the final video quality the console provided.

While the console its self does appear to be modelled on a door stop, with a really nice gloss finish to it it really stands out, unfortunately so do any finger prints that you will inevitably leave on it, but given how tiny this thing is it snuggles in nicely under you TV in even the smallest of spaces, or in my case, right between my PS3 and 360, just next to me Kinect.  The controller looks and feels just right and the overall style of the interface and menu systems involved mean a big win on style for both the service and the hardware.

You can play on your PC right now by visiting Onlive.co.uk / Onlive.com, or you can pick up a console new for around £60, making this the best value deal in gaming at the moment in so many ways, assuming you’ve got the network capability to handle the service.

There is something magical about the whole setup, when I joined the service it was solely to mock them, prove how much it doesn’t work and how bad it was going to be… then I used it and was forced to eat my own hat, while its in my opinion no replacement for local solutions like games consoles or PC gaming, of which I partake in both regularly, it compliments them perfectly, its just another way of doing things, it provides me with the quickest way of trying demos, its the perfect games rental service and it also provides a way for you to play the latest most graphically intensive PC games on devices like low powered net-books that would struggle to run a PC games from 10 years ago, so for that reason alone I have to award the OnLive games service our Bang For Buck award.

But while you can play these games on your phone (with some titles having built in touch support too) the console is that really shines through, bringing streaming cloud gaming direct to your TV is the most innovative feature here and for that I also award the console its self our Bang for Buck award, a complete library of streaming games for a whole range of budgets.

And as a final thought I can’t wait to see what develops of this technology in the coming years.