The Glade 4.0

Anyone seen this yet?

http://www.onlive.com/service

I just saw a headline and thought I'd check it out. It's basically a "rent or buy games from the cloud" service. You can download and play on your computer, or via a 'micro-console' you buy from them.

There is a lot of potential mayhem here, and I have no idea what kind of DRM will exist on the downloaded games you buy.

Please don't consider this an endorsement. I just thought I'd throw it out here in case some hadn't seen it yet.

I had a couple students that used it and only had good things to say. Apparently it works really well and that micro-console is supposed to be pretty slick.

The only downside is, if OnLive goes under, so do all the games you've paid for. Same as Steam, I guess.

DRM is a non-issue, I'd think, since you never actually download anything and it's 100% streaming.

Just wanted to point out that Steam, since it's not a leasing service or anything, has gone on record to state that if they ever shut down, they'll release patches for their games (I don't recall whether this is Valve only or whether this is a stipulation given to all developers who publish with them) to remove the DRM checks inherent to the Steam launching system.

Thus, if Steam ever goes under, it's possible (and likely, in the case of Valve games) that it will have no effect on your purchases. You just won't be able to re-download them again. The tech's built in, in any case.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Take this with a grain of salt as i havent checked it out in probably 6-12 months.

I was in the 'beta' late last year, early this year? I have not looked into it in a long while. I see they finally have the console deal for the TV's, back then it was just run on any core2duo PC/Mac that was the only requirement and high speed internet connection. There is absolutely nothing downloaded, just there plugin, after that just purchase the game, let it buffer for a few seconds and play.

I could run Assassin's Creed 2 on my work laptop (dell d620) no issues. I got really turned off at the charges, because I was in beta I did not have to pay the monthly fee, $5/month I beleive was the latest I heard, it started at $10, and then have to purchase either playpasses, such as a 3 day pass, which gives you 3 day access to the game, or purchase it usually at retail price. Some games only had X day play passes usually 3 or 5 day play passes. I dont sit and play/beat a game in 3 days, usually play 1 or 2 hours a day, so that also turned me off.

Checking now, some of the prices went down. It ran quick, had a couple lag issues in the few hours i played Batman Akrham Asylum started getting severly choppy in places. It was nice when I was slow at work and until zScaler blocked onlive Prices really turned me off though, I would rather just purchase the game and have much better graphic's. Never took long to buffer or anything of that sort. It worked pretty darn well, probably better now.

I remember hearing about this a few years ago. I'm interested to see how far it has come along. For me, being without high speed internet at home, I'll probably just be sticking with Steam on my laptop. I download my games at school onto a 1TB HDD, then run them smoothly without worrying about internet.

I think this has potential, but it's so hard to make a dent with the competition in the console market.

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They've got a sale on the OnLive console going on through Sunday...pick it up for $66. I went ahead and ordered one today. It comes with a free game (your choice), so it's about the same as buying a new game. What the hell, I'll give it a shot.

So basically, it's a PC game console?

Would be awesome if they started supporting MMOs....

Imagine if Blizzard sold a "Warcraft" console that you could use.... Streamed WoW directly to your TV, use the USB ports to plug in a keyboard/mouse and you're set.....

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Yep, it's an affordable gaming PC.

Hehe, if only I had my work connection at home...

Did a speed test last night and got 195 mbps download and 25 mbps upload, although it was down to 90 mbps down and 4 up midday today.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

OnLive only requires a 1.5mbps connection :p

Requires being a very selectively used word

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Bumping this back up...

OnLive is apparently releasing an iPad version now, and has created touch control layovers for the games.

The "spectator" portion is live now, the actual playing part should be released soon- there are some good demo videos from E3.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.