OnLive
SCORE: 63
OnLive came in to Family Friendly Gaming
recently. This machine connects to the Internet and lets families play
games on their television. Well as long as you happen to have the right
kind of television. A television with an HDMI connection is needed. No
one had one of those here. So the first problem we ran into was getting
one that would work. The WMG made the sacrifice for this ministry to
purchase a television that works with the OnLive machine.
The unit, and all the cables of the OnLive have a real sleek look to
them. Since this shows on digital television it looks really good. The
controller has an interesting look that brings up memories of the
Dreamcast controller. The size of the OnLive is surprisingly small. In
fact the cables dwarf it, and so does the controller. The orange lights
offset the black background.
The audio of the OnLive is okay. Some of the sounds are pleasant, and
some are not so. The instruction booklet is on the light side in this
reviewer's opinion. If you have questions then you need to go online
(with a computer) to get assistance. We needed a lot of help here at
Family Friendly Gaming. More on that will be coming up soon.
OnLive has a decent amount of video games, and they continue to include
more. Players are allowed to play demos, purchase for a few days, or buy
the game outright. If OnLive Inc. ever goes belly up, then you will lose
that purchase. So that is a concern. Another concern is the low level of
family friendly titles. Especially when considering the cost of the
unit.
OnLive does not play nice with others. We tried this unit at multiple
locations, and worked with tech support. We could never get it
completely working. It wanted to update, but that update failed. Tech
support blamed things like network speed, other devices using the
router, etc. This unit was the most frustrating to work with. Every
single time we got past one step, it stopped on the next step. Families
have multiple devices that use their routers. So turning off everything
else to get one little thing working is not a viable option. Lag is a
problem.
There are similar devices that can be used on the computer. Both
Personal Computer, and Macintosh. All of them are free, and do not
require an investment of one hundred dollars. If you do not have an HDMI
television, then you would need to invest in one just to try and get the
OnLive working. On top of that the cord to the router is very short. So
the router, and the special television set need to be very close to one
another.
The WMG found the OnLive unit to be very frustrating to try and use.
Numerous members of Family Friendly Gaming worked on OnLive, until an
editorial decision was made to move on to other products. The WMG was
given the opportunity to write this review. The technology is not quite
there for a device like this. Maybe in a few years.
- Working Man Gamer
Graphics: 80%
Sound: 76%
Replay/Extras: 70%
Gameplay: 30%
Family Friendly Factor: 60%
System: OnLive
Publisher: OnLive Inc.
Rating: 'NR' for
Not Rated
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