OnLive

Instant gaming on your TV!

Or at least that's their selling point. Onlive is a $99 gaming system that allows you to play games from the internet without the need for an Xbox, Ps3, or PC/Mac straight onto your TV. It was released in June of 2010, so it's pretty new. Seems pretty convenient, right? Well lets take a closer look.

I was supposed to take my uncle to the airport yesterday and he handed me a pretty small box that was fairly light in weight. He told me it was a gaming console and that his friend gave it to him to test out. I said, "Woah wait, console? Is this new? When did this release? Is it in beta testing?"

I flooded my uncle with questions, few of which he could answer correctly. When I got home I decided to open it up and find out for myself.

The box was nice and small. Along with being portable, it was very light as well. 

The lid slipped right off. The packaging was really well done. On the left is the OnLive system and on the right is the controller.

The wireless controller looks exactly like an Xbox 360 controller. It feels like one too. The only difference is that the D-pad and the left analog are switched so it somewhat emulates a PS3 controller as well. There's also some buttons on the bottom for controlling movies and other types of media.

The back looks exactly like an Xbox controller. The battery even removes the same, except the button to remove it is on the bottom instead of the top. The top has a port for the charger. The controller can be plugged into the system via usb in order to charge the controller. Something also similar to the PS3 controller.

Here's the Onlive system itself. As you can see it's not much bigger than the controller. On top there's an HDMI port that goes to your HDTV, an ethernet port for internet, an audio port for speakers I guess, and the port for the power supply. The bottom features two USB ports to support up to two controllers I assume.

This is what's beneath the controller and the system. As you can see, the packaging is extremely well done. 

Here's what was inside those little boxes. On top from left to right we have the USB controller charger, the 5' ethernet cable, the HDMI cable, and then the rechargeable alternate battery pack for the controller.  On the bottom is the power supply, and a pair of batteries for the empty controller.

Right after tearing everything apart and taking pictures of everything, I brought it straight to my room to give it a shot. Unfortunately, my router is on the opposite side of the room from my hdtv, so I had to use my nice and long Xbox 360 ethernet cable instead. Whatever works, right? Unless you have a really small room or your router is right next to your tv, the 5' cable just doesn't seem to cut it. The power button on the actual system is about the size of my pinky nail, but it wasn't hard to locate because it has a red light on it. I actually had a little difficulty figuring out whether it was on or not because when it's on the light turns orange I think. I didn't even notice the difference at first. It would have been nice if they had it turn green or something. Anyways, once the system started up it asked me to log in, so I had to go back to my pc and make an account online. Apparently you can play from their website too. So what's the point of the $99 box that plugs into your tv? My PC is already connected to my tv.. Well it comes with the controller too I guess. Anyways, so after making my account, I logged in and was treated with a pretty nice menu.

The main menu is easy to navigate.

Take a look at the picture above. "Arena" is a place where you can watch what other people online are playing. You actually get to see what they're doing in their game as well. Sounds kind of creepy, right? I guess the "Brag Clips" are where people who played games recorded their gameplay and decided to upload something funny, unique, or cool. Everything else on the menu is self explanatory. I started off by choosing "My Games", but since I didn't have any games, I was taken to the "Marketplace" instead. At the Marketplace, there was a small list of games to choose from, all of which must be bought in order to be played. From what I saw, they're mostly PS3 and Xbox360 games along with some small PC games. The prices range from $5-$50, and each game offers a trial version, but none of the games are free, and $99 isn't worth playing trials. The list isn't very big either. The games can only be played if you have internet access, and you have to have pretty good internet connection in order to run the games smoothly. The video quality of the games aren't exactly HD either, but acceptable. I couldn't even play all of the trials because some of them required a keyboard. And some of the games are meant to be used with a keyboard. So what's the point of buying this $99 box when OnLive seems better off from a PC? In my opinion, purchasing an Xbox or a PS3 provide a lot more benefits than this OnLive system. 

So is it worth it? Right now, no. The list of games to offer is far to small, but I can see that they're slowly expanding the list. If they get any games worthwhile, or even some exclusive games, then it would probably be a lot better, but I can't ever see it surpassing the PS3 or the Xbox 360.