OnLive with my Android ... Results inside ...

[Shane R. Monroe]

Update: Here is 15 minutes of use. Consoles and handhelds are dead? You decide.



I was bored as hell last night. See, every night between 10:30 and 11:00pm, I try to have quality time with my Asus Transformer. I ran out of things to do, so I decided to look into this OnLive crap.

I was ready to abort at the first sign of asking for any payment, but supposedly you can get a taste for 100% free. That's what I was going for.

So, you download the app from the Market. Install, run. Create a free account with very little information (the entry screen is HORRID - it's obvious that they have not optimized it at ALL for tablets).

Once you get through that, you get presented with a very-obviously-streamed-from-a-larger-resolution-screen menu. Blurry and fuzzy. It works fine and is even kinda cool - but the illusion of "being there" is ruined by the screen scaling.

You can do basic filtering - by type of game, etc. There are a couple of games you'll recognize and might want to play - Batman, Borderlands, etc. but I saw no evidence of the latest hits like MW3, Skyrim, etc.

Most games have a "free trial" - that is 30 minutes of free play. I tried Borderlands - only to be told that it isn't supported on my device. Great.

I tried Lego Batman. This one worked.

The screen is covered with controls. You can see through them, and they try to move them to the sides, but .. dayom. Takes a lot of game screen.

I'm completely against virtual controls on touch screens, and this game didn't change my mind. Barely playable on the easy tutorial screens - I can't imagine what it would be like in busy combat. From a technical standpoint, the video looks good, and there wasn't any real lag that I could see. You do have to wait for a bit for the game to "load".

I looked around the OnLive menus - you can do a few things interesting, like record "Brag Videos".

With proper controls and no onscreen display, the game might have been playable.

But, that is Lego Batman ... Who the hell is playing that?

I wanted to try a racing game - see if they used the tablet's gyros/accelerometers to steer.

Dirt3 was the choice.

The experience was horrid. LOOONG "load time". Lagged a good full second or more. No "driving" support once you got to the game - horrid onscreen controls.

That was all I had time for.

What's missing from my test run is sampling a few more games and try it with a NON-ONLIVE controller - like a 360 or PS3 controller.

I'll say the same thing I said about this service before. It's a nice idea that's almost IMPOSSIBLE to execute properly. They are going to have to have DAY AND DATE releases with new games to satisfy the "core gamer", and they have a long way to go IMHO.