I checked my email tonight and there waiting for me was an email from Onlive saying that they were live and ready to roll. This made me happy, very happy. I couldn't install it fast enough. I was able to play for about an hour tonight and here are my first experiences and impressions.This is the opening screen (with some small differences).Here's an older version of the Onlive main menu. There are some differences in the release version as discussed below.
The Arena is a spectator mode. It's pretty cool to watch others play their games. Profile, Last Played and Friends are self explanatory I believe. Games (this actually is Marketplace in the released version) is where you can buy or demo the games that they have for sale. At release, Onlive offers 23 games(see list below). The games are a good representation of the genres. Brag Clips is where you can show off video clips that you've recorded while playing. Instead of Showcase, the real version has a Coming Soon button that shows trailers of upcoming titles that they will be offered on Onlive.The service works really well. There is no perceivable lag for me when I play. I put this to the test by joining a multiplayer round of Unreal Tournament. These kind of games require split second reflexes and it felt just as if I was playing at a LAN party. No lag at all. Very impressive. The resolution is good, not great for this game, the same can be said for the sound quality. You kind of don't think about these things as you get playing though.Here's a view of the Arena. Each frame is an actual playing video and you can click on any of them to watch that player'sgamein progressin a full screen.One thing that I really like is that you can demo any game that they have for sale. You simply get 30 minutes of normal game play. I played the first 30 minutes of Assassin's Creed 2 which was just long enough to get past all of the intro and talking and get to the first fight. I would have liked to get more time in this game, but it may be the title that I buy with my Founding Members Program free game anyway. There is no installing or loading of the demos or games. You just click on Demo, and the game starts. I really like that.I was curious to try Borderlands as this is a game that I own and play on my low-end PC. The game runs better on Onlive than it does on my native PC. This was impressive to me and is pretty much the whole point of Onlive- play all games no matter how high-end they are on most any machine (including Macs). I hosted a multiplayer game of Borderlands, curious to see if multiplayer worked, and it wasn't long before someone joined my game and played along with me for awhile. The graphics in Onlive Borderlands look better than my native PC Borderlands, mostly because I have to crank mine down to get a tolerable frame rate to play. Not so with Onlive.Another great thing about Onlive is it allows you to try out games that you wouldn't be able to otherwise. I've wanted to play Trine for awhile now but never had the chance. Now I can play the demo for 30 minutes and get a pretty good feel for the game.Onlive still has some bugs to work out. For instance, the sound in Trine didn't work for me and the first time I loaded Assassin's Creed 2, I got stuck at the end of a cut-scene and had to restart the game. Considering the technological feat that they are pulling off though, I'm amazed at how well it runs.Another thing that I noticed after looking at the launch titles list below is that many of the games are missing. Dragon Ages Origins and Mass Effect 2 are both games that I considered getting as my free game but they are not available today. I'll have to see what the explanation is.So far I am very impressed with Onlive and I'm sure that it will only get better as more games are added and as the Onlive gaming community gets established. The biggest question that I had before actually getting to try Onlive was "will it work?" Based on the limited time I've had to play the service so far, it seems that the answer is most definitely yes. Great job Onlive, I'm glad to be a founding member. I'll write more after I put some more hours into it.
OnLive launch titles:aaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! -- A Reckless Disregard for Gravity,Assassin's Creed II, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Borderlands, Brain Challenge, Defense Grid: Gold, Dirt 2, Dragon Age: Origins, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, Just Cause 2, Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 Demo (Full version available 6/29), Madballs in Babo: Invasion, Mass Effect 2, MLB 2K10, NBA 2K10, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, Puzzle Chronicles, Red Faction Guerrilla, Shatter, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction, Trine, Unreal Tournament III, World of Goo