Ars reviews the OnLive microconsole, service

The idea of streaming video content is now commonplace, but streaming games? OnLive is doing it. By running the games on powerful computers and then streaming the gameplay to your PC or television via the microconsole, you can play even high-end games on low-end hardware.

I’ve been using OnLive for over a year now, and I’ve seen the good times and the bad times. Now that the microconsole is here and we’ve had some time to play around with both the hardware and the service itself, it’s time for our final thoughts.

The Hardware

You’ve already seen the pictures of the microconsole and included “Owl” controller, so now we’re going to take a closer look at the hardware.

The microconsole is a handheld box with two USB ports on the front, and 3.5mm stereo and optical audio, Ethernet, HDMI and AV ports on the back. The box is made especially for HDMI, but OnLive also sells an HDMI-component cable, which uses the port below the HDMI port. Of course, that port will only output 720p video, and sells for $30 separately.

The microconsole is small enough to put anywhere, which can be good or bad for your media center; it’s hard to find a place where it “fits,” and it’s too small to just place on the floor. For now, it sits on top of my media center PC, which was ironically set up six months ago to play OnLive games on the TV.

The Owl gamepad is similar to both the Dualshock and the Xbox 360 controller design. The symmetrical thumbsticks are concave and studded, and they grip better than any other major gamepad I’ve tested. The Owl is also big. I’m one of those rare people that liked the original “Duke” Xbox controller, and I like the Owl’s size as well. It’s not quite as large or rounded as the Duke; instead, the Owl is contoured and angular on the sides to fit the hand.

If you don’t want to use the included controller, you have options; any wired or Bluetooth gamepad should work with the microconsole. The controller is included with the $100 system, as well as a micro-USB cable, an ethernet cable, an HDMI cable, and a voucher for one game.

Of course, you don’t need a microconsole. All you need is a computer running Windows or OS X and the client. The service is free to try, so if you’d like to give it a shot, nothing is stopping you.

With the microconsole, the first installation required 5 minutes to update to the latest firmware, after which I went through the setup process. A setup window offers two options: sign in to an account or set up new account. Installation works with either a keyboard and mouse or the gamepad. Synchronizing the gamepad to the microconsole is automatic. The only button on the microconsole acts as a power button. This is as close to an idiot-proof setup as you can ask for.

After that, booting the microconsole takes about two seconds, which opens a simple menu to log in, switch users, change the video settings for resolution, and power down. Getting to the main OnLive menu takes another 5-15 seconds, depending on your Internet connection and the time of day.

The Software

By far the worst thing about the OnLive service is the constant need to update the software. It doesn’t matter whether you’re on a PC or the microconsole, there are so many updates that it gets ridiculous. Half of my logins required an update, and while this was expected during the beta, the trend continued after the official launch and hasn’t changed since. Thankfully, the updates are quick, taking only a minute or two to complete.

Barring any update, getting from boot to game takes anywhere from 30-45 seconds, depending on the game. That’s comparable to a game console, and faster than a PC. When I spoke with OnLive CEO Steve Perlman, he told me that they’re trying to shave all the time down. The company wants to get people into a game immediately, within ten seconds.

According to Perlman, it’s possible. Time can be shaved off the boot and login process—the microconsole is still on beta software, so it will probably be faster upon the full December release—but, more importantly, game loading can be optimized for OnLive’s servers. According to Perlman, developers could have games boot within three seconds if they’re willing to put in the work. Some are already quick, like Darksiders, which loads in 5-7 seconds. Others, like Assassin’s Creed 2, take up to 20 seconds to get into the game.

The main menu is very basic, as you can see in the picture above. It’s made to be functional with a keyboard-and-mouse combo or a gamepad. The simplicity is partly to make the service easy to use, but there’s also simply not much to do.

The Marketplace, for instance, has a total of 35 games thus far. Perlman told me that the company doesn’t want to flood the service with games, instead integrating older titles with their upcoming flat-rate service. But 35 games is not much of a start, especially with such a huge library of possible PC games to pull from. Having just 35 games on the marketplace after six months of service is a disappointment.

Then there’s the social aspect of OnLive, or lack thereof. Some things are great. Brag clips, where players can save the last few seconds of gameplay and post it for anyone to see, are addictive. I spent far too much time in the process of writing this review watching brag clips, and some are just incredible. Users can watch and rate brag clips, and there are some things that are amazing to see. It’s way more convenient and fun than using YouTube.

The Arena can also be entertaining, but it’s also mostly useless. The Arena shows all games currently being played, and anyone can browse through and spectate. The concept is great, but it’s not all that interesting to watch. Now, if you’re on the ropes about buying a certain game, I think Arena is a much better way to get a feel for gameplay than just watching clips. Since the games are also free to try for 30 minutes, trying before you buy is not an issue.

The profile and friends list are limited. Players create an initial profile, which includes one quote, play style (casual, hardcore, etc.) and a video avatar. Video avatars are taken from a selection of pre-existing videos on the service—you can’t upload your own, which is probably a good thing. You can also set up a friends list in order to play with other people.

There is no difference between the console and PC version of OnLive, nor should there be. The service was built with the intent that users could play the same games and use the same service anywhere. All the microconsole does is bring that same experience to your TV, instead of requiring a media PC or a laptop.

Oh, and gameplay

So how do games run? Very playable, very playable indeed. Then again, I am running on FiOS.

FiOS is great with OnLive, but I did have the chance to test it on other, slower connections as well. Even then, I can still say that OnLive is entirely playable, but there are some issues. Latency, bandwidth and caps, distance from the nearest server, and even whether you use a gamepad versus a keyboard and mouse makes an impact. Latency is by far the most prevalent factor, and unless you’re playing next door to one of OnLive’s servers, you’ll feel it. Even with my 20Mbps down and 4Mbps up, I could tell that the game was not running natively.

Three main indicators give away the fact that this isn’t a native game: framerate bumps, sudden resolution drops and gameplay blips. The framerate is supposed to be 60fps, and it often is, but there are hiccups, most likely due to packet loss or someone else in the house using the Internet. The 60fps doesn’t look or feel steady; it acts more like a spiky 45fps, with sudden drops that occur randomly, but not when the action gets hot or the graphics explode onscreen. The resolution is also variable, and the image is compressed to help with latency. One second you might see the pores in someone’s face, and the next their head will look like an angular peach. It doesn’t happen often, and this problem is much worse when on Wi-Fi.

The hardware that’s running the games seems to handle everything very easily. The only actual slowdown has come from connection issues.

What is clear is that certain games run better through OnLive than others, namely slow-paced titles. Games like The Maw and Darksiders don’t require quick action, and are completely playable. Not only that, but they easily rival console games, though right now they still look graphically worse due to the compression and variable resolution.

Very fast-paced games, like Unreal Tournament 3 or FEAR 2, have more issues because of the constant movement, but you can get used to it. It’s not that it feels terrible, just different, and not quite as precise as the game running on your own hardware.

Playing a game like UT3 is possible, just not optimal. I managed to win two competitions hosted by OnLive, and that earned me $125 total. I played both competitions on my netbook, which has trouble playing some flash games. I played not on FiOS, but at a local college library sharing the Internet with thousands of other students, and over a hundred in the same room. No other service would allow for something like this to happen.

Yes, one could argue that I could buy some laptop that’s small and thin that can play games. But I was playing UT3 at 720p on a computer I already owned, and using minimal power. I didn’t need to buy any new equipment. I didn’t need to use a power cable, nor did I need a recharge immediately after the hour long tournaments. All I needed was my existing hardware and an Internet connection. Oh, and a gaming mouse.

Then, just yesterday, I wanted to show a game to someone visiting my house, so I pulled out the same laptop and booted OnLive. After a minute (the Wi-Fi service is still in beta, and is thus slow to boot), I was in Borderlands showing off a gun that I had found the night before. There’s no other way to do something like this. I couldn’t actually play Borderlands well, because it’s an action-intensive title and I was too far away from my wireless router to maintain a steady connection, but the technology is solid.

Bottom line: the game does matter. For any game where a millisecond matters, you’ll want to stick to a native PC or console.

Ben’s thoughts: a second opinion on the service

Our gaming editor Ben Kuchera also played games using the OnLive service for a number of hours. Here are his thoughts.

What struck me most about the service is how fast it is. I clicked on Unreal Tournament 3 to use my 30 free minutes and I was playing a game in under a minute. That’s pretty amazing. Even better was how well the game played on my 13″ Macbook Air, a system that wasn’t exactly built for first-person shooters.

The game played very well, and was much more responsive than I was expecting. My timing felt a little off, but nothing I couldn’t take into account after a few minutes. My main problem was the muddiness of the image; the compression really takes a toll on fine detail. That being said, this is much more than I could expect from this system were I playing a game installed onto the SSD.

The thing I’m most looking forward to is the addition of a subscription-based service. While I doubt I would be willing to buy a game through OnLive, I could definitely see picking up a month or two so I could game on my various laptops and netbooks while I traveled. I was playing on my home Internet connection, which is good and speedy, but be aware you may get less optimal performance if you’re trying to game on a coffee shop Internet connection. As WiFi becomes faster, cheaper, and more available, OnLive will only get better.

My main beef is that the game selection is sad. Everything else worked great—above and beyond what I expected. Go ahead, give it a shot for yourself.

To Stream Or Not To Stream

As a technology, OnLive is exciting. It’s Netflix for games, but not limited to games. In the future, it could do TV, movies, music—theoretically, it can do everything, on a little box, with minimal lag. As time progresses and the code is cleaned up, and as more users get better Internet with lower latency, it will improve. And, as some European users have noted, it’s actually playable across the ocean too, though lag times are in the seconds, not milliseconds.

You don’t need to take it from us, though; install the client and try the service out for yourself, because connection speed is the only thing that really matters for the service. Also, all the games have free trials. Trying games this way is easier than even downloading a demo.

There are some downsides here. You’re limited by your Internet connection, the selection of games is slim, and if you buy a game you’re still tied to the service. The upside is the ability to play the games on nearly any system. All told, OnLive may not be a slam dunk, but it’s a great first step into a brave new world.