OnLive MicroConsole & Service review

If you’re keen to play the latest releases, then you’ll have to buy them at full price – Batman: Arkham City is available to pre-order at £40 at the time of writing. However, its been released already for consoles, with the Xbox 360 version widely available for £35 online. Fortunately, regular special offers are available and if you sign up now, you’ll get your first game for a pound. Better still, you can play an OnLive game instantly, no waiting for the postman, going to the shop, installing, or updating drivers. Just buy and play.

It’s worth noting that the graphical quality of OnLive’s most intensive streaming games isn’t quite as good as you’d expect from an Xbox360, let alone a PC with a decent graphics card. It’s not bad enough to be a distraction, though, and we found it easy to become immersed in the game, despite occasional jaggies and wavering gun sights.

The Witcher looks a little compressed here, the effect is much like that of watching reasonable quality YouTube footage

Using a mouse on the PC version feels a bit laggy if you’re used to the fast-twitch responsiveness of PC gaming. You get used to it, but it’s never quite comfortably fluid. We were much happier with the experience of using a control pad with the OnLive MicroConsole, which provided a suitably Xbox-like gaming experience, snapping to targets with ease. The controller is a poor man’s answer to Microsoft’s, with an almost identical button and stick layout, plus a few extra navigation buttons towards the base. It’s surprisingly heavy, but generally comfortable to use. Like the Xbox controller, it’s powered by a rechargeable battery pack or AA battery holder.

HomeFront is one of the few multiplayer shooters available, many will see the lack of Call of Duty as a major stumbling block

Although OnLive’s graphics and responsiveness are slightly limited by its cloud-based games-as-a-service model, this is more than made up for but its accessibility. You literally can play almost anywhere that there’s an internet connection. Of course, this means that if you don’t have a net connection, then you can’t play at all.

The regularly-updated subscription-based PlayPack Bundle is a brilliant deal and the entire system lends itself to casual and semi-casual gamers. The dedicated hardware is relatively inexpensive while the software clients are undemanding. We’re sceptical about paying full whack for the latest games only to play them at compromised quality, but rental is an appealing option. If you’re a perfectionist when it comes to graphical quality in particularly, OnLive isn’t for you, but it’s perfect for anyone who has a fast net connection and doesn’t want to shell out on expensive dedicated hardware.