Let’s get this out of the way first: OnLive doesn’t improve this game’s terrible story and voice acting. I guess even miracle technology has its limits.
I initially noticed a lot of controller lag, but that seemed to improve after a few minutes. I still had a little trouble fine-tuning my aim, but it wasn’t enough to cause frustration. The game ran quite smoothly, and I was impressed with how good it looked.
I sat on the title screen for about 60 seconds, unable to make anything happen by mashing on the controller. It turns out that this game defaults to mouse controls, which makes sense. Look, I never claimed to be a genius…
I’d never played World of Goo before this, but it seemed to work just as well here as I’d expect it to on any other platform. The simple, colorful visuals looked great, and the tiny bit of controller/mouse lag was a non-factor after a minute or so.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from a racing game on OnLive. My first impressions weren’t very good. The controls felt terrible, and I couldn’t keep my vehicle on the track. Part of this was because rally cars are a bitch to drive, but lag was the biggest factor, and the semi-frequent frame-rate hiccups only exacerbated the problem. I almost stopped playing out of frustration, but I decided to stick things out and finish the race. Much to my surprise, I quickly adapted to the controls and managed a fourth-place finish.
Curious to see whether or not I’d continue to adjust to the controls, I started another race. I continued to get more comfortable, and I actually took first over the always-pesky Dave Mirra.
While the frame rate improved a bit after the first few minutes, I would have preferred that it was a little more consistent. I also felt like this game showed more artifacts (blocks like what you’d see in a video with a low bit-rate) than the others.
Summary:
I’d say that overall, I’m generally pleased with my first hour of OnLive play. Yes, I did notice varying degrees of lag in everything that I played, but I always seemed to adjust to the controls rather quickly. I’m looking forward to spending more time with each game to find out if I’m able to completely adjust.
I’m not a graphics whore, so I mostly found the visuals to be just fine. The frame rates I experienced were never anything better than “OK,” but they never rendered the games unplayable.
I’ll put some more time in with the service over the next few weeks and report my findings to you. Should you have any questions for me, or if you’d like to share your own experience with OnLive, please do so in the comments below.
