Steam vs Onlive 23rd to 27th February : We win again

Onlive has a free Friday F.E.A.R 2 multplayer thing going on , every Friday


The real deal is the series of of games that are 50 to 75% off . Unlike Steam the games are revealed in advance .


Mafia 2 is half price today , Borderlands GOTYR is  half price Friday , then NBA and another sports title on the Sunday


If you want to try them out remember that too can be achieved almost insrantly


the prices are in $ and 14.99 for an instantly playable AAA pc game that you can have a netbook play faster than most gaming rigs  is frankly onlive just showing off it's potential . I have these games on Steam already but the draw of instant gaming means I need them on onlive ..too


Steam has many sales including 75% off all the modern day Command and Conquer games , not bad but that's around 60 gb to download. The Shogun 2 , and Dragon Age 2 demos are also up , more on those later.


 isn't competition great ? this year it will be onlive vs steam every week and as  I said in the title we win!


this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached 

Onlive Achievement weekend 2000 points gets 50 % off 5000 points get a free game!

+

Onlive are after your money this weekend too , as well as 30% off the likes of Assassins Creed Brotherhood , get some instant gaming on and your skills could earn you a FREE game!  

Really with so many deals there is hardly time to chose let alone play games , and now they threaten to give you them for Free , providing you have the skills! 

This is cool Steam vs Onlive vs Retail every weekend , viva competition ! 

this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached 

Hold on to your preorder money ..Onlive hits the UK on 22/09/11

Around this time of year we sit down to conduct complex fiscal calculations that would send the average Millionaire Row rosy cheeked Chancellor of the Exchequer sailing off into the sunset on the nearest Russian( Indian /Chinese)  Oligarchs super yacht . Why ? How? Who? What?  For this is the time we work out how we afford all those great games releases just around the corner - from collectors working out if Assassins Creed Animus Edition will be the most collectible game since the Brotherhood Codex Edition , to the the cascade of great releases that you will play sell and use to fund your next play sell ...

To the horror of the bargains around the corner from 2 upcoming Steam Sales , iOS and Android sales , and if you are really niche super cheap 3DS and PSP games .. not forgetting the major console releases.

But hold onto your money .... for onlive lets you instantly  socially play AAA PC games with a joy pad on literally any device with a fast broadband connection from your tv to to i7 powered tablets , or dual screen libretto tablets , or any flavour of mac and soon iPad and Android tablets!  And is set to launch in the UK on September 22nd  . Does it work ? Heck yeah it works and is going to change the way you game - and also means when your family kick you off the tv you can continue your game on a netbook , or on a tablet on the way to work - hardware is now irrelevant and any of your devices can be used to game , onlive will be independent this year but soon very soon thegameveda predicts one of the big boys Apple , Google or Microsoft will buy it out ,  now if Sony had any sense they would take the money they get from the insurance on a recently burnt down warehouse and buy out Onlive ....

If you need to see it working check out thegameveda playing with Onlive ( for almost a year now ) : and once again yes it works and is far more reliable than Gaikai . The other thing to note is as more and more games are added to the onlive play pack bundle we are going to move to a point where we pay a subscription for our games - every month just like your parents do for your cable or iphone ... ( I wish) ...

In the future though I see the likes of torrents disappearing and being replaced altogether by pirates streaming content - instant piracy is going to be lot harder to tackle than torrent led activities - At that point maybe all games will be free anyway as our enlightened forbears will have decreed games so beneficial to mankind that they will be available to pacify ..errh entertain future feral youth  - the age of the download looks positively Neanderthal and all the hip cloud happy  Homo Sapiens are streaming their games . So come 22nd September ... are you in?

this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached 

Windows 8 playing Crysis 2 on Steam whilst using Onlive to play Assassin`s Creed Brotherhood and more!

Thegameveda has calculated that there is not sufficient lifetime available to play through all the games that have been and will be , therefore a cunning plan has been hatched to play through games 2 at a time . This plan has been put into action thanks to Windows 8 , Steam and Onlive . And also allows me to test how the Windows 8 developer preview handles gaming . Note we now have a touch based OS that allows us to flick through games and Apps , you have for the first time the power of an i7 powered tablet PC with more RAM and GPU power than IOS and Android Tablets could hope to dream of . So you can do things like run 2 games at once , whilst running Windows 8 and desktop Apps in the background and flick through them as easy as a Build demonstrator on happy juice ... 


check out video , this is my first games test using Windows 8 , but if anything it already feels faster than Windows 7 , perhaps because we have a raw os devoid of all the bloatware that may slow it down in later builds . 

Test machine Lenovo X220 T 4gb RAM i7 CPU Intel HD3000 GPU running Windows 8 off a 64gb Runcore msata ssd .. 


Crysis 2 is running in Steam natively using the i7 and HD3000 , I let the game choose settings (High) , Assassin`s Creed Brotherhood , Saints Row 2 , Mafia 2 all run instantly streamed using Onlive over wifi N .  


All in all this test shows that even in the developer stage Windows 8 not only  leverages maximum power as they say in Crytek speak from full PC components like  the  CPU , GPU , pen and touch tablet options , ssd storage , Steam , and wifi N dependent streaming services like Onlive but allows a level of multitasking no other OS or device without Windows 8 is capable of .... and this is just the developer build !

If you are in the market for a tablet hold on ditch Android and IOS before their stores own you , and hold out for a Windows 8 tablet , or just grab one that can run Windows 7 and install the Windows 8 preview ... 

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

   

this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached 

Rumble in the Cloud Jungle : Onlive vs Steam Friday Round 1 : onlive`s instant 2K games with Borderlands from £1.75 vs Steam`s THQ and Lara bundles

Welcome to the new Friday night all weekend every weekend throw down between Onlive and Steam , as we start our commentary remember the Cloud is ! the Cloud is baby! 


This is it people , the bleeding edge of PC gaming in 2011 , not your 20 core dual CPU quad GPU rig ,no the magic of the cloud  is how the core rolls this year , streaming magic that means you can be playing any PC game by the time you finish clicking away from this page .or whilst you are reading it  on your Atom powered netbook or your HDTV!.. And UK fans we have have our first Onlive Friday sale , a 2K weekend event .


Games like Borderlands GOTYR , and Mafia II really highlight the benefits of Onlive , both are massive resource and GPU hogs on PC ,  taking many gigabytes of hard disk space by the time you patch and download all the DLC you could quite conceivably have tidied your room and then some.... With onlive you just click and play,your room stays in a mess and  no taking piddly snapshots with F12 either , as  you effortlessly record video brag clips to your heart`s content.

If you are a subscriber the games come even cheaper Borderlands GOTYR for £3.50 ! The day that some clever tv maker , phone operator or Internet provider includes a free onlive subscription is not too far off  ...

But wait what`s this Gabe is getting up off the floor and ....responds with a quick Appel and Double , of almost every THQ game of note  and Lara Croft games at 66% off...


This would be all kinds of awesome .... last year , but can you bothered to download 100gb of games in today`s onlive world?  When you can play any of these games instantly with onlive , demoing them if need be before you buy ? The epiphany here is when you realise we no longer have to download 100gb ! 


So  who is the mouse and who is the cat in this cloud based Puss In Boots tale ?  does the giant ogre of Steam take down onlive  or will it`s ego allow it to be  be transformed into a mouse and devoured by onlive just like in the faery tale ( and probably not the new Dreamworks film..ola Sr Banderos !)  , or do they go dancing off into the sunset and produce some strange Steamonlive offspring further down the Cloud road and live happily ever after? 


What happen`s next in this cataclysmic clash of cloud gaming ? Well the fun is we get to decide , and as I have said before as long as this Onlive vs Steam fight continues we the gamers come out winners ... engarde  Señor pussycat.......

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached 

Onlive vs Steam Round 2 :Free to Play Weekend of Dawn of War II on Steam +50 % all Dawn of War Games and DLC

The year is 2011 and there is only Warhammer , as  I have stated before there has never been a bad Warhammer game , from ancient PC  and console RTS times through Kuju coded FPS console games , to Relics Dawn of War series and now the green Orc melon smashing Space Marine they are all great . Yes even Firewarrior which has to be played simply to hear Tom Baker utter the timeless sentence it is the year 40000 and ...you know the rest....


Right now t`is the season of merry gaming and the cloud ..well it`s raining games ..Hallej...sorry ... Round 2 of this weekends rumble in the cloud jungle  sees Steam hit back with a riposte and lunge at onlive: with an entire weekend of Dawn of War games free to play , once you have downloaded around 40gb that is ... This is a great chance to pick up some missing DLC , or you could just head on over to onlive and click to play the demo  of Chaos Rising instantly , or hey why not try out the games on onlive whilst you wait for them to download on Steam .. and then buy both versions because well that`s core gaming now isn`t it ....see synergy ... now if only Steam and Onlive would hurry up and get married or at least offer joint deals that would make the world a better place ...lalaala ...for the entire human race ...there are ch....shammmoaan !

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached 

Onlive VS Steam Round 2 : The Battle for La Noire The Complete Edition

thegameveda could focus on the excellent Steam deal for Alice , the 75% off deal for the entire GTA collection , or the myriad of offers from Onlive including your first game for £1 or $1  , or the week long THQ sale that just went by ...

But no ... the real battle , where onlive and Steam go head to head is for pre orders for LA Noire The Complete Edition ..  

With Onlive you get 10% off plus £5 off your next purchase , with Steam you get the game for the same cost as onlive i.e.£31.49  , but wait Onlive subscribers get another 30% off that !

but you do get Grand Theft Auto 3 free with the Steam version... mkay...

Now consider , that this game is going to be towards or over 20gb  installed on your hdd with Steam , and  will also likely tax your hardware like nothing else this year , remember how past Rockstar games took several years to patch and get to the point where you can now purchase them all for a paltry £4.99 and get them to run , after another 20gb plus or so of installation.... ? 

This round goes to onlive , when I do start playing the PC version of this game I already own on console it will be through streaming and not Steaming , onlive is simply too convenient , and the days of terabytes of installed games are over for thegameveda .How cool will it be to instantly click into a game of the size of La Noire , never have to wait for gigabytes of DLC to finish downloading , or apply a single patch ... and to continue playing across desktops, laptops , tablets and tv ?

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

  







 
  
   

this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached 

Onlive vs Steam : Real world test : Splinter Cell Conviction played on the Lenovo X220T

Und now by special request thegameveda plays a little Splinter Cell Conviction on the Lenovo X220 T .


First up we play using the traditional way , using Steam , the settings are low , the res is 1024 by 768 , the detail is fine , but as you will see the Unreal engine is creaking and does not take full advantage of the IntelHD3000 and i7 combo , a combination which manages Crysis 2 and newer games quite nicely.... But wait we then move on to testing using onlive on the same hardware we now get to play Splinter Cell Conviction beyond 60 fps and at ultra detail levels , Litecam 3 used to record the gameplay does cause frame drops and detail degradation in the final video . Check the detail on the mirrors and real time refelctions , as well as the speed of gameplay 

In conclusion we see the Unreal engine really needs some optimisations for Intel GPUS , but can run this game fine , but with magic streaming tech like onlive , why bother with a 15gb install patches and low res when you can play the game at ultra settings on the same humble hardware. 


There is no reason why your laptop cannot be a AAA games machine  ,which you can quite happily use to freak out the Alienware packing geek sitting next to you ..just check the differences between the Steam version and the onlive version below. Apologies for poor gameplay skills , I still have to get used to this trackpad and nubbin control scheme and misplaced my 360 controller ...

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached 

Onlive vs Steam : Halloween 2011 : The Fight for your Frights is on with free scary games for 3 days

You know onlive were not just going to sit around bobbing for Apples( come back Steve) this weekend , whilst Steam and others assail you with cheap games like F3AR with a vague link to Halloween , onlive have F3AR,METRO 2033 , ORCS MUST DIE AND AMNESIA   free instant games to play for the entire 3 day Halloween weekend and a 5th mystery one on Monday if you wish to follow them on facebook.

Come on you could easily play through these in 3 days , especially since they are instantly available , you could if you could tear yourself away from Battlefield 3 ...


But wait it is 2011 , and I can play Battlefield 3 and onlive games at the same time! Need more hands ... get on to onlive and try out the scary games now...


The real magic of onlive for thegameveda this weekend is that although my gaming pc is down , I can still play AAA games through onlive instantly ... that and  the fact that I have a PS3 to play Battlefield 3 on till I get my PC fixed ... and no that is not scary at all ... the console version of Battlefield flies and has an easier to log on game server ( sick of Battlelog yet?)


To find out how to handle wicked witches follow the yellow brick road in the Wizard of OZ

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached 

Onlive vs Steam : LA Noire Complete for £12.24 , Street Fighter IV £10.49

Over on Steam , Valve have you collecting coal , freebies and doing chores to collect more coal and freebies, as well as the usual cheap daily deals with a countdown ticking away to force your purchase. Ironic then when Steam has you Pavlovian conditioned to complete a purchase in the shortest of times and get your reward , once you complete that purchase it then tells you the servers are too busy and you should come back later , if you luck out and have just purchased 3 or 4 games and downloads are about to start , your 100 meg connection is rendered moot by the Steam server overload caused by the sale , and you find yourself waiting hours for downloads , which you will also have to repeat on each of the machines you own. Now if you have over 300 games on Steam , that is  a lot of life wasted downloading . 


So  then ,time, is one reason to get the on the onlive cloud , another is the platform agnostic nature of the cloud , so when I buy LA Noire onlive,I am going to play on desktop, laptop, tablet , windows 8 tablet , and android phones and soon even the iPad and iPhone ( if someone gifts me one) ... Then we come to price , get a one month sub for £6.99 , and onlive give you 30% off all purchases  , and that includes sale items , in this way you can pick up and instantly play :


1.  La Noire Complete Edition for £12.24
2.  Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition for £10.49
3. Deus Ex Human Revolution Augmented Edition  for  £15.74 ( was £10.51 earlier)
4. Aliens Vs Predator for £2.62
5. Just Cause 2 for £4.89
6. Borderlands 2 for £3.50


and of course Assassins Creed Revelations for £24.49, Batman Arkham City for £24.49
and Saints Row The Third for £20.99.


So your £6.99 is easily made back and you have tons of games all accessible on any device and instantly , plus an excuse for your better half to get you a 100 meg connection...


Whilst I am a devotee of Steam and literally have several hundred games , the awesome instant cloud based magic of onlive has me enticed and if that monthly sub saves me this much money , I mean how cool is playing Street Fighter IV Arcade edition . the full game on your phone  , tablet , pc , mac and tv ? Instantly? Or the 20 meg plus download of LA Noire completely eliminated by onlive for £12.24 .... ? 


Prices are changing even as I type this so be quick ! Check out the video below to see how I made my £6.99 back...

This year I have spent significantly more on onlive , this may be due to my aversion to anthracite collecting , this may also be due to my having almost every game , and publisher catalogue I need or want , and also when you get to the point where you have several hundred games , you can no longer be bothered to download all of them . Recently my desktop raid hdd set up died , taking all my Steam games with it , it will take some time to download them all again on a new hdd , but get this , I did not lose a single onlive game because it is all cloud based and so are all my game saves , and even if my gaming rig is down I can still play on tv , phone , tablet ,laptop etc ...


So what are you waiting for get on to onlive and experience the cloud gaming revolution. 


The world of downloading is not totally dead , this year I spent even more money on a very different kind of game download sale , more on that later 

this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached 

Onlive Winter Three for all Sale is onlive!

With the Winter onlive sale  , the magic of the cloud means you get to play your purchases near instantly , and across almost every Internet enabled device you own , including phones , tablets , tvs , netbooks , laptops and that old desktop you never turn on any more ... 


Highlights for thegameveda include


Super Street Fighter Arcade Edition £14.99 ( play for 3 hours or more and win a trip to Vegas  , or a signed official Super Street Fighter IV Fightstick)
L.A. Noire The Complete Edition £17.49
Deus Ex Human Revolution Augmented Edition for £15.30
Aliens vs Predator for £3.75
Borderlands GOTYR for £5
Mafia II for £3.75
Kane and Lynch 2 Dog Days for £3.75
Just Cause 2 for £3.49


If you are like me with a massive Steam collection of games you can no longer be bothered to re download  on every pc , Mac  or tablet you own  then onlive offers a great solution to incessant game hording, e.g. you could play your games on you desktop , continue on an Android tablet or even phone , and if the fancy takes you finish on your netbook , or even Windows 8 joojoo tablet. 

Heck you could even continue your games on your TV once everyone has finished watching The Great Escape re run again ... you happy cloud gamer ...you 

this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached 

Onlive vs Steam : Saints Row The Third £14.06 or play 5 hours free and win a console and or more games!

This being the final weekend of sales till the next one, you are probably contemplating the daily Steam sale, contemplating because downloading anything is nigh on impossible during a sale, and once you/ have picked up around 40 gigs of games to download you cannot be bothered any more, then there is the chore of being told what to play and what to achieve  in order to receive your daily coal or free gift, which you only qualify for after you  present Steam the gift of your money.


Or you could forgo all that and get on the onlive cloud Saints Row the Third is £14.06 for subscribers , and that my friends is just too cheap and convenient to miss out on  , considering you can play on your phone tablet mac and continue on your tv after playing on your PC , instantly and as long as our internet providers do not start capping our otherwise unlimited broadband ..


Prince of Persia Sands of time  is also dirt cheap at £2.62 for subscribers , that one month sub really can save you a lot of money , which you could always devote to any last minute Steam purchases , not that you are going to have time to download any of them to complete your treasure or coal hunting chores by 2nd Jan... and who would want to games are supposed to be fun not work...


how about Valve rewarding us for games we play when we want to play them ? Having said that I need 2 more pieces of coal to get a freebie prize ... 


And a word to onlive and Volition , how about putting Descent and Freespace onlive? As our PCs advance , cloud based services like onlive will become all important to preserve old classics , and as the service is largely platform agnostic it is perfectly suited to this task , you can check out the Fallout series now  , and I mean the classic series instantly  onlive , will I manage to complete them before my one month sub runs out , we will see....

this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached 

Onlive vs Steam :Play Borderlands Free win prizes buy it for £3.50 , Tom Clancy`s Hawx 2 and others for £2.62, and Driver San Franciso hits the onlive cloud

Onlive give you and your friends 3 days of free Borderlands play , instant no download play , and you get to win prizes including an onlive system , and 4 game pack .  They have also updated sales offers  which look especially sweet if you are a subscriber : ( the avid cloud gamer having picked up La Noire , Deus Ex , Streetfighter 4 over the weekend!)

Borderlands GOTYR for £3.50 or Borderlands FREE for 3 days!

Tom Clancy`s HAWX 2 for £2.62 nice if you held off the Steam sale 

Mafia II  for £2.62 frankly awesome to play a game of this size on your android phone !

The MAW  £1.13

AaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAA!!! for £1.13
Driver San Francisco : free instant demo game for £24.49 for subscribers

these are the changes I can discern from the last time I checked  , these prices will go ,  so be quick , there are many other offers of note , not least the LA Noire Complete Edition , onlive have just added Driver Sanfrancisco too which taps out at £24.49 at the moment to subscribers , wait till the weekend for the ultimate sale offers from onlive ...and we may get even better deals...


With L A Noire Complete functioning well on onlive  all we need is Rockstar to actually release the GTA franchise , including GTA V using Onlive , and people we will be playing GTA 5 on our Fridge TVs at full spec 0 download and instantly , and as 100 meg connections making it into core gamers shopping lists  and Wifi  spreading everywhere , cloud gamers may even have to put moving to Seoul on hold ...for now ... 

this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached 

Onlive vs Steam: Onlive has Assassin`s Creed 2 for £1.75 vs Steams encore

Assassin's Creed 2 is instantly yours for £1.75 if you are an onlive subscriber or £2.50 if you aren't, and if you are old skool there's always the Steam encore.

this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached