OnLive - The End of PC Gaming Expenses?

CLICK HERE for an image of the concept of the service.
CLICK HERE to see a video of the press conference mentioned below.
CLICK HERE for a hardware hands-on from Gamespot.

This is, without a doubt, one of the more intriguing concepts I've seen up to this point in terms of both console and PC gaming. OnLive is, essentially, a cloud-computing service that allows users to play console and PC games that stream from extremely powerful servers located elsewhere.

What this means for gamers all over is that folks can play these games regardless of their hardware, with only a monthly fee and Internet connection required. If you're playing off a TV, you use a special little box that comes attached with video and audio cables, an ethernet port, and USB cables for mouse and keyboard or gamepads. If you're playing on a PC (as in my case), all you'll need is a plugin, supposedly only a megabyte or two large, that allows the service to operate directly inside your browser.

Last night, during a press conference, some of the main guys behind the service specifically noted that because of the way in which the video is transmitted from the servers to your home, the games would not show any signs of "control" lag or video break-up, as is the case with streaming video and other forms of streaming media. The required Internet connections to use the service without lag are 1.5Mbps for standard-definition and 5Mbps for high-definition (HD).

With the service, you can also rent games (bye-bye Gamefly?), play demos, create "brag clips" for others to see, watch trailers of games almost instantly before playing, watch others playing the games live (aka spectator mode), and much, much more.

Pricing for the monthly fees, etc. has not been set as of now.

Some of the publishers on-board are:

• Electronic Arts
• Ubisoft
• Take-Two
• THQ
• Epic Games
• Eidos
• Atari
• Codemasters

And some of the games mentioned included:

• Crysis Wars*
• Prince of Persia*
• Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
• F.E.A.R. 2
• and several more...

*Demoed at the press conference held last night and ran smooth as butter.

So if this service "catches on" and works as advertised, could this mean the death for consoles and companies such as Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo? And could this form of service possibly take over the entire gaming industry, PC gaming included? If so, will we see other companies begin to compete, offering similar services?

Crysis Defeated

You know it's true.

Upon enjoying hours of Far Cry 2's open-world, brush-fire-setting goodness (Smokey hates me now, I know), I'm prepared to make an alarming, controversial statement: Crysis has been dethroned. In fact, it doesn't even compare. Graphically, I will admit that Crysis has an edge; but albeit its advanced engine features, it absolutely dumps on computers and looks less impressive than Far Cry 2 when its settings are lowered to playable levels. Graphics discussion aside, Far Cry 2 steals the show with flying colors.

Whereas Crysis has fun pretending to be an open-style game, covering flanks with mountains and seas with sharks, Far Cry 2 actually allows you to go anywhere, do anything, and tackle missions in any order. Who do you kill, where do you go, and with whom do you form an alliance? Don't ask me, because only you can answer those questions as you play the game!

Freedom of choice is just one gameplay element that pushes Far Cry 2 ahead of Crysis and most of the rest of the competition. Other elements, such as wear and tear on weaponry, safe houses allowing save and respawn points, weapon shops, and even faction wars and alliances give the game an amount of depth not often seen in action-packed shooters. The world also feels more "alive" than in Crysis, as the time of day is constantly changing in real-time and a broad assortment of wildlife can be seen roaming the environments in packs. When taking into consideration Crysis' lame scripted day-to-night cycles and animal collection consisting of seagulls, frogs, and chickens, it's difficult for me to say that it even competes with Far Cry 2 in terms of making you feel as if you're in a living, breathing world.

In conclusion, Crysis may feature a more advanced game engine than Far Cry 2, but it is most certainly not the superior game overall. When taking off the hype glasses and using the fire extinguisher to blow out the flames caused by Crysis' NASA-computer system requirements, it is made painfully obvious that Far Cry 2 is simply the deeper, more enjoyable, larger, and longer-lasting game. There can be no arguments held against this, as it is fact. Sorry, fellow PC gamers. I know that it hurts, but our flagship title has just been sunk.

Red Alert 3 - The Game Nobody Appreciated

The words of angry fanboys.

Red Alert 3 is beautiful, polished, and fun to play. But nobody loves it. Blame it on the abysmal C&C 3, or the lack of ore fields, or even global warming or piracy. (Those never fail.) In my eyes, there's no excuse for avoiding and overlooking this well-crafted strategy game that was never given a chance to begin with.

In a way, the lost love is ironic. For years, Red Alert 2 fanboys had been crying for a sequel that would bring back cheesy cutscenes, bundles of humor, naval warfare, and so forth. Now that it's back, they suddenly want no part of it. Oh, the irony! The unit balance is even better than ever before and almost every structure can now be built at sea, quadrupling the number of possible strategies each faction can utilize. Oh, but it's still not a "worthy" successor to the now painfully simplistic, ADD-friendly Red Alert 2.

I'm beginning to wonder if Red Alert fans even know what they want anymore. It's apparently asinine when the developers over at EA Games change some of the gameplay mechanics for the better, modernizing the game for this generation (was it seriously enjoyable babysitting those fucking harvesters the entire length of a game?); so perhaps as an antidote, we should give them the same damned game, Red Alert 2 all over again, in shiny new packaging.

The plan for the "real" Red Alert 2 sequel is ingenious, actually. Copy the original box art, replacing the "2" with a "3" and changing the Westwood logo into a green-ish EA logo. Then, change the copyright dates on the back of the box to reflect the current year. Finally, make the same changes on the main menu of the game. Ta-da! We've got ourselves a sequel! Now, package the game and mail copies to Red Alert 2 fanboys worldwide so that they may finally rest in peace and put away their tissues. They'll never notice a difference. Not a damned thing.