I think there are few gamers who haven’t heard about the Onlive service. It’s something that’s pretty exciting and pretty damn cool. I hadn’t heard of it before one of my friends mentioned it and I think it works great. Basically, they take care of all your hardware that’s needed to run the game. They run the game on their servers, but allow you to play it via a sort of stream if you will. They do allow you to run HD games, however, it does require a very high bandwidth internet connection (no less than 5mbps to even use the software) and a wired connection. Also, you need to be able to play 720p video for most high resolution games.

If this sounds too good to be true, wait till you hear the best part. The best part: since you don’t have to worry about the hardware, if there is a port for your type of computer OS, you can play it. Currently, Mac and PC are available, with a desktop box with wireless controller available soon to connect to your TV. Now it sounds too good to be true for sure right?

Not quite. In my opinion, it works great. I was lucky enough to join in on the Founding Fathers program and I’m currently getting one year for free and the second year is 4.95 a month. I’m not sure what the normal rates are. It could be 4.95 for all we know.

They’ve only got a few selection of games, probably about 15. (yes I’m too lazy to count the number of games and tell you.)

So far, I’ve no complaints about the service. But keep in mind that I have a very good cable connection with 10mbps of bandwidth available to me. So if you’ve got a very fast internet connection, definitely check this out.

I’m curious to see what other similar type companies (i.e. Steam/Valve) will do that may compete with this. Interesting to see how it evolves.

They are still taking in applications for the Founding Fathers program so if you’re not signed up, go ahead and sign up today!