You can play high-end Tropico 5 on a low-end Mac or PC thanks to streaming

Dean Takahashi of VentureBeat writes: "Gamers with older computers or weak graphics cards will be able to play Kalypso Media’s new Tropico 5 strategy game thanks to OnLive’s CloudLift.

CloudLift enables players to stream games from the cloud to low-end machines that wouldn’t normally be powerful enough to run them. CloudLift charges a fee for that privilege, but Mountain View, Calif.-based OnLive hopes that gamers will gladly pay it. They will be able to play the game instantly with all the detail turned on, including when it’s streaming in the background."

[turnerdc]

Glad to see OnLive get a couple releases same day as PC (Tropico 5 and Killer is Dead). This is what I thought the Steam machine was going to be; a cheap little device that would stream my Steam games from a data center to my TV/PC/laptop/phone/tablet. Hopefully more publishers jump on board!

[BattleAxe]

I tried Onlive a few years ago, and while it wasn't bad, I wouldn't ever use it as my go-to platform for gaming.

The fact is, that anyone who is seriously into gaming is going to purchase a PC, console or dedicated handheld device like a 3DS or a Vita.

PS NOW will have more appeal than Onlive, but only if Sony has their top game franchises playable on the service.

[papashango]

you know Online has nothing to do with steam streaming right?

or did you just comment in the wrong article?

[BattleAxe]

What?

[turnerdc]

I'm not so sure about that. PS Now seems to be purely a rental service (much more like the old OnLive). OnLive now streams games in your Steam library and at the end of the day (whether you stay with OnLive or not) you will always have a local copy on your hard drive that is not dependent on OnLive to play. That sounds way more appealing to me than simply renting a streaming version of a game. Also papa (I think you were referring to me), like I said above, when OnLive relaunched they changed their strategy. Games are now streamed from your Steam library and you get almost the complete Steam experience (along with the OnLive experience of recording brag clips, spectating, etc) since you have access to the Steam Big Picture dashboard when playing a game on OnLive (you're able to take screenshots, chat with your Steam friends, etc). My comment above was expressing my disappointment that Steam in home streaming is not like OnLive since you still need a local machine powerful enough to render the game.

[dazzrazz]

OnLive lol that service died long time ago...

[ATi_Elite]

"ONlive"

You mean "NowDead" Game streaming service!!!

They are streaming everything they can to stay afloat and it won't be long before tehy start streaming "Pron" or "Bollywood" movies.

[sikandar201]

too old....

[kingPoS]

The main difference I see between Onlive & PS Now is resolution. PC games are mainly in 1080p or higher, PS3 PS2 & PS1 games are usually 720p and under. Guess which one would have less impact on latency or the average internet speed?

Gateway MT6706 2008

[turnerdc]

The main difference is that PS Now is more like OnLive 1.0 (a streaming rental service) while OnLive 2.0 now streams using your Steam library. Regardless of whether you stay with OnLive or not you will always have a local copy of the game on your hard drive that is not dependent on OnLive to play. This is much more appealing to me compared to PS Now where all you're doing is renting a streaming version of a game. Also the resolution shouldn't have an effect on the latency. It'll increase your bandwidth usage but that's only because more data is being sent over. Both OnLive and PS Now stream at 720p by the way.

[Skate-AK]

That's cool that the service was able to come back.

[kryteris]

6.99 maybe, (w/ monthly free games that expire each month.., needs something extra.) but $15.00 no ty. This is the exact same problem when the service first started in beta.