Well, after all of my ranting and raving about OnLive here in this blog, I figured I’d wrap things up with the conclusion of the tale.
I upped my bandwidth yesterday to 12 mb/s and finally made it in to OnLive. I like what I see so far, too. I’m working on a new article type in my Original Organic Article (basically a fancy name for a blog) on e-AAGH.net that will conclude with my review of the service. And with that, the saga is at a close.
‘Bout damn time.
OnLive. It’s been a love-hate relationship for me since it launched last Thursday. It took until yesterday for me to get my account activated, and then I had to call because my activation didn’t work.
So now, my account has been activated. I have the client installed. I’m set to go forth and try out the service. Let’s just fire it up and…
A check through my settings and a scan by speedtest.net or three told me that I had gotten my ISP’s bargain-basement connection speed of 3 mb/s. Of that, I was maxing out around 2.8 mb/s on Speedtest. Consider me ticked off.
What this means is that my OnLive article will have to be further postponed, and that my ISP can expect a call soon. This won’t go on for long, I assure you.
I will get OnLive.
I posted on Wednesday that OnLive would launch yesterday, and technically, it did. However, it only launched officially for a small portion of it’s 25,000 Founders Club members. Now, 19+ hours later, a very substantial chunk of OnLive’s prospective fan base still sits there, unable to access the system because their accounts have yet to be activated. I myself am in that number, and grow weary of waiting for OnLive to get it’s act together. When contacted, they informed me that my account could be active within a few weeks. They also informed me that I was higher on the pre-registry list and that my activation email may come ‘sooner rather then later.’
We will see.
I’d like to make a comment about my last post. I said yesterday that OnLive was launching today. What happened is that for whatever reason I was convinced all day yesterday that it was Wednesday. It wasn’t until late in the day that it dawned on me that it was only Tuesday. So, no, OnLive does not launch today. Indeed, I will repeat what I said yesterday: OnLive launches tomorrow.
And this time I’m sure.
I’m back again with two quick updates.
That’s all for now. Later, all.
EDIT: And just like that, the flashy new OnLive site is up.
Once upon a time I attempted an iDevice (iPhone/iPod Touch) app blog. It died a slow, sad death. In it’s memory, though, I may post a random note about some of my favorite apps here. Today, we start with HippoRemote Pro
HIPPOREMOTE PRO
Productivity
Robohippo LLC
See in App Store
I started using HippoRemote during the WWDC conference. For whatever reason, while following a live blog on Engadget, I came across HippoRemote during a lull. I liked the idea of controlling my mouse with my iPod Touch, so I picked up the free HippoRemote Lite. After using it for the duration of my time following the live blog, I decided that I liked it enough to go ahead and buy the full version.
Thus far I am very happy with my decision. I’ve not put the game controller feature (where it acts as the controls for different games) to the test yet, but for surfing the web, playing videos and basic operations while I am some distance from my keyboard and mouse it works great. The different App Profiles are very nice. They’ve got all the one’s I’d want, from Media Player Classic to Firefox and Chrome.
Speaking of being in the APB “Key to the City” deal last post, I remembered that I’d not mentioned getting my pre-registration accepted for OnLive. As part of the “Founding Members” group, I got to reserve my username (guess what it is?) and I’m supposed to get a free year of OnLive plus a free game. I’ll be reviewing that sometime after it comes out on June 17th.
I have high hopes for OnLive, as does Beta. Her main computer is an underpowered (for gaming, anyway) laptop so if this turns out to be a viable product, she can play more PC games while in Chicago. My biggest concern – aside from the internet still being pretty much an untamed beast, performance-wise – is the idea of paying for the service and then buying games at full price. I would like to see you be able to register your already-bought games for use on OnLive. We’ll see what’s what in about four days.
I’m in the All Points Bulletin (APB) “Key to the City” event right now, and from what I understand, the NDA is off, at least to a limited degree. I’ll be brief in any case.
One thing I like is the awesome character creation tool. It’s allowed me to recreate my frightening visage in-game. If anyone’s every wondered what I look like, this is a fairly close approximation.
I may make Beta’s head too, just for kicks. In any case, the game was fun. I’ve only really rolled through the tutorial zone, but the last mission I played involved PvP – which the game didn’t tell me up front. I was just suddenly told that the rival faction was on to me mid-mission, and then a criminal showed up (I was an enforcer). He and I crossed paths six times during the course of this mission. I killed him three times, died once, shook him in my car on one occasion and finally completed the mission as he was desperately trying to gun me down, which made us neutral to each other again. Ha. Alpha: 1, Criminal: 0.
It’s a fun game, and one that warrants a review once it’s released. Later, all.
Hey everyone. Beta coerced my to make a short comic out of the misadventures of my current Sim in The Sims 3: Ambitions, so I did. Here’s what I came up with. It’s not long, but it’s simple fun.
I hope you enjoy it. Share it with your friends! Later,all.
