Next gen. consoles

[KnightOfZero]

OMFG! lol check this out ppl.s!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oQC6mzaTOU

[likwidtek]

This has sparked a HUGE debate in another gaming group I belong to.  Here are some snippets from that forum.

Kinda reminds me of this.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/16/phantom-gaming-console-disappears-for-good/

I will believe it when I see it released. I find it hard for the little microbox to play newer pc games that most of us have uber boxes to play them on. Much less being instant with no wait time.. umm yea..

Show me the vaporware.

If it's working the only way I can think of it working, the lag time on broadband will never allow it to be adequately playable for a fast-paced FPS.  I bet that MMO's might work pretty well though.

As for bringing them to DB8...we still are sorta lacking in the internet connection department right?  That might be a hindrance to a sponsor that relies so heavily on it.  I can contact them though, and see how they might deal with an unpredictable level o' internet bandwidth.

I'm totally digging this and hope it matures into what it shows. Second to that I'm crossing my fingers they release an IPhone App that can use the OnLive service.. Of-course Apple would never allow it because it would cut into their profits but hell - that would still be cool and certainly keep the jailbreak community living..

They say as long as you have a 4-5 megabit connection you can enjoy games at 720p @60hz.  Also no lag supposedly.  Not bad.  We'll see.

Cloud gaming.  Awesome.

Sorry for double post but here's an hour talk about the service:

http://www.gamespot.com/shows/on-the-spot/?series=on-the-spot&event=on_the_spot20090324

Another thought -- if this was heavily adopted, it would completely kill LAN parties.  (If it's not immediately apparent why that would happen, think about it longer).

I'm not sure I want to invite that.

I don't know about it killing LAN parties. Those will die off by themselves anyways. Computer games these days are evolving into MMO styles which is killing LAN parties just as much as OnLive would do. But that isn't what people go to LAN parties for anyways.

People go to LAN parties to hang out with like-minded individuals. They go to show off their gaming skills (or lack there-of). They go for bragging rights. Accessing games via cloud computing isn't going to change any of this. In fact it might increase it with the ability of shadowing any player for any game (assuming the player clicks the 'people can watch me' button). This would be pretty cool for LAN parties that we don't get much of right now except for the few rare games that have spectator modes. Not to mention the gap of people that don't have games would be able to stream them instantly without having to go to a store, etc.. And say good bye to long installs, broken installs, unpatched and unplayable games. This is actually a huge benefit to LAN parties.

The only thing this would kill for a LAN party is 'sharing' games. That's all I think would be impacted. Otherwise, I think it would be a good thing for LAN parties because it brings more to the table.

While the MMO argument is valid, there's still a huge FPS force out there, and they continue to make great LAN games.  I have faith that there will be games to support LANs for a good while.  But as for what I'm thinking about, you're missing the main point.

LAN parties work based on portable gaming performance.  You bring your PC with you to power a high-res game.  This service is effectively turning gaming into interactive "TV" by using internet bandwidth as a medium between your keyboard and the PC horsepower, rather than a USB cable hooked up to your own personal high-powered PC.

However, if you remove the high powered PC en masse (i.e. nobody buys a high performance PC anymore because they don't need to), the gaming no longer becomes portable.  You can't take your broadband internet connection to a LAN party, and no LAN party building can support simultaneous 5 megabit broadband for 200+ folks at once.  Well, unless you want to have your party in a datacenter -- but that ain't happenin either.  Thus, the LAN party concept cannot survive using remote PC power.

This I cannot dispute, you are correct.

Unless they have a LAN party offline server mode. Branch Cache kind of thing. But that's a fantasy at the moment in my own head.

--
For my earlier mention of MMO I didn't mean MMORPG. I meant Massively Multiplayer Online. Many FPS games are blurring the lines of independently hosted multiplayer servers and centrally hosted servers. In addition to that the inclusion of in-game chat (text or voice) is becoming the normal for all types of games (FPS especially). I am totally aware that FPS games are LAN party games, not missing that point at all. I guess I'm referring to the oncoming MMOFPS genre that will kill LAN parties because the simple MMO concept renders the LAN party 'benefits' moot. So finding new ways of making LAN parties relevant is dire and per my comments above about OnLive there may very well be something there (if the bandwidth can be dealt with) - to my stance that OnLive won't be the killer of LAN parties - it could actually save them.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/gdc-why-onlive-cant-possibly-work-article

I feel a bit better now.

I see your link, and raise you one.

http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/

http://tinyurl.com/2m24hp)

How quickly we forget. (Except AzJose )

I remember the Phantom. I have a t-shirt for it too... Nice glow in the dark shirt.