OnLive is Online and Really Rather Good

Once in a while a piece of vapourware miraculously pops into actual existence. We've already had Duke Nukem Forever this year and now the fabled OnLive game streaming service is up and running. Probably the most surprising thing is that it actually seems to work rather well.

Sign-ups for the service are now open over at the UK OnLive site. Download the client, install it and away you go. Initial reports from a variety of users are overall quite positive, though there are the occasional mentions of lag and less than HD video. Of course with the service entirely based on streaming data from OnLive's central servers you'll be reliant on your broadband connection. No 56k modems here.

The initial range of games available are a mix of old and new, including some processor-heavy titles like the new Space Marine and Dirt 3. OnLive aims to get the service up and running on whatever system you throw at it and includes provision for play on iOS devices as well as a set-top 'microconsole'. Considering that the concept was still essentially smoke and mirrors until recently, this is a quite impressive launch.

There's also an Arena service where you can watch other gamers play in an eerie fashion and thirty minute free demos of many games. OnLive is also rumoured to be giving away the microconsoles to visitors to this year's Eurogamer Expo. Quite a good way to get noticed by a userbase who were largely dismissive. Now all we need to see is how well (or not) the company does.