Let’s get a few things out of the way. Will OnLive replace traditional PC gaming for hardcore PC gamers? No. If you have the hardware that can handle these games, there are few reasons to spend the monthly subscription fee just to gain access to games you can already run. Is OnLive for people who love having a physical copy of the game? If you absolutely must have the game’s box on your shelf, lined up with all the others, then move along. This is purely cloud-based and anyone leery of owning a game for as long as they subscribe to the service need not apply. For someone like me, an avid gamer, who has often lamented my Mac’s gaming Achilles heel, the service is a no-brainer. My first reaction after installing the application was “Oh my God, it works!”

After a year of naysayers, decrying OnLive to be too far ahead of its time, I was pleasantly surprised to see Borderlands, running on my old Macbook. The specs of my Macbook run down like this:

While it’s more than adequate for running my day-to-day chores, my Macbook has always been a writing laptop first and a gaming laptop a far distant second. Valve’s recent embrace of the Mac lead to some heartbreak as, time and time again, I found my Mac unable to run games like Portal. With OnLive it looks like things are finally about to change. Anyone who knows about computer hardware will see that integrated-graphics processor as a real stumbling block when it comes to gaming. Without something a little beefier, this Macbook isn’t going to get very far.  That’s why it was such a treat to see games like Dirt 2 running and my computer’s fans hadn’t even come on.

Like any relationship, things aren’t always perfect. Currently, OnLive requires a hard-wired connection to the internet which means no wi-fi. At first, I thought I could just log-in, see what games were on offer, and deal with any lag caused by my wireless. That’s a no-go. OnLive won’t even start until you’re tethered directly to your router. As someone who lives wirelessly 99.9% of the time, I know I’ll be less inclined to relocate my whole computer set-up just to play. But I realize I could easily be in a very small minority when it comes to this. For most people, this will be a non-issue. But it’s worth noting in case some users are truly unable to access a hard-wired connection. OnLive asserts its “technology does indeed work well with good quality Wi-Fi connections” but doesn’t plan on releasing that functionality “once OnLive is better established”.

Since it was first announced, people have worried that latency would be an issue. Latency, or lag, is a constancy concern for any online gaming experience. Latency occurs when there is a spans of time between the player’s input such as firing a weapon and the results occurring in the game. In an online match, for example, lag could be the difference between life or death. OnLive has built servers around the country to cut down on the distance between your machine and its servers. The shorter the distance and the stronger your internet connection, the better it gets. In fact, unlike most discussions of PC gaming, OnLive is less about your computer’s hardware strength than it is the strength of your connection to the internet. In my time, I have yet to experience any extreme latency issues. My inputs have been mirrored in the game world faithfully. While playing Borderlands, for example, I have tested the time it’s taken for my to left-click to fire my weapon and the time my gun actually fired bullets. The time was nearly indistinguishable. I say nearly because while OnLive’s servers are doing an incredible job of translating and moving all this data, it’s merely a nanosecond behind what you would expect if playing the game directly from the disc. However, for me it quickly fell into the realm beyond “good enough” and I easily adjusted and forgot all about how the game was getting to me and just played.

The selection in the Marketplace is somewhat limited at the moment but OnLive promises more is on the way. I was annoyed to see Mass Effect 2 is only available to OnLive users connecting through a PC. I’m unsure who was behind this but the beauty of OnLive is that it is hardware agnostic yet even in the remote reaches of the cloud, the school-yard fight between Apple and Microsoft persists. It’s a shame. I’m also hoping the pricing sees some more restructuring. Players can purchase a three-day or five-day rental of some titles for $3.99 or $8.99 respectively. But not all games are available for rental. I wish there was more consistency in the pricing and availability. Full price purchases are often at the standard MSRP of $59.99. Hopefully, OnLive takes a cue from Valve and embraces the wonders of Steam Sales. The advantage of online gaming over brick and mortar retail will always be its ability to drop prices as it does not need to deal with overheads, shelf space, etc.

Other features such as the Arena which allows users to drop in and spectate on other player’s games are a fun distraction and seem more like a crowd-pleaser to show off an “ooh and ahh” factor of the service. OnLive is going to continue rolling out across the United States. The service is, at the moment, only offered in America but Perlman has expressed an interest to expand to other countries. Expect more impressions as my time with OnLive continues.

Here are the main highlights, prepare yourself.

Wii

Mario Galaxy 2, sequel to the 2008 hit, will be launching in America on May 23rd! The game is importing many of the great mechanics from the first Galaxy but adds many new elements including new power ups (Nintendo demoed a drill during a boss battle), new worlds, and Yoshi!

Sin & Punishment: Star Successor will be released on June 7th. Sequel to the cult-hit Nintendo 64 game, Sin & Punishment looks to be Nintendo’s answer to hardcore gamers craving something non-Mario but still, undeniably, Nintendo.

Monster Hunter Tri from Capcom is coming to North America, bundled with the Classic Controller Pro, on April 20th. Nintendo confirmed it will also be compatible with the Wii Speak accessory for voice chat. Nintendo is also working with retailer, Gamestop, to provide a demo disc with two quests on March 8th. Also, if your pre-order through Gamestop, customers get 500 points for either the Wii Shop Channel or DSi Shop.

Metroid: Other M, the game being developed by Team Ninja- the studio behind Ninja Gaiden, was also mentioned. A release date of June 27th was announced and while Nintendo was keeping other details quiet, it did promise the press some hands-on time with the game. Expect more details in the near future.

DS

The next iteration of the DS hardware, the DS-XL, will be coming to North America on March 28th for $189.99. The DS-XL is, essentially, a jumbo version of the current model, DSi. Nintendo of America rep, Cammie Dunaway explained the screen is “about ninety-three percent larger” and “fills the gap between portable play and the kinds of social experiences that up until now have only been available on consoles.”

Pokémon Heart Gold and Silver will be launching on March 14th. These are remakes of the Gold and Silver titles that came out for the Gameboy Color. Not much else was mentioned during the event but if you’ve played one Pokémon game, you’re likely aware of what to expect.

WarioWare DIY is hitting store shelves on March 28th! Create your own WarioWare-style microgames. The title will also be available as a WiiWare companion piece.

Augmented reality game, Ghostwire: Link to the Paranormal was demoed, showcasing the DSi’s camera allowing players to take photos and interact with them in-game.

WiiWare/DSiWare

Cave Story has been in development for quite awhile but today Nintendo revealed the WiiWare remake of the PC-community darling will be coming to the service on March 22nd.

Max & The Magic Marker is Drawn to Life meets Crayon Physics meets Harold and the Purple Crayon. Already available on PC, the WiiWare version drops on March 8th.

Capcom’s Mega Man 10 continues the 8-bit revival by bringing more great bosses, more insane platforming, and more of that Blue Bomber goodness. Nintendo mentioned that, in response to the last game, an easy difficulty was put in to allow casual players to enjoy Mega Man 10 while hardcore fans will get the same difficulty they’re used to on higher settings.

Bizarre and innovative platformers, Super Meat Boy, as well as And Yet It Moves were also given “Summer” release windows.

By the looks of it, Nintendo is going to have a jam-packed first half of 2010. It’s surprising to see so many top-tier titles getting released between now and mid-Summer. Hopefully, Nintendo still has a few surprises in store for the holidays. Either way, it looks like this event was the company’s answer to, what some have argued to be, a lackluster line-up as of late. There’s no doubt this is, once again, a great time to be a Nintendo fan.

While I played the most recent entry in the series, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, I was constantly struck by a nagging sensation of deja vu. As I rode the rails across the Kingdom of Hyrule, I felt as if I’d played the game before. I conquered a series of elemental-themed temples, obtained a boomerang, bow, amongst other weapons. The sights, sounds, gameplay, items, and characters were all long-standing staples of the series. It was the third game to follow the visual style introduced in The Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker. This “been-there done-that” feeling often made me lose the drive to continue. There is, however, an upside to this pattern.

By importing many of the same assets from Spirit Tracks’ DS-predecessor, Phantom Hourglass, it allowed Nintendo to release a sequel in less time. It would be worse if Spirit Tracks were a bad game. However, the game is good despite feeling so familiar which is a testament to the quality of the core design. There’s a level of refinement that’s occurred as Nintendo has found a set of crucial elements needed to make a game feel like The Legend of Zelda. Puzzles have a style all their own while the combat and controls feel much tighter. The end result is a polished game full of classic Nintendo tropes. While I feel Spirit Tracks is a good game, I’m disappointed it doesn’t do much to move the series forward. While the puzzles are fun, they’re easily bested by series veterans who are wise to their trickery. Change is a difficult thing for any series, especially one as venerable and beloved as The Legend of Zelda. However, Nintendo has done it before.

When Nintendo made the bold choice to create the cartoonish visual style of Windwaker, many fans cried foul, pleading for a more adult design. It’s a fine line Nintendo must walk between sticking to its own conventions and propelling the franchise into uncharted territory. Majora’s Mask made a similarly daring shift in the creation of the game when it departed from Ocarina of Time’s design by introducing the mask mechanics as well as the three-day cycle. Like Spirit Tracks, Majora’s Mask borrowed many assets from the game that came directly before it. However, it introduced enough new elements to feel fresh. During the NES days, Zelda II: The Aventure of Link defied expectations and followed up Link’s first adventure with a side-scrolling perspective for combat and exploration. The touch-centric controls of Phantom Hourglass took the series’ classic top-down design and introduced a new way to play. While the series has seen some changes over its twenty-year lifespan, the most obvious being the jump into three dimensions, it has since begun to feel stale. Recently, President of Nintendo Saturo Iwata mentioned the upcoming 2010 release for the series’ next Wii entry. With the release approaching it’s given rise to some concerns.

Nintendo needs to mix things up and Wii Motion Plus is not enough. While Nintendo has confirmed the next Zelda will utilize the company’s Wii Motion Plus peripheral, there will hopefully be more to the experience than what we’ve seen from the last few entries in the series. Nintendo will hopefully make more bold choices and give the franchise a much-needed push in the right direction. As I said before, it’s a difficult task for Nintendo. If they change too much, some fans will be upset that they’ve muddled with the series they love so much. Others will see it as another missed opportunity to reinvigorate the franchise. When it comes to Wii sequels, Nintendo has had a mixed track-record this generation. Animal Crossing: City Folk was, for many fans, a disappointment as it felt too much like the previous games. While Nintendo added voice chat support and some minor online features, the potential had clearly not been met. While 2010 is already shaping up to be another great year for Nintendo with the next Metroid title, amongst others, for Link’s next Wii incarnation, fans can only hope Nintendo will push the boundaries of what it means to play a Legend of Zelda game.

If you really consider yourself a gamer, you must have either bought, played, owned, rented or at the very least tried the games below. Five 5 represents the five best games on the 5 best systems. From action, to role-playing, to puzzle and first-person shooters, here is the Crème de la Crop

Xbox 360

1. Grand Theft Auto IV
2. Halo 3
3. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
4. Gears of War
5. Fallout 3

Playstation 3

1. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
2. Grand Theft Auto IV
3. inFamous
4. Resistance: Fall of Man
5. Killzone 2

Nintendo Wii

1. Super Smash Bros. Brawl
2. Super Mario Galaxy
3. Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition
4. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10
5. WarioWare: Smooth Moves

PC

1. The Orange Box
2. Crysis
3. World of Warcraft
4. Command & Conquer: Red Alert
5. Diablo

PSP & Nintendo DS

1. Tekken: Dark Ressurection (PSP)
2. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (DS)
3. Dexter (PSP)
4. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (PSP)
5. Mario Kart (DS)

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1. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
3. Wii Sports Resort
4. Batman: Arkham Asylum
5. Super Mario Bros. Wii
6. Left 4 Dead 2
7. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2010 (Wii)
8. Assassin’s Creed II
9. DJ Hero
10. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

Following the enormous success of their NES home console, Nintendo launched Game Boy in 1989 and the system became an instant hit. The secret to Game Boy’s success was not driven by advanced graphics or processing power, but rather by simple and efficient design, head-to-head connectivity, and scores of intriguing games. Game Boy’s Game Link cable allowed simultaneous multiplayer gaming—a first for a portable system. The classic puzzle game Tetris came bundled with Game Boy and it appealed to a diverse audience, ranging from children to grandparents. Additional launch titles included Super Mario Land, which featured Nintendo’s already-iconic character Mario. The hit titles kept coming as the system evolved.

Current day, we have new predecessors which include the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP which offer a huge abundance in portable entertainment. From enormous game selections, to cool new interactivity features, and the addition of Wi-Fi and online play, portable gaming has truly come a long way since its’ inception. In respect to the Game Boy itself, it definetly evolved throughout the past decade. We remember the original (and clunky) white and grey Game Boy, which soon advanced into a Game Boy Advance which was lighter, faster, and available in a nice array of colors. Yes better, faster, more colors, I think we see a trend here.

Think about it, all the video game console systems, Nintendo Xbox360, Sony Playstation3, and the Nintendo Wii, all offer downloadable content. While at first this was meant to augment and amplify current games, with the ability to add expansion packs, more levels and more weapons, we now see that many games in their entirety are available for download. While this is mostly true for older games of the 16-bit and 32-bit generation, we may very well see this new uprising for new current market games. In reference to our previous post, OnLive is aspiring to taking this new future one step further. Instead of downloading games to your local console’s hard drive, OnLive promises to deliver the same action we get on our consoles today, via a live stream over the internet.

While there are clearly some good and bad aspects of this, as many gamers have seen on the PSP Go – the future of the video game market has yet to be determined. Yes it is kind of annoying that you can’t use any old UMD disc’s if you purchased a new PSP Go, but on the other hand it is pretty neat that you don’t need to travel to the video game store to purchase new game titles. By simply logging in, you can download games directly to your PSP’s memory stick to play. On the other hand, there are many gamers who like to buy a physical package, complete with box art, a game manual, and any extras you may find in special edition versions of video games. Waiting in line all night for the next release of Halo is truly indicative of the video game culture. Will this be gone in the near future? Will GameStop have to update with the times or will we see their sales suffer?

One notable news flash of recent occurrence was Amazon.com’s announcement to ‘stock’ and sell a large array of Sony video game titles, all available for download. With this new phase of a longtime partnership between the two corporate giants, Sony and Amazon, they have announced that over 200 game titles will now be on sale via Amazon.com’s online video game store. Technically speaking, gamers will pay and purchase a game via the online store, in which they are then given a registration code. By entering the code on their PSP, the game will now be available for download. In other respects, there are some minor concerns here. Since games will be downloaded, space may be limited depending on how capacious your memory stick is. This was obviously an advantage of buying a video game in a retail store, however on the other hand, downloading may save gamers time, and time means money in this day and age.

On a side note, Amazon.com and Sony’s online store also offer the ability to buy games as gifts for people. After payment is made, the registration codes can be sent to others which can be redeemed as a gift. This is a nifty little feature, but we still feel that most gamer enthusiasts would rather get a physical package with their video game. As aforementioned, the new Sony PSP Go disallow’s one to do so, because the console does not take discs. Whatever happened to swapping games with your friends when you were done playing? Or loaning out games to your neighbor or cousin, or even trading in games back to GameStop for credit towards other games? Will all these really cease to be so in the neat future? Total annhilation of the physical video game doesn’t seem possible, but a decline in these things, probably yes. By offering bonus materials, add-ons and updates, downloading games from places like Amazon.com may seem more appealing to some users in the long run. It is evident that most older games from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are now available via download on their online stores. For just a few dollars, you can download and play Super Mario Bros. 3 like we were back in 1990 – Yes, 1990, almost 20 years ago to date.

Will the future hold the same for current release titles that encompass gigabytes of video, music and gameplay data? It is often hard to imagine, but most of the video games we’ve known to love when we were younger, are seemingly smaller than the size of a single MP3 music file; All that music, data, and hours of gameplay can be condensed into a single tiny ROM file. We’ve truly come a long way in the past few decades. Will we look back upon this point in time and say the same things we are saying now in the next few years?

It is clear that the future of the video game market as we know it may be in for some big changes over the next decade. Microsoft, Nintendo and other video game manufacturers will need to jump on this bandwagon in order to stay alive. While they already have in some respects, further amplification of this may be required. Microsoft has already partnered up with companies like Netflix who provide movie content straight to your Xbox via download. Sony has done this more so with the video game market, while Nintendo has revived many of their older games. Furthermore, entertainment fixtures including movies, music, photos and console modifications continue to play a big role in the future of this industry. Whoever offers the most, will probably be best off, although at the moment we see a mixture between the triopoly in our current day video game market.

We are clearly not saying that downloading games will be the absolute future of ALL video games purchases, but it will notably take a sizable share of retail sales from here on out. This is what video gaming is, the leading, cutting-edge technology that drives a large portion of the digital age we live in. If companies’ refuse to update in these economic times, the ‘recession-proof’ video game industry may hold for some drastic changes in the near future.

With partnerships forming in every corner of the video game industry, OnLive has signed deals with EA, Take-Two, Ubisoft, Epic Games, Atari, Codemasters, THQ, Warner Bros., 2D Boy & Eidos Interactive. A pretty hefty lineup if you ask us, OnLive will be sure to deliver every video game, in every size and shape.

With OnLive’s release scheduled for Winter of 2009, beta testing is curerntly underway. We tried to sign up for one, but we have yet to hear back from OnLive. What you get with the purchase is small gaming unit with an attractive bluetooth controller. The controller looks like a cross between the Xbox360 controller and the PS3 Dual-Shock controller, a pretty nice combo if you ask us. The grip looks excellent, and the buttons are in well suited positions for gameplay. Bluetooth capabilities will also help to ensure a strong and critical connection. The gaming box itself is pretty small and will connect directly to your TV and internet connection. Serving as the liaison between the two, OnLive promises to deliver streaming video game action, from your internet connection, through its services, and right out to your TV.

One thing is for sure, you better have a strong and sufficient internet connection at your home or office. To transfer a high definition signal, speeds of over 5Mbps+ are needed. If you currently have Optimum Online, FiOS or any other new-age internet service with high speeds you should be fine. Normal cable customers and land line customers will definitely suffer. Much lower speeds will provide much lower resolutions being outputted to your TV. Especially if you recently spent some money on a nice new HDTV, you won’t be getting your money’s worth.

The gaming architecture and infrastructure of the OnLive business model is an interesting one. Since users will be streaming games over the internet to their homes, OnLive must house huge centers of servers to provide all this gameplay data. With plans for five data centres across North America, OnLive hopes to provide a sufficient quantity of bandwidth for all. What’s interesting is that newer-age games such as Call of Duty and the computer crushing video game Crysis will probably require much more use of a server than older games such as Command & Conquer and the original Diablo, which can probably share one GPU on one server by serving multiple instances of the game.

Costs are definitely still in question for this expensive endeavor. Serving fees, bandwidth costs, research and development, will all be incorporated into the price and monthly fee for OnLive’s use. While they can’t follow similar strategies such as Sony and Microsoft, by essentially losing money on the sale of their console’s only to make money selling games and accessories, OnLive may have to follow suite by making it up with their fees and charges. The future of gaming? Will this truly mean the end of console’s? One thing for sure is that this will put serious stress on Sony and Microsoft. The competition will be fierce for the foreseeable future of the video game market, as one day we truly see this as the future of video gaming, whomever decides to take the lead.

First of all, we don’t mean to completely knock the newly designed PSP Go. There were definitely a few features that excited us, while others we were a bit disappointed about. First of all, with PSP Bundle Packs at $199, we are  a bit disappointed to see the PSP Go retail at $249. We understand that Sony is probably trying to push as many units out as high a price as possible, and then possible offer a price drop several months (Christmas?) down the road.

On a more positive note, the PSP Go has some pretty nice curves to it, and the sleek black design, as always, is very appealing to the eye. However this unit does measure a bit smaller than the traditional PSP models, with a .5″ smaller screen (from 4.3″ to 3.8″). The screen shrinkage kind of threw us off, as the original PSP Slim isn’t that large to begin with. Another big plus was the inclusion of a 16GB Memory Card which will definitely come in hand for downloading music, movies and playing games. The extra memory will be well needed, since the newly designed PSP Go does not use UMD discs! This was a heavy disappointment to us, as what are we suppose to do with our vast collection of UMD movies and games? Everything will now be downloaded via Sony’s online services. In any event, we see this as the future of video gaming. Eventually, all games may be downloaded via the Internet and there will no need to purchase discs anymore. But c’mon Sony, at least give us the option pre-2020! And oh yea, watch-out GameStop, don’t pull a Starbucks.

Another annoying thing we found on this new console was the placement of the buttons. We found the PSP Slim pretty apt for gaming, and by making the system even smaller, and moving the buttons to be even more centrally located, this doesn’t work out great for our brawny, manly hands. Nonetheless, there were other small additions such as bluetooth capabilities, a nicer TFT screen, and a 43% reduction in weight. Maybe we will even be able to tether our phones to our PSP Go via bluetooth? Sony – will this hold the future for the PSP Phone?

All in all, we truly hoped for a bit more, and the PSP Go is more like a PSP Slim+ although it is physically smaller. We hope that Sony will have a few better additions for the launch of the PSP2.  All the current features, plus re-adding UMD discs, a mobile phone, better controls, maybe even a second analog stick, and better placement of buttons, could ultimately lead to the PSP2 becoming the clear industry leader.

Xbox 360

1. Grand Theft Auto IV
2. Halo 3
3. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
4. Gears of War
5. Fallout 3

Playstation 3

1. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
2. Grand Theft Auto IV
3. inFamous
4. Resistance: Fall of Man
5. Killzone 2

Nintendo Wii

1. Super Smash Bros. Brawl
2. Super Mario Galaxy
3. Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition
4. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10
5. WarioWare: Smooth Moves

PC

1. The Orange Box
2. Crysis
3. World of Warcraft
4. Command & Conquer: Red Alert
5. Diablo

PSP & Nintendo DS

1. Tekken: Dark Ressurection (PSP)
2. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (DS)
3. Dexter (PSP)
4. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (PSP)
5. Mario Kart (DS)