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.

No longer on a 2-D plane, the puzzles now have the added challenge of depth as players will chip away at a block of cubes, following the same rules of logic, to create little figures. It might sound confusing but thanks to a hefty tutorial the game is accessible and once you get sucked in there’s no going back. The game is more difficult than the original Picross in that some players may have a hard time wrapping their heads around the more third-dimension-centric aspects of the gameplay. The game lends a hand by providing sliders in order to cut into the objects in order to get a handle on the cubes. However, this proved to be one of the more difficult mechanics of the game to understand. By following the clues, being sure not to eliminate the wrong blocks, and completing puzzles, players are rewarded by a robot, dog, magnifying glass, and all manner of everyday objects. Speaking of puzzles, Picross 3D offers more than 300 and at $19.99 it’s easy to recommend the game as a great value that’s sure to occupy a lot of time.

The art style has taken a bizarre, pastel-focused turn that looks a bit cheap and juvenile. But, with gameplay mechanics as good as this, the game could have been in black and white and I really wouldn’t have cared. (In fact, Mario Picross came out on the Gameboy in black and white and it was just as much fun.) Customizable background images and music make the aesthetics a tad more tolerable but it’s worth mentioning Nintendo didn’t have to make the game look like a budget title.

The sliders that let you cut-into the blocks and examine the inside of the figures was a constant source of annoyance during the more difficult puzzles. Nintendo was smart enough to make players hold a button to chip away at a cube or mark it as safe. However, no such attention was paid to the sliders which often activated as I was trying to rotate the object rather than cut into it. I wish I could have held a button to activate it as I did with other elements.

I mentioned before that Picross 3D has a lengthy tutorial. It holds your hand perhaps a bit longer than it should. I appreciate the steady pace but it would have been nice to have the ability to skip ahead to more difficult levels. As it is, players have to progress through more than 100 Easy difficulty puzzles before getting a chance to take a crack at the Medium and Hard tiers.

Despite any minor problems I had with the game from an art-style or progression standpoint, these issues pale in comparison to the truly addictive nature of Picross 3D. The game is fun and has the uncanny ability to make you travel through time, unaware of how many hours are passing, as you keep tapping and saying “just one more.”

Image courtesy of Joystiq

As a proprietary division of MTV Networks, the 2009 Video Game Awards were estimated to be viewed by almost 100 million people, in over 175 countries. MTV’s decision to let SpikeTV brand the show over the years was a notable move. Not only does it bring notoriety to SpikeTV, it also helps emphasize the target market of both brawny and geeky gamers alike. Interestingly enough, the VGA show does not only pay tribute to video games, but also artistic performances and developments, new technologies, and even the music that help shape the video games we play today.

As the years progress, more actors have been willing and able to lend their off-screen talents to the creation of video games. Most notable was Hugh Jackman who won the award for the best performance by a human male for his role in X-Men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged Edition. Furthermore, presenter Zachary Quinto, who most of us know as the new Spock in Star Trek has announced that he will lend his vocal skills to the creation of the next Star Trek game. In retrospect, this can only help an actor’s career, and even more so help solidify their lifetime roles as characters like Wolverine and Spock accordingly.

In conclusion, MTV Networks and SpikeTV have done an outstanding job during this years performance. This will help ensure viewership for the years to come. Video games have begun to be intertwined with the movie and music entertainment industry, further solidifying its role for the years to come. As a cliffhanger, we are always left with video game previews for the 2010 year. Several of these games will surely make their way to the top over the course of the next year, and we are sure to see them again during SpikeTV Video Game Awards for the year 2010.

2009 SpikeTV Video Game Award Winners

Game of the Year – Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Studio of the Year – Rocksteady Studios

Best Independent Game – Flower

Best Xbox360 Game – Left 4 Dead 2

Best PS3 Game – Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Best Wii Game – Super Mario Bros. Wii

Best PC Game – Dragon Age: Origins

Best Handheld Game – Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

Best Shooter – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Best Fighting Game – Street Fighter IV

Best Action Adventure Game – Assassin’s Creed II

Best RPG – Dragon Age: Origins

Best Multi-Player Game - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Best Individial Sports Game – UFC 2009 Undisputed

Best Team Sports Game – NHL ’10

Best Driving Game – Forza Motorsport 3

Best Music Game – The Beatles Rock Band

Best Soundtrack – DJ Hero

Best Original Score – Halo 3: ODST

Best Graphics – Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Best Game Based on a Movie/TV Show – South Park Let’s Go Tower Defense Play

Best Performance by a Human Female – Megan Fox as Mikaela Banes

Best Performance by a Human Male - Hugh Jackman as Wolverine

Best Cast – X-Men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged Edition

Best Voice – Jack Black as Eddie Riggs

Best Downloadable Game – Shadow Complex

Best Downloadble Content (DLC) – Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony

Most Anticipated Game – God of War III

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.