Divinity II: DKS - Now On OnLive

Larian announces the Dragon Knight Saga is now available on OnLive (the stream-it-over-the-'net service), including a free demo if you want to take it for a spin.
More information.

I tried out OnLive with DX:HR.

It didn't like running on our wireless home network, and seemed to demand a hardwired connection.

Yeah - they're touchy about that. They would rather you not play at all than get a bad experience. The home network is probably adding enough lag to make games hard to play.

P.S. (USA) It's only $9 for a 5 day pass. With Labor Day coming up, you might be able to beat it in 10 days for just $18. Or you could pay $40 for the unlimited pass.

Originally Posted by Zloth
P.S. (USA) It's only $9 for a 5 day pass. With Labor Day coming up, you might be able to beat it in 10 days for just $18. Or you could pay $40 for the unlimited pass.

I don't know… considering that you can find a retail copy DKS for $30-$40, the OnLive pass really isn't that great of a deal, imo.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
It didn't like running on our wireless home network, and seemed to demand a hardwired connection.

Why is that, I wonder. Latency? I mean, your WAN connection would be many times slower than your wireless LAN, right? And it's not like you can't comfortably play online games through WiFi.

Anyway, not available over here. :/

Personally, I hate OnLive, because of the direction it leads to : Playing as a service delivered to you.

This is like … "interactive TV", nothing less, nothing more.

It's like … a "service company" rather renting board games. You just cannot buy them anymore.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Personally, I hate OnLive, because of the direction it leads to : Playing as a service delivered to you.

This is like … "interactive TV", nothing less, nothing more.

It's like … a "service company" rather renting board games. You just cannot buy them anymore.

I don't like it either, but I still think it is better than the model that started it all: STEAM does sell you a game that you don't own after buying and you are only allowed to play it when they allow you to do so. This is pretty stupid.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Personally, I hate OnLive, because of the direction it leads to : Playing as a service delivered to you.

This is like … "interactive TV", nothing less, nothing more.

It's like … a "service company" rather renting board games. You just cannot buy them anymore.

So? I'm not sure how much value I put towards owning media any more, myself. I stream music and video, why not games? I rarely, if ever, replay my games in the first place. I realise that there are tons of people here that do, but me, personally, not so much. So, as someone that NEEDS to try everything, I think this could be great.

Originally Posted by Sir_Brennus
I don't like it either, but I still think it is better than the model that started it all: STEAM does sell you a game that you don't own after buying and you are only allowed to play it when they allow you to do so. This is pretty stupid.

Oh? You can't start Steam in Offline mode? Since when?

Originally Posted by Thaurin
So? I'm not sure how much value I put towards owning media any more, myself. I stream music and video, why not games? I rarely, if ever, replay my games in the first place. I realise that there are tons of people here that do, but me, personally, not so much. So, as someone that NEEDS to try everything, I think this could be great.



Oh? You can't start Steam in Offline mode? Since when?

since when you forgot to set the mode to offline while you are online!

I lost internet connection recently and I was unable to play any games since you can't go offline without internet connection

Originally Posted by Sir_Brennus
I don't like it either, but I still think it is better than the model that started it all: STEAM does sell you a game that you don't own after buying and you are only allowed to play it when they allow you to do so. This is pretty stupid.

I don't think Steam is better.

Steam is different, yet imho it still plays in the same league.

Steam *does* have an "offline mode", by the way. Read here for more :
http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14269

Originally Posted by Thaurin
Why is that, I wonder. Latency? I mean, your WAN connection would be many times slower than your wireless LAN, right? And it's not like you can't comfortably play online games through WiFi.

I suspect it is simple as too low of a data rate. Our home WiFi network is slower than the 1GB ethernet at work. Not that I would play games at work. Really boss it was just a test .

87 games are in a bundle for unlimited playpack for $10/month, includes:
- Deus Ex - original
- Grotesque Tactics
- Disciplines 3
- Hitman
- Just Cause 1 and 2
- Tomb Raider: anniversary
- Supreme Commander
- Bard's Tale
- King's Bounty Armored Princess
- Titan Quest - Gold
- Borderlands

Plus many others. Looks like they are continually adding to games to the bundle.

I just finished DKS 2 days ago, Ego Draconis and Flames of Vengeance.

My concern with moving things to the cloud like OnLive is that my ISP has started implementing bandwidth caps. With the wife and kids watching You Tube, NetFlix, and me downloading Steam or GoG games we run into the cap nearly every month. I don't know how many gigs each game will need to stream, but that would just be another thing to make me have to pay extra charges for usage.

Originally Posted by lostforever
since when you forgot to set the mode to offline while you are online!

I lost internet connection recently and I was unable to play any games since you can't go offline without internet connection

Really? I've got Steam installed at work and we're behind a firewall, so it times out and can't connect. Then it pops up a box asking me if I want to quit of start in offline mode. I can play King's Bounty perfectly fine, though! (I downloaded the game through a proxy once, don't tell the admin shhh! )

Originally Posted by Thrasher
I suspect it is simple as too low of a data rate. Our home WiFi network is slower than the 1GB ethernet at work. Not that I would play games at work. Really boss it was just a test .

Well, I don't believe you need a 1GB connection for OnLive. At home I can get close to 3 MB/s downloads, which should be enough to stream games I would think. My 100Mbit WiFi router is many times faster than that! When we have 100Mbit lines to the outside in the living room, I think we won't have to worry about bandwidth any more.

A temporary network timeout is not the same as having no network connection. I can vouch for statement made by lostforever about steam offline mode, since I have had precisely the same thing happen to me. If you never close the Steam client it may cache some info, but if you close it and restart a game which was online, it requires a reconnection - presumably to reauthenticate you - before allowing a game to go offline.

As for streaming games - the average dload speed here is still 384 kbs, and there are many parts of the world where there are still major bandwidth bottlenecks. Also, not everyone has access to a network all the time.

Originally Posted by Thaurin
Well, I don't believe you need a 1GB connection for OnLive. At home I can get close to 3 MB/s downloads, which should be enough to stream games I would think. My 100Mbit WiFi router is many times faster than that! When we have 100Mbit lines to the outside in the living room, I think we won't have to worry about bandwidth any more.

That may be the case. But, average rates aren't good enough. If the speed drops temporarily, the game stutters. Minimum rates are what counts. And our home wireless didn't meet the requirements. 50Mbps with drop outs didn't make the grade.