Over here in the UK, OnLive has just launched in partnership with BT. It's concept is to stream games directly to your PC, Mac, mobile device or TV etc, without the requirement for high end hardware - think of it like an SBC (Server Based Computing) product similar to Citrix Presentation Server or XenApp, but optimised for gaming. The expensive kit sits in the OnLive datacenters somewhere, while your own computer, with the installed OnLive software, becomes a thin-client - only your keyboard / mouse movements are sent over the wire, along with an audio / video stream of the game itself.

Because BT are the UK partner, if you are a BT Broadband customer, then you're entitled to a 3 month free trial of the service - specifically the OnLive PlayPack Bundle, a collection of over 100 games. Fortunately for me:

1. I have BT Infinity, and;
2. the two 19" LCDs I ordered off eBay earlier in the week have arrived.

Having already loaded a clean copy of Windows 7 onto my Dell OptiPlex 745 (while still waiting for the 2 x 755's to arrive), I signed up to OnLive and installed the client software - no issues, and all straight forward. It should be a good test for it's advertised promise, as the 745 has far from a decent graphics card for any kind of gaming (being an onboard Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3000). The key requirement for such as service is, however, a low latency connection - it will be interesting to see if this is possible over UK broadband networks, particularly during peak times, and especially on BT's own network.

Loading up the software and logging in was straight forward - I did receive a notification that my latency was not great.... hmm, this is BT's network, the selected UK OnLive partner, on BT's fastest broadband service, BT Infinity! I quit and relaunched the app, which didn't re-prompt the latency issue, so just carried on as normal.

Once logged in and using the service, it's clear that it's all full screen streamed video content as you can see the compression being dynamically adjusted depending on the quality of the connection, but it is impressive none the less. If you end up trying the service yourself, I would recommend jumping straight into the 'Arena', which displays a scrollable grid of live in game users, allowing you to spectate in real-time any current game session in progress - it's one of those things to show someone to get a quick "wow!", but functionality wise it's also a good way to see what games are available, how they play out, and the performance of the service.

Playing games does show some lag between your keyboard / mouse movements and the game reacting back, and although initially annoying, for most it's not too much of a distraction and you gradually adjust to compensate. While playing, again I could see the video compression adjusting, and worse, the audio would jump from mono to stereo then back, with also lots of audio artefacts very noticeable.

After playing around a while with it, and trying out various games, I then installed it onto my MacBook - what was interesting, even after the 'don't use wireless' connections message on startup (as my MacBook connects via 802.11n to an AirPort Extreme), I actually got better performance than on the 745, and no audio drop outs... I put this down to the crappy graphics card in the OptiPlex, that probably couldn't cope with the full screen video very well.

What was even more interesting, I later tried the service again on my MacBook but via my Three MiFi device - and it also worked, though the graphics compression remained pretty heavy.

My experience was not totally without issues and error messages however - the following night, after work, I was faced with 'service full' messages, which is not that surprising considering everyone is probably jumping straight onto the service having just been launched, but I hope it's not something I see too often.

Also when running up another random game, I was presented with a pretty random generic error, booting me straight off...

Final verdict? Not bad, but it will be interesting to see how the available game catalog expands out. There are already some big name games available, but also some pretty cruddy 'never heard of that' titles in there to, which I suspect is to push the 'look how many games are available' marketing message. I did have a lot of fun with Wheelman, wasting a few hours racing / smashing up cars etc, but even so I don't think, at the moment, I'll find myself subscribing after the 3 months free trial period... 

I do, however, recommend you at least check it out, as even if you are not a BT subscriber you can still play most titles in a 30-minute time limited mode, without charge. There is also a promo on at the moment, that the first full title you buy only costs £1.00.