Back at GDC 2009, we first heard of OnLive, the game streaming service that was supposed to revolutionize the way we all played and purchased games. No more discs, no more downloads, just streaming goodness with instant access to new games without waiting. Skeptics were abound, myself included, at the validity of OnLive’s statements, fearing controller and internet lag would cause major problems. Fast forward to June 2010 and the launch of the service in the United States. I was among the early members given access and spent a good deal of time playing around with everything OnLive has to offer. Is it worth your hard earned dollar? Click on through to find out.

After signing up, providing your credit card, and a small download, OnLive is ready to rock and roll. Firing up the client and signing in brings you to the screen below. OnLive’s main menu links you the service’s major areas as well as showing off video of games in action. That’s live gameplay video, people. Going to the Arena fills the screen with even more choices that you can click on and instantly be transported to viewing that game being played live on the service. The first time you hop in and see it yourself, it’s definitely a “wow” moment. We’ve come a long way with technology. Moving on, you can buy Play Passes for any game on the service, some forever, some 3-5 days, and download demos for a handful of the games available. You never really own the game, you’re just paying for the right to be able to play. Once you’re ready to go, firing up a game takes 1-2 seconds before you’re in and running. Since everything is just streaming video and all the games are loading on OnLive’s servers, there’s no downtime in that respect. A huge feat, indeed. There wasn’t much, if any, lag noticeable on my 15 Mbps connection, even in twitchy shooters like Unreal Tournament 3.

The video quality of OnLive is good, but not great. If you have a 5 Mbps wired connected (more on that in a minute), you can play at 720p. If you compare the game running locally at 720p versus OnLive’s streaming game, you’ll notice a definitely lack of sharpness, but nothing to the point of making it a bad experience. You can currently play on Mac or PC with the streaming client, but you are required to have a wired connection. From a technical aspect, this is to avoid wireless packet loss which may cause stuttering and missed controller inputs, but from a practicality consumer perspective, it’s pretty annoying. Most of us run wireless networks these days and getting close enough to your router to connect a cable isn’t the ideal situation. I have an 802.11n 5ghz network and routinely get 20-30 Mbps burstable download (15 Mbps Road Runner Extreme with Power Boost), but that means nothing to OnLive. I have to play at my desktop, which isn’t where I like to do any of my real gaming. Until the set-top box comes down the line (which also will need to be wired), there aren’t many options for playing on your big HDTV unless you easily connect your computer. The Mac Mini might be the ideal situation there, but not many of us have that around or have enough money in the budget.

Given a press account with access to every game, I did enjoy my time with OnLive, but I can easily see it from the flip side — paying a monthly fee (starting next year) and never truly owning a game you pay for isn’t ideal by any stretch of the imagination (if your subscription to OnLive lapses, your Play Passes go away). The concept is great, the execution is done well (wired connection requirement aside, from a practicality perspective), but the value just isn’t there. I’d rather spend my $15 a month on GameFly and not have to pay additional money on top for games that I don’t really own anyway. If you can get in for no cost now, go ahead, but if you have to pay, I’d steer clear of OnLive until their pricing structure gets a major overhaul.

[An OnLive press account was provided with access to all games for 30 days for review purposes]