Does OnLive sound like an appealing proposition for you? If so, they have a pretty snazzy deal that may bring in people who otherwise wouldn’t check out the service.
If you pre-order Duke Nukem Forever via OnLive, you will get the $100 MicroConsole, their miniature game system, for FREE. That’s a pretty sweet offer for those who may have already wanted to take the OnLive dive but hadn’t yet, and who are anticipating the Duke’s great return.
Previously OnLive tried to rope people in with a similar deal in which you replace Duke Nukem Forever with Red Faction: Armageddon, but either way you shake it this is a nice little offer.
OnLive, if you haven’t heard of it, is a cloud-computing gaming-on-demand service that allows you to play high-quality PC games with high-specs on a low-end machine as long as it can play video and you have an adequate Internet connection (between 3 and 5 Mbit/s). You can play the games on your PC or Mac via the OnLive Client, or you can play on a TV (without needing a computer) through the “MicroConsole TV Adapter” which comes with a custom-controller. Further device support will also be added such as iOS and Android. Currently OnLive is only available in the United States but will come to the UK soon and other territories to follow.
However just because you sign up, doesn’t mean you can play games. Games are priced at normal retail prices for new titles ($50) or much cheaper for older titles (games like Batman: Arkham Asylum or Borderlands are $5). Thankfully though, you can sign up for the PlayPack Bundle for $15 a month which allows you to play up to 50 select games for a flat rate.
Here’s an unboxing video of the OnLive MicroConsole.
And here is a video breaking down how OnLive works.