OnLive, a relatively new company that streams games over the Internet to TV’s, PC’s, as well as tablets, is also going to be streaming to Google TV’s this year. The company offers an affordable monthly subscription with access to an ever expanding line of games.

What’s great about the service as well is that it’s not the games that you may recall where you plug a device into your TV and play these pretty crappy, low quality 8 bit games. We’re talking console quality games.

Granted, you need to have a good high speed Internet connection, but reviews have been good overall.

Via CNET:

“As we do with most new platforms, OnLive is starting out with a Viewer on Google TV, so for now, you can just watch and use OnLive social features. But hang in there, OnLive is working closely with Google to enable full gameplay with OnLive gamers from around the world on Google TV. And more Google TV devices are coming, with OnLive built right in.”

With better hardware coming to televisions and Google TV’s that are soon to be on the market with dual core chips and good graphics chips built-in, we’ll potentially see televisions become more of a gaming device than just a device to watch your favorite shows or movies.

As far as when the gaming feature will launch on Google TV’s, there’s no specific launch date as of yet. OnLive’s PlayBack Bundle allows you to play 100+ games with unlimited access for just $9.99 a month. Users can also purchase games separately that are not part of the bundle.

OnLive Cloud Gaming Coming To Google TV’s is a post from: The Inquisitr

After 6 long years of of waiting, online gamers can finally rejoice. Star Wars;The Old Republic (SW;TOR) has arrived. Bioware spared no expense to create what they promised would be the ultimate Star Wars MMO (Massively Multi-player Online game) and players are hoping that the end results actually live up to the hype.

The official launch is scheduled for December 20th., 2011 but Bioware gave gamers a special Christmas present by offering up to 7 days of Early Access to anyone who pre-ordered the game when it went on sale, July 20th., 2011. Early access started on December 13th, 2011 and during the first 24 hours the demand was so high that Bioware was only able to invite players who pre-ordered the first day the game was on sale.

Bioware plans to invite players in waves from December 13th. until December 19th,  giving everyone who pre-ordered an opportunity to get a head start over the legions of gamers who will join them on December 20th.; when SW;TOR starts its official run.

From all accounts, SW;TOR is on target for success. While exact figures are not yet available, Electronic Arts (EA) has said that the SW;TOR pre-order has broken all their sales records. Demand was so high that EA was forced to limit the total number copies available until the game is fully launched and stable.

“We are targeting Star Wars: The Old Republic to be one of the biggest launches of holiday 2011,” said BioWare’s Dr. Ray Muzyka in the announcement. “Our teams at BioWare and EA, along with our partners at LucasArts, are laser-focused on creating a high quality game, but just as importantly, they are resolute in delivering a high quality service. We are taking all of the necessary steps to make sure The Old Republic has a thriving community built on a stable online foundation from day one, including limiting supply at launch to ensure that players easily transition into the servers. So whether you’re waiting to join the Empire or the Republic, pre-order now to ensure you can enter the galaxy at launch!”

Now !!! Lets get to the nitty gritty. Is SW;TOR worth your time and a subscription fee of $14.99 a month? The answer is an unequivocal, YES. To put it simply, Star Wars; The Old Republic has finally brought the Star Wars universe to life for gamers. The game is solid, stable and exciting. It is fun to play from the moment you enter the game and create you first character. Playing SW;TOR is addictive; once you start, you wont want to stop.

Players must decide if their character will join the Sith Empire or The Republic. There are 4 main classes available for each faction. On the Empire side players can choose from Sith warrior, Sith Inquisitor, Bounty Hunter or Imperial Agent. Those who prefer the Republic may select among Jedi Knight, Jedi Consular, Smuggler or Trooper. When players complete their quests on their starting world, (around level 9 or 10) they will be able to further specialize their character by picking one of the two sub classes offered to each class. For example, Sith Inquisitors will be able to choose between Sith Assassin and Sith Sorcerer. A Republic Trooper may specialize either as a Vanguard or as a Commando. Each sub class unlocks a three tiered skill tree that offers new, highly potent skills that will allow a player to tweak a character to their hearts content.

One of the things that makes SW;TOR so enjoyable is that you start off the game feeling powerful. Unlike many games, where  you have to wait forever to get decent skills, players will find themselves successfully soloing packs of 4 and 5 mobs from the very first level. The Star Wars Universe is supposed to be populated by almost invincible heroes or anti-heroes and SW;TOR lives up to the tradition.

As players advance through the game, they will follow a quest line that is specific to their class. Each one of these exciting quest lines unravels a story that will reveal much about who the player is, where the player is going and what the player may become. Filling in the blanks depends, to an extent, on the choices the player makes as he or she progresses towards the level cap of 50.

Early access is now in its third day and things are running like a well oiled machine. Server Crashes have been virtually non-existent and I personally have yet to experience any glitches or lag. The game looks great, sounds great and is free of major bugs.

After extensive conversations with many players the Port Nowhere server, we were only able to find two minor issues. There are still a few bugged resource nodes scattered around the various planets in the galaxy, most of which were also bugged in beta. The only other glitch is with the Guild Interface, which isnt updating the names of online guild members properly. Considering the size of this game and the millions of people who will be playing, it is remarkable that these are the only issues we could find in the game 3 days into launch.

There are a few items that Bioware has promised to address in the future such as User Interface customization, adding a combat log, color matching of player clothing and the ability to sort items by level on the in-game vendors. These are all matters of player convenience and not issues with the functioning of the game.

To put it all in a nutshell, Star Wars, The Old Republic is an outstanding game and the launch has been virtually flawless. Bioware and Electronic Arts can be proud of the effort that went into building this game. They have succeeded in bringing the never ending struggle between the Light Side and the Dark Side to life. SW;TOR is Star Wars as it is meant to be; exciting and mysterious with the fate of the galaxy hanging in the balance. So grab your lightsaber. Strap on your blaster. Get ready for fun. Star Wars The Old Republic is here.

(Special thanks to the members of the Guild Star Forge on the Port Nowhere Server and to my good friend Ares, who took time out from leveling to patiently answer a barrage of questions. A tip of the hat also to unicron, mexy, ghodzilla, pharaoh and rinzler. The community is what makes online gaming so special and it is my pleasure to introduce some of them to my readers.)

Get Out Your Lightsabers And Blasters: Star Wars; The Old Republic Rocks The Galaxy is a post from: The Inquisitr

Can we say ooppps.

It seems that Walmart has decided that it’s going to be an early Christmas Grinch this year as we get word of them losing, or deleting, an “unspecified amount” of pre-orders for the Star Wars: The Old Republic game. Apparently some customers have been getting emails from the retail giant letting them know about the issue using the old “temporary shipping issue” excuse.

BioWare has stepped in to let purchasers know that this will not effect Early Access to the game, except that players don’t have any guarantee that their pre-order will still be available to them. As well, according to a report over at the PikiGeek blog there are reports popping up on a lot of forums of players who are just a tad upset about the sudden disappearance of their pre-orders.

A quick look at the threads also show a large number of customers who are stating that Walmart has erroneously claimed to have refunded the amount currently paid off for the game. The automated messages says one thing, but their bank statement says another.

Senior Online Community Manager Stephen Reid from Bioware did issue a brief statement in the thread. Unfortunately, since he can’t speak for a distributor, all he was able to assure was players’ Early Access status.

via PikiGeek

Oh Walmart don’t you know that it’s never a good idea to mess with a geek’s pre-order, especially just before Christmas. Tsk tsk.

image courtesy of PikiGeek

Walmart loses “unspecified amount” of Star Wars: Old Republic pre-orders is a post from: The Inquisitr

Electronic Arts (EA), the game developer behind many of our favorite games, has made it quite plain that they intend to get into the online game store business in a big way, as evidenced by their statement that its upcoming MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic, will only be available through their own online store known as Origin.

While this won’t affect the old style retail sales of the game it does signal that EA intends on making its newer games exclusive to their own online game store. This move is most apparent when looking for EA games on Valve’s competing online game store: Steam.

There is no problem finding any of the older EA games on Steam but along with EA’s Alice: Madness Returns and Battlefield 3 it seems that Crysis 2 has disappeared from Steam. EA however is quick to point out that this wasn’t a move by EA but rather due to Steam specific business terms between it and game developers.

In a statement sent to IGN, EA claims Crysis 2′s removal from Steam “was not an EA decision or the result of any action by EA.” It says Valve, the Half-Life and Portal developer behind Steam, is responsible for the game no longer being sold.

“Steam has imposed a set of business terms for developers hoping to sell content on that service — many of which are not imposed by other online game services,” the statement reads. “Unfortunately, Crytek has an agreement with another download service which violates the new rules from Steam and resulted in its expulsion of Crysis 2 from Steam.”

via 1UP.com

 

Online game store biz gets heated, EA blames Valve for Crysis 2 missing in action is a post from: The Inquisitr

Free-to-play games are becoming more popular but making money in that business can be a little challenging, but as Zynga has shown with its games on Facebook in-game microtransactions for game content can prove to very lucrative.

This obviously hasn’t escaped Valve’s Steam online game store, one of the largest players in this area, as they have announced that starting today there are five games available immediately that are free-to-play and allow the player to buy game content from within the game.

Available immediately, the launch titles are Spiral Knights, Forsaken Worlds, Champions Online: Free for All, Global Agenda: Free Agent, and Alliance of Valliant Arms (AVA).

Beginning tomorrow (Weds) with Spiral Knights and concluding Sunday with AVA, each of the five launch titles will offer exclusive in-game content to those who try the “F2P game of the day” on Steam. In game transactions in all of the titles will be supported by Steam’s micro-transaction backend system that is available to Steamworks partners and currently used in Valve’s Team Fortress 2.

“The introduction of Free to Play games is another example of the constant evolution of Steam,” said Jason Holtman, director of business development at Valve. “Free to Play games offer new game genres and game experiences for customers, while offering developers and publishers new revenue opportunities and the ability to reach customers in areas of the world where the traditional packaged goods model is less popular than F2P.”

Specific details on the F2P games of the day and their exclusive in-game content will be made available in the coming days.

via Steam News Release

Valve getting into the free-to-play game business with in-game content sales is a post from: The Inquisitr

Okay, I get it, Angry Birds is popular and needs to do whatever it an to keep those irritating birds and pigs front and center because after all when that is the only thing you have you need to milk it for whatever you can. But seriously folks a cookbook?

Of course it isn’t just any kind of cookbook but one that centers around eggs.

“An announcement during a presentation at the Open Mobile Summit in London revealed that the developer has been in discussion with Amazon, Apple, and Barnes & Noble about distribution of the book,” reports Gather.

What will you learn to concoct using the Angry Birds cookbook? Egg dishes, duh!

via CBS

Apparently there is also talks about an animated Angry Birds series.

ENOUGH already please.

The Angry Birds marketing insanity continues now with an egg cookbook is a post from: The Inquisitr

General Larry Platt could be making some good money from his Pants On The Ground original song if he was getting a cut from all the hyped products it has created. For example, TMZ has just released their new game, featuring the premise from Platt’s new song.

The games simple to play, just keep Larry’s pants from hitting the ground by using your mouse to click on the pair of jeans that are floating around the screen. You’ll notice Larry smiling on the side of the screen, but no funny look for him this time, he’s featured in the outfit he wore during his appearance on The View, a drastic departure from his American Idol audition.

There’s a good chance this game will hit the iPod or Android devices in the near future in the meantime you can give it a try over at TMZ.

Pants On The Ground Game Online Featuring Larry Platt is a post from: The Inquisitr

If you’re a fan of Tetris, you may quickly change your mind after 20-30 seconds of playing First Person Tetris, an online version of the game that changes the way the games played and which has left many players, myself included, feeling sick after less than a minute.

The game doesn’t relying on any strange strobe effects, instead the actual gameboard rotates rather than the pieces, making it hard to control and even harder to stomach. While a slight flicker on the games screen makes it feel like your straining to watch an old TV from the 70′s.

Give it a try at First Person Tetris and then head on back and comment about your own reactions to the game, I’m sure it won’t effect everyone, but it’s definitely getting to many players.

First Person Tetris Game Will Make You Feel Sick, Maybe Throw Up is a post from: The Inquisitr

“Online battle game” Nanovor, from the creators of MechWarrior, Shadowrun and Crimson Skies has now opened its doors to the public, offering gameplay that is somewhere between Spore, Pokemon and Fight Club.

According to the official spiel, “Nanovor features nanoscopic monsters that live to fight and fight to live. Nanovor can be trained and evolved into more advanced fighters, expanding their strength and speed. Players collect Nanovor and battle them online with their friends.”

The fighting monsters aside, game play allows players can battle their friends online and strategically choose each attack. Players can also trade or buy new Nanovor with “special in-game currency called Nanocash.”

Nanovor is only available for Microsoft Windows, so if you’re a Mac user you’ll need an install of Windows in Bootcamp of similar. You can download the client here.

Nanovor online battle game opens to the public is a post from: The Inquisitr

Mochi Media has already built a revenue-based game system for sites to use. Anyone can create an account and start embedding its ad-supported games. Publishers then receive a portion of the ad revenues based on the plays on their pages. With the King addition, dozens of titles such as “The Biggest Loser,” “Deal or No Deal,” and “1vs100″ are being added into its catalog.

King operates MyGame.com and powers many of the games at Yahoo Games. It also has partnerships with NBC, hence the official game show-based titles.

As for Mochi Media, it bills itself as the “largest online games advertising network.” Aside from King’s titles, it has thousands of titles available for publishers and continues to accept submissions from developers as well.

You can check out the specifics and sign up if you’re so inclined at the Mochi Media site.

Get Revenue-Generating Games For Your Blog is a post from: The Inquisitr

Because of this, the Chinese government is calling for stricter monitoring of “unhealthy” Internet games, recommending that games should automatically log off once a set number of hours of continuous playing is reached. In 2006, Internet game developers were told to install technology that asks, or should we say demand, real name and identification number.

Li Jianguo, vice-chariman of the National People’s Congress said that Internet-addicted teenagers account for about 10 percent of China’s web users. With more than 200 million Internet users in China, that’s millions of “unhealthy” young Chinese and a huge business for “unhealthy” game developers.

But at times, I can’t blame these kids. They need some relaxation after competing at a young age at the Olympics or after a hard-days work manufacturing our cool iPhones or after lip-synching backstage because you’re not cute enough to be shown to the world. Okay, but please, when you relax, no “unhealthy” online games. Go play Halo3, instead.

Millions of Chinese Kids Addicted to Online Games is a post from: The Inquisitr