If you're looking to try out Red Faction: Armageddon on PC or Mac before you lay down the full cost of the game, you're going to need OnLive. The company that produces the cloud-based gaming console has secured an arrangement to bring the Red Faction demo exclusively to OnLive.
OnLive, for those of you who haven't been following the company, is a gaming console, but without the "console." It's a service that streams video games to your TV from a central hub. You play the game on your TV, but all of the computing is done in a far off location. This means you don't have to buy a big, bulky console (there is still a small apparatus that must be hooked up to a TV in order to play. For Mac and PC play, the service can be tried out by just downloading a small client.
“We’re excited to be first in introducing Red Faction Armageddon to the PC gaming community,” said John Spinale, OnLive VP of Games and Media in a press release. “While we have a rapidly growing base of OnLive-only members, many members game on other platforms in addition to OnLive. Hassle-free demos, particularly combined with massive spectating, are a great way to check out games before buying them, and OnLive demos are just a click away, be it on PCs, Macs, TVs or mobile devices. OnLive is looking forward to working with publishers, retailers, websites as well as other platforms to help seamlessly connect gamers with games.”
OnLive is touting the system's ability to deliver software (like the Red Faction demo) in under a minute without the need to drive to the store, make room on your hard drive, or download big files. It will be interesting to eventually see sales statistics for the first year or so of OnLive's existence. It all sounds great on paper, but we're curious to see if gamers are flocking to this big switch in gaming delivery or if they're tentative about radical new technology.
