OnLive

For the most part, mobile and console gaming are entirely different beasts. The former has been crowded out with free to play games that are typically segregated into short bursts of play and require significant recurring investments to stay competitive. The latter offer more discreet and fully featured experiences. This is in part due to the limitations of the hardware and how we tend to use them in our everyday lives, but if you're looking to play your favorite console game while laying in bed or sitting through the daily work commute, OnLive offers a solution. When you use OnLive to play your games, there's no need to invest in an expensive console or powerful PC rig, reducing the overhead investment for gaming. OnLive accomplishes this by streaming the games to your phone, meaning you don't have to worry about installing resource heavy games directly onto your device, but requiring you to maintain a consistent and strong internet connection to properly play. While the pricing model for OnLive differs, the fundamentals are quite similar to online video streaming services like Hulu and Netflix. The OnLive service itself is free - serving simply as a gateway to your game purchases - but it's a well-designed and highly polished experience. OnLive understands that the interface of a phone's screen is quite different from a controller and an high definition TV, and they've done a great job of packaging the essential features gamers expect into more compact devices. The navigation dashboard is broken down into a nine panel square. Here you'll have access to everything from your personal settings to your OnLive friends list to the games marketplace. There's even the option to record and share gameplay videos similar to what you'd find on a Playstation 4 or Xbox One. OnLive supports two methods of play. The touch screen interface works well for smaller indie games with more limited control schemes, but it does a serviceable job of translating some larger games to smaller screens. This is handled through virtual joysticks and buttons. While these touch controls are implemented well, users may find it a poor substitute for the highly precise demands of more complicated console games, particularly those that make full use of the triggers and shoulders that modern controllers afford. For these more complex games, OnLive supports a variety of third party game pads. While the quality of integration varies wildly, they also sell their own first party controller designed to work exclusively with OnLive enabled devices. For dedicated hardcore gamers, the limitations of OnLive may not make it a suitable replacement for their PC or console, but what OnLive has accomplished is impressive, and it bridges the gap between mobile and console gaming remarkably well.