Does Ouya Matter

Ouya has finally been released. Ouya was a huge sucess on Kickstarter. It had a lot of people excited about the idea of an Android gaming console. So how is Ouya and does it matter in today's gaming market?

For starters Ouya is not a powerhouse. Ouya is designed with Indie developers in mind. This means that you wont see a lot of big budget titles releasing. However Sega has a few Sonic titles and Square Enix has Final Fantasy 3 on Ouya. So there are some exceptions, but overall it will have smaller unknown games. For the record I love Shadowgun on Ouya (just like I did on Xperia Play).

Not that there's anything wrong with that. I actually like a lot of indie games. As smart phones have proven there is a huge market for these games. So time will tell of people want to play these games on the big screen.

Okay so Ouya wont blow your mind with graphics but it is a really well built(and good looking system). The OS is also smooth and attractive. Every Ouya game is "free to try" so there's no upfront money to get playing. Overall the Ouya is a good, cheap console ($99).

Does the Ouya matter? I thought the Ouya concept was great when I first heard about it. However since then both Sony and Nintendo have been making huge efforts to get Indie games on their platforms. In theory the games releasing on Ouya will also be on Wii U, PS3, PS4, and PS Vita. Plus the fact most of these games are on IOS and other Android devices.

Ouya really is a cool device. At $99 it has huge potential to make waves in the gaming industry. I just wonder if it's a little to late. Either way if you can afford to buy one you might as well, it's fun.

Onlive on Xperia Play

I downloaded the new Onlive App for android and it's amazing. What makes it more amazing is having the Xperia Play. Onlive uses the full controller for it's games. So it's like having a high end gaming pc in your pocket.

Onlive (in case you don't know) is a video game streaming service. It was originally made for PC but has recently been released for IOS and Android devices. There is also a micro console they sell that hooks up to a HD TV. Onlive has over a hundred games that can be streamed directly to your device as long as you have a decent internet connection. The better your connection the better your resolution.

Onlive has a few ways to play also. You can buy individual games permanently, or you can rent them for 3-5 days. They also have a service called the "playback bundle". This lets you choose from over 130 games to play as much as you want for 1 month...and it costs only $9.99 a month. That's really a hard deal to beat. These are awesome games to like Batman Arkham Asylum, Splinter Cell, Assassins Creed, Dirt 3, and that's only a hand full.

Of course I'm really discussing the Xperia Play option. Onlive has a controller they sell and the Xperia Play controller plays as if you had that. It literally uses every button on the phones slide out controller and it works. I have played a few genres of games and they are all great. I have played Batman Arkham Asylum, Splinter Cell Conviction, and Aliens VS Predator ( the new one, though the classic is on there as well) and they all play just as they would on a home console. I did notice some lagging while playing once, but I had multiple devices running on my router.

Onlive is just cool, no matter what your playing it on. BUT if you have an Xperia Play (which is already great for gaming to begin with) then you must at least give this a try. BTW almost every game has a 30 minute trial, so why not give it a shot on PC, IOS, or Android.