So I was going through my email and saw an announcement from OnLive that Dead Island was going to be one of their latest additions and my heart kicked it up a notch in both a good and bad way. When Dead Island was available for play at E3 I played the demo twice and my wife who was also there played it several times as well. We had fallen in love with the little girl trailer like many folks and to get hands on was such a great rush. We pre-ordered the game the day pre-orders were available and with child like glee we sat down before our ginormous TV and started it up. Our excitement first turned to bewilderment then anger. NO LOCAL MULTIPLAYER? We tried at first taking turns playing but it just wasn’t the same. The couple that games together stays together (Life Lesson!) and unless we wanted to pick up a second of the same console and a second copy of the same game this would not be an “us” game and when it comes to zombie slaying I always want my wife to have my back.
Fast forward to now and I get an email from OnLive telling me that they now have Dead Island available. After the infuriating lack of local co op on the previous system I played it on I was a bit leery. Then I remembered that OnLive now has a page that is dedicated to all of it’s game free trials at http://www.onlive.com/promote. Pretty easy to remember but I bookmarked it anyways and went to check out the game. It only took me about two seconds because it was on the first page right in front of me. On the right is a search box and right below it was a free trial alphabetical list which had just about all their titles, so around 200. The nice thing is that they are 30 minute trials. better than most demos since they don’t end because a pre-approved cliff hanger spot but because that’s how far 30 minutes get you into the game. Turns out that the co-op is still internet only, so I knew before I bought the game and I found myself playing other demos just because I was there. In some games 30 minutes really is a decent amount of play, in most games it is enough time to tell if you like it or not. It is also a quick way to find out if a game will play on your tablet or smart phone and how well.
Last Call:
OnLive is celebrating having hit the 200 game mark so now is a good time to check out the service and with 30 minute trial play times on that many games you can definitely get a feel for whether you like the service and the games it provides as well as check for features that may or may not be provided. Give it a whirl, doesn’t cost anything!
