You may have heard of OnLive: a cloud computing effort aimed at broadening the PC game market, as it allows subscribers to play PC games on any computer regardless of requirements or specifications. Games are rendered on a remote machine which sends packets of data back in the form of compressed video.

In turn, some have speculated that the service will put pressure on console manufactures, since the mainstream potential is huge. Anyone with a decent internet connection would be able to play Crysis, for instance.

It’s a promising technology, but Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime isn’t worried one bit about it. In a recent interview with WSJ at GDC, he expresses concern that lag will greatly hinder the gameplay experience:

For a game like Scrabble, the nanoseconds it takes for all that data to travel sometimes thousands of miles isn’t noticeable. By for a state-of-the-art shooter game like “Crysis,” which relies on a hair-trigger response, you may as well be playing with dialup Internet connection, he said. “We’re not worried.”

Agreed that Nintendo likely doesn’t have much to worry about here, as OnLive is certainly not going to make people abandon their Wii or DS. Still, it isn’t fair to completely count OnLive out. Remember that we have yet to see the service go into production mode. It could very well live up to its promises, depending on the implementation. It remains to be seen whether network lag will be an issue or not.

At Gaming Conference, Talk of Growth [WSJ]

The Game Developers Conference has just wrapped up for the year but not before gameplay footage from several high profile games was leaked onto the internet.

Each year at GDC developers give presentations to their fellow developers on their latest project's behind closed doors. Unfortunately for them but fortunately for us, several of these gameplay presentations have been leaked online.

First it was God of War III and now footage of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Mass Effect 2 has popped up.

Check out the footage after the break.

It looks like somebody was able to grab a few seconds of gameplay footage from GDC.  It's pretty shaky,  but you can see a lot more enemies on screen at one time than in previous games.  The footage also shows off the mechanic of riding a Cyclops and having the beast smash up some enemies.

I'm looking forward to some direct feed footage soon.

GoD III Footage [Kotaku]

At Game Developers Conference today, Nintendo project leader Masato Kuwahara revealed that DSi enhanced game carts are in the works. Essentially, these are carts that still work in a regular DS or DS Lite, but will take advantage of DSi-specific hardware features.

If no plans to pick up a DSi are on the table, don’t freak out. Nintendo obviously does not want to splinter the market here, so I wouldn’t expect the DSi-only features to go far beyond taking advantage of features such as the camera. These enhancements will likely be small perks for DSi owners - just like how certain Game Boy titles offered extra but non-essential content when inserted into a Game Boy Color.

Nintendo Plans “Nintendo DSi Enhanced” Game Cards With DSi-Only Features [Kotaku]

Courtesy of Nintendo, here is a direct feed version of The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks trailer shown off earlier today to GDC attendees. Sit back and watch as Link helms control of a train, traverses underground caverns strikingly reminiscent of those found in Phantom Hourglass, and battles a giant roach-like enemy.

During this year’s Game Developers Conference, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata announced that the tentatively titled Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is in development for DS. A video was shown to attendees of Nintendo’s keynote, showcasing Link as he drives a train across the Zelda universe. Gameplay appears to be entirely stylus controlled, akin to that of Phantom Hourglass. The game is slated for a release later this year and is expected to make an E3 appearance.

Some more news coming in from the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco is that Microsoft has announced the third annual Dream-Build-Play game development competition and some new updates to its free XNA Game Studio development tools.

Available to professional and hobbyist developers this spring, both Xbox LIVE Arcade and Community Games developers will be able to include customized Avatars. The XNA Game Studio update, which will also include improvements like video playback and new audio APIs, means that more games featuring Avatars and LIVE Party could start appearing on Xbox LIVE as early as this fall.

Additionally, Microsoft reinforced its commitment to professional developers with the preview of new Xbox 360 Development and Test Kit hardware. This hardware includes additional debugging memory that allows developers to more efficiently produce games, push the console to its maximum capabilities.,

Also, beginning Monday, April 6 developers from all over the world will have an opportunity to submit their unique game creations to the Dream-Build-Play 2009 competition for a chance to win a cash prize and an opportunity to sign an Xbox LIVE Arcade publishing contract. Winners will be announced this fall. Last year, more than 10,000 members of the community enrolled in Dream-Build-Play, yielding more than 350 completed games from all over the world developed using Microsoft’s free XNA Game Studio tools.

Some more information coming out of the Games Developers Conference is an update to PS3 mainstay Resistance 2, by way of a video interview. Admittedly, Resistance 2 has been completely overshadowed by the launch of Killzone 2, so hopefully this patch will breathe some new life into the title for the fans.  There is information out now about the free 1.50 patch and some paid content releasing very soon.  See below:

• Meltdown Mode Added - A variation of the popular Resistance 1 multiplayer mode returns.
• Superhuman Co-op Mode - Does your eight man Specter squad possess the skills to survive this all new difficulty.
• Second Player PSN Login - Your split screen second player can now login with their own PSN ID and have the XP earned saved to their profile.

One of the benefits of the new Superhuman Co-op Mode is that the XP earned is significantly higher that what is earned in the normal difficulty.  While this doesn't help anyone, like myself, who have maxed out all three classes, it can provide a way for you to help power-level some friends not so fortunate.  In addition to the experience gain, another twist has been thrown in and you need a Medic to revive you if you have been killed.  The auto-respawn timer has gone the way of the dodo bird and you will now idly sit around with a poor camera angle until help arrives, so be sure to pick a balanced squad to play with.

There was also mention of the Aftermath Map Pack will be a paid micro-transaction which will include some smaller maps for players to interact on.  Pricing for the new pack is set to $5.99.

Along with the above, some new skins will be available for purchase at the price of $0.99 for the online modes.   Rachel Parker's female skin returns, along with two new Black-Ops skins, a Ravager skin, and a Cloven skin from Resistance 1.

The free 1.50 patch is schedule to be available starting on March 26th as well as the Aftermath Map Pack and new skins.

A new game distribution system has popped onto the landscape that breaks the mold of traditional home consoles being the vehicle for gaming from the couch. A new business called OnLive, which was started by WebTV founder Steve Perlman and former Eidos CEO Mike Garvey, is looking to digitally distribute AAA games from publishers like Electronic Arts, Take-Two, Ubisoft, Atari, and others , all at the same time those titles are released into retail the old fashioned way.

The system is designed to allow players to stream on-damand games at the highest quality onto any Intel-based Mac or PC running XP or Vista, regardless of how powerful the computer. You can also stream games directly to a TV via a small plug-in device, and players can use a custom wireless controller as well as VoIP headsets.

According to Perlman, OnLive's technology will make it possible to stream the games in such a manner--high quality, no matter what kind of system the user has--by virtue of a series of patented and patent-pending compression technologies. And instead of requiring users to download the games, OnLive will host them all and stream them from a series of the highest-end servers. Users will have only to download a 1MB plug-in to get the service up and running.

An intended benefit of this infrastructure, Perlman and McGarvey explained, is that users will be able to play streamed games via OnLive with no lag, so long as their Internet connections meet minimum thresholds. For standard-definition play, that would mean a minimum 1.5 Mbps connection, and for high-def, 5 Mbps.
That's obviously an essential feature, as it's hard to imagine anyone paying for a service like OnLive, no matter what games are on offer, if the user experience is inadequate. But the company promises that as long as users have the requisite minimum hardware, operating systems, and Internet connections, they should be able to have seamless play.

From the outset, OnLive isn't partnering with any of the first-party publishers--Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo, meaning that franchises like "Halo" or "Zelda" won't be available. And that makes sense, since those companies are hardly likely to want to sign up with a company whose very technology may obviate their longstanding business models.

OnLive timed its formal unveiling to this week's Game Developers Conference, where it will be showcasing the technology and 16 initial games it will launch with

OnLive [CNET]