Satellite Internet and Online Gaming: Does It Work?

Online gaming is one of the fastest growing trends in the world right now. With games such as Runescape boasting subscriber numbers of around a million and World of Warcraft exceeding 7 million active members, the total number of MMOG subscriptions is verging on the absurd, quickly approaching the 14 million mark worldwide[6/06, mmogchart.com]. This tremendous growth in the popularity of the online gaming industry has, in part, been fueled by the accessibility of high-speed broadband internet. A high-speed connection allows for a much more enjoyable game-play experience. Everyone knows that online games work exceptionally well on DSL and Cable internet connections, but what about the newer high-speed service satellite internet? As satellite internet is becoming more readily available and cost effective more and more rural dial-up customers are making the switch to cash in on the faster speeds and always on access. But, when it comes to online gaming many are concerned that their game-play experience will be less satisfactory, if they can even connect to play at all.

The reason for this concern is the issue of latency. Latency is an expression of how much time it takes for a packet of data to get from one designated point to another. This is direly important when it come to on-line gaming in that latency translates into the time that it takes from the moment that a button is pushed to when the action is performed in the game. Often this can mean the difference between life and death. With DSL and Cable the response time is almost immediate, being between 50milliseconds-150milliseconds. The latency for satellite internet is between 600milliseconds-800milliseconds. This may sound like the end of online gaming for someone who has just made the switch to satellite internet but it is not. Although this degree of latency does all but rule out first-person shooters there are a good number of MMOGs that operate well over a satellite internet connection. And, although the effects of latency can never be completely eliminated, there are ways in which to improve upon them. The simplest way to do this is by speeding up the way that one's computer handles and responds to information being transferred through the connection and by increasing the total amount of available bandwidth. Some operating systems have built in reserves on bandwidth that are non-essential to the functionality of most web applications, see link for a tweak http://www.wildblue.cc/wbforums/showthread.php?t=3323 .

By eliminating non-essential services i.e. bandwidth hogs that the average user never utilizes and dedicating more physical resources to the most used application can help tremendously. Minimizing the effects of latency down to the bare minimum allowed by the laws of physics enables one to play more online gaming that was before not workable and also speeds up the responses of other games that already do work. So, although there are limitations to on-line gaming over satellite internet there are also ways to improve upon game-play responsiveness and many games that will play well without operating system tweaks. Below is a list of online games for both console and PC that, according to subscribers that have tested and played them, do and do not work over satellite internet. This is not a definitive list of games guaranteed to work, so be cautious as results may vary.

What Works

Xbox/Xbox360/PS2/Handheld Games:

Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter

Battlefield 2: Modern Combat(for me anyway doesn't for some others)

Perfect Dark Zero

All Tony Hawk games

Mario Kart DS

Call of Duty 2

Medal of Honor: Rising Sun

Socom 3(mixed results)

Socom 2(so-so)

Nascar 06 total team control(works kinda)

Rainbow Six Series(Host boots for high ping usually, But CO-OP and 2 V 2 work well)

Splinter Cell: Double Agent

PC Games:

Runescape

Asheron's Call

Everquest

Everquest 2

World of Warcraft

Star Wars Galaxies

Dark Age of Camelot

Roma Victor

Eve Online

Star Wars: Empire at War

Dungeon and Dragons online

Warcraft3

GuildWars

City of Heroes(very difficult to connect to the patch server..other than that it works fine)

Final Fantasy XI

Contract Jack

Auto Assault

Aces High Online flight sim

Trackmania

WarRock Beta

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Outcast

StarPeace

America's Army

Red Orchestra

Diablo 2

Titan Quest

F.E.A.R.

Postal 2

What doesn't work or is not enjoyable

Xbox/Xbox360/PS2/Handheld Games:

Far Cry Instincts Predator

Halo 2

NBA Live 2006

Quake 4

Prey Demo

Ratchet and Clank: Deadlocked

PC Games:

Star Craft

BattleField 2 Demo

Call of Duty 1&2

Battelfield2

Band of Brothers

C&C Generals

UT2004(playable..not enjoyable)

Ragnarok

Prey Demo

Civ 4

Battlefield 2142

The New World of Gaming - Too Human

On the 29th of August comes Too Human, the epic new game from Silicon Knights and Microsoft. In this game the player plays as the Norse God Baldur through an action-packed war between man and machine.

The game includes hundreds of thousands of weapons and armor which are found after defeating enemies. Practically all the items in the game are found this way (similar to the Diablo series). Also available is the chance for players to play as one of five different classes, each with its own unique abilities and skills. Furthermore, the player can choose to stay more or less human, or become more machine with the aid of cybernetic enhancements.

Too Human features many other Norse Gods such as Thor, Odin, Loki, etc. Every aspect of the character that you play as is totally customizable, from there look, to the items they wield. As you defeat more difficult and larger enemies, your character level increases, opening up opportunities to face harder enemies and allowing the player to find better quality, and more powerful equipment.

There are many different enemies, ranging from the small, common and quite easy to defeat, to the major antagonists which are very hard to defeat. A few of these enemies have had information about them released, such as the Goblins which are the backbone of the mechanical army and are very common. Others include the Dark Elves, Trolls and Spider Robots. Some of the names of these are related to Norse mythology even though they are mechanical beings.

This game has stunning graphics and amazing gameplay; this along with the freedom and customization of the game allows hours upon hours of play. This game is only available on the Xbox 360 and is set to be one of the best games released this year.