If you’re a serious gamer, you may already be familiar with OnLive. If you’re a part-time gamer, you may not know what OnLive is all about. If you fit into the later group, OnLive is essentially a way to stream video games to various devices. Not only are these games usually a good mix of old and new, but you can also get very high quality games on a not-so-good laptop or tablet. Prior to today, OnLive was not available for use with all tablets. Now, OnLive is available for use with many tablets including the Apple iPad.

Not only is this excellent news for iPad owners, it also provides shopper with a lot of incentive to purchase the iPad for a beloved gamer. There are just a couple of things that you have to know about OnLive before you purchase an iPad or sign up for this service. Here’s what OnLive does and doesn’t come with.

What You’ll Need

You can access OnLive through your current desktop or laptop. You can also use this service with a number of different tablets including, as mentioned, the iPad. In addition to a computer or device, you will also need to purchase the OnLive gaming remote (around $50). This remote is necessary if you plan on using OnLive on a tablet. Speaking of tablet usage, you will need a solid Wi-Fi connection in order to play OnLive games. You may find that some Wi-Fi connections cause games to freeze up once in awhile, but a good home connection should do the trick.

Those who plan to use an iPad to play OnLive games have a definite advantage, since the iPad is already stocked with plenty of great graphics capabilities and excellent colors. Since the OnLive service is on the cloud, you can save or make changes to any game and have those changes show up on other devices -- a very handy feature if you travel a lot! Sadly, the problem with traveling with OnLive and a tablet like the iPad is that you will have to find a good Wi-Fi connection. Otherwise, you might wind up frustrated when trying to play a game that keeps stalling.

Costs

Of course, you have to purchase the games that you plan to download when you use OnLive. Game prices can range from $40 to $5 depending on the game that you pick. You will also have to download the OnLive app if you want to use this service on your tablet. Thankfully, the app itself is actually free (you have to purchase games through the app). Since OnLive is available for most tablets (or will be very soon), that means that the iPad doesn’t get to hog the spotlight this time around.

If you have an Android tablet that you enjoy using, you will find that OnLive will, most likely, be available on that tablet too. OnLive will be ready to roll within the next few weeks. Apps and games will be available through the Apple App Store and the Android Marketplaces respectively.