Want to play PC games from your couch and not have to shell out much cash to do it? OnLive has the hookup. There’s a catch, but it’s still pretty slick.

The OnLive service was announced a few years back. At the time, it seemed like another one of those completely impractical ideas. It lets people play games on the cloud, streaming them the way you’d stream a movie. OnLive doesn’t require a fancy PC or a great graphics card – all you need is a decent internet connection.

The service finally hit, and it works well for those with the right connection. I get 5-7 Mpbs on average, and I’ve successfully played trial versions of OnLive games without too much hassle. Some work better than others due to latency, but everything’s fairly smooth.

For those without a PC, OnLive launched a system that connects to the OnLive service for $99. It’s small, it’s slick, and it comes with a controller and a free game. It was a nice setup at first, but today things just got a whole lot better.

OnLive system owners now have access to the PlayPack plan. It’s a $9.99 a month plan that gives you free access to a variety of games. It was like the Blockbuster on Demand of games before – charging full price for each title. Now it’s more like Netflix.

The downside is that, like Netflix, there’s no access to brand new titles with the subscription plan. There are plenty of good games like ‘Lego Batman’, ‘F.E.A.R. 2’, ‘Prince of Persia’, and ‘World of Goo’, but nothing new.

OnLive’s PlayPack plan is free until January 14th, and the company says that more games are on the way.

The service may not appeal to the hardcore gamer who wants everything Day One, but it seems great for those catching up on some older titles. The real test is how often the plan is updated, and how good the added games are.