P-Wing

Brad Reviews: OnLive 2 Stadia Edition

• By Brad
• November 26, 2019
• 1 Comment

Hey folks, it’s your boy Brad back at it again. Today I’m gonna be telling you about the weird new gaming platform Stadia. For reference, Stadia is a Google’s take on a game streaming service. Like OnLive, except Google. To get started, I’ll get you started with some controversy.

Controversy

As promised by Google, we would be receiving 4k60fps streamed gameplay on Day 1, November 19 2019. That sentence though, is mostly a lie. In essence, you’re getting a console level experience from Google’s servers. It’ll be upscaled to 4k, and made 60fps though. From my understanding, this is what you get from most consoles essentially. Following the Day 1, many people who preordered there founder’s package were promised access immediately and a name reservation. This name reservation never happened though, and once codes begun flooding out in a seemingly random order that incentive was basically gone. At this point I should also mention that Google has a history of shutting down services. If this fails, I don’t imagine you’ll have your games for too long.

Lack of Features

One noticeable thing with Stadia was the amount of announced features cancelled before Day 1. Game streaming to youtube, family sharing, and in browser 4k to name a few. I was most shocked by in browser 4k being cancelled as I’ve been relatively limited in the use of my (included) Chromecast Ultra. This was the only feature I really cared about being cancelled. Oh. Also the Stadia Controller only works wired at the moment.

User Experience

Luckily, I was one of the few to get my code Day 1 and when I did playing it was actually quite simple. I input my code, claimed my name and boom I was ready to go. Hooked in an Xbox One controller and begun playing. It was actually shocking how hard it was to notice lag. Over time, there were few lag spikes that I noticed but overall it’s been a pretty seamless experience. It works extremely well. I was very impressed. There’s not much more to talk about though, it works extremely well with a good internet connection. If you don’t have one, stick to consoles.

Hardware

If you preordered, you did get a small package from Google including there controller and a Chromecast Ultra. Although I’ve had limited time with the Chromecast, both work well in unison. The controller is excellent, feels amazing in the hands and all the buttons feel right. Chromecast does what it needs to and puts your game on the TV. Pretty simple. One thing that is nice though, is the versatility of hardware I’ve been able to use. For one, I almost exclusively play on my laptop on an Xbox One Controller. The phone experience also seems great, but that’s limited to Pixel 2+ owners for now.

Games?

One thing they are lacking on is games right now. The lineup is really awkward right now, but not as terrible as intitially announced. I tried GRID and have mostly been playing NBA 2k20. Hopefully, game developers continue to support this and the library can grow naturally. For now though, I’ll be waiting on Borderlands 3 and Cyberpunk 2077.

Summary

This service had an awful start. Imagine angering your most devout customers on Day 1 after they’ve been patiently waiting. The important thing though is that the service works fantastically. Assuming Google’s plan is to upgrade over time I can see this being a solid alternative, not replacement, for consoles. I personally enjoy it for the conveinence of being able to play anywhere(with above a 10Mbps internet connection). It was an extremely dissapointing and frustrating launch, but they got the hardest part right by making the games run great. I rank this as Cleveland Browns > Stadia > Samus Returns > Pokemon Sword and Shield. Thanks for reading homers.