Stadia - Google's game streaming service

I think this between state of gens is the perfect use case for things like stadia. If you can't or don't want to blow £££££ on a new console or pc, then it's a relatively inexpensive way to play some of the new stuff. It'll only be in a few years when new stuff adoption has gone up that it moves back to being niche.

jawa2 wrote:
Abacus wrote:...And then I played Cyberpunk and it was pretty darn great. Actually really fun, no issues whatever like I've read about.

I'd also say that the controller is much better than I was expecting. I'm quite a fan, so far.

Nice to hear that you've had a good experience with Stadia, Abacus. I was a little unsure about the service but, over the past month, reading about experiences like yours is changing my mind and making me think that it could be a decent option for when I decide to go "new gen". I love the idea of no downloads, storage requirements or updates!

You should give the free Stadia Pro trial a go to see how well your Internet holds up. Hitman 1+2 (as well as a couple of other decent games) come with it so it and they are great games to get stuck into over the Christmas break!

Stadia also works on iOS now, too.

I have been hitting more and more glitches in Cyberpunk - generally nothing beyond "Bethesda jank" but there have been a couple of times where it glitches out and I can't reload, heal or melee attack in fights and have to just stand there watching as I get killed.

Other than that (and that's not even Stadia's fault) I've been having fun with the game (I'd give it a solid 7/10 thus far- great writing and missions but a completely dead world with pointless NPCs). Still really amazed at how seamless the whole experience is.

OK, so I played Stadia a bit more.

Decided to try Destiny 2 this time, as I've played it on PS4 and the new Xbox, so it would be a better comparison.

It was a bit glitchy again on Stadia, like the other night on Hitman 2 - with the occasional stutter /pause.

But actually nothing too drastic. Before I knew it, I'd been playing away for a couple of hours quite happily blasting away at enemies.

My router is at the other end of the house, so I wondered if it was that. But when I checked the connection it was rated "excellent" so it might be related to my display settings. Or maybe it's Stadia, who knows?

And like I say, other than the odd glitch, it played really well. In fact I loved playing it - it looked like I was playing on a decent pc, the image was beautiful.

There was no loading to speak of, it looked amazing, and the controller is such a pleasant surprise. I didn't really need a console.

And then I went to bed, couldn't sleep, and so played it on my phone pretty seemlessly, with that same controller. It's like some kind of voodoo. This time no glitching, so either it's the proximity to the router or the smaller screen.

Then, when it wanted me to plug a mic in, I just stuffed the turtle beach one I use on the Xbox not expecting it to work.

Not only did it work, but it worked better than on the Xbox, with proper volume as well.

Hence, I've now bought assassin's creed origins too on this. I don't know how long Google will support this, and it's in no way taken over from Gamepass in terms of the games you can actually play, but I'm really impressed.

I haven't played anything multiplayer, so maybe that's where it'll struggle, due to the lack of users.

Great to see more updates from you Stadia guys! Your experiences sound to be positive and, the more I think about it, the idea of not purchasing (or upgrading) dedicated hardware, along with no downloads, updates or storage expansion, is pretty attractive.

I feel that Stadia is leading the way here in terms of how gaming will develop over the next decade or so. It's not all roses yet, of course - subscription pricing, game range, game pricing and internet reliability all probably need further work - but it is a format that I'd now look at closely.

...is anyone bored of their premiere edition yet and fancy selling? :shifty:

I got the free premiere edition pack from having YouTube premium early December. Finally got round to setting it up. I tried stadia on my laptop a while back so had claimed a few of the Pro games and had £10 voucher so treated myself to Serious Sam 4..

Have to say playing on the TV in 4K it's mightily impressive. Being able to jump from that to playing on my phone or tablet too is great. My Xbox will remain my main console but can see me sticking with Pro and grabbing the monthly games and maybe picking up the odd PC only title on there. It's much better than I expected.

Tried the Immortals demo too, played perfectly you'd never know it was streaming. Only Destiny 2 has a few glitches to remind you it wasn't running locally but nothing game breaking.

Yes, I'm in two minds as to whether to keep Pro or not after the free trial. On balance, I'm thinking I might, even though the game selection is a bit limited.

But I'm hugely impressed with how it runs, I have to say.

Played a bit more Destiny 2 tonight, and the main problem I had was negotiating the game menu or working out whether I can save mid level, which is nothing to do with Stadia and more the game instead. I'm used to QR now, so not used to just stopping a game without saving. But it played brilliantly, I have to say.

And then I played Panzer Dragoon in 4k, and had a fun 20 minutes. There was the odd glitch on this one, mind, where things seemed to freeze for a fraction of a second every now and again. But this is weird - it's not like the old skool problem of 'slowdown': you just briefly half notice it, and it doesn't seem to affect the gameplay at all.

I think it's because the controller is directly connected to the servers, so you never feel input lag. If anything, it's the image on the Chromecast trying to catch up. I'm probably completely wrong about all that, mind, and that's just how my head understands it. Or it might just be my internet, as my router has been playing up as well.

Whilst it looked amazing, I realise no one is going to be excited about playing Panzer Dragoon - they need the right game library to make things more exciting. And at the right pricing. And to promote it better, so people understand what it does and doesn't do.

But that's not even the point for me in that example - I jumped from one game to another in a few seconds whilst downloading nothing, or having blown a few hundred quid on a console, or worrying about storage etc. Plus, I can carry on playing on my phone, or other screens.

Abacus wrote:...I jumped from one game to another in a few seconds whilst downloading nothing, or having blown a few hundred quid on a console, or worrying about storage etc. Plus, I can carry on playing on my phone, or other screens.

I think these are the really attractive aspects of Stadia, Abacus. No console cost (beyond the dongle/controller), no downloading, no system updating, no paying £220 for extra storage, play on any screen... it is just so good when you think about it. If Stadia can refine all these benefits and improve the game range, it could be incredible. Not too long down the line, and once more folk try it out, I could see Stadia becoming a major player in the industry.

jawa2 wrote:
Abacus wrote:...I jumped from one game to another in a few seconds whilst downloading nothing, or having blown a few hundred quid on a console, or worrying about storage etc. Plus, I can carry on playing on my phone, or other screens.

I think these are the really attractive aspects of Stadia, Abacus. No console cost (beyond the dongle/controller), no downloading, no system updating, no paying £220 for extra storage, play on any screen... it is just so good when you think about it. If Stadia can refine all these benefits and improve the game range, it could be incredible. Not too long down the line, and once more folk try it out, I could see Stadia becoming a major player in the industry.

*Amiico will remember that*

The Stadia store has put £18 discount on the premiere edition for me for some reason. Making it £72 instead of £90.

Still not sure really, still annoyed I could have got it for free to be honest :simper:

Victor Mistletoe wrote:*Amiico will remember that*

. Stadia looks neat but don't worry, I will be highlighting the raft of Amico benefits in the coming months :toot:

.

LewisD wrote:The Stadia store has put £18 discount on the premiere edition for me for some reason. Making it £72 instead of £90.

Still not sure really, still annoyed I could have got it for free to be honest

I saw this too and should have posted it. That said, I'm a bit in two minds as to whether I'd recommend it to someone else at that price just because it's hard to know where it might go.

I would have bought Cyberpunk anyway, so this seemed like a fun extra - try Stadia as a bit of a funny novelty too to say how gooseberry fool it is, and ultimately a spare Chromecast for another TV. I know, I was lucky and it's rubbish you missed out.

But £72 just for the hardware? Not currently sure. It certainly has both potential issues and opportunities. And here comes a long explanation full of speculation, not facts.

Cyberpunk reviews are...mixed. I haven't played it enough to comment yet, except to say it seems to play well on this. And hopefully in a year or so, after updates and patches etc, it'll be the game it could be. But, it does at least demonstrate why this system or something like it might work in the long run, because of how it plays.

The Chromecast is nice, but you know them already.

Then to Stadia. I've been posting positive impressions so far, but then I came into this with literally zero expectations to start with. Expected to play a few things on the Stadia Pro trial, play Cyberpunk, probably relegate the controller to a cupboard. I think I'm mainly still amazed it even works at all, like Dr Johnson's walking dog.

But here is why I'd hesitate to recommend paying for the equipment (even if you're after a Chromecast anyway, though that lessens the risk). I'm assuming you'd have decent enough internet etc.

The free month of Stadia Pro subscription gives you some free games to play. But it's safe to say there is a limited selection, nothing must have, nothing much you may not already have or isn't available for peanuts or free from another service.

Slight caveat to that - this is the third console I've started Destiny 2 on, and it plays so well re load times etc that this is the one I'm sticking with.

So after month 1, when you have to pay £8.99 a month to continue, it's a hard proposition to sell especially compared to many others. So, what, then, have you actually bought with your £72 and don't want to subscribe?

Just the ability to play games that you buy and aren't already free on Pro. Though you'll get a discount on some of these with Pro if you're prepared to pay.

But a quick comparison with Gamepass discounts or Steam etc on buying stuff suggests even this isn't the cheapest way to own many of these games either.

So, you've just bought a way to play games more expensively than one you might already have. These things might improve over time.

But then there's my biggest fear. In the gaming world, it's fair to say so far Stadia doesn't have great word of mouth, and nobody has heard of it outside of that. So, what if it's a flop?

What, then, is to stop Google quietly abandoning the whole thing, or cutting back on the high end computing power that keeps e. g. Cyberpunk performing as well as the best PCs? How serious are they?

And what if they stop and switch it off altogether? Suddenly even the games you bought and 'own' may no longer be playable, and you're just left with a useless controller.

Lastly, I've not played anything multiplayer and I'm guessing that may be a challenge due to the lack of users. If you mainly play with friends, good luck finding many of them yet with Stadia. But in fairness, I haven't tried that yet, so may do later on to see how easy it is to find a full game.

Still, all those things may change.

Here's an alternate way of looking at all of that, leaving aside the obvious advantage of no hardware, storage, updates etc. All of which count for nothing if there are no games to play of course.

It's presumably Google's plan to get Stadia into your hands cheaply, then earn their money back with a subscription, over time. So they need to expand their user base and get better word of mouth.

One way of doing so being to expand the offering on Pro, maybe even have a few exclusives, some keener pricing on buying content.

Also, they seem to have been taken aback by the success of the Cyberpunk deal since it was stopped so soon.

Hence, if their main aim is indeed to expand the number of users, maybe they will be thinking about that and there will be something else similar down the tracks later, but with a more popular game or games?

Then suddenly, it becomes an easier sell to your mates etc as a second console and it takes off because the barriers to entry are so low. And then you can really see the point of their whole model.

I just have the feeling this kind of system especially needs a critical mass and that could go either way. Bah, who knows.

I'll shut up now

The risk to Google just shutting down Stadia and leaving owners with nothing to show for their money (Google arbitrarily shutting down a service? Who's ever heard of that before?) is why I think GeForce Now is the better proposition.

It's cheaper than a Stadia Pro subscription, but on the flip side a paid GeForce Now sub doesn't include any games, you need to own them already. But that in itself is also a positive. In the event Nvidia ever decide to just shut down GeForce Now, you will still have all of the games you played on it in your Steam/Epic/Ubisoft/Origin/GoG library to play on your own hardware somewhere down the line. If the service goes, you aren't left with nothing to show for it.
I guess the other downside is that it's a little more hardware limited, needing a PC/Phone/Web Browser to play games rather than (Currently at least) being available on a little dongle you can just plug into your TV.

I'm waiting for them to announce/release Football Manager 2021 on Stadia so I can finally get back to playing the full-fat version of the game. I've had the last 3 FM games on Switch and whilst it's a great version of the game, it's got its limitations that don't exist on the PC version.

Come on, Sports Interactive, make this little boy happy again :simper:

Stadia games to be released this year:
https://youtu.be/JF5Z_y2h30w

Full list if you can't be bothered to watch video:

...

Preezy wrote:I'm waiting for them to announce/release Football Manager 2021 on Stadia so I can finally get back to playing the full-fat version of the game. I've had the last 3 FM games on Switch and whilst it's a great version of the game, it's got its limitations that don't exist on the PC version.

Come on, Sports Interactive, make this little boy happy again

You're in luck!

Stadia - Google's game streaming service

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