My Experience With Stadia (I Kinda Like It)

cybereality

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Went in with low expectations (due to bad reviews) but the experience is actually pretty good.

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GRID looks and plays awesome!

First I tried GRID and honestly I was blown away. I'm using a 4K HDR TV and the graphics looked great. From a seated distance, it looks like true 4K. Looking close up I would guess the UI is rendered at 4K and the game is around 1800P, which still looks nice. Framerate was fast, 60 fps, and latency seemed reasonable. Not PC native, but maybe 2 or 3 frames of added lag (which at 60Hz is not much). Game was very playable. Only issue I found was that on one level with 10 cars on screen and rain, there was some slowdown (looks like maybe a drop to 30fps) and audio stutter. Still was playable but of course not ideal.

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Tomb Raider, also very nice.

Next I tried Tomb Raider. Still looks like 60fps but not quite as smooth as GRID. I noticed the render looks like around 1600P (just eye-balling it) and the graphics settings were lower than you would find on a PC maxed out. But it still looked good enough and was entirely playable. One glitch I found was during the opening cut-scene the audio was off by maybe a quarter second, which made the lip-sync look bad. But once in the game I did not see any issues.

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Metro was almost there but not quite.

Finally I tested Metro Exodus. First off, the graphics in this game looked the best out of anything. Still not the sharpest 4K image I've seen, but possibly 1800P or around there. Definitely it looks way better than 1080p and did not look compressed or anything. However, the latency was a problem. The first level was near unplayable because of the lag. I did stick with it, and the later stages seemed to be improvement, not sure why. Even so, it was hard to aim and sometimes you would miss a button press (when opening doors or climbing) because of the split second of lag. It is about 90% there, I have hope maybe it can be fixed seeing as the other 2 games I tried were fine. But maybe there are higher requirements for a shooter game.

Overall I would say that Stadia is good and shows promise and it's very possible for Google to fix the few glitches in an update. Granted I understand latency will not be 100% overcome, but they are so close I think it is possible. Graphics looked good. Well not PC maxed out, but certainly as good or maybe better than console systems. The controller felt nice and was responsive. Rumble worked. Load times were generally fast. Decent selection of games for a launch. I'll say I'm impressed it works as good as it does, and was much much better than I expected after lackluster reviews. It still needs a little work to be perfect, but I think Google can totally keep at it and fix the issues in the future.

All things considered, I couldn't really recommend the service for the $130 entry fee, when you can get a PS4 bundle for like $200 on Black Friday. Google will need to ease the requirements, allow people to use their own browser or phone or any controller and still connect. I think that's where we are heading, so maybe think of this as a soft launch. But I wouldn't write them off yet. I think it's totally possible for Stadia to deliver here provided Google doesn't give up. Just my 2 cents.
 
Do you have consoles already as well? If so, I'm surprised you even spent money on it considering there's no advantage to it whatsoever over your existing PCs and consoles with the exception of faster loading times and playing on your phone or laptop or something like that. To me that kind of defeats the point of playing most games since you're not going to be nearly immersed on those portable devices compared to a proper home setup. At least there's no way I could see myself really enjoying Tomb Raider or Grid on my tiny phone screen, maybe a simpler game like that music/rhythm game that launched on it though, where latency is crucial and there's already tons of comparable games like that on mobile anyways.

I hate to sound so critical of it, but I just see very little value in the service for more enthused gamers like most of us here are, where we already have a decent gaming PC and a console or 3. But I can certainly see the draw to a more casual or thrifty gamer given the lower price barrier of entry. I agree that they definitely should have called this a soft launch or open beta considering they haven't delivered on some key features and benefits yet, like 4k support outside of the Chromecast, support for more devices outside of Chromecast Ultra, Chrome, and Pixel phones, and the free tier for standard HD games.
 
Nice that it is working out well for you. What kind of connection are you running it on?

Oh, by the way: Tomb Raider is going to become a "free" Pro game starting next week. Since you paid for it, you can contact Google support and get a refund on your purchase.
 
I'm sure despite reviews it will be enjoyable for plenty of people.

I know I'm not the only person left that can't tell if their game is running at 60, 144 or 240 fps and doesn't see any changes when adjusting 1/2 of the video settings unless comparing screenshots. (Judging by the number of console gamers in existence we might even be in the majority)

Stadia needs some work but has the potential of being the next cell phone camera, MP3 player, or streaming media service. "Experts" will rant and rave about quality loss but the masses will still gobble it up if the convenience is there. Having access to your game library from anyplace that has a decent connection and never having to buy another expensive console sounds pretty similarly convenient.
 
Stadia needs some work but has the potential of being the next cell phone camera, MP3 player, or streaming media service. "Experts" will rant and rave about quality loss but the masses will still gobble it up if the convenience is there. Having access to your game library from anyplace that has a decent connection and never having to buy another expensive console sounds pretty similarly convenient.

There is definitely going to be a market for game streaming services, but I still don't think Stadia will be the one to do it. They fucked up their launch hardcore and the narrative behind that is going to last for a long time. "You only get one chance to make a first impression" and all that. As long as MS doesn't royally screw things up I could see xCloud being the thing that truly gets the ball rolling on game streaming. I expect Stadia is end up as yet another failed Google pet project, full of promise and potential but ultimately killed before it ever had a real chance of getting anywhere.
 
Stadia was a NAD-IA for me starting right at the inability to register in a web browser or on a phone of my choice.

Once again voting with my wallet on this one.
 
I don't think botched launches are what they once were. Hell on a AAA game launch it seems like there is a 50/50 chance if you will even be able to play it the first week to a month lol.

I think Stadias real hurdle is the game library. If Microsoft bundles its streaming service with its game pass that will be hard for anyone to beat. Practically the Spotify of gaming. There is no way I would be purchasing new copies of games I already own on Xbox or PC just to try Stadia.
 
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I don't think botched launches are what they once were. Hell on a AAA game launch it seems like there is a 50/50 chance if you will even be able to play it the first week to a month lol.

I think Stadias real hurdle is the game library. If Microsoft bundles its streaming service with it's game pass that will be hard for anyone to beat. Practically the spotify of gaming. There is no way I would be purchasing new copies of games I already own on Xbox or PC just to try Stadia.

It's not even an "if" at this point. MS announced that very thing the week before Stadia launched. When xCloud is out of beta next year they will add it to Game Pass. I imagine it will be an extra cost on top of Game Pass or rolled into a higher-priced tier of GPU but still that is a crap load of games to play out of the gate.
 
I'm sure despite reviews it will be enjoyable for plenty of people.

I know I'm not the only person left that can't tell if their game is running at 60, 144 or 240 fps and doesn't see any changes when adjusting 1/2 of the video settings unless comparing screenshots. (Judging by the number of console gamers in existence we might even be in the majority)

Stadia needs some work but has the potential of being the next cell phone camera, MP3 player, or streaming media service. "Experts" will rant and rave about quality loss but the masses will still gobble it up if the convenience is there. Having access to your game library from anyplace that has a decent connection and never having to buy another expensive console sounds pretty similarly convenient.
The main problem with stadia is going to be xcloud from MS. So far it is looking to be better in every way and is rolled in with game pass I believe. MS has a huge install base to begin with and a better strategy by the looks of it. There is nothing but bad press around Stadia and is dead once MS drops Xcloud. Sony is also working on their own with a partnership with MS too.
 
I'm sure despite reviews it will be enjoyable for plenty of people.
Correct. I know people that are not hardcore PC gamers (or even console games) but would potentially try something like Stadia.

If Google can fix the issues, make it easy to use in a browser or any phone, then I think there is a huge market for this type of thing.
 
There is definitely going to be a market for game streaming services, but I still don't think Stadia will be the one to do it. They fucked up their launch hardcore and the narrative behind that is going to last for a long time.
I agree that the launch was botched. I'm not sure why they didn't delay, or do something to stop the bleeding.

However, I don't think the product is doomed. They do have a chance to come correct if they can make good on their promised features and iron out any bugs.

As I have seen, it worked better than some reviews claimed. Which makes me think some of those reviewers were looking deep in the technical aspect (latency mostly) and not so much just playing the games and trying to have a good time.

I did note that Metro was almost unplayable, but Tomb Raider and GRID were absolutely playable (even if I did notice a few frames of lag). I've seen many reviews from users on Reddit that have been playing and enjoying the service.

So I don't think it is as bad as some of the reviews claimed. I did notice I got a few updates when I started, so it's possible Google fixed something. I'm also on a really good internet connection. Not sure, but it really wasn't that bad.
 
I agree that the launch was botched. I'm not sure why they didn't delay, or do something to stop the bleeding.

However, I don't think the product is doomed. They do have a chance to come correct if they can make good on their promised features and iron out any bugs.

As I have seen, it worked better than some reviews claimed. Which makes me think some of those reviewers were looking deep in the technical aspect (latency mostly) and not so much just playing the games and trying to have a good time.

I did note that Metro was almost unplayable, but Tomb Raider and GRID were absolutely playable (even if I did notice a few frames of lag). I've seen many reviews from users on Reddit that have been playing and enjoying the service.

So I don't think it is as bad as some of the reviews claimed. I did notice I got a few updates when I started, so it's possible Google fixed something. I'm also on a really good internet connection. Not sure, but it really wasn't that bad.

The big reason I don't think Stadia will be around long term is that Google is Google. They have a huge graveyard of pet projects that they poured a lot of money into and then dumped either because they got bored or because it wasn't progressing fast enough. They have the money, people, and servers to fix most of Stadia's issues (at least those that are fixable) the question is if they'll give it the resources needed to make it happen. Hearing reports that the pre-order numbers were "underwhelming" isn't confidence inspiring either.

Google has come off as incredibly clueless from the get-go and I think that is why they had such a botched launch. They clearly expected everything to work like magic and people to ignore all the issues with them launching a clearly beta product. I think they might have been panicking a bit as well. I'm sure they had some idea of what MS was planning and they've definitely been watching the steady growth of Playstation Now as Sony has worked to improve it, not to mention competition incoming from EA, Bethesda, Nvidia. Google might have felt they had to get it out now, long before it was ready, instead of delaying and potentially being caught as just another service among strong competitors. Even with all of that they should have labeled the launch as a beta or "early access" or something and just limited it to the Chrome browser and Pixel phones out of the gate instead of selling the $130 bundle as the only way to get in (until next year).
 
I've learned not to trust people that are not concerned with latency in games
 
Been playing Gylt, the Stadia exclusive. It plays great, not laggy at all and looks like 4K60. It's really a great experience, not at all what it seemed like reading the reviews.
 
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