We’ve Played the Google Stadia And…

We are a few months away from a new platform that hopes to demonstrate to all Founders what the its technology is made of. Promising a strong Q4 out the gate with titles like Need for Speed Heat, Doom Eternal and Ghost Recon: BreakPoint, the Google Stadia just might have the upper hand. It’s not just the occasional household console as you can play on the go, anywhere, through more than one device.

Desktop, laptop or mobile device, your session never have to come to an end. As long as you have a steady and consistent internet connection, you’re good. At least that’s the plan. For now, after hands on, I found one flaw. Now keep in mind this doesn’t determine my overall experience, but certainly plays a big deal in what may be the final product, considering we’re rather close to the Founder’s release.

GAME ON

When you play on a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One you get the very best your system can offer, of course requiring the best HDTV to provide quality. 1080p or 4K, you know what you’re investing in. The same can’t be said for the Stadia, not yet at least. As I played Doom Eternal on the Stadia, we struggled to keep a solid connection. Not saying the game froze, but it was certainly unstable, causing minor frame rate issues. And being streamed through a gaming laptop (Pixelbook), I fear what a mobile device would render, especially when the download/upload can’t match that of a wired LAN. I will mention that this was played at PAX West and certain areas of the show floor did have spotty internet access.

The game was fun and I enjoyed every bit of Doom, but I was left wishing it was on a normal console. With the same titles releasing for same price on PS4 and Xbox One, I’d rather stick with an option that’s not on cloud and pending of what my internet speed is until considering multiplayer. As I said however, this could’ve be an early hiccup and the Google Stadia could be a huge success, only time will tell. We’ll still rooting for a better second impression.