Stadia so far

[Vespa]

I know some people like playing video games and thought I'd given my impression about Stadia which I've had since launch.

For those that don't know Stadia is Googles internet-based games console. Allowing you to buy a game and then play it on any screen (almost) without the need for a PC, Mac or console. Other companies like Microsoft and apparently Amazon are bringing simular products out - they'll all have free tiers which means you'll be able to buy the game on whatever multi-billion-dollar company you prefer.

So ...

Does it work?

Yes, yes it does. I've got Virgin 100mb and it works flawlessly. I was expecting it to be choppy and laggy but 98% of the time it is fine.

Is it expensive?

If you don't want the 4k you can sign up for free, 4k gaming costs £10 a month and they bundle games in with that. You use any controller but I've bought two of the google controllers (one for home, one I keep in my suitcase) and if you want to stream games to your TV you'll need a Google chromecast. You can buy the bundle for £80.

Can you use it out and about?

This is where it gets tricky. The two reasons I liked the idea of Stadia is 1) playing games without having to buy hardware and 2) playing games anywhere on any screen. Point one done.

Playing away from home/work has some wrinkles:

captured portals - know when you sign on the free wifi and a diverted to a website to sign into, that's captured portal. If like me you have a little tech bag with a controller and chromecast to play in hotels that's a pain the arse.

However, I discovered the joy of travel routers which allow you to set up a network in your hotel room by connecting the router to the hotel wifi and then all your devices to the travel router. It's great, we use the same credentials as our home wifi so all our devices just connect. They are cheap and tiny, even if you don't use Stadia but travel a lot they are awesome - I have this one: https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-network ... l-wr902ac/

Public wifi - I plug my phone into one of these for mobile gaming https://www.razer.com/gb-en/gaming-cont ... azer-kishi and have found I can happily play any Stadia games on good public wifi. Works okay in airports, McDonald's etc. However, I found in places like hospitals it's a bit shit.

Mobile data- Stadia supports mobile data, if you have an all you can eat data plan you can play Tomb Raider on the go.

What's shit?

The biggest weakness is the lack of games. They have over 100 now but probably not the ones you want to play. I have a few including Tomb Raider, The Division, Ghost Recon etc but over the next few months, the big titles also seem to be coming to Stadia.

There is no IOS support for Apple devices, this seems more to do with Apple wanting a 30% cut on game sales than any technical reason.

Would you recommend it?

I would, you can sign up for a free trial and give it a whirl without spending a penny as the trial has bundled games. One of the features I love is you can transfer the game while playing it to another screen. So if I get thrown out of the TV room and I just throw the game up on my tablet, laptop, another TV, phone etc.