The horror game is said to be heavily inspired by the fan-favorite Resident Evil 4--though it's also gotten the very meme-able Lady Dimitrescu for good measure. Capcom recently released PC system specs for the upcoming game and warned eager players not to fall for an apparent phishing scam. At least, that’s the goal. In this Google Stadia review, we’re going to take a look at the Premiere Edition to see where the service delivers and where it falls behind. I tested Stadia in multiple use cases, all using the Stadia controller. I played games on a Pixel 3a XL phone connected to a Fios network over Wi-Fi, in a Chrome tab on a PC connected to a corporate network, in a Chrome tab on a different PC connected to my home Fios network, and on a TV with a Chromecast Ultra connected to a Fios network both over Wi-Fi and Ethernet. I played several games on Stadia through these methods, primarily Destiny 2 and Mortal Kombat 11, but also Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Gylt. Using a Pixel 3a XL supplied by Google for our review, we put the streaming service to the test using the absolute minimum specs to see how it would perform with a lag-sensitive game like Mortal Kombat 11 and while there certainly were a number of slowdowns that we’ll describe in a second, most of the time we saw no noticeable issues.

Screen differences aside, however, games simply don't look quite as sharp streaming over Stadia as opposed to playing a local version of the same title on the same hardware. The reason for this seems to be Stadia prioritizing input over graphical fidelity when streaming; in Destiny I saw a few hiccups where details dropped for a moment, but my controls stayed responsive. This is how Stadia should work, though, since games feeling good to play is far more important than games looking good. And neither Destiny 2 nor Mortal Kombat 11 look bad in Chrome tabs, just not as sharp as playing the same title locally. Destiny 2 was rough, which is strange, given that it looked better than Tomb Raider. Although the movement felt responsive, the moment we fired a gun, everything fell apart. There are three factors when firing a gun in Destiny 2 with Stadia: the vibration of the controller, the on-screen animation and the sound. For our last test, we tried Stadia on a new Wi-Fi network that, according to an Ookla speed test, maxed out around 15Mbps. Going into this test we expected the worst - that Stadia would basically be unplayable. Thankfully we were wrong. Google Stadia slowly added in the features it promised at launch. For example, the service rolled out direct streaming to YouTube via YouTube Gaming. For streamers, Stadia held real potential as a way to unify the gaming and streaming platform - and that in itself was pretty exciting.Both the signup and streaming service are activated through the Google Stadia app on Android and iOS. Once you’re logged in, you can then either Cast a game from the app to your Chromecast Ultra that comes with either of the two editions or go to Stadia.com to start streaming to your PC. Even if you do meet the speed requirements, you’ll need to be careful if you have a data cap. Cloud gaming chews through a lot of data, especially when gaming at 4K resolution. Here’s what you can expect: Stadia is Google’s gaming platform that lets you instantly play your favorite video games on screens you already own.

And after using Stadia for over a year, I feel even more strongly about those first eight months. Google was wrong to launch Stadia the way that it did, in the state that it did, and I think it significantly harmed the reputation of not only Stadia but cloud gaming services as a whole. Unsurprisingly for a service that's closed down, Google Stadia hardware sales have been suspended. You also can't buy games, new controllers (without going second-hand) or a Stadia Pro subscription, either. Great device 4k gaming on the go or at home. No big console just plug and play. No load times and great library of games. I have got 3 one at each of my family members so can all play together. The Stadia controller is wireless, but only when paired with a Google Chromecast Ultra. This is a problem, because the Chromecast Ultra offers the worst gameplay experience of all the ways to access Stadia, as I will explain below. Graphical quality via the Chromecast Ultra is generally strong but can vary, and seems almost completely separate from the control lag. Destiny 2 and Mortal Kombat 11 look fairly clear, but occasionally experience a dip in detail or develop artifacts, similar to playing in a Chrome tab. Shadow of the Tomb Raider looks surprisingly excellent, with the High Resolution mode indeed pushing the game to what appears to be a sharp 4K, and the High Framerate mode looking like a very smooth 60 frames per second. As with the Tomb Raider games on the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, you need to choose between those modes on Stadia; there is no catchall 4K60 mode.Expanding all categories of games content - not just more games overall, but new types of games that we’ve heard players ask for, including genres like online action games, open world titles, plus free games, trials and demos.