Ramble - Google Stadia - the future of gaming?

The big reveal this week, then, was Google Stadia.  But what is a stadia?  Well, I shall tell you: a stadia is a measurement of length (about 185 metres).  Alternatively, it is the plural of stadium (an athletic/sports ground), which is probably what they were going for.  The Google c.185m doesn't mean that much, after all.

Stadia is not, as some thought it would be, a games console.  Instead, it's a streaming service.  The present setup is with Chromecast, so you'd plug a Chromecast dongle into your telly.  Your Google controller will connect directly to the service, and the service will broadcast back to your Chromecast setup.  Nothing is happening in your house - it's all happening remotely, up there in the Cloud.

The intention is that eventually the service will (I keep seeing this quote) "run wherever YouTube is".  Also, you won't have to use a Google controller, but with a Smart TV you'd be able to plug any USB controller in and use that.  What's intended and what's actually possible at this stage are two different things entirely...

The only games announced so far as Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Doom: Eternal, which aren't at all family friendly.  Since the service is due to go live later this year, you have to hope lots more games will be announced soon.  Google have said you'll be able to do couch co-op and there'll be parental controls, which shows they're at least considering family gaming in their setup.

A remote gaming service, where a console isn't needed, has been mooted for years as the future of gaming.  Every time we're coming up to a new generation of console, people start asking whether it'll be the least "console" generation, or whether we'll be looking to the Cloud instead.  Considering we're hearing a PS5 could be coming as soon as this Christmas, it seems like Sony aren't writing off consoles yet.  So far, internet speeds have meant that Cloud gaming hasn't really taken off.  The last thing you want when playing competitive multiplayer is latency!  Google say you need 25Mbps for it to work at 1080p 60fps.

(Apparently the average internet speed in the UK is now 46.2Mbps, though we're paying for fast internet and when I tested it a moment ago we were only getting 24.2Mbps.  The only good way to get that 25Mbps (or more if you want 4K gaming!) is to go fibre all the way to the front door.  For those of us who have to put up with fibre to the exchange and copper to the house, that might not be an option...)

Slow internet - it makes us all mad...

It's an ambitious service, then, and the "reveal" has left us with plenty of questions.  Various people have been attempting Cloud services for a while, with varying levels of success.  PS Now has been around for a while, though many of the games are older (most are PS3), and PlayStation let you download games if your connection isn't brilliant.  Also, you can't use if if you're under 18.  (But that's because you can't go online with a child account.)

My biggest question is, "How much will it cost?"  PS Now is £84.99 a year, so maybe we're looking at something similar.  They have been VERY quiet about costs, though.  And to get big games on there, you'd have to give publishers a way to make money.  If they can make more selling either digital or physical copies direct to the consumer, it's hard to see why publishers would want to shoot themselves in the foot and make them available via Stadia.

I guess we will just have to wait and see...

March 2019 PS Plus: The Witness

In February, PS Plus didn't really have any family games to offer, but March's lineup (now only two games, since there are no longer going to be PS3 and Vita downloads) includes The Witness (PEGI-3).  I'd heard a lot about how good this game was, but I'd never played it.  To be honest, I still haven't, since Dad and Seb have been playing it together.  I think perhaps it has melted their brains since at the moment Seb is giggling maniacally and Dad is calling him Mr Ploppy.  Ah well. 

The Witness throws you straight into the game, with no preamble.  It reminds me a lot of Rime in the way that you are just there, on a mysterious island, trying to figure out what on earth is going on.  I suspect, like Rime, you never actually find out what's going on...  After arriving on the island it's just puzzle after puzzle, which can be intense!  As you walk around the beautiful surroundings you discover new challenges: there are more than 650 puzzles, some of which are optional, thankfully. All the puzzles are solved in the same way, by drawing a line on a grid to get from one point to another.  There are different rules for each puzzle.  This doesn't sound that exciting, but it's keeping a 7-year old quiet for a surprising amount of time (and Dad hasn't wandered off or started looking at his phone), so it's obviously more exciting than you'd think.  :-) 

One of the maze puzzles in The Witness's pretty world

If you have PS Plus, download it and give it a go.  It's a great "couch" game for everyone to sit down and try and work out the puzzles.  Alternatively you can all sit there and shout at one person trying to solve the puzzles as if they are in the Crystal Maze.  Hehe.