dont have a 5g phone yet anyways
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Anyone know what the best cheapish Android tablet is which has a good aspect ratio for xcloud (minimal or no black bars)??
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Recently I had surgery on a torn cruciate ligament, so was not very mobile for some time. Was a good time to test a lot of the cloud gaming stuff Microsoft offered. Ive been tipping my toes into it for quite some time already, but never had a real use case, as my Xbox console was always close by.
At first I tested with my Google Pixel 5 (best phone I ever had BTW). All touch, so the choice of options was a bit limited. Played a lot Golf with Friends and Slay The Spire. These games are not really latency dependent, but worked very well. It does not take long before you forget they do not run locally.
After a while I was able to sit upright and use a controller attached to my phone. In this use case the cloud gaming really shines imho. Seeing Forza Horizon 5 on my phone is an impressive experience. All the time I was connected via WiFi 5G (I have 1Gbps fiber up and down btw) and only noticed a small amount of hiccups during the gameplay. Due to the size of the screen, I did not see any rendering issues at all.
Even a shooter like Halo Infinite (only played SP) was playable quite well. The game feels a bit ‘heavier’ than on console, a result of the latency I guess. But after five minutes you don’t even notice it anymore.
The service was definitely improved over the past year. Its not flawless yet, but the experience is close to what Stadia is offering (not talking about the ecosystem, just the game experience). If Xbox manages to improve the latency even more, I can see this becoming a real option for a lot of casual games in the future.
For me I work at home a lot these days, so I mostly use xCloud when I travel to see my parents. Last Christmas, I only played Play Anywhere titles on PC though. Had good xCloud experiences with PC browser streaming and an Android device I once owned. I played Devil May Cry 5 on Android xCloud and that is a game where I was quite skeptical given it’s fast-paced combat, and it worked well!
How’s xCloud on iOS these days for everybody? Has it improved? I’ve come away pretty disappointed every time I tried it last year. I also recently tried to start Subnautica and it wouldn’t even boot up. I’ve been willing to get the Backbone One for the iPhone but I really want to to wait until they fix iOS xCloud.
I agree that xCloud is awesome and should be marketed better once it fully rolls out. Xbox marketing is a topic in itself though, especially in Europe.
I use xcloud to test some games before downloading them.
I have lots of friends who love xcloud, because is a affordable way to play current gen games here in Brazil. The two main issues these friends reported me is that there isn’t a cloud only subscription plan and the lack of support for keyboard and mouse.
My kids wont let me near the TV. So yes I use xcloud. Also when Call the Midwife is on TV I’m elsewhere playing Halo Infinite or Plague Tale Innocence on my phone with my Razer Kishi.
I was using it this year, it’s okay but right now it feels like a service that only hardcore Xbox enthusiast should mess around with, that’s the problem with most cloud gaming services. I feel like you need to “be in the know” for xcloud to be a usable service. No casual gamer right now should mess around with it, there’s just too many bugs and inconsistencies for it to be a viable way to game for most people.