Kit Stadia Founder’s Edition already received (almost) everyone who decided to believe the sweet speeches of representatives Google. And although Stadia has so far only launched in a number of countries in Europe and North America, I was lucky: I live in Canada, so I purchased Founder’s Edition without any problems and tested streaming services for games in the first days of its launch. And now I am ready to share my impressions with you.

Spoiler: everything could be much better, but thanks for what is.

How Google Stadia meets the first users?

As soon as Google's employees sent Founder’s Edition to the specified address, I received an invitation code to activate the service and subscription Stadia Pro to the email. To register in the service and tie the accounting for your Google account, the code must be entered in the Stadia mobile application. The player’s profile is also created there: nickname, cartoon avatar – everything is extremely clear and familiar. Only this very “clear and familiar” ends immediately after the transition to the main page of the service. Then its numerous conceptual jambs begin to emerge.

STADIA Founder’s Edition Employment: rather cheap, feelings, controller with charging and USB Type-C, Chromecast Ultra, standard layout set, as well as a card with a Message from Google and a couple of stickers with a service logo. Well, three months of Subscribing Stadia Pro

A special Stadia gamepad, which should be connected directly to your Wi-Fi, so far it is impossible to connect to the PC by air-you have to use the USB Type-C wire. The ability to play on a wireless connection promise to add "soon". In addition, you will definitely have to keep a phone with Stadia application on board to launch games on a PC. You need to buy games and tie them to your account exclusively from the phone-and in the browser and Chromecast version of Stadia you can only play in the already purchased. The system goes excess: first go to the application, buy or activate the game, and then go to the service website through the computer to start playing, and nothing else. You can’t start games on the phone, by the way, if you don't have a Pixel line device.

This is what the Stadia interface on PC looks like. The service has no separate desktop applications, everything is through the browser. On the home page you can only launch the game, view the list of friends, watch the settings or contact the technical support

In addition to PCs and Pixel devices, the “stage” can be launched on the TV by connecting the Google Chromecast Ultra to it. Android TV support is not yet, but it is promised in 2020. Chromecast is also tuned through the phone – through the Google Home application – after which the device must be tied to the Stadia controller. In this case, he will work without wires. But here's the bad luck – it is also possible to use the service through Chromecast, too, too: there is nothing here except the home page with purchased games. You still need a phone at hand to view news and store.

Somehow it is … damp. Why poke an uncomfortable crutch in the form of a mobile application everywhere? What prevented Google from making a normal convenient store at least in their own Chrome browser?

And this is what the Stadia application on the smartphone looks like. Store, list of games, news feed and videos, tab with friends and profile

Unfortunately, the STADIA Pro subscription, which is included with the starting set, so far seems to be a waste of money. Only two Scarab Wins sister sites free games are available to its owners: Destiny 2: Collection Box with all additions and rather strange anime-fiting Samurai Shodown. There are several titles with pleasant discounts of 50%, but new releases, besides NBA 2K20 , There is no one among them, and that offer ends already on December 3. I will not hide, for $ 130 you expect more.

Pixels, buffering of video stream and input lags

The launch of any game takes place in a matter of seconds. You don’t have to download anything – you just press the “Play” button and almost immediately open the selected Title. Stadia constantly checks the speed of the connection: the game will take at least 10 Mbps/s, and I tested the service at the tariff with 300 Mbit/s. But, despite such a high speed, the quality of the picture constantly fell in Destiny 2. Then she did not have time to load and gave out blurry pixels, then missed a couple of frames ..

If the speed is not enough, you simply cannot play

In the first days after the launch, the Stage had huge problems with the registration of keystrokes. While you press one button and move in one direction – more or less normal, but you just have to start looking around, shoot, jump and generally press several buttons per second, as hellish lags appear. The service reacts to pressing one, two, or even five seconds, simultaneously missing packs of frames. Enjoy the game in such conditions, frankly, it is impossible.

Use Chromecast Ultra in this regard is much more pleasant. Since the stream of information does not go through the browser of your PC, but straight to the streaming device, the service manages to minimize the delay, and special drawdowns and incut-ladies are not noticeable. At times they seem to disappear completely, but I still don't want to meddle in the online match. And the quality of the picture, as in the browser version, leaves much to be desired: it seems to be more faded than usual, and pixel shots are also constantly striking.

A few minutes of playing on a PC with an overlay, which shows pressing in the input devices so that you can evaluate the delay

But, one way or another, starting games in a couple of clicks without the need to wait for uploading a dozen gigabytes is great! And on the ability of your computer the service does not care, the main thing is that the browser does not slow down. So Stadia can be a very profitable solution for those who do not want to buy expensive hardware. I connected the Internet tariff faster-and play your health, no third-party software is needed. True, if streaming problems do not correct in the near future, the games will bring more annoyance than pleasure.

In the "unfolding" country you can go to Google Stadia, but the service simply will not allow you to play by referring to the publisher

All social chips-built-in streams or the ability to share screenshots and mini-clips-not yet. The ability to stop the game and return to the same place after the browser tab is also absent. In short, 80% of the promised advantages of the service are not at all. They will probably be introduced (at least should be introduced), but at the moment there is nothing to catch in Stadia, except for the soap-pixel picture and control delays.

The intra -game overly at the "stage" is quite convenient, but in general useless. During the game, you can take screenshots that appear in … mobile application. And you can't download them. And you can’t share them either. Seriously?

Google Stadia in the current state is frankly raw. The local ecosystem seems to be deliberately built around dancing with a tambourine: the user needs to configure the account and buy games on the phone, then launch them on a PC. Most of the declared service chips are either not completed or simply absent. The quality of the flow leaves much to be desired, the picture is far from the ideal, and the eternal problems with the registration of presses interfere with the use of Stadia on PC. Maybe in six months or a year, when the creators receive the first feedback from users, add the platform more functionality and cure at least part of the problems, the situation will become better. The current service is rather a paid alpha version for those who are not tolerated to test the novelty from Google.