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I doubted Xcloud at first...here's why I was wrong

Havoc2049

Member
I have been playing some Sea of Thieves on my Surface Duo (Android) with a Series X controller and it works fine. There is some lag, so I try to stay away from PVP. It works great for slower paced RPGs, strategy games, etc.
 

Jimmy_liv

Member
Played it a few months back and it was shocking. Tried it a fair few times recently and it's fantastic on my android phone using even just 4G.

Tried it on my ipad and it's not so good. I think apple have suckled the life from it and the workaround just isn't the best experience which is a damned shame.

But Android, amazed how good it was.
 

e&e

Banned
Gonna test again tonight but it’s not been satisfactory in previous tests…

Played it a few months back and it was shocking. Tried it a fair few times recently and it's fantastic on my android phone using even just 4G.

Tried it on my ipad and it's not so good. I think apple have suckled the life from it and the workaround just isn't the best experience which is a damned shame.

But Android, amazed how good it was.
Edit: Maybe it’s an Apple device issue? Tried on iPhone and MacBook Safari so maybe that’s the issue…
 
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PS Now works better than Remote Play.

Everyone is dropping the ball. There should be a bunch of games like Among Us, Fall guys, Detroit Become Human, Until Dawn, All the jack box…. they should be focused on casuals and kids.
 

SafeOrAlone

Banned
I need an idiot-proof way of using mouse and keyboard with Xcloud.

We experimented with reWASD, but the setup overwhelmed my friend.

We really want to play Halo campaigns together. Any tips?
 
Don't think I can convince my friend to buy a $500 console for halo campaign but I am also open to donations.

Any donations?

50 cent laughing GIF
 

Havoc2049

Member
I need an idiot-proof way of using mouse and keyboard with Xcloud.

We experimented with reWASD, but the setup overwhelmed my friend.

We really want to play Halo campaigns together. Any tips?
I thought reWASD was for Xbox controllers to be used on PC games that didn't support controllers.....MCC on xcloud supports Bluetooth controllers.
 

nemiroff

Gold Member
Been testing streaming since before Onlive, recently Stadia, and got my Xcloud beta today. Just tried some Forza 4.. But nah, it's not for me. Xcloud might be one of the best in the class, but the image quality is still clearly suffering compared to local play, and the latency does my head in (yeah, after years of PC gaming I'm sensitive to lag, can even easily tell the difference when playing on my X-series), it just plain sucks, just like Stadia. I'm even on a low latency 500/500 mbit line, and my PC has a wired connection.. I feel this stuff is decades away from high-end use, if ever. Which is also why I was rolling my eyes when I saw the thread about VR streaming here on gaf a few moments ago..

Anyway, "for emergency use" (traveling, hardware breakdowns etc) with games that don't require low latency I can see the niche appeal.
 
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Nico_D

Member
Besides playing Psychonauts 2, I decided to test Forza Horizon 4 on the xcloud just to see how well a more demanding game works.

And it works really, really well. Couple of times there was slight graininess which corrected itself in fee seconds. Other than that, it's perfect. Granted, I'm in a smaller European country maybe 30 km from Microsoft's data center so that may help a bit.
 

Lone Wolf

Member
Besides playing Psychonauts 2, I decided to test Forza Horizon 4 on the xcloud just to see how well a more demanding game works.

And it works really, really well. Couple of times there was slight graininess which corrected itself in fee seconds. Other than that, it's perfect. Granted, I'm in a smaller European country maybe 30 km from Microsoft's data center so that may help a bit.
Yeah that definitely helps. I’m in NY and I have about a second of input lag. location compared to azure centers will make all the difference.
 
It works great for me. It's shocking how underrated this feature is. Free if you have Gamepass. All I bought is an $8 plastic clip that holds my phone above my xbox controller. All I have to do is literally just take my controller and my phone, and can play whatever I was playing at home anywhere else with decent internet. Maybe I'm in a good area or something, but I'm pleased with it. I've seen the resolution drop a little here and there, and lag occasionally, but rarely.

I think what people are mistaken about is that it's not a replacement for owning games or playing locally. It's a bonus add-on with no real downside. If they keep it free, it's very easy to overlook an occasional imperfection in resolution etc.
 
It has not worked well for me unfortunately. Streaming is just an inferior way to consume gaming. Gaming and television are completely different.
 

Snake29

RSI Employee of the Year
It works well over a fast ethernet connection, but most games on the service do not play well over 5G or wireless connection. Mostly those smaller games do work ok over Wifi(6).
 
It works well over a fast ethernet connection, but most games on the service do not play well over 5G or wireless connection. Mostly those smaller games do work ok over Wifi(6).
This is my experience. I tried it again just now on my pc through the browser and it was fine, but not in any way how I would want to play FH4. Playing FH4 on my phone over 5G/WiFi was literally unplayable, but over ethernet I was at least able to finish a race albeit not nearly as smoothly as I can usually.
 
I'm looking forward to seeing how this works on consoles. It's pretty neat to be able to play a game immediately without having to wait for a full download. I can only imagine this getting even better with time.
 

elliot5

Member
I'm looking forward to seeing how this works on consoles. It's pretty neat to be able to play a game immediately without having to wait for a full download. I can only imagine this getting even better with time.
I'm mostly excited about being able to fire up xCloud on my ethernet connection to the XSX rather than my phone or PC (in which I have to go grab my controller and bring it into my office and using Wifi) to complete game pass quests. Would be way more convenient!
 
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sainraja

Member
Streaming services will continue to improve in quality overtime there is no doubt so I don't really get posts like this, I mean, are you REALLY surprised? Stadia/PSNow are pretty good too. This is the streaming age and content creators are pushing for this to be a reality; you basically don't have to worry about piracy here, they have total control over the content. My hope is that streaming will continue to be an option alongside traditional options (the reality right now) but my worry is they are trying to replace our traditional options with streaming (I hope this does not come to pass and is just a silly worry of mine). Many people make comparisons with movies and its transition to streaming with buying still an option and I totally get that but they could try to push or do things a little differently with gaming so on the inside I keep hoping people don't get into streaming.....so what I am saying is, could you guys please stop? LOL 😂
 

CS Lurker

Member
I live close to an Azure datacenter and the service works great for me. The same for Geforce Now. Cloud gaming is a reality already, and it's amazing to have this option. It will be a major factor in countries where consoles are really expensive, but their internet infrastructure is very capable (like Brazil).
 
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Games like Octopath Traveller are perfect for xcloud, hell I would even recommend playing with touch controls if you don't have a pad.

& I can't bare touch controls for games usually, but it worked well for this game imo.
Anything other than turn based RPG isn't worth the time though sadly. We still don't have the tech to make a smooth cloud based game streaming service work.
 

twilo99

Member
Just tried Psychonauts 2 on my laptop, it works really well for that game!

Is there a way to check how far/close one is from an azure data center?
 

DjMystix

Member
Just tried Psychonauts 2 on my laptop, it works really well for that game!

Is there a way to check how far/close one is from an azure data center?

But there is no way to tell which Azure data center you will be connected to (or at least I don't know of any). Not all data centers have XBOX blades.
 

CS Lurker

Member
Anything other than turn based RPG isn't worth the time though sadly. We still don't have the tech to make a smooth cloud based game streaming service work.

Really? I beat Sekiro - when it was available on Geforce Now - and it **almost** felt like the game was running on a local hardware. Now the service is even better than at that time.
 

twilo99

Member

But there is no way to tell which Azure data center you will be connected to (or at least I don't know of any). Not all data centers have XBOX blades.

Oh, right.. didn't think of that one at all.

I have a feeling the % of data centers that have xbox blades is still relatively low
 

pasterpl

Member

But there is no way to tell which Azure data center you will be connected to (or at least I don't know of any). Not all data centers have XBOX blades.
I am getting 1-3 ms to Paris Data centre but I am based in London, london data centre gives me 3-5 ms
 

StormCell

Member
I recently spent about a week at the hospital (I wasn't the one in there, I was taking care of family though), and I fired up Xcloud to play some Crackdown 3 over mobile broadband. What I have to say, peeps, is it works! It really works! Was it perfect? Nah, not really. Was it responsive? Yes, it was. It was enough for me to keep playing Crackdown!

I own and love Nintendo Switch, but they better get a hardware refresh out soon. I can't stand the problems I've had with the joycons and the controller signal interference issues. Last of all, I don't want to be convinced that I'm better off buying something like GTA Trilogy on Xbox (to play on XCloud portably) because Switch will have low framerates and buildings popping in like mad when my whole purpose for having a Switch is for that home + away experience.

Hats off to Xbox. I'm a happy customer.
 
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