I echo your sentiments @Sollaro.
I ordered Founder's Edition on July 6. I received the Founder's code in my email on the 19th of November, it and an extra Wasabi controller that I also ordered was delivered today (20th) and I just spent the last hour playing Destiny 2.
I subscribe to 175mbps service via Xfinity, and gameplay has thus far been as smooth as on my Xbox One X or Playstation 4. Graphics have been excellent as well.
So far, I'm very pleased. Now I just need to decide what games to buy!
@ManOnTime Same, Im leaning towards Red Dead but waiting for Black Friday to see if there will be any deals.
What two player games are you planning to play with the additional controller?
I have to echo pretty much what DougEFresh said. I live in Miami, and I have a very fast connection. Fast.com gives me 590Mbps down/350Mbps up with only 4ms latency unloaded, 14ms loaded. That kicks ass.
Stadia's connection test says the following:
Where are you based? i ask beacuse it seems like the biggest factor might actually be location on internet speed. It seems like there are a lot of people with Fibre having issues and a lot of people with Fibre not having issues so maybe the biggest factor is location.
Im on 150Mbps and using wifi, i havent even plugged in the ethernet cable yet.
Central Connecticut here
I just found the setting for Data Usage & Connection in the Stadia app, and I changed it from Best Visual Quality to Balanced. That seems to help a little bit, but the screen still gets very fuzzy when I move, and I have to stop moving for the textures to catch up.
Thought I would add to this thread with my initial impressions.
I think Google Stadia is currently more of a "proof of concept" than it is an actual marketable product at this time, and I think that is about the fairest thing I can say.
Does it work? Yes ... surprisingly well. When I first hooked up my Chromecast Ultra to my TV and started playing Destiny 2 I was taken aback at the lack of any discernable significant input lag - the quality of the image and the framerate. I had major concerns having experienced the likes of Steam-Link and PS Now previously and found them wanting. My initial impressions of Stadia were good.
But ... after a short while, a few problems began to surface. After about 30 mins of playing I noticed my TV switching to a different resolution and the framerate clearly dropped. I restarted the game, but to no avail.
I restarted the Chromecast Ultra, and that seemed to do the trick. This time however, there was a 3 second delay in audio. Everything else was running smoothly for whatever reason .. just the sound. I played on like that for a little while, and then again - the quality suddenly dropped for no apparent reason as did the frame-rate. I should add, this audio-sync was not just with Stadia - it was happening with all streaming through the Chromecast Ultra (such as Youtube etc.).
Everything else about Stadia seems bare bones to me ... a basic/minimal UI that lacks features you would think important for a streaming service ... the controller, whilst comfortable to use, to my mind feels cheap in comparison to its rivals.
Trying to play Stadia at this moment through the browser seems pointless, considering the poor quality (as it is at a lower resolution for now).
As a product, it is a hard sell - "buy our Chromecast, buy our controller, buy our subsription and then buy the latest games at the same price you would pay for if you had a PC/PS4/XB1 etc.". Honestly, unless this model changes, I think the market will probably reply "Nah, your alright, Google ... good luck".
The model needs to change, or at the very least the subscription needs to offer more - imagine if a Stadia subscription came with something similar to the Vault Access with Origin? Suddenly, you have something more marketable ... Something like what XBOX may well be offering in the not too distant future.
Yes, there are games that I get for free with my XBox Gamepass subscription (for instance, Rage 2) that Google is asking full price for if we want to play it, and there are games that are available much cheaper on Steam. (Although Assassin's Creed Ultimate seems to be a good deal on Stadia).
I agree with matzee. Everybody will have their own reason they bough stadia. For me it was as an upgrade over my PS4 pro: Playing destiny2 / tomb raider etc @4k/60p. As an ad-interim service until the next-gen would arrive.
However, it's not that. It's only on par with ps4pro / xbox one x, not an upgrade.
Add all the growing pains and there is no reason at all for me to actually use my new stadia console. Playing games on my trusty old ps4pro feels better than stadia. I can only play destiny 2 and don't trust the platform enough to actually buy the games I wanted to play on stadia
I'm going to hold onto it for a couple more days and see if stuff improves (at least the promised 4k/60fps), otherwise I see no reason not te return the founder edition.
The XBox Gamepass is a revelation and has left me somewhat spoilt, I have to admit ... but when you get the likes of Gears 5, and Outerworlds - on day of release - at no extra charge beyond your sub ... its a total winner ... and other services pale in comparison ... as you say, Rage 2 is a perfect example of Google missing the mark entirely with the model - I also raised an eyebrow when I saw quite how much Google wanted me to pay for that game, considering (a) I actually purchased it on release and (b) it had just been added to the Gamepass ... LOL