Bullet Club
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Microsoft xCloud Preview Hands-On Impressions: So Far, So Good!
Play it on a bus, train, and... plane?
A little over a year ago Xbox announced it was going to introduce a gaming streaming service called Project xCloud that could run on your smartphone, tablet, laptop, and virtually any device you own. A few weeks ago, Microsoft finally revealed xCloud to the world with a pubic preview and after a long while with it, I’ve come away impressed.
Now when I say impressed, I’m only speaking towards its performance. As a public preview, xCloud still fairly limited right now to only working on Android devices and offering four first-party games: Halo 5: Guardians, Gears 5, Killer Instinct, and Sea of Thieves.
You also can’t use anything but a relatively new Xbox One controller with Bluetooth. I tried using the service with Sony’s DualShock 4, the Asus ROG Phone 2’s Kunai controllers, BlackShark 2’s GamePad, and I can confirm they all do not currently work with xCloud as of this writing.
Even with this limited game library, it’s fun and frankly stunning that I can play full Xbox One games on my phone now. What’s more, starting up games on your phone feels faster because the games are running on powerful remote servers rather than a hard drive on your console, load times are minimized and closer to a PC gaming experience. And just like playing on a console or gaming PC your cloud saves will automatically transfer over Xbox Live.
Of course, Project xCloud has to make some concessions in image quality and input lag when it’s streaming over Wi-Fi or an LTE cellular connection.
On my fast home connection (100Mbps), games look sharp and you can even discern like the serrations on Jago’s sword in Killer Instinct, but the picture sits closer to an HD (720p) resolution at best.
Playing over a T-Mobile LTE connection—with a 25Mbps download speed—causes no effect on image quality. Even while playing with just my cell connection on a moving bus and train, I didn’t see any loss of image quality, and that’s really impressive.
However, if you’re cellular connection dips below 10Mbps or your Wi-Fi connection is weak, you’ll encounter a lot of graphical artifacts. One of the strangest things xCloud does to maintain a good looking experience is a full-screen vertical wipe that basically gives you a clear image before it starts to degrade almost immediately.
Streaming Latency
Whether you’re playing while connected to Wi-Fi or just on cell service, there’s always a frame or two of latency with Project xCloud. It’s no worse on either connection, but you’ll have to get used to games reacting a second slower than they normally should.
Halo 5: Guardians felt the oddest with this added latency as I had to constantly lead my shots. In Gears 5 I had to readjust the timing of my active reloads and hit the right bumper just before the sweet spot. Killer Instinct is strangely the most forgiving game thanks to its long combo timing windows.
Easily the worst thing about playing Xbox games on Android phones is you really have to squint to see certain games if you have a smaller handset like the Google Pixel 4. Killer Instinct and Sea of Thieves have large characters and assets, so they’re both easy enough to see. But in Gears 5 and Halo 5: Guardians, you have a tiny transparent reticle that takes up about 1% of the screen.
Small details like that are clearly visible on a big-screen gaming TV or gaming monitor, but even on the largest gaming phones, they can still be tough to discern. You’ll either want to play this service on an Android tablet (if you can still find one) or connect your phone to a bigger screen.
Of course, the service is far from its final form, considering there are only four playable games and one compatible platform. And there’s also the big question of how much it will cost, so there’s nothing I can say about whether the service is worth it yet.
But so far, Project xCloud feels like an impressive first step towards a “portable” rendition of Xbox One that allows you to bring console gaming anywhere.
Source: IGN
Play it on a bus, train, and... plane?
A little over a year ago Xbox announced it was going to introduce a gaming streaming service called Project xCloud that could run on your smartphone, tablet, laptop, and virtually any device you own. A few weeks ago, Microsoft finally revealed xCloud to the world with a pubic preview and after a long while with it, I’ve come away impressed.
Now when I say impressed, I’m only speaking towards its performance. As a public preview, xCloud still fairly limited right now to only working on Android devices and offering four first-party games: Halo 5: Guardians, Gears 5, Killer Instinct, and Sea of Thieves.
You also can’t use anything but a relatively new Xbox One controller with Bluetooth. I tried using the service with Sony’s DualShock 4, the Asus ROG Phone 2’s Kunai controllers, BlackShark 2’s GamePad, and I can confirm they all do not currently work with xCloud as of this writing.
Even with this limited game library, it’s fun and frankly stunning that I can play full Xbox One games on my phone now. What’s more, starting up games on your phone feels faster because the games are running on powerful remote servers rather than a hard drive on your console, load times are minimized and closer to a PC gaming experience. And just like playing on a console or gaming PC your cloud saves will automatically transfer over Xbox Live.
Of course, Project xCloud has to make some concessions in image quality and input lag when it’s streaming over Wi-Fi or an LTE cellular connection.
On my fast home connection (100Mbps), games look sharp and you can even discern like the serrations on Jago’s sword in Killer Instinct, but the picture sits closer to an HD (720p) resolution at best.
Playing over a T-Mobile LTE connection—with a 25Mbps download speed—causes no effect on image quality. Even while playing with just my cell connection on a moving bus and train, I didn’t see any loss of image quality, and that’s really impressive.
However, if you’re cellular connection dips below 10Mbps or your Wi-Fi connection is weak, you’ll encounter a lot of graphical artifacts. One of the strangest things xCloud does to maintain a good looking experience is a full-screen vertical wipe that basically gives you a clear image before it starts to degrade almost immediately.
Streaming Latency
Whether you’re playing while connected to Wi-Fi or just on cell service, there’s always a frame or two of latency with Project xCloud. It’s no worse on either connection, but you’ll have to get used to games reacting a second slower than they normally should.
Halo 5: Guardians felt the oddest with this added latency as I had to constantly lead my shots. In Gears 5 I had to readjust the timing of my active reloads and hit the right bumper just before the sweet spot. Killer Instinct is strangely the most forgiving game thanks to its long combo timing windows.
Easily the worst thing about playing Xbox games on Android phones is you really have to squint to see certain games if you have a smaller handset like the Google Pixel 4. Killer Instinct and Sea of Thieves have large characters and assets, so they’re both easy enough to see. But in Gears 5 and Halo 5: Guardians, you have a tiny transparent reticle that takes up about 1% of the screen.
Small details like that are clearly visible on a big-screen gaming TV or gaming monitor, but even on the largest gaming phones, they can still be tough to discern. You’ll either want to play this service on an Android tablet (if you can still find one) or connect your phone to a bigger screen.
Of course, the service is far from its final form, considering there are only four playable games and one compatible platform. And there’s also the big question of how much it will cost, so there’s nothing I can say about whether the service is worth it yet.
But so far, Project xCloud feels like an impressive first step towards a “portable” rendition of Xbox One that allows you to bring console gaming anywhere.
Source: IGN
