It’s Final Fantasy 15, it’s streaming from remote servers and by and large, it’s identical to the existing console versions of the game – and that’s quite a neat trick, especially when transitioning gameplay from 4K TV to laptop to smartphone. However, there’s no doubt that there’s a severe lack of ambition in this Stadia port in terms of it core technological credentials. Google’s on-paper CPU and GPU spec out-strips Xbox One X in all dimensions – yet Final Fantasy 15 on Stadia runs at just 1080p at 30 frames per second, delivering an overall experience closer to the base PlayStation 4.
Of course, there are positives offered by the cloud and they shouldn’t be overlooked – certainly in terms of sheer convenience. It’s great to be able to buy a game and play it immediately; a Vulkan API optimised edition streaming to any Android phone, Chromecast or Chrome browser. There’s no need to wait about for the current-gen consoles’ gargantuan download to complete and loading times overall are much faster than PS4 or Xbox One.
Also, as a package, nothing has been left out. What Stadia offers is essentially the Royal Edition, with all updates and extra DLC bundled in. That even includes the recent Comrades multiplayer DLC, though for that, you’ll only be matched with other Stadia users – there’s no cross-play here, which is a shame. It’s also worth noting Stadia’s exclusive mini-games – four of them in fact – as revealed recently. It’s not clear if these are timed exclusives, but for now, Stadia does have this plus point over consoles and PC.
The best way to play on Stadia is through Chromecast – notably the Ultra version which enables 4K streaming of the game. Sadly, running through the Google Chrome browser on PC fixes the game to a lower bitrate, at a 1080p output. For our work, we accessed the 4K feed on a 300mbps connection rated ‘excellent’ by the service. We’ve had some issues here actually – sometimes the same connection is merely rated ‘good’ and we don’t get 4K at all.
Regardless, the blunt truth here is that even with a 4K video stream, pixel counts of the image still come in at a native 1920×1080. As you’ll see in the video and the comparison images on this page, there’s no competition when stacked up against Xbox One X’s 4K mode, which actually runs at a dynamic resolution with 3360×1890 at the top end. There’s a big drop in image quality as a result, even without factoring in Stadia’s inherent compression. Fundamentally, the image streamed across simply isn’t a 4K picture, or anything close to it – despite it saying so. The only benefit I can see to having 4K activated in the menus is more bandwidth allocation to getting an upscaled 1080p across, which will result in a clearer image.