It all works pretty seamlessly as long as you have the relevant wires handy. Open Stadia on the Chrome browser on your laptop and plug in the pad with a USB-A to USB-C cable to play on there.
If you want to switch to a Pixel phone (still the only supported mobile devices) you have to connect the two with a USB-C to USB-C cable. While Google intends to make the Stadia Controller wireless with any supported device, it’s currently still only possible on the TV with the Chromecast Ultra. A short press will bring up the home menu (more on that in a second) and a long press allows you to start and exit a game, and switch between accounts. The round Stadia button that sits between the thumbsticks is the one you’re going to be using the most. The Midnight Blue pad we were given for review is probably the pick of the lot, colour-wise.Īs well as the traditional face buttons, D-Pad and sticks, there’s a button for capturing screenshots and gameplay, which appear almost immediately on the Stadia app on your phone, and a Google Assistant button, whose functionality at the time of writing is limited to launching a game from the Stadia home screen via the built-in mic. That’s not to say it’s bad, though it’s well-built with decent enough triggers and a clean overall look. The Stadia Controller looks a bit like a mashup of the DualShock 4 and the Xbox One’s pad, but doesn’t feel quite as nice in the hand as either. The process is impressively painless for the most part, but signing into Stadia on a friend’s home network and then returning to my own seemingly required me to restart the pairing process, which was annoying.
Once that’s done it’s just a case of entering the button code displayed on your TV to link it up and start playing. To activate it you’ll need to download the dedicated Stadia app, sign up for the service and follow the on-screen setup prompts. The wireless pad is itself a Wi-Fi-enabled-device, communicating directly with Google’s cloud network. Once you’ve plugged the Chromecast into your TV’s HDMI port and set it up through the Google Home app, you’ll need to set up the imaginatively-named Stadia Controller.
It’s been clear from day one that Google Stadia is all about cloud gaming without the need for a console or PC, but that doesn’t stop it being somewhat jarring when you flick open the box to find just a controller and a Chromecast Ultra.īut they’re genuinely all you need to start playing games.
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