Stadia - more nits to pick

Just to be clear, I'm still generally liking what Stadia brings to the gaming table.  However, now that I've had the setup for a couple of weeks, I've seen a few more things that might influence whether somebody wanted to give this thing a go.

First, I experienced my first issue with the actual streaming of controls and games.  It was only for about 20-30 seconds, but resulted in a sudden loss of screen resolution and some severe control sluggishness.  Think like an approaching-full-second response time increase and converting button presses to button holds, that sort of thing.  I can only guess it was some momentary networking issue.  Since it's only happened to me once in two weeks' play time, I can brush it off as a minor nuisance... but serious competitive players and people inclined to throwing controllers in fits of rage might feel quite differently about such a thing even being a possibility.

Second, since Destiny 2 whines about not having a microphone every time you start the game, I snagged a 3.5mm headset to plug into my Stadia controller (thanks, Woot!).  Now, the Stadia controller/ChromeCast combo is obviously the preferred method of play (given that it's the only way, currently, to get a 4K stream), so I expected no problems.  However, I experienced pops/crackle on the audio I got through the headset... which, if it were just voicechat audio, that might be one thing, but, at least in Destiny 2, all audio is routed to the headset if it's plugged in, with no option to split it out that I could see.  Naturally, I verified the headset itself isn't a problem by plugging it into my Nintendo Switch Lite, where there were no such issues.  So, either there's a hardware issue with the Stadia controller's audio jack, or there's an audio processing disparity between the ChromeCast and the Stadia controller, or there's something about audio over WiFi that the Stadia controller isn't properly adapting to.  Hopefully, this is something the folks at Google can patch the controller firmware to fix... these days, there are many games where voice chat is nigh on mandatory, and nobody wants to experience their game as if the audio is being transmitted over AM radio.

Finally, there's a potential Stadia store issue.  When I fired up Destiny 2 this morning, there was a notification about needing to buy a "Digital Deluxe Edition" before the 10th, if you wanted the coming seasons' contents at 25% off regular price.  Of course, if you go to the Stadia app right now, and look through the "All Games" list, there is no such edition listed.  So... is this notification intended for all the other Destiny 2 platforms?  Or, is Google footing the bill for the next season for Stadia users?  Or, is there a new version that should have been on the storefront by now that isn't?  I guess we'll see, come the 10th... but any answer that involves "you should have been able to get the thing at a discount, but now you can get it at full price" is going to rankle a lot of already-wary Stadia users.

Well, it'll be interesting to see how things evolve here over the next couple of months.  The Destiny 2 pricing question is probably my biggest thing at the moment, since that ties to the value of the eventual $10/month Stadia Pro payout, but I think these are all things that will need to be addressed if they want to be at all competitive once they open their service to the general public for "free".

Stadia - first impressions

Right, so, I get it, there are a lot of people out there who Very Much Dislike the new Google Stadia service and some of what it may represent, particularly the death knell of game "ownership" (for all software licensing has been a thing for decades).  If you're in that camp, you might as well move on, since I'm not here to pile on.  Outside of that, I'm also not going to go into any of the various controversies over features missing at launch, pricing concerns, or stream/screen resolution shenanigans.  This is purely my experience so far, over the course of a few hours' playtime over the past day.  That said, I'm not above being nit-picky here... after all, this is a paid service.

So, first, the "founder's kit" hardware... nice little package, with the bare essentials to get started (outside of a phone that's required to go through initial setup on both the Chromecast Ultra and Stadia controller, the need for which is understandable but unfortunate).  I don't care for how the Chromecast dangles from my TV's HDMI port, but, for as often as I muck about behind the TV, it's not horrible, I suppose.  The controller I generally like... very similar layout to an XBox controller, and it's a decent weight in my hands.  However, it's got two differences that annoy me.  First, no removable batteries, which means Yet Another Charger in the house, and, without knowing the lifespan of the included battery, that means charging it after every play session (and removing it from the charger promptly to preserve battery life, per Google's instructions), or risk losing your ability to play midway through a session, for as long as it takes to recharge.  Second, they added buttons for Google Assistant (which is thankfully non-functional at the moment) and taking screenshots (which unfortunately does work)... and they were added below their equivalents of start and select buttons on the face of the controller, meaning that I often press one of the new buttons if I'm trying to press one of the old buttons blindly.  If any Google hardware engineer is out there, do a vertical swap of those buttons in future, please!

But enough about the hardware, you want to know how it plays, right?  I'm not getting into "X milliseconds of lag" territory here, there's plenty of that elsewhere.  But it's worth noting mitigating factors that might matter to you before I go into too much detail.  First, I'm older (Gen-X old, not Boomer old or older), so I literally might not notice fine differences in input delays and the like.  Second, I'm in an urban setting, so I have decent internet (if you can ever call Comcast "decent"), but not so thoroughly packed that the local network is severely oversubscribed, so Your Mileage May Vary.

Let's start with the Chromecast/Stadia controller option.  For all the combined setup of things took me the better part of an hour, once it was set up everything worked well.  Of particular note, since I know how much trying to stream anything interactive over wireless sucks from my past experiences with Steam Link, I made sure to use a wired connection for my Chromecast.  Well, let's say "wired" connection, since it's going through an ethernet hub and a through-the-house-wiring adapter before it reaches my router, but any timing issues added by that combination should still be vastly better than what I know of wireless streaming for this purpose.

As for individual game experiences, I have only tried the "free" games with the Pro subscription to this point.  Destiny 2 was quite playable, with no framerate issues and responsive controls (outside of being maybe "over-responsive" when using the analog stick as a mouse pointer in some menu screens)... it was very much like having a local console to play on.  I had more issues with Samurai Shodown... not on the display side so much, but the controls weren't doing it for me.  Basically, I could pull off "regular" maneuvers without any great grief, but some of the more advanced things were all but beyond me, even in the tutorial screens.  However, I can't swear that that's a Stadia thing and not a game thing... for me, Samurai Shodown is a sprite-based affair from the '90s, and the current version felt much more ponderous than I was expecting.  Whether that's something about the game itself changing over 20+ years, or Stadia input lag causing havoc, or me just getting older, that I can't narrow down without playing the game on another system.  Maybe I'll revisit that when Shodown hits XBox Game Pass (since I figure that's all but inevitable, now that it's been a free game on Stadia).

The other thing I've tried so far is playing Destiny 2 on my ethernet-wired PC with a wired XBox controller for about an hour.  Generally, no major problems there, but I did see a couple of frame skips briefly at one point in a mission, so it's not nearly flawless yet.  Still, again, it was an entirely playable and enjoyable experience.

Long story short, I actually like it so far... depending on things like how the pricing structure evolves with competition, I could see myself using Stadia as my "main" gaming system, with Steam for cheap/odd games and Switch for on the road and/or "twitchy" games, but we'll see how this all pans out in the coming months.

Watching BoxThrone: Fail or Flail?

I posted last month about my experience ordering a BoxThrone game storage shelving system, including my eventual "settling" for parts they had on hand, for fear I would never see my order successfully completed.  While I'm still pleased with the final assembled product I have on hand, there's always that nagging doubt... maybe, if I had just held on for just a little bit longer, everything would have turned out fine without all the drama involved, that sort of thing.  To use a bit of a metaphor, it's a bit like riding on a train, seeing the bridge up ahead is out, hearing the brakes engaging, but thinking they're not strong enough to stop the train in time... so you jump off, suffer a few cuts and bruises on the landing, then watch transfixed as the train tries to stop in time.

So, I went back and checked their website, now that my old "wave" (and the one following it) should have been finished.  If the website is to be believed (thanks once again, Wayback Machine), the answer is no.  At least, it says it's "Arriving at warehouse/sorting" now, so there's some chance the remaining customers will be getting their goods non-biblically-soon... or it could even be that everything's shipped out already, and they just haven't updated their website (not super likely, but it's possible).  Still, looks like that locomotive is tipping into the gorge, so I'm quite glad I got off when I did now.

Update:  It's now the 4th, and, while their website hasn't changed, I can verify that they're shipping product.  Unfortunately, I can verify that because I got a surprise package.  They accidentally shipped part of my original order that, by rights, I shouldn't have gotten under our last deal, specifically the "long" shelves.  Thankfully, they weren't any more eager to deal with returning them than I was, so I now have everything I originally ordered, and then some, for all I won't have any use for the long shelves until/unless I break down the entire unit again and set it up in a different setting.

Quick games update

I just realized that it had been a while since I posted anything game-related.  Heck, I hadn't even updated my "games that have my attention" block since I finished .hack//G.U., and that's been a couple of months now.  So, without further ado, here's what's up in video-game-land.

Warframe - still playing it, well over a year since I started, still enjoying it, and that's nothing short of amazing.  If you've never tried it, and you like shooter-y games, you really should... free to start, and it doesn't have to be expensive to play and enjoy long-term.  Me, I end up spending about $20 every 3 months or so.

No Man's Sky - so, yeah, I double-dipped on this one, caught a decent price on a XBox One physical copy on Amazon.  Do love me some Steam streaming, but a controller with a proper right analog stick is a must for this sort of game, and the 4K UHD stuff is a nice bonus.  I just wish I didn't feel the need to dedicate an extended play session to even start up the game, but there's just so much there there.

Disgaea 5 - a game series with a similar long-play-session issue, but I finally have a way around that... picked up a Switch Lite when it came out.  Now I can basically pause the game at any time, and come back exactly where I left off... mid-Item World for example.  I will finish this game (well, for certain values of "finish" at least... let's say complete the main story line at least, since I know there's a lot of activity that opens up after that point in these games).

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - how can I have a Switch and not have this game to mess about with?  I don't know that I will ever find a need to get involved with the DLC fighters in this game... heck, I've barely touched what's already there, but I'm still thoroughly enjoying it.

BoxThrone: Lovely product, shame about the business model

Pictured on the left is something I consider a thing of beauty.  Yes, that's a shelving system dedicated to board game storage, replacing the "pile in a closet, plus a few here and there" storage model I've been using for years.  A place for (nearly) everything, and everything in its place, easily accessed, and with room for further additions... truly, I wish I could say "go buy yours now" without reservation.  Unfortunately, there's a huge reservation I have to pass along as well.

You see, this concept originally started out as a Kickstarter project, before being rolled out as a stand-alone business.  Unfortunately, they decided to stick to a custom-order model, doubtless to not have to deal with managing/storing stock... but that means that, if anything goes astray, it impacts the customers directly.  With overseas manufacturing involved, well... things can get out of hand.

And so, to the story of my order experience.  I ordered a shelving package in late April, as part of "Wave 3" of their pre-order system, assuming that, between the Kickstarter and prior "waves", they should have most of the bugs ironed out.  At that time, the latest delivery date listed was in mid-July, which I thought to be a bit long to wait, but, for a custom solution that perfectly addressed a problem I was having, it was tolerable.  I was pleasantly surprised, then, when I got a shipment notice in early June.  Unfortunately, due to limitations with their order tracking system, I could only see the one tracking number for the three boxes that were sent along, and furthermore no indication that it was a partial shipment.  So, I merrily assembled what had come so far, only to discover that the actual shelves were the part that was missing.  After emailing in and verifying that it was, in fact, a known-partial shipment, I felt mildly let down... but, with the remainder slated to show up the following month, I decided to leave what assembly work I had done untouched, and just work around the nuisance of the frames taking up space for that long.

Then, things started going sideways.  The mid-July delivery date became an end-of-July delivery date, then the end of August, then the end of September, each delay coming as the last deadline was fast approaching... unfortunately, I didn't think to do this when I first ordered, but I had the Internet Archive Wayback Machine copy their shipping FAQ after the second delay, so you can see that here.  Then, in early-mid September, they delayed once again to the end of October (which is what their site says today, thank you Wayback Machine)... and, frankly, I'd had more than enough of this saga by then.  I won't go into the whole back and forth involved, but it turns out that the main sticking point on my order was that I had ordered some longer shelves for the space between the frames (if you look closely, I've got a few obnoxiously-long games that would have been lovely to put on their own shelves in the middle).  They had some stock of their regular shelves on-hand, in off-colors from the frames I'd already received, that they were willing to send along instead of the original shelves ordered, an offer I readily accepted.

So, yeah, now that I've got my shelves, I'm a happy camper, but I sure paid a premium for them in stress.  If they look like something you would like... honestly, I'd say wait until next year, and see whether they manage to make good on their current "waves" in a timely manner (Wave 5 currently has a 15DEC19 last delivery date)... or better still, wait until they're able to run under a "order what we have in stock" model rather than a "pre-order and we'll try to get things to you on time" model.  But, at the end of the day, it's your money and sanity to risk, so, if you want to jump in now, here's the link to the BoxThrone website.

Sony class action settlement update

In their grand tradition of "not quite a year between doing something noticeable to the general public", the folks running the class action settlement just tacked a little addendum onto the saga I last posted about back in November.  For reasons unstated (but that I expect boils down to "enough people couldn't be bothered to deposit a $10 check that they had too much money left over to keep"), they sent me another check, this time for a whopping... $3.02.  That makes the total I've gotten so far $13.09, out of the "up to $65" originally promised.  At least, this time, my credit union has some updated ATMs that let me deposit this little gem without needing to actually go inside the building, so there's that.

In not-entirely-unrelated news, I also just got a Nintendo Switch Lite, which will let me play some games like Disgaea 5 that I would otherwise have had to buy a PlayStation 4 to play.  Not that Sony gear is entirely off the table now, but I'm still going to investigate alternatives thoroughly before I go that route again.

Latest for the no-buy list: Ford

It's not like I buy a car often these days (or heck, even that I'm in the market for a car right now)... but, last time I did, I was able to buy new, and took the time to compare the offerings of the various "mainstream" auto manufacturers.  Sure, the type of car, miles per gallon, aesthetics, price and the like are all important factors, but one of the big ones (that doesn't have an easy gauge on any spec sheet or manufacturer website) is quality of build.  You pretty much have to weigh the history of the company's products over a substantial time frame, with more weight given to more recent products.  For much of my life, Ford has had... well, at least an image problem.  Whether it's the old crack about Ford standing for "found on roadside dead", or the unfortunate design issue of the Pinto (which, for those of you not old enough to remember, made rear-end collisions a potentially explosive situation), or anecdotes from friends and acquaintances about, for example, axles breaking on newly bought trucks, Ford has long had a bit of dodginess about it.  Heck, they even tried to counteract that perception, some years back, with their "at Ford, quality is Job 1" slogan.  Long story short, all else being equal, I would have probably required a significant price difference in the Ford's favor to buy it over another manufacturer's vehicle, but it would still have been a possibility, up to today.

What changed today, you might ask?  Well, the Detroit Free Press put out an investigative article detailing how Ford knowingly put vehicles with flawed transmissions out on the market, and did their best to cover up that it was a known-flawed design after the fact.  There really couldn't be a more glaring red line never to be crossed by any manufacturer of any product (and yes, I include the software industry in that, for all it seems like almost common practice there).  That's a betrayal of trust that should have significant legal consequences... whether it does or not, I'm quite certain I will never buy a Ford from here out, or sign off on one being bought by any company I work for, simply because I can't envision how Ford can ever convince me that they've fixed the culture that caused this problem to arise.  It's bad enough that I'm going to have significant qualms about even considering the products of any other manufacturer that's partnering with Ford in any way, for fear their ethos of "it doesn't matter if it works right, ship it" might have somehow infected their partner.

So, yeah, it's a little sad (Ford being all but synonymous with "American auto manufacturing history"), but Ford's dead to me, barring some amazing, unforeseeable, substantiated turnaround hereafter.