PROJECT xCLOUD REVIEW | XBOX ON A PHONE?!

Well well well ladies and gentlemen, as if I haven’t just wrangled myself a place in Microsoft’s xCloud preview. So I thought, why not give you guys a hands-on review while I test it out. Before we get to the hands-on, how about a little bit of an introduction.

XCloud is Microsoft’s attempt to enter the cloud gaming space. Just like Stadia and GeForce NOW, xCloud aims to bring gaming to the masses by removing the need of expensive consoles or computers. The preview is currently focused on playing Xbox games on android phones but as the program gets updated, we could see more devices added.

So today were really just gonna have a mess around with xCloud, play a couple games, use a couple of peripherals and just see how it turns out. But first, I need to install the app on my phone and connect my controller to the phone, so we can get going.

I'm going to safely assume you know how to install an app and as for connecting the controller, it's just like connecting anything else via bluetooth. Once you’ve turned the controller on, be sure to hold the bluetooth button for a couple seconds. As the light begins to flash the controller should appear on your bluetooth connect list.

However, it didn’t quite work like that for me. Right so, it turns out only certain Xbox controller can connect to phones via bluetooth. These are the newer Xbox One S, and X controllers and the second series of Elite controllers. So my original Elite does not work in this.

Luckily my brother has an Xbox One S so we're gonna go stea... borrow his controller. So as you can see I've got the two controllers here, the Xbox One S and the Elite, now you can see on the Xbox One S here that the little bit round the Xbox symbol is attached to the actual main plastic body of the controller whereas on the Elite it is sort of a separate piece.

And that’s the main way you can tell whether your controller will be able to connect to your phone via bluetooth. So again, it's the ones with the plastic that is attached to the actual body of the controller. Right so now that I actually have a controller that will connect to my phone, we can actually try this out.

And alongside this I picked up a little contraption that will just hold my phone and my controller together, just to make it easier to play. Now while I was getting that, the app has installed so let's start it up and check out xCloud. When first booting up the app, the UI, a bit like GeForce NOW, is very basic and only offers up games and settings.

I feel it could leave some users feeling a little lost without any kind of tutorial or indication on what is offered. However, the main reason for the service is to allow you to stream games so all it really need to offer are the games. What it does do well is list every game available within xCloud in an A-Z format which is a very easy way to search through and pick the games you want.

The app creates a mini Xbox client, meaning you can open the dashboard and access your Xbox profile, friends list and even start a party chat. As this is a preview, there is no actual cost to using xCloud right now. However, when the service does launch I would expect there to be some kind of fee attached.

Now, being it Microsoft, I would also assume that when it does launch there will be some kind of xCloud, Xbox Live and Xbox Game Pass sort of overarching, total package that you can purchase. So when the service does launch look out for something similar to that.

The service currently has 50 games available to play. I haven’t had to purchase any of the games and because it is a preview, all the games are free to anyone using the service. It appears that Xbox partnered up with a number of companies to allow their games to be used in this preview program.

The range of games available is good, from AAA titles like Halo or Tomb Raider to smaller games like Hello Neighbour. I would safely assume that more games will become available when the service launches, especially games available in the Xbox Game Pass.

First and foremost, I just want to mention how in awe I am with what cloud based gaming is producing. I mean, my phone is usually used for Angry Birds or Solitaire but with GeForce NOW and xCloud we’re able to play triple A titles on our mobile phones.

With that being said, you are streaming a game, wirelessly over the internet and playing with a bluetooth connected controller. It would be unfair to expect flawless results but connection issues when playing games do impact your experience. If you’ve ever played on a big 50-inch TV with terrible input delay, you’ll know the feeling that xCloud gives you.

A mixture of bluetooth and wifi means your aiming doesn’t quite stop where you'd hope it would and jumping happens just a moment after pressing A. In terms of overall gameplay, this input delay won't cause major issues. Even playing Destiny or Halo, you can still consistently kill enemies, it might just take some adjustment time to this delay.

Again, attempting to play competitive matchmaking with any cloud gaming service is suicide but if this is the type of gaming you prefer, you probably already have a console or PC. I recommend a 5Ghz router and obviously the closer you are and the freer the network the better experience you’ll have.

Using mobile data is also possible and according to reports online, it uses around about 2GB of data for an hour of gaming. Game quality is very good, but when condensed to such a small screen it isn’t hard to produce decent quality. The only real drop in quality comes from any interruptions to your internet or signal, at least in my experience.

Overall, my experience with xCloud has been very positive. As a primarily Xbox gamer, it is an exciting development and one I hope continues to improve. XCloud allows me, to take some of my favourite games and play them almost anywhere. As long as the wifi or mobile data is good, I only need to carry my phone and an Xbox controller to be able to play my games.

The input delay and sometimes spotty connection does dampen that excitement, but when you're able to play Halo 5 on your phone, you can’t get too greedy. My hopes for xCloud going forward is that they can continue to expand the list of games and somehow improve responsiveness of the controller when bluetoothed to the phone.

All of these may be much more difficult to implement than I think but I'll leave that to the smart people at Xbox to work it out. And well that’s it, my hands-on review of xCloud. Now from what I've heard, there's a public beta coming very soon so keep an eye out for that and jump in when it does become available.