Category: Gaming

Intro

Valve’s Steam Deck has been evolving at a rapid pace. At launch, there were just a handful of games that were certified for the Linux-based system. Proton, the software bridge that runs Windows titles on the device’s Linux operating system, worked for some games. Not so much for others.

Fast forward and we now see numerous titles certified to run on the Steam Deck. Proton has been updated and improved in countless ways over the last few months. More games are auto recognized and run without issue or complex setup. There are still struggles with games that feature anti-cheat solutions like Destiny 2. As in, most competative multiplayer games require that you abandon SteamOS and install Windows.

The Story

The problem that kicked this post off for me was EA recently ending support for the Origin game launcher. Steam Deck players with EA’s games (like SIMS4, the $1000 + monster I can’t afford to re-purchase) were using the Origin launcher running in Proton to access EA’s catalog. It was a clunky install process, but it worked. The key was that you downloaded and used a controller template. The magical template mapped the Deck’s sticks, trackpads, and buttons to the keyboard and mouse inputs the game needs. Without this functionality, you would need an external keyboard and mouse to play.

I started up the Origin launcher and was presented with a forced update to EA’s Desktop App (their new launcher). I clicked ok and was surprised to see the update install and the game launch. It even played and saved. Stuff went south when I exited. When I tried to open the game again, nothing worked.

I edited the Orgin shortcut in Steam to point at the new EA Desktop (EADESKTOP.EXE) and forced it to the Proton Experimental mode. This let the game start up far enough to sign-in to the new EA desktop app but when you tried to open SIMS 4 it errored out saying that it was “missing services”.

Next I tried installing the new EA Desktop separately, as an app in Steam and got it running. I attempted to copy that installations’s files (including the services folder) over the same directory in the recently upgraded SIMS 4’s location. I had hopes that I could avoid re-installing and dealing with the saved games.

It was close, but no joy. The game wouldn’t get out of the startup screen, the green diamond spins forever. I’m used to dealing with SIMS4 and tried all the tricks. I even cleared the options.ini and deleted the Proton files. Nothing helped.

Eventually, I re-installed SIMS 4 using a pristine, working installation of EA Desktop. I opened SIMS 4 and played through long enough to save. I overwrote that save location with the save folder structure from the failed upgrade’s save folder. All of this lets the game play in Desktop mode. Without the fancy controller template that makes it possible to play the game on the go. If you open the game from Game mode it never fully launches, displays various errors about your video card, etc.

Eventually, I was able to get the game to run in Desktop mode with the controller template from the previously working Origin install. Read on for step by step instructions. Other wise, this tale has a happy ending. The game plays using the controls built into the Steam Deck. There’s no extra interpretive layer like Lutris slowing it down or breaking on-line functionality (item downloads).

Step By Step

Warning: This process is complex, tedious, and requires interacting with data that may not be backed up. Variations in software may result in your experience and results being different than mine. Proceed at your own risk.

Step one is to install all updates in both game mode and Desktop mode. I highly recommend connecting an external mouse, keyboard, and monitor if possible. If not, pressing the Steam button + X opens the on-screen keyboard in Desktop Mode. To visit desktop mode; Steam button-> Power-> Switch to Desktop-> Wait for the initialization.

When desktop mode (a full KDE Linux GUI Shell) loads, open the Discover application from the icon that looks like a blue shopping bag, then click the updates button. Use the Update All button in the upper right. Reboot the Steam Deck then check for updates again. Continue until there are none left. Always check for updates is the golden rule of PC gaming.

In Desktop mode, open Steam (usually running in task tray) and go to the Library. Make sure you are showing all software and search for “Proton”, install Proton Experimental if it isn’t already.

Open the web browser and visit EA’s site to download the new EA Desktop installer (for Windows). https://www.ea.com/ea-app. Once that download completes, return to the Steam Library. Use the menu at the bottom to Add A Game and choose Add a Non-Steam Game from the menu.

Browse to the /home/deck/downloads folder, set the file type selector to All Files and click the file EAappInstaller.exe

Choose Open, then on the next screen verify the EAAPPINSTALLER.EXE is still selected and click the Add Selected Programs button.

Now back in the Steam Library, find the app you just added in the list of software (check filters if you don’t see it) and select it once. Click the COG icon on the right of the title screen and go to Properties. Rename the shortcut to EA Desktop (do not change the paths yet).

Go to the Compatibility menu and check the box to Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool and set the drop down to Proton Experimental.

Click the small X in the right hand corner of the Properties screen to close it and click the Play button in Steam on your EA Desktop shortcut. It should open and begin the installation of EA Desktop. Take the default settings and Next, Next, Finish your way to the end. When it opens, sign-in with your EA account user name and password.

Wait for the EA Desktop App to fully install and sign-in. Be sure that it is operating normally (touch-screen controls mouse if pads don’t) then close it. Make sure you click the stop button in Steam to fully exit the application. You should not see the Red EA App icon next to your clock. If you do, the app is still running. Reboot your Deck to force it to close.

Next we will be altering the path of the shortcut to point at the EA Desktop App instead of the installer. I recommend locating the file in the Dolphin Explorer before trying to edit Steam. Open it from the Folder icon on the task bar or look in the Start Menu. Browse to /home/deck/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata and sort the files by Modified date. Go into the newest folder, it should be your EA Desktop App install. The folder name will be a long series of numbers mine is 3622285163, but I think they are randomly generated (screen shot below).

Open the newest number folder and continue to pfx/drive_c/Program Files/Electronic Arts/EA Desktop/EA Desktop/EADesktop.exe do not open the file, just verify that its there and note your app ID number. Copy the path if you are able to (external keyboard and mouse).

Now still in Desktop Mode, open Steam and go to the Properties of the EA Desktop App again. Use the browse button and make your way to the EADesktop.exe we located above. Selecting the exe should automatically update the Start In folder, if not set it to the same folder.

Now close the Shortcut screen with the X in the right corner and Play the EA Desktop App from Steam. The EA Desktop App (not the installer) should open and sign-in (assuming you saved your username and password). Use the EA App to Install SIMS 4 just like you would on any other system.

Even if your are upgrading from Origin and already have the SIMS 4 installed, you still need to re-install it from this working version of the EA Desktop App. I tried multiple ways to get the system to recognize the already installed game without success (see story section above). I got a little further each time and could probably make it work, but I would be concerned about stability and future updates or modifications.

When the download and install finishes, open/play SIMS 4 from inside the EA Desktop App. You need to play the game through basic character creation and picking your first house before you can save which we need to do once. Again, I am assuming that you have connected an external mouse and keyboard. We don’t have a template loaded for the Deck’s controls yet. Once you get far enough to save the game hit escape and open the options menu. Set the graphics options to your liking close that window, then and save the game (this creates the folder structure we need, do not skip).

Close SIMS 4.

If you are using this guide to install EA Desktop and SIMS 4 for the first time you can skip down to configuring the controller template.

If you are upgrading from a failed forced update we have some file work to do. Make sure the EA Desktop App is fully closed (should not see app tray EA icon). Open Dolphin Explorer and find your original install folder ID.

If you still have the Origin shortcut in Steam, go to its properties and copy the path to the folder ID number (/home/deck/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/2796509174/), you can paste it in Dolphin’s address bar and go straight to the location. If the paste trick gives you trouble just note the folder ID number and browse to it. Then continue on to pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/My Documents/Electronic Arts/ you should see a SIMS 4 folder. That is where your saved game and downloaded items are located. Right click on the SIMS 4 folder and copy it.

Paste the folder into the corresponding location for your new working SIMS 4 installation. I like to rename the existing SIMS 4 folder to (blank install) and keep it just in-case I need a base line later. Open the EA Desktop App from Steam and start the game. You should be able to resume playing where you left off.

At this point you should have a fully functioning install of SIMS 4 and the same technique should allow you install basically any other EA Game. You will always use the shortcut to open EA Desktop and start the game from there.

Desktop Controller Template:

To setup the controls in Desktop mode is relatively easy. In Desktop Mode, Open Steam and click the COG for EA Desktop App. Go to Manage -> Controller Layout. Use the menu to Edit your layout. This can be very, very tedious to do manually due to the sheer number of controls used by SIMS and PC games like it. Fortunately there are plenty of community templates to get you started.

If you are coming from a previously working Origin installation, you can export those controls you loved, as a template. From there you can import them to the new EA Desktop App. Use the COG next to Edit Layout to access the Export function they’ll show up in the search menu for other games after you’ve saved them.

Delete the old failed install folder using Dolphin to free up several gigabytes of space after you have verified your save games are working from new location. That’s as far as I have taken the project. The game runs, and my thousand plus hours of save files are there. If you enter cheat codes in SIMS 4, keep a Bluetooth keyboard handy when you first start the game. I have not found a workaround for this. The on-screen keyboard is not able to enter text into the game’s cheat box. If you know of a fix please hit me up in the comments.

I suspect it is possible to create some type of shortcut directly to the games themselves and use the launch options to ensure EA is running but I haven’t gotten that far. Hopefully the fancy things in Proton Experimental that let this technique work will make their way to the Game Mode run times in the near future. Even if they don’t, the game is fully playable and portable this way.

Research I used for this solution:

Reddit – https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/ugcbxn/using_ea_play_on_steam/

GitHub – steamdeck-tricks/ea-app.md at main · kageurufu/steamdeck-tricks · GitHub

If you have a 1080 or newer Nvidia GPU (Graphics Card) in your Windows gaming PC, you can play your desktop’s games on almost any screen in the house that you can pair a controller to. Modern Nvidia graphics cards are designed to support streaming video games to the Nvidia Shield series of devices. Unlike typical remote desktop options, the Shield console protocol known as “Gamestream” offers high performance remote play of games over high-speed Wi-Fi.

A group of developers have written a universal Gamestream client app named Moonlight. The free software will let you stream your desktop games to numerous tablets, phones, consoles, and computers. The latency is low enough that I am able to play on-line multiplayer games with my equipment. The performance you experience will vary widely depending on the host system specs, client device capabilities, and the network underpinning it all.

If you are considering a Moonlight / Gamestream setup, be aware that Nvidia has announced they are removing Gamestream from Shield devices. Not discontinuing, but actively removing. I haven’t seen an official answer on if the protocol will be removed from their GeForce Experience software on the PC.

Removing the streaming option from the GeForce Experience software would stop Moonlight from working. If that happens, or if your GPU is another brand, you can use software named Sunshine to host your stream. See their GitHub at https://github.com/LizardByte/Sunshine for the downloads and instructions. The difference between using Gamestream or Sunshine versus something like Steam Link is that the Gamestream options supports any game from any store, rather than just Steam.

To get started with the NVIDIA solution (easiest) you will need to download and install the newest version of GeForce Experience that matches your video card from Nvidia’s download site. I highly recommend reading though Moonlight’s excellent documentation and setup guide @ https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-docs/wiki/Setup-Guide. It will step you though the entire setup and device pairing process.

The Moonlight application for your device(s) should be available in it’s associated app store. If you have one of the rare devices that does not feature the app in its store, check the Moonlight download page at https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-qt#downloads.

Download, install, and run Moonlight’s Internet Hosting Software to automatically configure the Windows defender firewall on your gaming PC. The tool will also attempt configure your network’s firewall to allow Gamestream access to your computer from the Internet. For the Internet part to work, your Internet firewall must allow the UPNP protocol, or be running IPv6.

Warning: Some IT Experts consider UPNP to a be a security risk. To manually configure your network for Internet streaming allow the following network ports: TCP 47984, 47989, 48010 and UDP 47998, 47999, 48000, 48002, 48010 between the server and client devices. All of the network setup, including manual firewall setup tips are documented @ https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-docs/wiki/Setup-Guide#streaming-over-the-internet

If you have programable network equipment and are familiar with it, enable Multicast DNS on your network. It allows your network devices to communicate by name instead of IP addresses when you do not have a local DNS server. While you are in there, enable IGMP Snooping, it lets your switches forward packets to groups of devices more efficiently, which frees up those resources for other duties.

In some cases, the activation of the rumble effect causes the client app to crash at the moment the buzz should be activated by the in-game action. I disable the rumble feature as a result. I also frequently disable HDR support. You can see the difference it makes in the graphics, but it also causes instability (dropped frames and lagged controls) on my setup.

If you are experiencing issues, try adjusting the client application settings to compensate. Generally speaking, you can improve stability by lowering the resource demands of the software. Done by turning off toggles and lowering numbers in the app’s graphics settings menu.

I frequently experience an issue with some on-line games in which the client abruptly returns to the home screen within a few minutes of starting a match. I am usually able to reselect the game from the Moonlight Menu and resume the same game session. I have not discovered the cause, or precise pattern of occurrence for this issue yet.

The process for adding games is well documented in the Moonlight setup guide linked to above. Experience has taught me to publish shortcuts created from the game’s launcher, rather than the game’s direct exe file. Multiplayer authentication and anti-cheat systems stay happy that way.  In most of the launcher apps like Steam, Xbox, and EA Desktop you can create a shortcut for a game by right-clicking on it in the app’s library.

To keep the client game carousel looking clean, I use image search and my device’s screen clipping feature to grab a sample of each game’s cover art which I save as a .PNG. I put the images in a folder, each named for the corresponding game. Then on my PC, in the GeForce Experience App, I assign the appropriate image to each game by selecting the Edit Button under Settings -> Shield -> Games & Apps. Click the Box Art space for the game and browse to the folder I saved the box art snips in. While I am in this location, I edit the name to something short to prevent messy line-wrapping on my Moonlight device’s screen.

To use your devices native screen resolution in games you’ll need to create it on your desktop first. The Moonlight client app tells you as much when you enable the feature in its menus. To create a custom resolution, use the GeForce Control Panel. You should fully understand the risks to your monitor before proceeding and are doing so at your own risk.

Every game that I have tested so far works well using Moonlight. I’ve played AAA titles like Cyberpunk and Call of Duty, along with emulators like Dolphin. Gamepass PC games, Steam games, EA Desktop games, and even Ubisoft games, all work. You can play either with a controller, or with a mouse and keyboard connected to the client device. I find the freedom to play my games from any location in my home to be worth the trouble of getting it all working. It takes between one and four hours depending on your experience and the speed of your systems and connections, good luck.

If you want to get ahead of the download storm, check Steam. I was able to pre-download the game starting at 7:00 PM Central Time. I’m not able to launch it, but it is ready to go for tomorrow.

I have always been a big fan of racing games. I started with the classics like Pole Position and Outrun and have been playing them ever since. I almost always have a racing game installed on my smartphone. There have been plenty of excellent options over the years. The Real Racing and Asphalt franchises have been some of my favorites.

Recently, I stumbled across Grid Autosport in the Google Play store. I had played a few of the Grid titles on my XBOX so I opted to give it a shot. The game was $10.00. It seemed to be a high price when comparing options in the store, but it has no micro transactions after the initial buy which I prefer. The $10.00 fee also includes texture, track, and car pack downloads that were available the first time I started the game.

It turns out that ten bucks is a steal given how good Grid Autosport is. The game’s career mode follows the well established class based, earn your garage path, made famous by the likes of Gran Turismo and Forza. What helps set Grid Autosport apart is the number of racing types available beyond that traditional career mode. Everything from Drag racing to Demolition Derby and Drifting are available modes. I’ve had the game for weeks and haven’t managed to try them all yet. Sadly, there’s no multiplayer option.

The difficulty options make it easy to tune for your style of driving and skill level. I like to aim for a challenge in which winning appears possible but not probable. There are options for disabling the hud and locking the camera to in-car modes along with turning ideal lines, braking assist, traction control, and others. Besides adjusting how much the game is helping your driving, the AI competition also has its own difficulty levels. When tuning the driving experience, you are increasing or decreasing the XP bonus received for completing the run.

The tilt controls, vibration, and unique touchscreen-sliding throttle combine to deliver a satisfactory level of car control immersion. Twisting the phone in space like a wheel feels more like driving than using a gamepad to me, but the later is fully supported via Bluetooth or cable. The motion controls in Grid are exceptionally accurate, drifting around corners at high-speed feels risky but can be accomplished. The haptic feed back manages to provide some sense of road feel, especially when you encroach on the edge of the track or while traversing surfaces like cobblestone.

The graphics are good enough to justify hooking my phone up to a bigger screen and playing with a controller. I’ve used Android’s wireless streaming option to play on my living-room screen more than once. The experience is on-par with an Nintendo-Switch running in docked mode. On my Galaxy Fold 3, turning the graphics to their maximum, drops my FPS from sixty to thirty. I tend to run the game on the mid-settings because of this. Smooth is better than pretty and the expression of speed is more defined, for me.

There are 100 realistic tracks based on real-world venues and locations. The scenery and environments are exceptional in all the ones I have raced on so far. There are a wide variety of track surfaces and weather elements. NPC fans fill the stadiums and city streets to cheer you on, mountains are majestic, and coast lines glimmer. Sun glare, grime on the windshield, and other touches lend themselves to the realistic environmental experiences the developers were clearly aiming for.

There are also 100 cars in Grid. Multiple driving disciplines like touring, super-car, or open wheeled mean there’s always something new to get into. There’s even a class of racing UTEs, the El Camino style of truck-car you hardly see anymore. The detail in each machine’s exterior is exquisite. I chose to download the optional HD texture pack. The sheetmetal and paint jobs are photo-realistic after you install the add-on. Vehicle interiors are accurately scaled but otherwise lackluster.

The physics feel great. Cornering speeds match my expectations for the type of car being slung around the track. Collisions with other drivers have appropriate levels of mass reaction and damage. The driving impact of that damage is another option that can be toggled on and off in the menus. I keep one driver profile configured for the type of “racing” that takes focus and a light touch to avoid over-driving and sliding into the grass. I have another for casual play where traction control and steering assist make distracted/Netflix driving easier.

As you can tell, I’ve been impressed by Grid Autosport. It would be a great racing game on any platform. The fact that it is always in my pocket is icing on the cake. I often find myself playing it while watching Netflix, or while waiting for things like my turn at the barber-shop.

The Holiday season is often a gamer’s favorite. New systems, new accessories, and new games are given and received all over the world. Depending on where you live, the weather is voting against your venturing outside, and there’s a good chance that you are off work for at least one extra day.

Many an online community got an infusion of fresh players over the last few days. Are you a gracious welcoming committee, or do you rain destruction on the fields of innocents?

If you are an established player, try to keep in mind what it was like to get started. Maybe don’t go full “pro mode” in the casual queues. Or at least not in every match. Your beloved game will fade to black if new players are unable to gain a foothold and feel like they are progressing.

If you are one of the beginners, brace for repeaded loss. It is a normal part of your initiation. Veterans have memorized the maps, ranked up their weapons, and have full armor. Grinding for all those hours has honed their skills to a razor’s edge. You will be an easy target until you rank up.

You can minimize the noob phase with study. I start with the single-player campaign to learn the ropes. Some story modes reward you with XP to boost your stats online. Most will run you through the various offensive and defensive tools along with the general gameplay scenarios. Many titles have a test range, which also helps.

If your new game supports spectating, it can also be a shortcut to getting up to speed. Watching on Youtube and Twitch are good ways to get an edge. For some of the more popular games, professionally led lessons are available.

I often find that the experienced players are less aggressive in their style of play. Preferring to wait for group pushes rather than rushing in alone is a trait often observed in veteran players. Knowing when to cut and run from a one-on-one engagement rather than pursuing is another.

There are often weapon and armor sets that are advantageous for people who are just getting started. In class-based titles, playing the medic can be a fast way to gain XP and to learn the nuance of team play. Playing your role can be key to gaining rank and moving up the leaderboards. Snipers are typically backline suppression, assault players should be mixing it up in the middle ground, and shot guns are good in CQB.

The newest entry in the Call of Duty franchise has proven to be a hit. The single player campaign features almost photo-realistic graphics and a compelling storyline that keeps you on-edge until the end. The multi-player offerings are on-par with the best of the best. Tight controls, skills-based matchmaking, and new gaming modes will keep you coming back for more.

Like many new games at launch, not everything has come up roses. PC players using NVIDIA GPU’s have experienced a wide range of problems from screen flickering to the game completely crashing. The newest GeForce driver (526.47) did not fix things, it made them worse. Advice from both NVIDIA and Activision has been to roll-back to or re-install older driver versions.

NVIDIA has released a HOTFIX driver to address the issues. HOTFIX drivers are not automatically downloaded. If you want to try the new driver. You will need to download it from this NVIDIA link and manually install it yourself. The installation is straight forward, download the file and double click to start the installation. I advise that you reboot when it is complete, even if you are not prompted to.

I’ve been playing with the new driver all day. The dark artifacts, white flickering, and crashes have stopped in both the campaign mode and multi-player.

My main gaming rig, the “Elder-Wand,” has been struggling to maintain 120 FPS at 4K in several triple A titles as of late. I’ve been holding off on upgrades while waiting for the GPU mess to sort itself out. After more than a year of waiting, I’ve decided to change tactics.

Running the benchmark utilities built into games like Tomb Raider, Gears of War, and Borderlands revealed interesting  data. The Kaby Lake CPU and 270Z chipset were  bigger bottlenecks than my 2080 Ti. Time to overhaul the old girl. After consideration and research, I decided to go with an Alder Lake i-7 and a few accessories.

While choosing the motherboard, I opted for keeping my DDR4 memory and existing nVME storage. Instead of upgrading those components, I would upgrade the cooling system to better support overclocking the graphics card. I felt like it was the best strategy to obtain the most performance I could out of the system. I chose a Lian Li Galahad 360 AIO CPU cooler and their UNI Fan SL case fans.

One major reason for choosing the Lian Li equipment was the need to find an in-stock CPU cooler that fits the new Alder Lake 1700 socket. The other is their innovative modular linking solution. UNI fans lock together and form a single controllable stack both in terms of the blade/motor control and lighting. Each stack of fans takes a single set of connectors (PMW/RGB) on the motherboard. The effect is striking and looks fantastic sitting next to the home theatre set up. My favorite pre-programmed pattern is the dripping rainbow. It reminds me of the Lava lamp from my childhood bedroom.

The installation of the new equipment was pretty straightforward. I was caught off-gard by how much pressure you have to apply to the CPU retainer’s handle on the new socket to lock it in place. I made it through the always nerve-wracking first boot with no issues. Windows 10 detected the new hardware on its own.

The motherboard I replaced was an MSI. I had stuck with the brand when I picked the PRO Z690-A WIFI DDR4. I had hopes of having an easier time with the software. It paid off! The MSI Center detected the new model, and Live Update took care of the rest. The Lian Li cooling system said it was compatible with MSI’s control software, and it is. Once I installed LConnect, MSI Center offerrered to control the cooling and lighting. I agreed.

So now the moment of truth had come. I had spent around $1000.00 and an entire day off on this little upgrade experiment. Was it worth it? The first thing I ran was Destiny 2. I went into the settings and pushed everything to the max. Before the upgrade, I averaged 😯 FPS; now, I was running at 100. I ended the game and used my GPU’s control app to boost the power, cooling, and clock cycles up by about 30%.

The AIO block removes most of the CPU exhaust heat from the case’s interior. The inside of the case is much cooler and hovers at 35°. The extra capacity allows me to overclock as long as I watch my telemetry. It took a while to get everything tuned, but eventually, I got the FPS average up to the 120 goal. Fantastic results if you ask me.

I jumped on the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate bandwagon at the very beginning. The service started out strong and has only gotten stronger. When they added game streaming to Android devices I knew that I had picked a winner. I had just started playing The Outer Worlds on my Xbox and the ability to play the same game with synchronized saves from my phone was fantastic. My Xbox and TV are in demand from my family so being able to play on something else was a big advantage.

Like the Switch, my phone’s screen could be a little small for a game that was designed to play on a TV or PC screen. The text was difficult to read and distant objects were a challenge to make out. It wasn’t a big enough problem to keep me from playing. I’ve played more of The Outer Worlds on my phone than on my Xbox. I don’t have a current Android tablet and wouldn’t purchase one just for game streaming. Instead, I gazed longingly at my Surface Go 2 and wondered how long it would be before I could use the service with it. I had already been streaming Steam games to it so I knew it would be perfect for Xbox games too.

It took a lot longer than I expected, but I got the invitation to participate in the cloud stream to PC beta a few days ago and have been putting to use. Like I thought, it is difficult to imagine a more perfect system for this experience than the Surface Go 2. It’s screen size, Wi-Fi 6, excellent speakers, and most of all it’s kick stand, make it a fabulous game streaming platform. Just pair an Xbox controller and you’re ready to get your game on anywhere there’s a good Wi-Fi signal.

As for the service, it does not disappoint. It runs from any HTML5 web browser. There’s no software to install, or configure, just go to https://xbox.com/play and sign in with your Xbox account. As with the Android streaming option, you’ll need fast Wi-Fi or 5G Internet and a Bluetooth Xbox controller. There is not currently any support for keyboard and mouse controls. A list of the cloud stream games will be presented, click the one you want to play. That’s it.

I picked up The Outer Worlds right where I had left off. It looked great, I was surprised that the service adapted to full screen with no artifacts or other visual issues. It was awesome in full screen, but I really enjoyed being able to drop down into a window once in a while so that I could keep an eye on my email.

Game play was smooth. There’s no counter, but I would guess it is between thirty and sixty FPS, depending on the game and scene. There is a barley detectable input lag even on a 1.2 Gigabit connection with less than a twenty millisecond ping. It is difficult to put into words. The lag doesn’t inhibit solo game play, but you do have to adapt to it. I am able to play Doom Eternal with almost zero issues. When I try Halo PvP matches I get slaughtered even though I usually come in near the top of the leaderboard on my actual Xbox. I feel like if I practiced enough in the streaming edition that I could make it to the middle, but I doubt that I’ll ever be winning any matches that way.

Are streaming services the future of all gaming? I think the industry really wants them to be. Who wouldn’t want a completely pirate proof way to distribute their work? From what I know of gamers, games, and network technology, I think streaming will eventually capture a large portion of the casual market, but it will struggle to overtake local media for competitive players. Its a nice option to have when your main console or system is busy though.

Many times when a new release is a mashup of other titles the results are abysmal. The ideas they borrow from more popular games are not implemented well and don’t form a cohesive experience. When they switch between the borrowed elements it can feel like you have changed games in the middle of play.

Immortals Fenyx Rising’s “design by committee” shows through in places. The title is a dead giveaway for the boardroom meetings that inspired the compromises. However, in this case Ubisoft seems to have limited their group decisions to mostly superficial matters.

The game itself is great. The world it takes place in is reminiscent of Breath of the Wild. You climb statues to reveal new sections of the incredibly large map. While you’re up there, a little maneuver reminiscent of Assassins’ Creed has you mark interesting locations on your map. Speaking of interesting locations, you will find Vaults that are similar to BoTW’s shrines, chests of loot, challenge quests, and collectible resources scattered everywhere. So much so, that I can’t imagine anybody but a professional having the time to 100% complete everything.

The combat system reminds me of the God of War series more than anything else. You are armed with a sword for quick strikes, an ax for heavier blows, and a bow for ranged engagements. Dodges and parries are available for defense. The weapons and armors feature unlockable upgrades and powerful combinations that make engaging multiple enemies easier. Eventually you’ll earn a sidekick that will fight along with you and other power ups that greatly enhance your lethality.

The enemies span the full gambit of evil creatures from Greek mythology. Gorgons, Harpies, Minotaur, Cyclops, and zombie soldiers will do their best to stop you from reaching your goals. There are also enraged bears, wild boar, and some crazy chickens thrown in for good measure. The fighting starts out simple and increases in difficulty as you improve your character’s abilities. Boss fights can be very challenging especially if you haven’t mastered all the abilities you have unlocked at the time.

The game is fully voice acted. A large part of its charm comes from the amusing banter of the narrators and NPCs. The story is fairly straight forward. You play Feynx, a lowly shield barer who is the only chance of restoring order to the Golden Isle before Mount Olympus is over run. The character creation system features a choice between male or female along with the usual face shape, hair styles, etc. You will unlock more options as you play. Your character’s look can be edited during play and micro transactions provide custom skins for almost everything.

The game’s graphics fall squarely on the cartoon side of things which keeps the play family friendly. I’m playing the game on a Switch. It runs fine and looks good on the small screen although text can be hard to read. When blown up to a big screen TV the graphics are a little on the blurry side but still playable. The pictures above are of the Switch on my TV. I haven’t noticed any serious lagging so far. I’ve also played the game on a friend’s PC, which of course looks much better. The game is available for Xbox, PlayStation, PC and the Switch. According to Ubisoft, if you sign into their cloud you should be able to transfer your saves between the various platforms, but I personally haven’t tried to yet.