Google Stadia on lockdown

Whilst my son continues with his PS4 in the Gaming Room I created, I’ve been demoted to other areas of the house during the coronavirus lockdown.

Today though, I made use of that free Stadia Pro offer and pinched his PS4 controller.

I’m using my “half price Pixelbook”, which is actually a rocket-fast Dell Inspiron 13 – 5000 with an i7 CPU. It’s had the CloudReady Chrome OS plonked onto it (which took all of about 10 minutes) and the end result is this super-quick Chromebook

Anyhoo, I’m using it daily and loving the simplicity and the speed. So, it’s the perfect bit of kit to show you the online-gaming platform that is Google Stadia. I simply plugged in (via USB) a PS4 controller and fired it up – it detects the controller, tweaks all the graphics on-screen to match the controller and – although I haven’t paid for any of the games – it’s certainly buttery smooth. Here’s a look at the system in action as I take that much-needed tea-break in the garden…

It works really well, I must admit. But the real test was to give it to my son. He’s a big gamer and would never go near a laptop to play a game. I walked in with my Chromebook and his PS4 controller. It actually panned out quite well..

The Stadia Pro subscription I’m using here is currently still free for two months, so if you’ve got a browser and a spare controller, give it a try.