Top 10 Best game consoles of 2022

The Sony Playstation 5 is the most highly anticipated game console in 2020. It wasn’t hard to work this out, because Sony have almost consistently had the biggest sales success with their consoles since the mid-nineties, and the biggest fan base too. But where the Xbox is mostly a minor upgrade together with great hardware, Sony dare to take bigger steps, both for good and bad.

Impossible outside

We have to start with the really obvious and clearly negative thing. The PlayStation 5 is ugly as sin. If there had been a game console in the 1995 SF film Johnny Mnemonic it would have looked like this. Nineties futuristic that looked old and plasticky after a month. Lying down, the console looks like a giant white laptop, where the battery has swollen and cracked the entire chassis. Standing up, the most positive comparison is that it looks a bit like a router.

The design also makes positioning the console very difficult. Placing a game console vertically or horizontally has never been a problem before. But here, the curved sides of the console, make it unsightly and unstable when it’s lying down – so much so that the console includes a small stand to make it work at all.

What should also be said, even if it’s neither positive nor negative, is that the PlayStation 5 is big. Standing up, both the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 4 look like small, neat, portable consoles in comparison. However, width and height shouldn’t mean any serious problems if you want to put the console on your TV unit, just like the latest Xbox.

The controller of the future

With all that said, let’s get on to the positive stuff. Starting with the controller. Or the DualSense, as it’s called this time. It looks a bit as if you’ve taken the DualShock controller from a PlayStation 4 and glued a white plastic thing on it. Unlike the console itself, however, we say this with the utmost kindness, because it actually looks great.

The controller comes with the same motion sensor and touch pad that we know from previous versions. What is new is a built-in microphone and significantly improved vibration function with several different levels that actually make a difference.

The big new thing here are the adaptive shoulder buttons. Depending on what you’re doing in the game, they can be as “loose” as they were in previous generations, give increasing resistance as you push them in, or click a bit like a button. We were sceptical at first, but after a little while of using them, we’d dare say this is the console’s real killer feature.

The console of the future

The machine itself has support for everything you need, both now and in the future. The hardware is as lightning fast as promised, and we're pleasantly surprised by the speed at which both new and older games load. The games currently available that take advantage of the new graphics features may not do so completely, but they look really good.

We recognise the interface from previous generations of PlayStation, but everything has been given a facelift and there’s a host of new small functions here and there to make everything feel new and fresh (please take note for your next console release, Microsoft. This stuff matters). To demonstrate all the new functions of the hardware, flex its muscles a little and show off all the controller’s functions, the game Astro’s PlayRoom is included. This is a super cute platformer that does a great job of both serving up a big helping of nostalgia and showing off the new features.

On the game front in general, however, there’s not a lot going on. Certainly the big titles Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Sackboy: A Big Adventure are magical and customised for the new console, but they're also available on PS4. Demon’s Souls is exclusive to PS5, but it’s a remake of the same game for the PlayStation 3. Nevertheless, we still have to give Sony plus points for having a much stronger lineup for their new console than Microsoft, especially with the included game.

The PlayStation 5 has amazing power under the bonnet that’s just waiting to be fully utilised for many years to come. Despite that power, the console was whisper-quiet during our test period. The new controller delivers upgrades that really feel meaningful for future gaming. At the time of writing, just at the launch of both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, it’s clear which of the two feels like the real console of the future.

With the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo shows once again that you don’t need the best hardware to make an entertaining game console. Merging portable and desktop gaming with a whole host of new ideas is a winning concept.

Portable with built-in multiplayer

For the uninitiated, the Nintendo Switch may feel a bit strange and hard to understand, but you quickly get the hang of it.

Essentially, it’s a portable game console, not entirely unlike a Game Boy Advance in shape, but a bit bigger. The display measures 6.2 inches and is a touchscreen. This, plus its external dimensions, may mean you won’t just pop the Switch in your back pocket when you’re going out for the day, but it’s definitely portable.

The battery life varies depending on the games you play. The Nintendo Switch released in 2017 offered 2.5-6 hours of play time. In 2019, a new version was released, with the model name HAC-001(-01), where the only difference was better battery life that came in at around 4.5-9 hours. On each side of the screen are the controller sections, better known as Joy Cons. These are either attached to the console while you play, or you disconnect them and use them as separate controllers. If you have them loose, you can angle out a stand recessed into the back of the Nintendo Switch screen. The stand is a bit wobbly but allows you to place it on a table so you can free up your hands.

You can play with a controller in each hand, a bit like was once the case with the controllers for the Nintendo Wii. Or you can use the small plastic adapter included in the box to assemble the controls into a single unit. Many games are designed to run with just one of the controllers, allowing you to play with a friend without having to buy an extra controller, which is practical.

You also disconnect the controllers when you put the console in the supplied dock. This allows you to send the picture to a TV and play as if it was a desktop game console.

Lots of clever details

Since 2017, a lot has happened to the Nintendo Switch, and the console itself has been released in a new version, a Lite version, and now most recently with an OLED screen.

In addition, you can now add an adapter so you can use the controllers from your old Gamecube. In 2021, an update allowed you to finally pair a pair of Bluetooth headphones to the machine. In the past, there was only the cabled option.

Joy Con controllers also have built-in motion sensors, like the controllers for the Nintendo Wii, as well as a simpler camera and microphone. This means there are lots of fun options for controlling your games, especially through Nintendo’s own Labo series.

Gets a long way on meagre hardware

Games for the Nintendo Switch can be divided into three broad categories: Nintendo's own, third-party and retro/indie games. As you’d expect, Nintendo’s own games are high quality and work really well on the hardware available – in practice a chip like the one in mobile phones 2016.

Retro and indie games have been a huge success for the Switch, and in the case of indie games, it’s usually the case that such games are released on PC and Nintendo Switch at the same time, while Xbox and PlayStation have to wait.

The retro games are good too. Here Nintendo has solved the issue by offering a reasonably cheap subscription service that allows you to access many old NES and SNES games. In the autumn of 2021, this service will be extended to include Nintendo 64 and Sega Mega Drive games – a nostalgic gold mine. In addition to this, there is a vibrant flora of retro games and new releases available from the online store.

Unfortunately third party games are largely made up of new releases. Of course, this is nice if you ‘haven’t played the games before, but most of the time they’re sold at full price for the Nintendo Switch while you can easily find them in the sale section for other consoles. At the same time, they often seem to be a kind of technology demo. A kind of “look, we can even get this game to run properly on a Switch”. Sometimes, like the Witcher 3 or Bioshock, the game works really well. In other cases, like Assassins Creed 3, the result is barely playable.

Despite the minimal hardware, the Nintendo Switch has proven to offer both great playing experiences and and frantic multiplayer fun from a machine that’s as unique as much of the games intended for it.

The Xbox Series S is the smallest of the new generation consoles. While Sony sell two identical Playstation 5’s – one with a disc player and one without – Microsoft have chosen to go down the budget route with their Xbox Series S. This means a lot of technical limitations, but depending on the type of player you are they may not even be noticeable.

Tiny console

One of the interesting things about the Xbox Series S is that it’s the only one of the new generation of gaming consoles that you can easily go out and buy in almost any store. The PS5 and the Series X are usually sold out and have been since their release, but it's relatively easy to get hold of this small machine.

This is probably because most people want to avoid buying what they view as the lesser version of a game console. And on paper, that’s exactly what it is. The Xbox Series S lacks a Blu-ray reader for games or films – though you can manage by downloading or streaming instead. At the same time, the storage space is almost half of what Series X offers: 512 GB compared to 1 TB. When it comes to sheer numbers and technical muscle, the Xbox Series S is about a third as powerful as the Xbox Series X, with a graphical computing power of 4 teraflops compared to 12. This is also clear when it comes to what the console can output. While there is support for 4K resolution in video apps such as Disney+ or Netflix, for games it’s restricted to a maximum of 1440p (2560x1440 pixels).

Which doesn't sound great. Especially as the previous generation's turbo variant, the Xbox One X, already offered 6 teraflops.

But what the Xbox Series S can boast of instead are its minimal dimensions. It’s almost as if you could glue a small screen on it and call it an overgrown Nintendo Switch. Not that it’s very important, but it does make it much easier to find space for this console than both its predecessor and the Series X. At the same time, it is, like its big brother, extremely quiet. This isn’t something that any of the Xbox One models could claim, particularly the X edition.

Huge range of games

We also have the same concerns here as we had about the Series X. Namely, that the whole thing doesn’t feel particularly next gen. The interface is identical to the Xbox One, with the only update in the last year being 4K resolution. The controller, apart from a share button, is also identical to the previous generation. Here, the PS5, with its new controller and new interfaces, does feel fresher.

So is everything about the Xbox Series S is bad, then? Actually it’s not. If you feel that all the technical chat is overwhelming or simply uninteresting, this is the machine you. The same applies if you want a huge range of games and at the same time to be future-proof for the games arriving tomorrow – then this is a cheap solution.

Because that’s pretty much the point. Of course, when we compare them side by side, games on the Series X and PS5 clearly look better, above all with more sharpness. But that’s only when you really study everything in detail. If you don’t do that, but just indulge in having fun with a game, you actually have no idea what resolution the game is running in – particularly not if you’re sitting a few metres from the screen.

There’s a slight worry that future games may look less good on the Series S, or that the leaner console will reduce the graphics quality compared to the PS5. But at the same time, we haven’t seen any such trends so far, so that concern is probably unjustified.

You can already play streamed games on the Xbox Series S, both via Microsoft’s own Xbox Cloud and Steam (and similar services) via the built-in browser. As streamed games grow, there’s no reason to believe that an Xbox Series S couldn’t be used to play games in 4K and with full graphics, even streamed. If you can do that with a Chromecast, a budget Xbox can definitely handle them.

Until then, there’s already a huge range of games in Microsoft's store. If you add the Game Pass game service, where you can play as much as you want of a really extensive library for a monthly fee, and the Xbox Series S is becoming increasingly attractive. Especially since the Game Pass is really good for both new and old titles, in a way that the PlayStation equivalent can only dream of today.

Buying an Xbox Series S means you aren’t getting the most high-tech machine in the neighbourhood, of course. But at the same time, you actually miss out on nothing. It's a console you can get your hands on today. You don’t have to buy a state-of-the-art TV to take advantage of it, it’s quiet and small, and with Game Pass you have more games available than you could possibly have time to play. That makes the Xbox Series S a perfect budget choice, both today and tomorrow.

If you own an Xbox, the Xbox Game Pass has been an almost obvious subscription choice for several years. Lots of new and old games for SEK 100 a month. Add a little more to the monthly cost and you also get the PC version of Game Pass, Xbox Live Gold, and a tonne of games from EA through what is called Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. That is already a really good offer for both PC and Xbox players. Since the autumn of 2020, there has also been a reason to get the Ultimate variant, and that reason is cloud gaming.

Wide range of games

Xbox Cloud Gaming, in many ways, follows what Game Pass looks like, even though you play the games through an app or via your web browser. For the monthly cost, you get a substantial range of games, which reasonably reflects what the range looks like for the PC version.

The service supports a wide range of gaming controls, as gaming controls are the most important, rather than the mouse and keyboard. This way, it doesn't matter if you don't have the latest Xbox controller at home, as a controller for Playstation 4 or the like also works.

Not much is required for hardware. If your computer has bluetooth (for the control) and a reasonably updated browser, you will be up and running. In the case of Android, the phone or tablet must run Android 6.0 or later, as 6.0 was released seven years ago. Because Apple is Apple, it doesn't work with the Xbox app like Android does. However, running the service via the Safari web browser is not a problem at all. The newer TV also supports it and, if you’re in that mood, so do Xbox One and Series S/X.

Besides registering an account and subscribing to the service, there is not much to more groundwork to do. Pair the appropriate control, log in to your account, and you’re ready to go.

Really smooth

It should be said at once that Xbox Cloud Gaming does not claim to stream the power of an RTX 3080 rig to your mobile (like Nvidia’s Geforce Now does). But at the same time, it doesn't have poor graphics or poor resolution.

Yes, it may lag here and there, but that happened when it was really chaotic in the game, while we were running via Wi-Fi with semi-bad coverage. With better conditions, or using an ethernet cable, we never experienced any problems.

What is a limitation, however, is local multiplayer. If the game supports it in downloaded and installed mode, it is still disabled in streamed form for some reason. Multiplayer in online mode, on the other hand, is never a problem.

If you also have an Xbox and have started a Game Pass game on there, and that game is also available on the xCloud (as it was called before), you will automatically have your saved file with you and can start playing

Xbox Cloud Gaming feels like the given choice, just like Game Pass does for Xbox or PC. We never had to fiddle with settings, worry much about internet speed, or really anything at all. Start the controller, open the site or app, and play. Maybe your game selection is entirely in the hands of what Microsoft makes available, but this is exactly how streaming games should work.

The Nintendo Switch Lite has a lot of things going for it. It has a slightly smaller screen than the standard Nintendo Switch – 5.5 instead of 6.2 inches, but with the same resolution. The battery life is about the same too, but many of the Switch’s unique characteristics are gone.

Focuses only on portability

It doesn’t include a dock to connect the Switch Lite to a TV, because there’s no support for one. This is a portable game console in every way. This also means you can’t remove the controllers, as they’re fixed to the console. The folding stand on the back of its bigger sibling has also been removed.

Other than that, everything’s pretty much as it has been on the normal Switch for a couple of years now. There’s no problem connecting extra controllers wirelessly, you still charge it with USB-C, and all of the games work. Well, the latter is partially true. If you have games that require separate controllers and motion control, things get a bit tricky, but you can do this by buying them separately.

Nintendo’s wonderful Labo cardboard folding workshop only partly works, because many of the constructions are intended to fit the screen part of the Switch.

Same advantages, same disadvantages

If we look at the Switch as a portable console, however, it’s fantastic. The smaller format makes it much nicer to hold and the fact that the screen is a bit smaller is never a problem. Even big games load and perform in the same way as they did on the original Switch.

Because you’re locked into portable mode, it’s worth knowing that this is one of the very best portable game consoles Nintendo have ever built.

All the same, sharing material between old and new Switch units isn’t optimal. Moving a game profile isn’t a problem, but although trying to share it (and games downloaded via that account) between two consoles is doable, it's a frustrating process that requires both a lot of time and constant connection to the internet to keep both consoles working.

A similar frustration, which also applies to the standard Switch, is that Nintendo deals with online stuff the same way that the rest of the industry did ten years ago. Impossible friend codes still appear instead of the online profile we’ve actually created. The store is very slow, difficult to understand and there are a few options to sort and navigate.

You don’t notice this if you buy your games in physical format. Digital purchases also work well, but the process for accessing anything online feels much more complicated than for the Xbox or PlayStation.

At the same time, it’s the games and the experience that’s most important. Over the years the Nintendo Switch has been around, a really strong game library has built up from both big and small developers. This means the Switch Lite was launched with what’s probably the most extensive game library in history – particularly for an entirely portable console.

The Nintendo Switch Lite is one of Nintendo's best portable consoles ever. The smaller size fits both younger players and those with larger hands. The main disadvantage is actually sharing purchased material between two consoles, and Nintendo should really have been able to make this easier. If they’d done that, the Switch Lite would have got full marks both as a portable console and extra family console.

The PlayStation 4 Slim, or PS4 Slim, or quite simply the now normal edition of the PlayStation 4 because the previous “fat” model has been discontinued – many fond names for the same thing. And this really is a favourite in the console world; one that’s now starting to reach veteran age and has a fantastic game library.

Slim version with new controller

Just as Sony did with all the previous versions of the PlayStation, the PS4 Slim is an intermediate model where it’s been possible to shrink the technology, resulting in a rather smaller console than the original. Not that it actually makes much difference, because the machine tends to sit hidden in a TV unit.

The updated hardware comes with an improved cooling system that means the machine is also significantly quieter than its big brother. But after a period of intense play it’s not exactly silent – as you’ll notice if you’re playing late at night on low volume. In fact Xbox have succeeded better here.

The console includes an updated version of the Dual Shock 4 controller. Looked at from the outside, you’d be forgiven for not seeing any differences, because they’re almost identical. But the built-in battery is a bit more powerful and now you have some dots on the analogue sticks that are intended to increase your grip.

Unfortunately, the Blu-ray player only plays normal discs, not 4K UHD films like the corresponding slim edition of the Xbox (and neither does the PS4 Pro, which can cope with 4K games).

The interface is the same as a normal PS4 – in other words simple and straightforward without too many confusing elements.

Mature console

The PlayStation 4 is approaching the end of the line, with the PlayStation 5 just around the corner. The PS4 Slim can cope with the same games – including with the amazingly successful PS VR virtual reality headset. This means that it may not be the console for you if you want the very latest technology – you might as well just wait for the PS5. But if you’re interested in a really substantial games library with some of the most influential titles of this generation of consoles, it’s a must-have. The games library is an extensive one, with something for everyone.

But if you play online a lot or want to take advantage of a subscription service for games, the PS4 lags behind the Xbox. Both matching and socialising in and around games are much more natural there. PlayStation Now is also a slow and rather meagre subscription service compared to the Xbox equivalent.

But if it’s single player games you’re after, the PlayStation 4 Slim is a mature machine with some of this generation’s very best exclusive games.

Ever since the release of the Nintendo Switch in 2017, there have been rumours of a Pro version of the console. When the Nintendo Switch Lite was released about two years ago, the whispers gained new momentum.

Now the “Pro” version of the Nintendo Switch is finally here, but it’s not quite what we’d expected. Instead, the Nintendo Switch OLED is a slightly more high end version, in the style of the various XL editions that Nintendo’s portable consoles usually have.

Same inside

Let’s deal with the big question first. The Nintendo Switch OLED is in many ways the same machine, with the same chip, as the normal Nintendo Switch. It’s by no means the Pro release many people expected, and this far into the life of the Switch there’s probably no point hoping for one either. Nor does it mean that the games that might be running poorly on a normal Switch will work better here, unfortunately.

Although the inside’s the same, you also get new features such as support for wireless headphones, which the Nintendo Switch got through a recent update. At the same time, the internal storage is actually twice as big, at 64 gigabytes. This means you don’t have to invest in a memory card out of the box. This is handy as the OLED model is about a hundred quid more expensive than its predecessor.

Even the outside looks pretty identical. The same Joy Con controllers still work and the dimensions should mean that the machine also fits in the various Labo cartons Nintendo has released over the years.

However, one new thing about the outside is the folding stand. It now runs across the whole machine and can be set steplessly in a variety of positions. The previous table-top stands felt, to say the least, wobbly and limited.

Fresh but not faultless screen

The biggest innovation is the screen. While the console itself has more or less the same external dimensions as before, the frames around the screen have become thinner, allowing for a larger screen. 6.2 inches has now become 7 inches, and with significantly better OLED screen technology, giving you better colours and deeper blacks.

It’s also here that Nintendo does its now classic XL manoeuvre. Because the screen is 0.7 inches larger, but the resolution remains at 720p, or 1280x720 pixels. This was a bit of a problem with, for example, the Nintendo DS XL, which did the same and produced some pretty fuzzy graphics as a result. We don’t really get the same experience here because the resolution is already high from the start, but at the same time, you can't expect a sharper picture.

The OLED screen also raises one of the machine's biggest questions. Because while OLED technology delivers a great picture, there’s always the worry of burn-in on the screen. This is caused by stationary objects on the screen, like interfaces in a game (the life meter, for example), as well as parts with high brightness.

Nintendo themselves say the Switch OLED is designed to last, but at the same time recommends that users always apply both automatic brightness and automatic shut-off when inactive.

The kind of features to move pixels or menu options to ‘wash’ the screen that you find on TVs are absent here. Although the risk of burn-in is quite small, it sounds a bit like Nintendo leaving the responsibility more to the user than trying to solve it themselves.

Updated dock

An advantage of OLED technology is that the display can use a bit less power. This is obvious on Nintendo’s new Switch, because battery life remains at the same level as the updated 2019 Switch, despite the larger screen. Of course, everything depends on the type of games you play, but you’ll get between 4.5-9 hours out of it.

The docking station, which allows you to connect the console to a TV, has also been updated. The actual docking process feels a bit more stable this time around. Inside the cover, Nintendo has removed the third USB port and replaced it with a network port for those who want to avoid Wi-Fi connection. However, the maximum resolution of 1080p in docked mode remains.

The Nintendo Switch OLED is in many ways the same kind of XL edition that the Nintendo DS and 3DS received some way into their lifecycles. We’re unlikely to see a Switch Pro. Instead it’s probably time for a new console generation from Nintendo – we’d guess this will be in 2023.

If you definitely need a wired network connection or a more luxurious screen when playing on the go, either as a first-time buyer or to increase the number of Switches in your household, the Nintendo Switch OLED offers a slightly more high end alternative to the mainstream edition. At the same time, you aren’t missing much if you buy the normal version, which is the better choice financially.

The Xbox Series X is the high-end version of Microsoft's new Xbox. It has more power and speed than any game console before, but it’s been launched at a time that means it can’t really show them off.

Tower with limitations

The Xbox Series X doesn’t look like any game console we’ve seen before. Well, unless you’ve ever stacked two Nintendo Gamecubes on top of each other, in which case you might get the idea. It has a rectangular shape that’s meant to stand up in the style of PC boxes from the dawn of... The computer age. You can lie it down, but the height can be a problem if you don’t have much space in your TV unit.

Unlike the Xbox One, here Microsoft have no illusions about the machine being a kind of hub for all home entertainment. This means you don’t have extra HDMI ports on the back (or the horrible Kinect camera that the console originally included). The console is primarily intended for gaming, full stop. Of course, the disc player supports everything from DVD to 4K Blu-ray, and you can run apps like Netflix and Disney+ on it, but games come first.

That's why we're disappointed when the console comes to life for the first time. Other than a simplified process for getting started, the interface is exactly the same as that on the Xbox One. That means the same muddled structure. In other words, we don’t get that feel you normally do from a new console, of having the future in your living room.

And to sprinkle additional salt in the wound, HDR10+ isn’t currently supported, and although the console has the technical ability to spit out 8K resolution, this function isn’t available at the moment.

Focus on the old

The controller is also essentially identical to the previous generation. It has a new button, designed to allow you to capture screenshots and record material, but otherwise it’s the same. Of course, this means you can use your old Xbox controllers on your new machine and save a few quid. At the same time, we’d love to see updated functions like the new shoulder buttons on the PlayStation 5 controller.

What’s unfortunately the same as when the Xbox One was launched is the scant selection of game titles. A console should be really launched with one, or preferably a couple, of titles that show what the machine is capable of.

The first Xbox had Halo. The Xbox 360 did the same with Kameo and Project Gotham Racing 3. For the Xbox Series X, there are hardly any titles exclusive to the console at launch. Instead, the idea is that the machine is capable of playing virtually all titles from previous generations of Xbox.

A number of games, such as Gears of War 5 and Forza 4, have been upgraded to take advantage of the power in the new console. But you’ll have to wait at least half a year more before there are exclusive titles that take more advantage of the power of the console.

Silent powerhouse

Unlike when the Xbox One first arrived, there are no major mistakes during the launch. But it feels like Microsoft could have done more with both hardware and software.

While we don’t have much in the way of games to test the machine’s muscles with, we get a reasonable insight into how it works. For a start, you can’t hear it at all, despite hours of gaming in 4K resolution. It’s pretty much silent.

The most impressive bit, and what’s pretty much the thing about this generation of consoles, is the load times. Loading a new course in Gears 5 or Doom Eternal takes a couple of seconds instead of giving you time to go and make a cup of coffee in the meantime. This is where the speed of the new storage becomes truly apparent, and it’s very impressive.

There’s simply an incredible amount of power in the Xbox Series X that will provide gaming experiences and graphics of a quality we’ve not been close to with today’s generation of consoles. It’s just that you can’t see its full glory at launch.

At the same time, it’s really hard to beat Game Pass, the game subscription service, which gives you a huge number of games in most categories for a fixed monthly fee. It’s much better than PlayStation Now, the equivalent for Sony machines.

The Xbox Series X is an impressive game console and, like any of them, it’s hard to evaluate the machine on launch. There’s certainly loads of potential and a solid subscription service for gaming both on and offline. However, we’d have liked to have seen a launch with fireworks rather than just the start of an acceleration.

The Google Stadia isn’t a game console in the classic sense. In fact, it's not a game console at all. Instead, it’s a somewhat confused mishmash between a Chromecast, Netflix, your mobile phone and an almost random selection of game controllers and displays.

Free to play

Essentially, it's a streaming service, like Netflix or Spotify, but for gaming. So far, it’s all simple and logical.

Better still, there’s a free option. This means you can use and play Stadia without paying a penny. But as a free customer you are locked to the vanishingly small number of games available on the free side, or the games you choose to buy. You’re also limited to 1080p resolution and even sadder numbers when it comes to audio and refresh rate.

Other than that, there's Stadia Pro – a pay-as-you-go service that delivers 60 frames per second of 4K gaming with better sound. You also get both free games and discounts on paid games.

But let’s just rewind a bit and see how it actually works.

Controlled via mobile

You essentially need a phone – either an iPhone or Android, with the Stadia app installed. This app is your hub and access point for both games and hardware. This is where you can buy games, manage your subscription, fiddle with settings and communicate with friends. The app is also a hub for both controls and “screens”, as Google calls them.

This is also where Stadia starts to get a bit messy.

Both screens and controls are made up of a variety of ways to connect (see https://support.google.com/stadia/answer/9578631?hl=en for the full list).

When it comes to screens, this means either a compatible mobile phone or a tablet. It also means a TV with an connected Chromecast Ultra or Google Chromecast with Google TV. It also means some, but far from all, TVs and streaming boxes with Google TV or Android TV built in. At the time of writing, Stadia support is just about to be launched for LG TVs from 2020 and later.

In short: Either you play Stadia through a compatible mobile phone or a TV that’s “sufficiently” Chromecast compatible in one way or another. But what about controllers? The easiest way is to use the on-screen controllers on your phone or tablet. However, this gives you terrible control options and in almost any situation a proper manual controller is better. There are a number of options. If you’re playing on a PC, Mac, or Chromebook, the Chrome browser is also available as a choice.

Xbox controllers (from Xbox 360 and up), PlayStation 4 controllers and the Switch Pro controller also work. You connect these either via Bluetooth to your phone or tablet, or via a cable to a compatible TV with Android TV or Google TV built in. Mouse and keyboard work, but only via the web browser.

Stadias own controller is most convenient and runs on Wi-Fi. This can actually talk to any compatible device and can also be used to turn on the power if it’s connected to a Chromecast or Chromecast-compatible TV.

Confusing? Yes. If you want the easiest solution for playing on your TV, Google sells a “Stadia Premiere Edition”. This includes both hand-held controller and a Chromecast Ultra, which is what we mainly used in this test.

Flawless gaming, with good connectivity

With that out of the way, does it actually work? As you might guess, it demands a little more from your internet connection to work well. If you’re running a loose Chromecast solution of course that requires a fast and stable Wi-Fi network in your home. The minimum requirement is at least 10 megabits per second and “faster for resolutions over 720p”, as Google itself says.

Of course, these factors will affect your gaming experience, whether or not you’re in high resolution via the Stadia Pro. When we test the games included via Stadia, it works well and is stable. The games run more or less as fast as they are would on console or PC, and we can't complain about the quality of the graphics.

However, the same doesn’t seem to be true for purchased games. There, it seems to take a few minutes for the game to “get going”, so to speak. In all modes, we get past the title screen and some way into the world in both Cyberpunk and Doom Eternal before it stops being pixelated. One or two minutes in, however, the system seems to get what we’re doing and everything becomes crystal clear. It’s strange and a bit of a shame that it only seems to do this with games you’ve purchased, and not with free titles or the games included via Stadia Pro.

Once up and running, however, we’re pleasantly surprised at how well you can actually play and the tight response we get from the controller – even though it is separately connected via Wi-Fi. With a lot of factors that can go wrong, it’s definitely not something we’d want to use in a competition, but for a little relaxed gaming, there’s nothing to complain about at all. At the same time, the Stadia controller feels a lot more plasticky than its counterparts for the Xbox and PlayStation.

Terrible interface

If there is something we do have opinions about, however, it’s that Stadia Pro doesn’t really feel worth it. Yes, you get 4K with surround sound and 60 fps, and that feels like the minimum way games should be experienced. But is it worth 9 quid a month versus the free option? There, we aren’t so sure. Even the discounts and included games feel a bit thin for their price, especially now we’re used to the Xbox Game Pass and how their range looks. You can add Ubisoft’s subscription service too, but that’s another monthly fee – not like the Game Pass, which includes EA Play.

The layout of the Stadia service is pretty confusing too. Via a Chromecast, you can only see the titles that are in your library. Via the app on your mobile, you can change settings and find games to buy or add via pre-made lists. However, if you actually want to be able to search for a title – something that is, after all, Google’s main business – you’ll need to use a browser for it even to be possible. Because everything is so tightly tied to your Google account, it wouldn’t have hurt if we could look around for new games when we're already on the sofa, or at least be able to search through the app.

On the one hand, it’s hats off for Google. If you have the right technical setup, this system works very well and gives you, other than the cost of a controller, a free game console where you only pay for the games. That really feels like the obvious future for gaming as a whole.

On the other hand, Stadia Pro feels a bit thin. If we subscribe to a gaming streaming service, we don’t want to have to think about buying games. At the same time, the service is strictly PC-adapted, which means that all forms of multiplayer are online and not at home on your sofa. And of course there’s the big headache with which controllers and screens work, and how, which means the technical threshold is quite high for normal casual gamers.

Google Stadia is an exciting service that may well be the future. But just now it feels more like a tech demonstration that you pay for than a full-grown game streaming service.

When it comes to games that are streamed over the Internet, Nvidia Geforce Now has in many ways led the way. It turns out to be both an advantage and a disadvantage for the service when we test it.

We can start with what Geforce Now really is and how it works. Unlike Xbox Cloud Gaming and, to some extent, Google Stadia, this is not primarily about subscribing to a gaming service. There are a couple of free games to play, which are still free from the start, and a bunch of game demos to try. On the other hand, Geforce Now is not a “Netflix for gaming”, in which a large range of games are included in the monthly cost. It’s more like renting a virtual computer on which you can then play your own games.

Free to play

Not so much a monthly cost by the way. Geforce Now is free in its basic version. In this situation, however, you are limited to a relatively short playing time per day, and using relatively limited, but still functioning, hardware. The intermediate stage, which costs, gives you more gaming hours per day and better hardware. The last stage gives you the most gaming hours per day (but still a limited number, sadly enough) and a “rental computer” with Nvidia’s RTX 3080 card for the best possible graphics.

The idea here is that you can sit on a rather old computer, tablet, or the Nvidia Shield media player and still experience games with more or less maximised graphics. All that’s really needed from your side is a good Internet connection. During the test period, we noticed that the connection between the router and the machine you play on should preferably occur via a cable, as there are quite high demands on both speed and stability.

Paying two hundred bucks a month to rent a virtual computer may sound like a lot. At the same time, consider what a 3080 graphics card costs plus the surrounding hardware needed to use it. Then suddenly you get many months of Geforce Now for the same price... probably with upgraded hardware as well.

Difficult login

Once registered, we connected our Geforce Now account with our Steam, Ubisoft, and Epic Games Store accounts to unlock compatible games that we own via those platforms. Adding games via GoG or other gaming stores is not possible. You should also know that, just because there is a game on e.g. Steam and you own it, it does not mean that you can play it via Geforce Now. Instead, Nvidia must have actively built in support for the game to appear there. Slightly sad, of course, but understandable. Most of the big and talked-about titles are still here.

The single most annoying thing about Geforce Now arose when we started a game. Even though we linked the gaming stores to the service, we still needed to log in. We had to do this for every single game – absolutely awful. Even more crazy is the fact that you have to adapt to the layout of an American keyboard, because that’s what the service runs on, because in practice you are running the game on a virtual computer.

This means that, without seeing the layout of the actual keyboard, you have to know that e.g. the @ character cannot be accessed via the alt key as with “Swedish Windows”, but instead via the shift key. The same applies to many special characters, so if you have one or more of them in your password (for example for Steam), you can probably imagine the frustration. The fact that both Steam and EA Origin are user-hostile to log in to doesn't make the whole thing easier.

Good for single players

Once logged in, logged in to the gaming stores, connected with a network cable, and logged in to the gaming stores again, we could start playing. When starting games, the service needs a moment to basically start up the virtual computer, but it’s a process that takes less than a minute most of the time, and then you'll be up and running.

As mentioned, the service requires both a fast and stable connection in order to keep working as it should. Despite the cable and more than enough at internet speed, we still have to admit that it was not completely lag-free to play via streaming. Just like on a normal computer, when a lot of things started to happen on the screen, we experienced occasional lagging. If you’re running single-player games, we'd say it shouldn't matter. However, if you play with others, especially in a competitive context, individual lagging can be completely devastating.

Nvidia Geforce Now is a powerful game streaming service that is also available free of charge if needed. At the same time, it requires you to already own the games, and it is not always exactly frictionless to get started on a game.