Star Trek Online....

Having my Xbox One next to my PC and connected to a monitor on my desk meant till now I've had no reason to stream games from XBox to PC. I've also had no need to capture such streamed footage(I usually capture quickly and unplanned on the XBox itself and then upload to OneDrive then download from there to PC). With all the talk of streaming services I thought I'd try some in home game streaming... XBox to PC. The XBox is a foot away from the PC and both about 3 foot from my router. PC is wired, Xbox is not.

I've never had any XBox connection issues with it being wireless. Even gaming online.

I do have Chomecast's on TV's and every once in a while there's an 'interruption'. Nothing major. If I had to put a number on it maybe a second in every 6 hours of streaming. Like a slight second of garble. Watching a show or movie that's no real problem. But in the hour of STO XBox gameplay I streamed to my PC there was an 'interruption' twice, which disconnected me from the STO servers. Thankfully this only happened when the game was loading up lots of graphical assets. Specifically during ship store browsing and in ship purchase NPC; Essentially the same in game action from two different in game methods. If it had happened in mission I would guess that like on PC it may reconnect you at a mission spawn point, or reset the mission altogether if your disconnected long enough.

As for my current broadband speed test to a server 100Km away, I'm happy with it.

I know that having decent broadband is needed, but so is having a decent router. With a world where so many devices are connected in the home. Only my phone and the XBox were on the WiFi when I did my little test and it still dropped out twice.

Just an unscientific test....

I can imagine a home, even my own with a lot more on and active would cause more problems for the game/connection/streaming.

But I'm even more doubtful about Stadia now. It's not the processing power of their servers I doubt; I doubt their ability to bring that power to players via so many levels of broadband access never mind the complexities of household WiFi.  With everything on/active there would be 14 connections in my home(between PC's/laptops/phones/chromecasts/chromebook and home/hive devices). The strain on WiFi is strong and only getting stronger as time goes on. Tech geek paranoia?
For streaming any game on any device in that environment; I don't see it being flawless. My little test was local and not flawless. The more flaws(interruptions) the more frustrations for gamers.

Pay a service to stream games to anywhere on any device....
Pay a service to stream to their device I just bought over WiFi they don't control....

Still to many if's and but's, so many questions.

Well when they deliver it and it's the next big thing that everyone is using, I'll see then.

Just my two cents....

Just saying....

On to Trek.

I enjoyed my time on STO XBox. It's the same game but with a different feel to it, more engaging.

It's a console version of the PC edition so not without it's quirks as well. Some cut-scenes can lose camera angles, so start off in the wrong position or don't pan to follow the action. Some mission text/speech can be repeated after you click next, which can be weird and confusing.

The gameplay and graphics are solid enough for fun that can be had.

Space combat is still the best combat in both games.

My 'main' character on console was a level 10. I think I had to get that level to claim some freebies.
As a free to play game my character has had a lot of free stuff... Free stuff that really makes a difference. Two of the best being a free Ferengi Nandi Warship and a free level 50 to 60 booster.

So this session was centered around quarantining myself with the game and the controls.

It wasn't hard for me to go from keyboard and mouse to a controller. The conversion of STO to console has been done well and the controls are on par with that conversion. I'm sure that with enough practice it'll become second nature. Muscle memory etc.

The hardest part for me was the ground jump button, A. quick press for jump and long press for menu access. It was sensitive so I ended up in a menu rather than jumping over things.

The main thing to hit me when I went back to the PC version was the UI/game size seemed so small and detailed. The console version seems to be very zoomed in but I only really noticed it when I went back to PC. Both work in their own right.

I can see myself going back sooner rather than later to STO on XBox.

Here's some edited footage I captured:

A 'starter' mission Stranded in Space and the first duty officer pickup....

 Setting up that free Nandi Ferengi ship and the Diplomatic Orders mission.....

All in all an interesting faff about. If/when I get back to the game I'll be using the Ferengi ship and try to gain it's mastery levels.