Metro Exodus is one of the best single
player shooters I've played in recent
years a game with incredible volumetric
lighting and physics
all the while scaling well to all
machines the Google steady of release
then had me pretty excited with 10.7
teraflops of GPU power on tap server
side developer for a games has a chance
to truly pushed area beyond Xbox one X's
visual quality that's been the
front-runner up till this point after
all a native 4k rendition targeting
30fps and broadly using high settings
from PC nothing is a given though I mean
we have games like destiny - taking a
performance focused approach pushing
away from the console setup to run at a
fluid 60fps so how exactly has stadia
been used in Metro Exodus and does
Google streaming tech complement a
purely single-player shooter let's find
out
so let's cut to the chase there's one
thing I do respect about this version
the image quality firstly kudos to 4a
games for having the conviction to push
a genuine 4k image from stadia it's a
native 3840 by 2160 in every shot I've
tested really no small feat given the
demanding nature of the engine and while
I can't 100% rule out dynamic res it's
been very consistent at that top number
and I can't fault it it's also a huge
relief for me having just come away from
final fantasy 15 where well even on the
300 megabit per second connection it's
still technically only a native 1080p on
stadia the 4k stream is only good for
giving you a higher bitrate there so yes
anyone running on a chromecast Ultra
looking to get the premiere 4k
presentation is in luck this time
Metro looks incredible on this
[Music]
the payoff for a narrative focus game
like metric stirs is clear from the
pulse of specular highlights in those
dat Metro tunnels to the crisp snowy
over ground everything pops that much
more the story gets propelled to a
greater height this way certainly much
more so then say ps4 pros 1440p delivery
it puts stadia essentially on the same
level as X plus upon X
sadly there's no quality or performance
most of all in the settings you just
have options for motion blur intensity
and that's about it
it's a one-size-fits-all approach which
again like final 2015 means you've got
to be on board with the developer's
choices on the surface this is well
pitch though in a multiplayer FPS yes it
may have been a better priority to aim
for a higher framerate seeing as we're
stuck at 30fps here but in this case it
works you can expect a supremely sharp
presentation all round one factor that
does hold steady back from X plus 1 X is
the encoding quality it's inevitable
really generally speaking the streaming
is top notch in most games when it works
but Metro Exodus is unique by design it
takes on a much darker color palette
than most titles lots of trying through
dark spaces in other words caves ducts
and underground bases and the blunt
truth is that as a result the darker
points of the image show more
compression artifacts Google's encoded
work to minimize the size of each frame
by pruning that quality on low contrast
areas which makes sense the black detail
here though well it can't show up with
macro blocking creating all these bands
in between points of shade and in
comparison with X it does start to undo
the positives of rendering at 4k
it's nothing against the game itself
Metro Exodus looks as great as ever
it's simply producing a type of video
content that doesn't always compress
easily equally the use of snow particles
and potentially film grain gives the
encoder more challenges even in the
light day there's a lot of purposeful
detail being added in post it's not a
deal breaker at all but shows up more
readily than most other games I've tried
with that being said though the core
settings used on steadier hold up really
well
check out these side-by-sides with X + 1
X and see if you can spot any major
difference outside of compression
besides the variable cloud coverage then
I aren't identical in every other
respect
from the 4k image down to the use of
screen space reflections stadia is a
match for X even shadows and textures
are the same now I'm keeping the default
high motion blur setting again it's a
really nicely executed effect that beds
in the action nicely and at least we
have the option to turn it off if we
don't like it
everything here appears to pair up with
pcs high preset nothing more or less in
a way that's a shame given the right
potential for more stadia is on paper
the more powerful machine of the two
purely inspects a6 teraflop machine
versus a 10.7 teraflop one and yet that
doesn't come across in the visual parity
we're getting here it's great to see 4k
certainly but PC features like ray
tracing for shadows or even tessellation
would have been the next step in our PC
analysis we saw some great use of test
selected brickwork that didn't make the
grade on console and well it's not made
it to stadia either another area that I
expected to see a more radical upheaval
in is loading times just looking at
stadia on its own metro takes around a
minute to load each area from the world
map it's part of this very modular
design that for our games has gone for
in splitting the story across different
regions but with that comes these really
long waits it was a bother on console 2
in fairness based on other games stadia
has much improved media access speeds
and it worked out faster in loading from
a fancy 15 for example but here it's
still far from ideal
you do get a moment to fill in the
narrative blanks and it is better than x
plus 1x at least but overall it's not
quite problem solved
there's a final point here on
performance everything so far points to
an X plus 1 X like experience on stadia
which is great but only if the framerate
can hold and you'd assume it would more
power on tap and equivalent settings to
a less powerful machine should translate
to a stable 30fps and yet that somehow
not translated across so let's kick off
with stadia now excuse the hiccups and
stutters my network had a little trouble
towards the start of the game with
intermittent hitching which cleared up
as I went that's connected to the
chromecast ultras Ethernet port on a
fiber connection Google service
describes the connection as excellent at
least and with prioritizing best visuals
here so just about everything is the
best case
how's it looking them well frame pacing
is clearly an issue note those tiny
spikes up to 16 milliseconds and down to
50
either way is pretty regular and clearly
there's an issue with the frame rate cap
at 30 FPS on top of the stutters it
makes the game feel less smooth and it
should do but on balance and overlooking
that it does generally stabilize at 30
PS for a bulk of play on stadia that is
with some key exceptions as we near lots
of smoke effects
the first bit of bad news here is
steadies performance is worse than X
plus 1x take this shootout as an example
where stadia starts plummeting to the
mid-20s
it's that deadly combination of lighting
and fog and all those alpha
transparencies that does it we saw
similar on bass ps4 and Xbox one but for
a console where head in its reported GPU
power it's surprising we're not unlocked
xxx here were still anything to do with
full screen transparencies has issues
like this early encounter we're dipping
just under 20 FPS add in the stuttering
and frame pacing troubles and it doesn't
feel as well optimized as it should be
the obvious comparison point again is X
plus 1x this is freshly captured footage
on the latest patch and in every one of
those problem areas it's more or less a
straight 30 FPS on X the only exception
is really that early tussle with the
mutants with the flames and webs and so
on at least there it's dropping just
under 30 with tearing it's very rare to
see a drop on the hole though and even
the fog effect doesn't really buckle the
machine all of which is very strange
given the settings are so close between
the two there's no clear reason why it's
happening but stadia right now seems to
have bigger issues holding 30 FPS
it's also worth noting at this point
that input lag in metric stirs is
noticeably on the high side anecdotally
speaking adding around 44 milliseconds
of latency to a game which already had
issues with input lag does it no favors
you'll have noticed I'm kind of
struggling to aim quickly here more so
than other shooters on the service it's
a challenge some games translate to a
streaming platform better than others
RPGs and adventure titles with a fixed
camera tend to work better here though
as a shooter the disconnect between the
controller and the reaction is far more
load support metrics this hosteria
targets the premiere visual experience
rather than anything else
3840 by 2160 at around high settings is
impressive stuff at least if not
everything I'd entirely hope for what
that costs in performance though isn't
what I expected sub 30 FPS reading
should be a thing of the past but drops
do creepy injuring major set pieces no
doubt it's a gorgeously presented game
and there's an argument here that you
might want to stick this on the easier
difficulty settings just to enjoy the
story it's also a step up from the
support Final Fantasy 15 received and
though again I'm finding the quoted
specs of stadia aren't getting us a big
enough lead over the competition as I'd
expected a solid addition to the stadia
library then if you fancy a purely solo
FPS but not without its flaws
but for me that's all I've got today if
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bump into the ninjas will come out with
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