Google Project Stream: Beta sign-ups, how to play and more – CNET

odyssey-project-stream2

Yes, this is actually what Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey can look like in Chrome, if your connection is strong enough.

Screenshot by Morgan Little/CNET

You’re carefully sneaking around ruins, darting in and out of bushes, picking off guards, hoping that a high-powered mercenary inching ever closer doesn’t decide to bust up your stealthy maneuvers. But more of all, you’re hoping your connection doesn’t dip and you’re forced to run a bandwidth test.

That’s what it’s like to use Project Stream, Google’s ambitious joint experiment with Ubisoft that allows beta testers to play the recently released Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey for free. What’s the catch? You’re subject to the whims of your wallet and internet provider. Project Stream is the latest in a long string of attempts to replicate the experience of playing blockbuster games over the internet, without a physical or digital copy required.

So far, it ranges from surprisingly excellent to mildly irritating, assuming your internet connection is strong enough to start with.

When your connection is solidly above the bare-bones minimum 15-megabits-per-second connection (they ask for 25Mbps but it’ll continue to run down as low as 15), with latency lower than 40 ms and 5 percent loss, the experience is strikingly comparable to that of the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game. You’ll notice a bit of latency when trying to quickly respond to attackers, but the game typically hovers around 30 frames per second, and the resolution will bounce up and down between what appears to be around a muddy 720p and a crisp 1080p on a strong network.

Currently in beta, Project Stream is the latest attempt to stream cloud-based games with high graphical fidelity in real-time to hardware that would otherwise be unable to run it. It’s the same basic genre of past services like OnLive and current offerings such as PlayStation Now and Nvidia GeForce Now. And it will go head-to-head with upcoming services like Microsoft’s just-announced Project xCloud, as the future of gaming moves from consoles and PCs to on-demand, possibly ownership-free models. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves — let’s dive into how it works and how you can start actually playing a (free!) version of Odyssey in your browser.

Now playing: Watch this: Google’s Project Stream aims to bring AAA games to Chrome

1:18

How do I sign up for Project Stream?

A number of access codes have gone out in the days following Project Stream’s announcement in early October, but you can still sign up to take part in the beta here. Note that you should be at least 17 years old and have an internet connection greater than 25Mbps. Other than that, the only barrier to entry is the limited number of codes Google’s sending out. Just make sure you have an active Ubisoft account, too.

If it’s in a browser, how do I actually play it?

project-stream-chrome

project-stream-chrome

Seriously, don’t bother trying this in Firefox.

Screenshot by Morgan Little/CNET

Here’s what you’ll need to get started with Project Stream:

Internet: Once you’ve got your Ubisoft account and Project Stream beta invite, just go to the Project Stream site while in the Chrome browser, and test your connection. If it’s deemed worthy you can start playing immediately. 

Be warned, though: a worthy connection isn’t necessarily a stable one. So if you’re on a network that just passes the minimum threshold, don’t be surprised if you have to run intermittent tests that force you to reconnect to the game.

Hardware: Compatible systems run the gamut from Windows, Mac, Chromebook and even Linux. 

Controls: You can actually play Odyssey with a mouse and keyboard, or if you’re truly a rule-breaker, a keyboard and trackpad. But you’d never actually want to do that to yourself. You’ll be a much happier camper by wiring up your Xbox or PS4 Dualshock 4 controller to the computer instead. 

Does the Stream ever end?

Yes. Unfortunately for those without a lot of free time to explore the extreme depths of Odyssey’s content, the test will end in January. But until then, you can play to your heart’s content, across whatever instance of Chrome you decide to hop into.

project-stream-busted

project-stream-busted

That is, unless your connection is too slow. As it turns out, LAX’s free WiFi isn’t ideal for Project Stream.

Screenshot by Morgan Little/CNET

What’s the best part about Project Stream?

As impressive as the underlying tech is, the most surprising perk to playing Odyssey on Project Stream is the ease with which you can stop playing and start back up again. It does an impressive job of retaining save states, even without making use of Odyssey’s manual and quick-save features, even when your connection is cut and you’re forced to reconnect. And the startup and general load times are speedy, making the wait times between cutscenes or fast travel a breeze.

The beta also comes with $10 worth of in-game credits, which you can immediately put to use by purchasing the highly controversial XP boost. It’s not required, but given the fact that you have a deadline for beating Odyssey, it doesn’t hurt. Enemies and quests will level up along with you, so you won’t be turning otherwise challenging missions into a breeze by opting into the boost.

Your next gaming console may be in the cloud: Forget new hardware, the real future of gaming is cloud-based.

How Assassin’s Creed Odyssey for Project Stream works: Game streaming takes a titanic leap forward.