I received a review copy of Watch Dogs: Legion on the day it came out. You may be wondering what this has to do with Stadia and little kids. Well, here's the deal: in situations like these, it is in everybody's best interest that a reviewer play a game as quickly as possible in order to get a review published in a timely manner. In my case, I gave myself a five-day time limit to crush through Watch Dogs: Legion and submit a review. The problem is, I have two small children in the house - ages four and seven. Due to the pandemic those kids NEVER LEAVE. They just hang out in my living room fourteen hours a day, chirping around, creating messes, and demanding snacks.
My kids dominate the primary TV in my house with their wretched Barbie and Ponies cartoons - the one that has all of the modern gaming systems attached to it. This makes it very difficult for me to play Watch Dog: Legion with any regularity on my TV, as the game's real tagline should be "Drop F-bombs as anybody!". All the characters in Watch Dogs 3 do is swear and cuss and sneak around and shoot people and swear and cuss.
That's where Stadia comes in. I can play on my TV to get the full theater experience, then when on of my little buzzkill kids wanders in, I can pause the game and stagger to my bedroom. I fire Watch Dogs: Legion up on Chrome, and pick up right where I left off. Throw on my headphones, and its right back to screaming and cussing and shooting people. Plus (and I don't know if you guys know this), headphones totally drown out Justin Bieber songs (or any other super-irritating noise happening in the background). I can fully escape from my kids, while still getting a AAA gaming experience, regardless of how crappy my PC is. It's just lovely.
I spent most of the last weekend, toggling between my television and my PC, playing Watch Dogs: Legion and generally being happy. I should have a review up soon. But going forward, if I have the choice to review one of these big, epic games on either Stadia or a console, I'm totally going with Stadia. My family life demands it.
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