It took me a while. I didn’t think it would ever happen to me again after being hurt so many times. But they did it. They really did it.Clair Obscur: Expedition 33has finally brought me back tocloud gaming. A believer who’d long left the ‘play it from a distance’ fold has returned, and it’s almost eighty percent becauseI got moogle vibes from the gestrals.
You have to forgive me for not being the biggest cloud gaming fan on Earth. You see, I’m an idiot who justlovesbeing the first adopter of things. And while you’d think that would mean I’d like cloud gaming more rather than less, you have to understand that I wasn’t just an early adopter ofGoogle Stadia(RIP), I was an early adopter of OnLive (even more RIP, althoughSonybought out its tech forPlayStation Plus). I’ve paid more than once for a cloud gaming service, each with its own cute little useless cloud gaming controller.
Oh, I know I can use a Stadia controller as a regular controller now but, uh, why? Why would I do that? I hate myself, but I don’t need to take that out on the games. The point being, by the time PlayStation Plus, GamePass, and other folks made streaming games viable and not an expensive mirage in the desert, I’d already felt burned by the whole thing. At least when I wasted hundreds of dollars on physical garbage, I could still play with the garbage.
Clair Obscur Has Upstaged Blue Prince
But here we are with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a game so good that we went fromjoking about it having a movie adaptation in the worksbefore it even launched to thinking, ‘I hope they hurry that film right up’. I kind of feel bad forBlue Prince, which enjoyed a wonderful three or four weeks ofbeing the best game of 2025before the Paintress and French Cloud Strife taught us all how to feel bad again. Truly aTears of the Kingdomvs.Baldur’s Gate 3situation. That’s another way you know Expedition 33 is great: It makes everyone sad during a time when everyone is already sad anyway and we’re still all here for it.
Don’t get me wrong, Blue Prince is still one of my favorite games of the year - and, honestly, of this decade. But there are only so many times I’m willing to do math in my head while looking at a dartboard before needing a break. On the other hand, Expedition 33 is an incredible, confident journey with less math that came out right when I had to start traveling for a couple work gigs.
This presented two problems. One, I was going to be out of my apartment for longer and more often than usual, meaning gaming had to be on the go. Two, I’m absolutely awful at remembering what happened in an RPG and taking a month or two off is likely to mean just starting over.
Cloud Gaming Is Nothing New, But New To Me
Usually, here I would turn to theSteam Deckor a gaming laptop. But my aging gaming laptop is better suited for visiting my idiot family than working on scripts in a friend’s guest room or on the set of a show. Plus, over the last year, I’ve made this weird silly effort to actuallyusethe game services that I pay for. It turns out they’re much more useful if you download and play the stuff they have available rather than just pay a bill for the brilliantly economical reason of ‘because I want to’.
Whether I’m getting older or trying to be less of a sucker (see above regarding first adopter status), I’m trying to play games that are available on PlayStation PlusthroughPlayStation Plus and the games that are available on Game PassthroughGame Pass. What a concept! I don’t need to spend an extra $60 on Steam so I can play a game on the go if it’s also available to stream on a serviceandthe saves transfer over between console and cloud.
This is all normal! A lot of people are doing this already! I know I’m not breaking new ground by using a well-advertised portion of a service. But I’d given up on it. I got so used to being screwed over by new tech that it took me a beat to appreciate when it was actually getting to the place I’d dreamed of years ago.
For years, I’d stream a quick classic PlayStation 3 game or something just to test my internet connection, but I’m finally using it the way it was intended and - notably - the way I’d oncehopedit would be used. This roleplaying game is so addictive that I’ve overcome an anxiety around my own failings as a consumer. I’m not saying Expedition 33 fixed me in some way, but this is closer than any romantic partner has ever come.
So now I’m on and off the road playing Expedition 33 via Game Pass on my Macbook and iPad and it’s silly that I forgot how much I wanted this tech. I think getting the rug pulled on you twice will do that, even if the technology continues to evolve and the services begin to offer better deals. Some things I’m already paying for are worth a second chance, which might be the stupidest sentence I’ve ever typed.
Sure, I had opened and streamed an Xbox or PlayStation game here or there but that was more often to use as a miniature demo than a legitimate way to play the game. This is the first time I’ve actually been making real progress in a cloud game in a very long time. It’s also the first time I’ve made the choice to play the cloud game out of convenience and necessity rather than novelty. I don’t need to have five devices on me at once to play games like I’m going to grandma’s. I can limit it to four devices. Plus a classic handheld. Plus a retro game emulator handheld. Let’s not go wild here.
