Cyberbank on the Internet! Review of MTS Fog Play game consoles for cloud gaming

I am convinced that in 10 years, or even earlier, we will be running most games from the clouds. All industries are actively developing in this direction, from NVIDIA to Microsoft.

You readily believe this when you play a popular computer game with strict system requirements on… television in 2008. There is no PC or classic gaming console connected to it. And the toy itself does not work here, but somewhere completely different. But you don’t really notice it.

A small “whistle”, a gamepad with stable Wi-Fi – that’s all you need to play Cyberpunk 2077 like I did on any TV. MTS has a new gaming TV set-top box connected to its fog gaming service MTS Fog Play.

I was one of the first to test it, played top titles, and I’ll tell you more about it.

What is MTS Fog Play

MTS Fog Play was launched 2 years ago, we wrote a big review about it. This is a nebulous service gaming. The term itself (as well as the phenomenon) is not as widespread as cloud gaming, so I will submenu the explanatory team.

Fog gaming is a technology that allows you to play video games on any device with virtually no hardware requirements. Instead of the game running on your PC, console or smartphone, it runs over an internet connection.

But fog gaming is different from classic cloud gaming: it uses other users’ computers instead of servers of servers. That is, you are not connecting to some “farm” far away, but to another person’s PC. And it could be anyone, including your neighbor.

Fog gaming has more advantages than those found in classic cloud gaming.

▪ variety of prices: They came to a conclusion about the configuration of the fog computer.

▪ no platform restrictions: you can launch games from different launchers

▪ low ping: The fog computer may be near you, which will attract latency

MTS Fog Play works as a link between you and someone else’s PC, acting as a guarantee of quality and security: the gameplay is completely confidential, the quality of the Internet of the owner of the fog computer is checked in accordance with the service.

And MTS Fog Play stores game save files on its server, so you can continue the same game on different fog computers.

Previously, to access MTS Fog Play you needed a smartphone or PC. Starting today, a new device has joined it in the MTS ecosystem.

This is a game console of the same name, the service of which can now be used from any TV or monitor with an HDMI port. Everything you need to play is already in the box.

What’s included

The set is large, and the console itself takes place in a minimum of space.

TV set-top box MTS Fog Play is an HDMI whistle that is installed in a TV or monitor. On the board it has an Android-based OS and hardware designed to limit performance during optimization: the Amlogic S905Y4 chipset with 2 GB of RAM and 8 GB of storage.

The whistle requires external power, so it has a micro-USB port. The charger and cable itself are included in the package.

There is an adapter for installing the whistle at an angle, as well as a loose HDMI port. You will need it if you have few places at the counter.

Also included is a console control panel. We’ll discuss its usefulness later when we talk about the performance of the device for watching games (and it exists!).

The far edge of the “elephant” in the room is impossible – let’s talk about the gamepad.

The gamepad is amazingly cool

The whole point of no consoles is that you don’t need any peripherals or any other additional devices to immediately sit down and start playing on your TV. That’s why there is a gamepad in the box. And the gamepad turned out to be unusually good!

Firstly, appearance and quality are top five. Transparent plastic, nicely laid boards, tight triggers, good sticks without drift (HALL), rubberized textured handles. Push-button mechanical, quiet. It looks cool even before turning it on and fits perfectly in your hands.

Secondly, a large set of keys. There was room here not only for two additional triggers on the rear panel, but also for trigger switches. One thing is very helpful in games; the switch ergonomically and quickly performs actions from the top triggers, without throwing them to the finger. Other useful in shooters.

Finally, there is a power button on the back backlight. Click and the RGB party begins:

I’ll be honest: I don’t like this whole “gamer” aesthetic, but I can’t deny the visual coolness of a gamepad with such a powerful and complex adjustable panel. Moreover, the sticks glow separately and the entire body glows separately.

If you press the backlight button several times, the case backlight mode will turn on. Allow and turn off. The backlight of stickers does not change. Some time after you start playing, the RGB LEDs automatically turn off to reduce distractions.

The battery life is quite good, especially with such bright backlighting – up to 6 hours.

I foresee the obvious question: does this gamepad work with pcand not just with the MTS prefix? Answer positiveI checked. All games identified as an Xbox controller do not require any additional drivers or settings. Beauty.

How to use delivery and play games

To begin, insert a “whistle” into the TV, connect power to it and turn on the streaming console using the remote control or gamepad.

When you turn it on for the first time, you need to connect to Wi-Fi (recommended Internet speed of 30 Mbit/s or higher) and log into your MTS account using your phone number. Payment for PC rental will be debited from his balance.

An open menu will appear. First displayed games section: there are more than hundreds of famous and very different titles in trend. Choose any one, then go to the server list menu.

Here the server is provided based on the principle of the greatest ratio to you – it has the least ping. The configuration of each fog PC is slightly different: some have a more powerful video card, some have a processor, and some are close to the maximum top-end at the moment.

The cooler the PC, the higher the rental price. The cost is hourly. Above average configurations will cost an average of 30 to 45 rubles per hour for an RTX4060-4070 level video card. It would be very divine if not. extremely cheap. After all, you don’t need to buy the game itself!

The ability to choose the power of the fog computer allows you to save twice as much if the game you are running does not require high-performance hardware. For example, I saw options for 22 rubles per hour and even less.

In addition to the scheme, it is worth paying attention to the ping: the lower it is, the less will be the delay between entering commands with the gamepad and their broadcast on your TV screen. I have options with a ping of 5-7 ms, and that’s fast.

Once you find a suitable fog PC, click, select a game from the number acceptable for it, and wait for it to load. And that’s it, it plays as if it were running right on your TV.

At any time, you can open the MTS Fog Play overlay menu from the gamepad, in which you can quickly edit settings for streaming and graph quality, and call up the on-screen keyboard or mouse.

The saves are ultimately uploaded to the “MTS Second Memory” cloud, and you continue the game from the same place on another cloud PC.

What else useful can the MTS game console do?

The remote control is in the bundle for a reason.

MTS has built here the opportunity to watch all major and not so big TV channels – they are available in the corresponding section of the menu. They don’t require a paid subscription, apparently. I just work and that’s it.

In addition, there are separate sections for them with films and TV series from the service. KION. The choice is large, the interface is convenient.

Finally, the procedure for installing Android applications: in addition to the two built-in programs, there are RuStore! I doubt that it will be possible to roll out completely “our own” .APKsince the sticker does not have a USB port. But perhaps something can be thought of – after all, since there is a store, there are workarounds.

The tablet runs Android TV OS. So the console is not only a gaming console, but also just a television one, with streaming services and all that.

How much does it cost, where to buy

I have long heard about MTS Fog Play from our authors and my colleagues. Since many cloud gaming providers left Russia, it was MTS that took and expanded its share, becoming a very large, excuse the pun, player in the Russian market.

I tried the service, I understand why: top games without buying each one, minimal delays, absolutely reasonable prices – and now also a console with a cool gamepad for any TV.

You can buy a game console for cloud gaming MTS Fog Play today for 4990 rubles.

I proposed a test release version of the console, in the end I can make some minor changes.

📸 All photos in the article: