It’s …something less than that.
Or, anyone else, for that matter.
The greatest boon to GeForce NOW is its library.
Frankly, no, but it’s certainly the closest thing we have at the moment.
But suffice it to say, it’s a lot.
Sounds great, right?
It’s definitely an improvement.
The GeForce NOW selection is mostly focused on games that are new, popular, or both.
That said, selection may seem haphazard, based on your tastes.
Search for Fallout and you’ll find the latest title in the series, Fallout 76.
You’ll also find the much older but still popular Fallout 3 and New Vegas.
But Fallout 4, the smash hit from 2015, is nowhere to be found.
Don’t get me wrong, the selection is extremely impressive.
I think NVIDIA will be working to expand its already-impressive selection as soon as it can.
How Does It Work?
Controller, mouse, and keyboard inputs are available on all systems.
Visual fidelity is using the latest in graphical oomph from NVIDIA.
Should you choose to ignore the rather extensive warnings, you’ll find out that it’s right.
Now, if you happen to have a solid connection, you’ll find GeForce NOW a pleasant experience.
Multiplayer is another matter entirely, of course.
This proved to be true for GeForce NOW as well.
Latency was just a hair above tolerable for competition.
(I’m sorry, random teammates, it was for science.)
Even 5GHz Wi-Fi wasn’t up to that challenge.
At times, the framerate dropped down to under 10 per second.
Stacked Platforms
Speaking of platforms, it’s worth noting what NVIDIA is based on.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing.
But it does mean that things are a little rough around the edges.
Things would be generally more pleasant if you couldn’t.
Stadia has a lot of problems, but its buttery-smooth presentation is a lot more appealing in this case.
Speaking of platforms, there’s a definite preference for Steam over almost anything else in GeForce NOW.
And, I can play all three on GeForce NOW … but only in their Steam versions.
To stream these games from the cloud, I’d need to pay Steam for the privilege.
But this is very much the exception, not the rule.
What’s the Catch?
So, what’s the catch?
No, the bigger advantage is the time limit.
Free users are limited to one-hour sessions, after which GeForce NOW kicks you off.
Paid users get priority access, and their sessions can be four hours long, repeated indefinitely.
Those are some pretty hefty restrictions, even on top of the necessary bandwidth.
But GeForce NOW also has a bit of a conceptual issue.
A Competitive Offering
Even so, NVIDIA’s made an excellent initial offering.
And yes, it can play more or less any PC game.
Check outour review of Shadow here.
GeForce NOW is, in a word, cool.
In two words, it’s really cool—and refreshingly accessible to boot.
But don’t take my word for it.
