PC World - USA (2021-06)

(Maropa) #1
52 PCWorld JUNE 2022

REVIEWS GEFORCE NOW


provided to you through the subscription as
you find on other cloud gaming services.
You have to own your own digital copies
of the games you wish to play on GeForce
Now—and specifically you have to own them
on the correct platform for GeForce Now.
This can be a bit messy if you’re an existing PC
gamer with a fairly large library on Steam or
Epic Games Store, because you might own a
game on one platform, but, although the
game is available to play within GeForce
Now, you might have it on the wrong platform
to play within.
We ran into exactly this while testing with
Control Ultimate Edition. Currently, only the
Steam version of Control Ultimate Edition is
available to play in GeForce Now, so if you
own it on the Epic Games Store, you’re out of
luck. However, the original Control release is
compatible with both Steam and Epic Game
Store releases. None of that helped us,
though, as our copy of Control Ultimate
Edition is on GOG, which largely isn’t
supported by GeForce Now, with the
exception of Cyberpunk 2077 and a few of
the Witcher games.
In addition to your owned game library, you
can play many Free to Play games such as
Fortnite, League of Legends, Destiny 2, Path of
Exile, Rocket League, and more through
GeForce Now. You do still need to set up your
own account access on their relevant platforms.
If you’re keen on the idea of owning your
own game library or want to have some

flexibility as to where you can game without
having to lug around a gaming rig, this service
is worth checking out.

USER EXPERIENCE
Getting started with GeForce Now is fairly
straightforward. You just have to register
yourself with an account, or if you have an
existing Nvidia or GeForce account, you can
activate GeForce Now on it.
Once logged in and connected, you
can choose to access the games through a
Chrome, Safari, or Edge browser to try out
some games without installing anything.
However, in our experience, it’s preferable
to try out the native app instead, as the
experience seems to work a bit more
smoothly in both the menu navigation and
in-game compared to the browser
experience. Nvidia agrees, and tries to
push you to install its app instead of using
the browser.
You can choose to sync your Steam, Epic
Games Store, and Ubisoft Connect accounts
to your GeForce Now account, which will
help filter the game library you see in GeForce
Now to the titles you own and the platforms
you have access to them on. However,
syncing your account here seems to just help
manage the library, as you’ll need to log in to
the relevant platform again when you go to
play a game.
When you go to launch a game, it may put
you in a queue depending on how busy
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