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GeForce Now – it’s kind of a game changer

Last night I figured I would give the Nvidea GeForce Now service a quick bash. All the details about the service are on its website, however it provides you with a cloud gaming computer for free (with a 1 hour play limit per session), or for £5 a month, up to 6 hours playing (plus some added extras).

I have an old gaming PC. It struggles to play anything modern. I don’t really want to spend any decent amount of money getting the components together and building/upgrading a PC.

I have a 2012 mac mini which is my main computer, and a 2017 Surface Pro that I use for general tasks that require windows, in addition to my other iOS devices. Both the mac and the Surface Pro handle the GeForce Now service like a champ. It’s a shame there’s no iOS app at present, but it is available on Android.

To help illustrate this point I loaded up Destiny 2 and used the free GeForce Now service. I sat with the Surface Pro in the living room perched on my lap, Xbox controller connected (because I really can’t play with a keyboard and mouse on a game that I’ve spent years playing both it and its predecessor on a controller) and it worked almost flawlessly. Given it was a wireless connection (but 5Ghz) I had a couple of streaming hiccups – both of which lasted under 1 second and the game (and I) recovered from. This was while watching the launch of the Antares Rocket Cygnus NG-13 live via NASA TV.

We’re living in the future.

I know this won’t appeal to hard core gamers, and possibly not even to streamers because of the bandwidth that will be required, but for me, a filthy casual, it’s perfect. I can now get Destiny 2 at 60fps that’s buttery smooth (and actually loads the menus exceptionally fast). The 1 hour playtime doesn’t bother me just now – but to honest – this is the kind of service I won’t mind paying £5 per month for.