The 5 Best GeForce NOW games to play over the Christmas break 

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored article.

The Christmas period is not just a great time for stuffing your gob with Celebrations and trying to avoid getting sucked up in your dad’s rubbish bag, but also for playing games. As you wait for the Doctor Who Christmas Special or the release of the new Wallace and Gromit flick away from your treasured gaming hardware, you may want to try your hand at some cloud gaming, specifically NVIDIA’s GeForce NOW Ultimate.

We’ve written before about how GeForce NOW and similar streaming services are becoming more important for devices such as the Steam Deck as AAA games become more intensive. Whether you’re on your phone with some handy-dandy controller doohickey, the aforementioned Steam handheld or even on your ageing Xbox One console, GeForce NOW Ultimate offers a wealth of games to play, maxed out on an RTX 4080 with the entire roster of RTX technologies: DLSS 3, NVIDIA Reflex, with full Path Tracing and all the associated goodies. Unlike a puppy, GeForce NOW can be just for Christmas, with day passes available for gaming in a pinch.

Without further ado, here are the best Nvidia GeForce NOW games to play over the Christmas break.

1) Indiana Jones and The Great Circle

Obviously the cream of the crop, the winner of the VideoGamer 2024 Game Awards is a must-play game on GeForce NOW. While you can play the game via streaming on Xbox’s xCloud or Game Pass Cloud or whatever they’re calling it now, you’ll only be streaming the console version of the game. 

With GeForce NOW Ultimate, you can stream the PC version of the game with all the bells and whistles, in glorious 4K resolution. As a game with full Ray Tracing support multitudes better than the Series X’s still-gorgeous lighting, you can experience the best game of 2024 with the ultimate visuals available without a massive desktop taking up legroom as you play. 

As someone who shares a living room, Indiana Jones and The Great Circle has been a great experience via GeForce NOW Ultimate for when my partner takes over the TV for an entire day of Infinity Nikki. While she’s wishing upon a star, getting fashions from afar, I can simply chill out with my Steam Deck and continue thwacking Nazis with shovels in Gizeh. 

2) Alan Wake 2

While over a year old now, Alan Wake 2 is another example of a brilliant game to play through GeForce NOW, and one I completed in its entirety through the service. Another game that looks great on console, but game-changingly better on PC, GeForce NOW Ultimate allows you to stream the entire game with full RTX Path Tracing—shadows, reflections, lighting, the entire thing—onto a device of your choosing. 

Outside of the recency bias of Indiana Jones, Alan Wake 2 is one of the best use cases for GeForce NOW Ultimate. If your PC buckles at the sight of full Path Tracing or if you just want to experience the pinnacle of NVIDIA hardware without buying thousands of pounds worth of hardware, Alan Wake 2 streamed on GeForce NOW Ultimate is one hell of a time. 

3) Cyberpunk 2077

Another game with full RTX support, Cyberpunk 2077 runs and looks phenomenal via GeForce NOW Ultimate. This is another title that technically runs on older and more budget-friendly hardware, however, players won’t get anywhere near as much from the game, and its first-person view means that an unstable framerate can cause some serious motion sickness.

However, GeForce NOW Ultimate’s performance is, well, flawless. With DLSS Frame Generation and NVIDIA Reflex working tirelessly on the aforementioned RTX 4080 rig, even with full Path Tracing turned on, the game runs like a dream over cloud streaming, allowing you to explore Night City with some of the best visuals in the business. Now you can enjoy immaculate views of the obscenities that make this world the most immersive dystopia in gaming.

For those looking to get the most bang for their buck with GeForce NOW Ultimate, is there anything better than a massive RPG that pushes even the most powerful PCs to their limits? I thought not. 

4)  Black Myth: Wukong

An awesome hack-and-slash adventure from Chinese developer Game Science, Black Myth: Wukong is another game that slightly suffers on console but sings on PC. Renowned for its incredible graphics, cinema-esque 3D scenes, and being uber-demanding on hardware, Black Myth: Wukong isn’t one to play on your Nan’s 10-year-old laptop. Well, that was until now!

Wukong’s heavier, Souls-lite style of hack-and-slash combat is perfect for NVIDIA’s cloud streaming service, and the ability to crank the stunning visuals up to 4K resolution makes it a dream to play. It also helps that the game’s performance doesn’t skip a beat when supported by DLSS 3 and Reflex, running on NVIDIA’s latest RTX-powered hardware in the cloud.

5) Party Animals

As much as I would happily spend the entire holiday locked into my favourite solo titles, Christmas is, after all, a time of year to spend with family and friends. That calls for the next best thing – get everyone involved in a hilarious couch co-op game! 

Party Animals is just that. This realistic physics-based party brawler sees up to 4 players take control of floppy animal characters to battle it out in suitably silly maps and modes, with crazy weapons and power-ups to shake up the paw-to-paw combat. Join up with another player in ‘Team Score’ mode, or maybe jump into an every-animal-for-itself game of ‘Last Stand’ for the ultimate family bragging rights over Christmas Dinner. 

With GeForce NOW, you don’t even have to bring your personal PC or console home with you – just log in and play on any of your parents’ smart devices. One thing’s for sure: streaming Party Animals is sure to spice up your cozy Christmas evenings.

Subscribe to GeForce NOW Ultimate in 2024 to get unlimited playtime for the entirety of 2025!