This has been a crazy year for the cloud. GeForce NOW Powered by CloudGG has seen banger after banger, and it’s been a struggle even for yours truly to keep up with them all! But, even among the best, there are the best. I’ve played a lot of the new releases that came to the cloud this year and written about plenty of them, too, so here are my top five 2023 games you can play right now on GeForce NOW Powered by CloudGG.

Age of Wonders 4

Read the full spotlight here.

What made it stand out?

Age of Wonders 4 brought fresh life to the 4X genre this year with a unique take on adding continuity between your games by allowing you to create a growing roster of deities from the rulers of worlds past, who could step in and influence the events of future games without your say so.

This continuity, combined with the game's easy-to-understand but hard-to-master combat and its expert application of grid-based conquest, made Age of Wonders 4 my stand-out title in the strategy genre for this year.

Play it if…

You love fantasy games and strategy and are hankering for some kingmaking. With procedurally generated maps and a depthless list of possible scenarios, Age of Wonders 4 will keep you hooked for hours and hours, making a membership plan with a long session time essential.

Lords of the Fallen

Read the full spotlight here.

What made it stand out?

Lords of the Fallen is a soulslike through and through; it never tries to hide that, but it does build on it. The game’s dual worlds mechanic, with your character entering the world of the dead upon falling in battle or hurling themselves into it willingly, adds a whole new level of complexity to the tried-and-true genre formula.

Puzzles can only be solved by exploring the worlds of the living and the dead, and items, NPCs, and even bosses can sometimes only be found in one or the other. It helps that both are heart-achingly beautiful, as Lords of the Fallen brings some of the most stunning world designs this year.

Play it if…

You’re keen for a challenge and love brutally hard action combat in the style of legendary classics like Elden Ring or Dark Souls. Lords of the Fallen steps up the graphical intensity several floors above what most souls-like can manage, making it a prime candidate for a GeForce NOW Powered by CloudGG Ultra membership to play it at its best.

Remnant II

Read the full spotlight here.

What made it stand out?

Remnant II takes the classic design tropes of souls-likes and applies them to a hard-as-hell third-person shooter, creating a gameplay loop that’s truly one of a kind. But that’s not what got it on this list. The depth of player expression made Remnant II stand out for me.

You can craft a play style wholly your own through the game’s archetypes, mods, and equipment systems, from self-flagellating vampires to walking plagues to the Heavy Weapons Guy from TF2 (no one outsmarts bullet). How you play is up to you in a way you rarely see.

Play it if…

You’re keen for some action with your RPG and want to explore a vast world and define your path through it. It’s even better with friends and supports seamless co-op of up to three people.

Alan Wake 2

Read the full… Well, I haven’t written a spotlight for this one (yet), so bear with me.

What made it stand out?

At its most basic level, Alan Wake 2 is a third-person survival horror game, but this title does it no justice. Alan Wake 2 is a cerebral horror masterpiece. I don’t say that lightly, but I genuinely mean it. As a narrative, this game has occupied my thoughts more than any other this year. The concepts it explores and how it presents them could have only been accomplished by a game, and the way it plays with reality and the layers of the narrative will stick with you for a long time to come.

Plus, I adore the music and style of this game. Poets of the Fall (who portray the Old Gods of Asgard in play) are alt-rock icons, and the songs they lend to the game’s most memorable moment will have you humming them for weeks.

Play it if…

You want a genuinely unforgettable horror experience that will take you to places you never imagined gaming would go.

Baldur’s Gate 3

Read the full spotlight here.

What made it stand out?

I mean, what didn’t stand out!? There was never any question that Baldur’s Gate 3 would be the game of the year. Developers came out of the woodwork to say they couldn’t match Baldur’s Gate 3.

Take to the Forgotten Realms using Larian Studio’s homebrewed version of 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons, with a cast of truly unforgettable characters you’ll come to know and love as friends you wish were real.

This is the largest, most fleshed out, most beautiful CRPG ever made, and I say that with absolute confidence. This game was fantastic upon release but has received some of the best post-launch support we’ve seen in a long while and has only gotten better and better.

Play it if…

You’re breathing. Because everyone should play Baldur’s Gate 3. You probably have already, but if not, what’re you waiting for!?

So, there you have it, my games of the year. I can’t wait to see what 2024 holds, but honestly, this will be a hard year to top, and I expect I’ll be playing plenty of these titles for a long time to come.

This blog is purely the opinions of CloudGG team member "Motley", and does not represent the opinions of CloudGG or NVIDIA.