Recently, I have been spending most of my gaming time playing a football (soccer) title called Goals.
In case you are not familiar with Goals, it is a free-to-play football title that focuses on fast, responsive play. Players are initially given a randomly generated squad.
Through playing online and offline matches, you gain XP that allows you to upgrade those players. You also earn new player packs simply by playing the game and completing various challenges. There is truly no paywall to Goals; simply spend time playing the game, and you will be rewarded as such, or I certainly have been anyway.
Now the point of my article here is not to sound like a posted advert for Goals; yes, I think the game is extremely good, and I do recommend trying it. No, this article aims to give the game the credit it deserves from a cloud gaming standpoint.
You see, Goals is available on Steam, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, and I am pleased to say that it can be played in the cloud across all of these platforms.
The Steam version of the game is, of course, playable via GeForce NOW, whilst the other versions are, of course, playable on PlayStation Cloud Gaming and Xbox Cloud Gaming.
What really makes Goals stand out for me here is the fact that it has complete cross-platform progression, not just crossplay against other players, but your entire in-game progression will carry across each platform. Play a few games on the Steam version, then hop on to your Xbox, no problem.
As an advocate for cloud gaming and as someone who plays quite a bit in the cloud, I absolutely love what Goals is doing here. I have found myself ploughing countless hours into the game in the cloud and not just restricted to one cloud gaming platform or service but across multiple.
I have seen myself playing it on my main sitting room TV via GeForce NOW and then moving across to play it on my PlayStation Portal via PlayStation cloud gaming.
One thing I have heard about cloud gaming is that it can’t be competitive when it comes to online play. Well, I can tell you right now that that notion is complete nonsense. I am fasting approachin arounf 150 online matches played on Goals, and out of that I have won nearly 70 matches, and I can tell you right now, the majority of those wins have come whilst I have been playing in the cloud.
In fact, just before I began writing this article, I jumped in for a few quick games via GeForce NOW on my browser and bagged two wins from the three matches I played.
I will say that the game really does shine on GeForce NOW; not only does it look very sharp on there, but it also feels like you are playing the game natively.
Goals really has been a fantastic gaming experience for me so far, and I can honestly say a lot of that has been down to the game’s cloud gaming availability and the depth and ease of the game’s cross-progression across all platforms. I really hope other developers and publishers take a look at this and set it as the benchmark for as many games going forward!
