6 Games You Need to Play on Asus ROG Ally

Main points

• ASUS ROG Ally delivers Xbox Gamepass and Steam games on a high-performance handheld device.
• The best new games for ROG Ally are Helldivers 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3.
• But the versatility of ROG Ally means you can also play games like Civilization VI and F24, while the classic game emulator unlocks real gems.

The ASUS ROG Ally is one of the best handheld gaming devices out there. With access to Xbox Game Pass and Steam, it can play a ton of games on the 7-inch touchscreen. This alone should be enough to entice anyone looking to get into handheld gaming. In my experience, it’s powerful enough to handle almost all major games.

I’ve owned a ROG Ally for over six months, which has given me plenty of time to test out some of the latest games as well as my old favorites on the handheld. So, I’ve rounded up my favorite picks to start playing games on Ally. This includes some major new games like Hellraiser 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3, but also some hard-to-find classics.

1 Hellraiser 2

for freedom!

Hellraiser 2 is one of the surprise hits of 2024. This co-op shooter puts players in the role of Helllurer, a soldier from a future super-Earth tasked with descending on an alien planet to fight giant bugs and hordes of robots. The game’s satire of a future version of Earth, stunning graphics, and impressive free updates make it one of our favorite games of 2024 so far.

The future is also promising for Helldivers 2 players, as a new enemy type called “Light” will appear in the game for the first time. The game also adds a ton of cool new toys to play with, such as a rocket-armed mech suit and a set of electric weapons to fight the enemies of Liberty.

2 Baldur’s Gate 3

dice

Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the most addictive RPGs I’ve played in a while, and I played it entirely on my ROG Ally. The game was released the same day I picked up ROG Ally, and a Dungeons & Dragons-inspired game was the perfect way to test it out.

I’m not usually a fan of turn-based action games, but the combat in Baldur’s Gate is so intense that it may have completely changed my opinion of the genre. Another great part of Baldur’s Gate 3 is the ability to solve problems however you want, even if it kills your character or makes the game weirder for you. You can kill characters important to the storyline and the game will still continue. This is just a funny game. I blinded my character by trusting the singer to remove the parasite and accidentally launched a dwarf attached to a windmill into space.

3 Sid Meier’s Civilization 6

The best games to play while watching TV

The most common way I play ROG Ally is to sit on the couch next to my wife and let her watch shows like Gilmore Girls. I may have high hopes for spreading democracy in Helldivers, but ultimately I’ll be obsessed with whether Lorelai Gilmore will finally settle down with the charming small-town restaurateur and die one too many times before I even open a game of Civilization VI. You can walk for 10 minutes without looking and it doesn’t matter.

4X strategy games are notorious for having too much content if you’re inexperienced in the genre, and the Civilization series is great for beginners. The game will show you prompts in the lower right corner of the screen, making it easy to complete your turns as you learn how to play. Once you learn more about the game, you can make endless modifications to try and create the perfect civilization.

4 EA Sports FC 24

i love beckham

EA Sports’ football simulation has undergone a rebrand, with the 2024 version being called FC instead of FIFA for the first time. It remains one of the best sports simulation games on the market, as is the FIFA series. You can still control 700 different football clubs from 30 different leagues around the world and lead them to glory. You can also create your own player and play online 11 vs. 11 games with other players.

I joined FC ’24 as part of the Xbox Game Pass plan that comes with Asus ROG Ally, inspired in part by watching the FX series Welcome to Wrexham, which tells the story of a small Welsh football club. A few hours later, I’m happy to report that Wrexham have become a Premier League powerhouse.

5 friend world

Pokémon with a gun

Palworld took the gaming world by storm with its concept of armed Pokemon, but the game was more than just a meme. It has an incredibly deep crafting system and a roster of creatures called Pals that offer a ton of different abilities. Surprisingly, guns are more of an afterthought, and they’re only unlockable deep within the game’s crafting system. Building a base to take care of your and your friends’ needs brings small goals that do more than just occupy your time.

6 Elden Ring

Do you like pain?

If you’ve played FromSoftware’s games before, such as the Dark Souls series, you’ll know that they tend to be more unforgiving than any other game. It’s not unlike Elden Ring, a third-person role-playing game where you’re tasked with navigating an open world called “Lands Between.” You must defeat the demigods who rule between heaven and earth to obtain the fragments of the Elden Ring and become the Lord of Elden.

I was obsessed with “Elden Ring” when it came out, but often played it on the 85-inch TV. Shortly after getting the ROG Ally, I randomly decided to pick it up again just to test the system on newer, more strenuous games. That’s all I played for two weeks. Needless to say, I will be playing the Elden Ring DLC ​​Shadow of the Erdtree on the ROG Ally.

FAQ

Q: How to play your favorite classic games

We’re living in a golden age of video game remakes, so now is a great time to pick up a copy of your favorite games that have been recently remastered. For example, I really like the remakes of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3. But you may have some white whales from your childhood, but they will never be reinvented. One of the best parts about gaming on ROG Ally is finding ways to use an emulator to play some old classics.

NCAA football was a profound game for me as a kid, and playing a revamped version of the 10-year-old game healed my inner child. But that’s not the only game I’m revisiting on ROG Ally. I’ve also played a few other games that I grew up loving but are now hard to find, like Alien vs. Predator: Extinction, Twisted Metal 3, Freedom Fighters, and the classic Gameboy Pokémon games. Almost every old system now has a way to play games, and ROG Ally lets you get the most out of them.

Q: What games should be avoided on ASUS ROG Ally?

There are a few things you should consider before purchasing a game on ROG Ally. It’s worth doing some research before buying to make sure the game is compatible with the handheld device and that Allies can run the game. I didn’t play Dragon’s Dogma 2 because it’s not optimized for handheld devices like the ROG Ally or Steam Deck. Another game I love, Rimworld, is a bit clunky to play on the ROG Ally.

Likewise, I recently purchased Cyberpunk 2077, but the game has considerable issues with average graphics settings and allies in Turbo Charge mode. I ended up just refunding the game, even though it performed fine on lower graphics settings. Games that require more power are worth buying on a console if you can.

Q: What performance mode is best for ROG Ally?

I keep the ROG Ally in Turbo mode almost all the time, but I leave it plugged in most of the time when gaming. If you want to save battery and game on the go, you can fine-tune ROG Ally’s performance settings to use the perfect amount of power needed for each specific game you’re playing. However, you may still experience performance degradation that does not occur when using Turbo mode.