The State of Steam Deck survey 2024: The results are in
The State of Steam Deck survey 2024: The results are in
We surveyed over 3,800 Steam Deck owners to see what they think about Valve's portable PC. Here's what they think!
Weird to discover I'm in the minority for trusting the verification check marks. Sure, I've played games without a check on Deck, but I usually use the check to determine how smooth and enjoyable the experience will be.
I've realized I just prefer mouse and keyboard so much that I don't find the deck as enjoyable as others. I still love it, but the number of games I'm interested in playing on it are very limited. So the check is helpful to know how comfy the game will be.
I don't want to waste any time setting a game up or fixing issues on Deck. It's just not what I bought the device for.
That being said, any recommendations for smooth, out-of-the-box games on the Deck that didn't appear in the top 10?
Against the Storm and Dredge are two I can think of. They both run extremely well and without any tinkering with control schemes.
Dredge was such a treat on Deck. In addition to being just a good experience overall, it seems to strike a perfect balance in several ways to be ideal on the deck.
Like it's not that demanding so it runs very smoothly, but it is still beautyful and takes advantage of the extra power available compared to other handhelds. It also has a simple and short main game loop making it easy to pick up and drop, but also an interesting overarching plot to draw you back into it over and over.
I wish I could find more games like IT to play on the Deck.
I usually will trust that a game will run if it says verified/playable, but when a game says unsupported I check ProtonDB. Far too many unsupported games run fine with minimal tweaks or proton-ge.
The verification system is not remotely accurate. It probably does more harm than good. Valve should have made it crowdsourced like protondb because they're obviously unable to keep up, and I don't know why they thought they would be.
Further, they failed to establish any concrete guidelines on frame rate for their ratings.
Shit, they could have crowdsourced the data from user devices.
Valve is going for a console experience, and that means the games just work. Every time, no matter what, with no tinkering.
Obviously, with PC gaming (on Linux no less), that is a nearly insurmountable challenge.
I think the check mark is their attempt at that, and that's why it doesn't match 1:1 with ProtonDB.
Even the most minimal amount of "tinkering," or "incompatibility," like having to change the resolution the first time you open the game, or the game doesn't have an option for the Deck's resolution (meaning small black bars at the top and bottom. Big deal), will stop it from getting approved as "fully compatible"
Valve's approval is just not the same thing as ProtonDB, they have two different purposes
They could (and probably should) just partner up with ProtonDB and just bring in badges like the Decky plugin does. That also has the added bonus of getting some recommended tweaks or settings from other users really easily.
Fights in tight places is pretty good, though I think works better with a mouse.
Tunic is actually amazing, framerate bottoms out a touch but that's mostly me refusing to turn the settings down.
I've also been playing Prince of Persia 2008, mostly to see if I could. You can enable gyro to mouse and you get up getting this neat 3d effect if you set it up right.
I've only had mine for like a month but yeah, so far everything has run out of the box.
Fights in Tight Places looks pretty fun. I'm a big deckbuilder fan, so always enjoy a new one. but that does make me wonder how Tainted Grail: Conquest runs because I really found that one to be a lot of fun. And also reminds me that before I buy a new deckbuilder I should probably play that Balatro game everyone talks about...