3mo ago

Discussion

What games are you playing on your deck? - November 2024

Sorry, bit late on this one. Life's been hectic.

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Mostly CrossCode. A fun little sci-fi action puzzler that pays homage to the SNES era of games. It's similar to Spirit of Mana. Low power requirements, and it has a Linux-native version that works better than the Windows version (you need updated engine files if you play from itch.io).
I'm also playing a little bit of No Man's Sky, but just here and there; I'm mostly playing that on my desktop.
- Do you play No Mans Sky alone or with friends? I picked it up for my deck but havent tried it out yet... Unfortunately one of the reasons why I have a deck is my PC can't handle some games
  
  Alone. I don't currently have friends that play it, but I still have a good time. Works great on Deck, and you can even make use of HDR settings, if you have an OLED version.
  
  If you want a lower spec but still gorgeous singleplayer and multiplayer (not a mmo type game though) space game check out avorion. Somebody gifted it to me because they wanted me to try it so much and I am starting to see what they were on about with it.
  No planets to land on and it ends up playing more like a 4x game late game I think but it is worth a look. Just download and use workshop ships if you feel overwhelmed with the building part.
  https://store.steampowered.com/app/445220/Avorion/

Witcher 3, Just finished the main story. And boy, CDPR really nailed the story/ character writing in this game. Looking to grab "Hearts of stone" & "Blood and Wind" DLC next GOG sale.
What an amazing 50hr time sink!
- It's been a while since I played W3 but I remember Blood & Wine being a ton of fun. It's basically a parody of overly flashy knighthood tales with all the pomp you can imagine. Has a decently sized map and lots of content too and kinda feels like an epilogue to the main game.
  I full-heartedly recommend picking it up!

Sea of Stars. 🌊✨
It’s a really well done, turn based style rpg.
Been enjoying it a lot.
- It's a good time for SNES spiritual successors!
  
  I just started Chained Echoes, another snes-style rpg
- I'm itching for the co-op update to do a second play through with my gf.

I bought Vampire Survivors since it was slightly discounted and have only heard rave reviews about it.... I sank 7 hours in my first day lol!!
Picked up all the DLCs too. Imo worth the money to support the developer
- I have it on my tablet (Android), and I love it. It is so simple, but satisfying.
- I've played 60 hrs of Vampire Survivors in the last year since I got my SD OLED. Had the game platinumed before the latest DLC release. Just a ton of fun
- How is the co-op?

still cyberpunk. just started the phantom liberty stuff. man is that ever not stealth decker friendly.
- Is it the Phantom Liberty part specifically that isn't deck friendly? I replayed some of base cyberpunk on my OLED recently, and was really impressed by how well it runs now. I seem to remember performance being a lot worse when I tried it back on my original LCD deck.
  
  The new content just has a bunch of parts where you are mobbed so if your playstyle is ninja decker and not the best up close and personal it can be tough. Its definately a bit different with a ton of parkour initially and many hidden item caches. I actually just got through the initial mission and now everything has opened up.

NFL 2k5
I’ll never get over playing my old ps2 games on the go.
- have you tried Mutant Footbal League?

Honestly mostly been learning blender, I am sure sure nobody ever intended blender to be used on a handheld gaming system but that is the beauty of the steam deck right?
Also been playing some everdell.
Coincidentally I had just downloaded Apex to start playing with a friend :(
- I purchased a new monitor and video card right before rockstar pull their stunt with gta v. They arrived the day after I was locked out of gta online. So I feel your pain.
- Honestly mostly been learning blender, I am sure sure nobody ever intended blender to be used on a handheld gaming system
  I'm interested in the "how"
  
  Just install blender from the discover app on the steam desktop, add it to steam as a non-steam game and you can launch it as you would any other game.
  As for controls I prefer joysticks + gyro, but that is just me.

I've been playing a whole lot of Metaphor ReFantizio, and highly recommend it.
I enjoy the persona games, but I actually do like a fantasy setting more than the modern day setting of persona. I also find some of Persona's mechanics make the game more tedious than it should be (You have to equip a matching persona before spending your time with someone socially, and you have to get the right conversation responses or spend multiple time slots building social points), and Metaphor gets rid of those points of frustration. The road trip aspect is really fun too, overall I'm having a great time with it.

Hardspace: Shipbreaker. After a rough day of work, there's something incredibly soothing about dismantling a spaceship over a couple of hours.
- Me too! I'm playing it on the easiest mode so I can just not stress and enjoy the hygge of breaking down spaceships
  
  Same here. No oxygen depletion, and go about tearing that thing apart slowly. One thing I haven't managed is to grab the bunny. I mean, I do grab it, but can't get it to appear in my quarters, it just sticks to my hand until I let go.

Loop Hero . Picked it up for last week for just under $5 and it's been a lot of fun.
It's an Indie rogue-like with a surprising amount going on.
My favorite being is that it mixes a deck builder rogue-like with building a world each run.
The "permanent upgrades" (outside of the game-loop) are pretty interesting as well- building a village/city and managing supplies.

Frontier Pilot Simulator even though it doesn't work offline for some reason.

Wilmot Works It Out - much simpler than Wilmot's Warehouse, an extremely enjoyable puzzle game.
- I was about to ask how well the Wiimote works with the Deck.
  
  It's perfect. My only gripe is sometimes it reads analogue joystick input as double move - but then you can just use pad or tweak the steam input profile.
  Performance-wise it feels like a game made for deck

Windblown plays really well on the SD. Developed by Motion Twin, same folks behind Dead Cells. Rogue-like that plays similar to Hades but has some persistent upgrades like Dead Cells.

Ready or Not. Awesome on steam deck
- Really? How's the performance?
  
  Very good, I'm getting 50+ fps on medium settings

I'm a weird Deck gamer, in that I often start games and come back once in a while, which I never do on PC, where I try to finish one game at a time
Death Crown
Narita Boy
Citizen Sleeper
Dave the Diver
Deep Rock Galactic Survivor
60 Parsecs!
In Other Waters
Race the Sun -Merchant of the Skies

Ys X Nordics. Tons of fun.
- Had a great time with YS 8, been meaning to pick up 9 or 10 whenever they have a decent sale.
  
  Like most Ys games, they're a trudge at first, and some graphical letdown, but they're still great stories with great characters. I remind myself to power through the beginning each Ys game and eventually find myself loving it.

Ocarina of Time. I didn't grow up with the older games but I'm having fun so far. I'll play the other titles afterward
- Are you playing the N64 version?
  
  I'm playing with the decompiled version "Ship of Harkinian". It has some extra features such as right-stick camera control and higher frame rates

Dangerous Waters.
Very old style, bit clumsy on the controls, but incredibly tense with the gritty sonar stuff.
Been only playing the P-3C airplane so far, but there's also tons of submarines, a helicopter and a frigate.
It is so satisfying to find and torpedo a submarines after staring at sonar graphs and dropping buoys for a while. Love it! I'll be sharing an updated aircraft-oriented controls config when I'm happy with it, based on the one community config that was there, which was more sub-oriented.
- I downloaded Cold Waters (and dot mod) and have been slowly dipping my toes in. I think I like games with bright pixellated but clear old graphics when it is done well, I will have to put Dangerous Waters on the list.
  Please share your bindings I really appreciate when people do!
  Also how efficient does Dangerous Waters run on the deck?
  
  Does Cold Waters work well on the Deck?
  I've been hoping that the new Sea Power: Naval Combat in the Missile Age will work well on the Deck in a year or so, and was planning to stick to Dangerous Waters until then.
  My P-3 (maritime patrol aircraft) bindings are shared on the community bindings already!
  DW runs incredibly efficiently. The graphics look like 1999 anyways, so I just dial the TDP all the way down to 3 W and set FPS to 20. Perfect game when the battery is low!. I haven't modded it at all, I actually like the retro vibe (and the incredible sonar simulation).

Cookie cutter. A really neat metroidvania with a lot of blood

I picked up Persona 5 Royale during the sale for 30 bucks.
I was a huge fan of P4G on the PSVita.
P5R is so stylish and it does such a great job of speeding up so much of tedium by allowing fast travel to most places.
Everything feels so snappy, the soundtrack is killer, the gameplay is fun. Runs like a dream on the OLEDeck. I've been enjoying taking it slow and getting to know the characters. Just finished the first palace.

Dave the Diver. I was playing a pirated copy through October, it was a lot of fun so when it went on sale last week I bought it.

Visions of Mana. I'm almost at the end and I have been putting off beating it because then I will be sad.
- Tried it on the Deck in TV mode, but the frame rates dropped so much during boss fights / class strikes I went back to finishing it on PC. I guess on the small screen I could have dropped the settings further, but on TV that was really hard on the eyes. Which is sad, as I mainly got the deck as a "switch but for pc games". Guess it'll mostly only work for pixel art games etc. for me.

I've been playing The Axis Unseen. Framerate can be a bit rough at times, but some patches fixed the worst of it and made it playable.

Yakuza Like a Dragon. Super fun and super silly, runs perfectly on Deck @40FPS but boy is it a battery hog.

Vampire Survivors, Wreckfest, Slay the Princess, Hue.

Persona5Strikers. Got it last month with humblebundle's choice, and it's pretty good. My first ever persona game..
- Did you have to use GE-proton to get it to run? I think that used to be a requirement, but I'm curious if it runs without it now.
  
  I dont think so? Just downloaded and pressed play. Maybe it did use glorious eggroll's version but idk. will check.

Just finished the visual novel ISLAND, read on the Deck for the most part.
Next in line would be finally continuing with Pocket Mirror. Afterwards, looking forward to buying Dredge.

@Fubarberry I've been playing Half-Life docked with a steam controller and its been fantastic. The steam controller is so good for fps games.

Tape to Tape. It's a roguelite hockey game that has a big sense of humor.

@Fubarberry War Robots. This shit really got me hooked as of late.

Haven't been playing much on it since I haven't felt like playing because college, but the last few times I have, I was busy dragging myself to play Fallout New Vegas to some day finally complete a run for the first time in any fallout game. Otherwise, I don't think I've played any other games.

Playing Dragon Age Veilguard. Just finished the first quest, and it's a lot of fun so far.

Mainly Balatro and Factorio at the moment, after finishing Forza Horizon 5 (whatever finishing in that game means lol).
- How does factorio work? Do you play with a magnifying glass?
  
  Haha, well it is tiny, but you can zoom in with R2 + Dpad down if you want that for viewing details. Tbh, it works quite well for me, all the handy controller shortcuts and the initial binding configuration are pretty neat, too!

I just found an indie autobattler called CROPS! and I am having a blast so far, highly recommended! Interestingly it appears to have duos for PVP so you could play with a friend against other players. Battling is async though like other autobattlers.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3057760/CROPS/

I have been playing Blasphemous, gonna start Pillars of Eternity next.

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