Pretty much title, and looking for game recommendations. I’m hoping I can play Apex Legends and The Finals reasonably well on it. I’m out of cell service frequently so I’m looking for interesting games I can download. I’m mostly a FPS player but do third person for World of Warships on console.
Aperture desk job will show off what the deck can do. Not graphics wise but controls wise.
Welcome, you’re in for a treat !
- If you stick to verified games on Steam, there is little need for tinkering, if at all.
- If you do want to tinker, this well is so deep it can become a hobby in and of itself.
- As for recommendations for single player games, there are so many and often heavily discounted. Somewhat randomly, I’m going to suggest Prey (FPS, scifi setting) and Sniper Elite 4 (TPS, WW2 setting). Get them on sale !
Note that even though a game isn’t verified, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll need to do any tinkering. You might have to, but it’s not a guarantee or even necessarily incredibly likely.
The only time I’ve had to do eg. configuration file editing was to get Starfield (yes yes I know, shame on me) to run a bit better, but otherwise I haven’t had to do any sort of fuckery to get non-verified games to run.
apex legends works. the finals does not, because of their anti-cheat solution.
for multi-player fps games remember that you’ll play against pc players, they’ll have keyboard and mouse and you won’t have assistance features you might be used to from console fps. Experiment with gyro controls, the touchpads and/or “flick stick” you’ll might find a way to get similar speed and accuracy as a mouse user, but i’d guess you are in for an uphill battle.
have a look at the control schemes provided by the community for games, if you don’t like the default controls.
my competitive fps days are in the past, but i can recommend some single player fps i enjoyed on the deck:
- Doom (2016)
- Black Mesa, the half-life 1 remake.
- Amid Evil
- Boltgun
- Borderlands 2
e: www.protondb.com to check how various games work on the deck. some games are not “verified” by valve because they only show xbox button prompts, or some “unplayable” games run perfectly fine with a specific launch options
I don’t play… any of those. But I would recommend doing a bit of googling to confirm that ApeLegs and The Finals have an anti-cheat that supports linux (I think ApeLegs is EAC?). And I would very much check that World of Warships won’t ban users for not running windows. Competitive multiplayer and live service games are still somewhat hit or miss on linux/steam deck.
Aside from that: Games bought directly on Steam have ridiculously nice refund policies. But you can often get them for cheaper (even during sales) from legitimate resellers so it is good to get into the habit of checking https://isthereanydeal.com/. https://www.fanatical.com and, to a lesser extent these days, https://www.humblebundle.com/ are great sites to get a good number of good games for a great price.
And there are key resellers/grey market sites like Green Man Gaming* and CDKeys but, if you are going that route, just pirate it since it is less of a burden on the developers that way.
Other stores work, to varying levels of hassle, so it is worth keeping an eye out for https://www.gog.com/ deals and https://store.epicgames.com/ freebies.
*: Just to speed through this. Yes, GMG is still a grey market site. They got caught the better part of a decade back when CD Projekt Red and Rebellion called them out and even revoked a lot of keys. And they had been known to source keys from strange locations which is why so many Call of Duty keys were ROW and games had no pre-order bonuses. For a year or two they acknowledged this and marked what games they were official resellers for and what they weren’t but… they stopped doing that. Speculation is they buy in bulk from lower purchasing power regions, like Brazil, and then sell the keys at crazy mark-up. So, at best, you are letting them screw you over while also encouraging more developers to stop doing regional pricing.
Some things people haven’t mentioned:
- Get a screen protector at minimum. It will help protect against scratches and might save it from a drop.
- Get in the habit of zipping your case up when the Deck is inside. If you grab the handle while it’s unzipped, your deck is going to discover why it’s not the fall that kills you but the sudden stop at the end.
- If you know you’re unlikely to remember that, get/print yourself a Steam Deck Lifesaver.
- Download the free game Aperture Desk Job. It is a great, fun way to get used to the Deck’s controls.
- Go into Desktop Mode, go to the Discover store, and download Proton-Up. Get the latest GE Proton from its interface. Steam’s default version is usually fine, but the GE version can sometimes fix compatibility bugs for non-verified games.
- To maximize battery, you may need to adjust settings, either in game or via the three-dot-button on your deck.
- (Optional) Get some silicone thumbstick covers. Oils from your fingers will wear out the sticks’ rubber eventually.
I have to disagree for three reasons:
- The grease magnet effect is just because the screen protector folks didn’t apply an oleophobic coating. You can buy it and apply it yourself, if it bothers you. Additionally, the oleophobic coating on the Steam Deck will wear out eventually, so you’ll still wind up with grease anyway.
- You’ve done nothing to protect against scratches. When the Deck’s screen gets scratched, you’re SoL. Replacing a screen protector is easier and cheaper than the Deck’s bonded screen.
- A screen protector can absorb a drop, in much the same way as a crumple zone on a car. The kinetic energy that would crack your screen has a higher chance of being absorbed by the protector, cracking it instead.
Also, just get a cotton microfiber cloth to clean the protector, if you don’t want to be bothered by applying a coating. Most games don’t require touch controls, anyway.
The cost of replacing a whole screen seems like a worse tradeoff than having some oils you can only see when the screen is off.
None of the devices I have owned in the last decade have scratches on the screen including the steam deck. They already are resistant to that.
What the hell do people do with them to get scratches?
Personally, I don’t agree. I’ve had a screen protector on my steam deck since I bought mine around a year and a half ago, I can’t say that I’ve noticed any problems with fingerprinting but that type of thing also doesn’t bother me. I’d rather have the increased security of actually having a screen protector on the device so I don’t have to pay for a screen replacement. I have the same attitude towards any device with a touch screen.
