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As we come closer to the February launch date of the Steam Deck, it appears Valve are now starting to actually go through and tick titles for their Deck Verified program.

Reports coming in that were noticed thanks to updates on SteamDB, showing that Portal 2 has been through verification. It's not exactly surprising, since it's Valve's own title and Portal 2 has long worked nicely on Linux with their native port. That, and it was recently upgraded to use DXVK-Native, to give it Vulkan support too.

We expect plenty more news on titles being Deck Verified over the rest of this month and next, considering how close we're getting to the first batch of customers being invited to actually purchase a unit. The question remains though: exactly how many will actually stick with their reservation? It's likely plenty won't due to various reasons.

In other Steam Deck news, it appears to be quite a sturdy device, as developer Rami Ismail found out noting on Twitter "Happy to report that the Steam Deck can survive a drop from countertop height" and as an amusing follow-up asking about "How's that heart rate though haha", Ismail replied "didn't measure but I guess higher than the resolution of the screen". I can't imagine how bad I will feel the first time mine gets dropped, whenever I manage to get one that is.

What games are you really hoping to see updates to make them work well on the Steam Deck?

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20 comments

D34VA_ Jan 12, 2022
Splitgate.
scaine Jan 12, 2022
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My Deck will be primarily used for non-3D games, I think. Games I'd like to spend more time in, but I don't tend to play on my big rig, cos it feels like when I'm sat at that, I should be playing demanding games.

So the Deck will be a couch device for games like RogueBook, Griftlands, Children of Morta, Ring of Pain, Wildermyth, Death Trash, The Fall and Loop Hero. And who knows, maybe it'll pull me back into Slay the Spire!

I made a forum post about Deck-style games here a while back.
Corben Jan 12, 2022
To be honest, I have no idea, what games I'm really playing on the Deck when it finally arrives. I'll test a lot of course out of curiosity, but if I'd really seriously play titles? Probably those who steer well with controllers. Like jump'n'run games, racing games, twin stick games. There are many console ports available that should be optimized for controller input, so maybe those. But anything that's in direction of FPS, I'll probably stick to keyboard and mouse input on my desktop PC.
But we'll see, maybe the Deck changes my behavior and preferences. Only time will tell.

Mostly I'm interested in the side effects of the Deck. That's its hardware and resulting updates to games, to make it work smooth on the Deck. And software, as Proton has already evolved and will evolve more, and hopefully helps publishers and devs to enable EAC for Proton/Wine. Things have changed already! We see a constant rise of Linux in the Steam hardware survey, big youtubers like LTT and Epos Vox gave Linux some screentime, Valve finally enabled CEG in the Linux Steam client, etc... and I can't wait to see what's more to come.
Jpxe Jan 12, 2022
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I hope they update the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters, apparently the text is way to small on the Deck, would be great games to play on this device.
Zlopez Jan 12, 2022
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I just like the idea of having something to play on and don't really need to sit in chair + playing games from my Steam Library. :-)
BlackBloodRum Jan 12, 2022
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Well.. I was Q2.. but now "After Q2" so I am not getting too excited just yet.

Despite not being a geek anymore, my plans for the deck are:

Try to install other Linux distros (while keeping a copy of SteamOS handy) I'm curious to see how well a regular distro will work with it. Namely I plan to try Fedora, Tumbleweed, Arch and they don't work, gentoo for latest packages (give it best chance of working).

My guess is that Arch, Tumbleweed and Fedora should just work without needing to go the Gentoo route.

I also want to try to get a completely Free version of GNU/Linux on it like Guix or Trisquel.

If it works well, great I'll probably end up using whichever works best. If not, back SteamOS will go onto it.

I'm also waiting for the dock valve announced for it I'm very interested to see how it adapts for possibly not only being a games console but also partially a work laptop. In theory it could be used for both if it works the way valve says it does.

Now games, mostly regular games like DiRT Rally, Tomb Raider, Valheim and a few other steam titles.

I will also try to get non-steam games running, I want to try PS2 games, PSP games, older sega/nintendo games and my GOG games.

Naturally I'll also be checking games in regular wine (non-proton).

Basically, for now these are just ideas, until I actually have the deck I won't know what can or cannot work.

Either way I'll be waiting until probably November or later for delivery of the deck (I didn't pre-order until Jul 17th so I'm at the back of the queue.)
whizse Jan 12, 2022
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One game verified, just 63,070 to go!
einherjar Jan 12, 2022
Portal 3 would have been the cooler announcement.

Just saying...
rustybroomhandle Jan 12, 2022
Portal 3 would have been the cooler announcement.

Just saying...

This was not an announcement, just some steamdb data mining.
einherjar Jan 12, 2022
Portal 3 would have been the cooler announcement.

Just saying...

This was not an announcement, just some steamdb data mining.

LOL, yeah sorry, I had to make clear that I am talking about the news here on GOL.
Floyd Jan 12, 2022
I'm really hoping to see a Deck Verified for Mass Effect Legendary Edition. Game runs pretty well via protonGE already.
Comandante Ñoñardo Jan 12, 2022
As long as Proton isn't ready, the Steam deck won't be....
Philadelphus Jan 12, 2022
The question remains though: exactly how many will actually stick with their reservation?
From a purely selfish perspective, every person that punts means I and everyone else who actually wants one gets theirs faster!
Mountain Man Jan 12, 2022
If only Valve would make something with a three.
denyasis Jan 13, 2022
Portal 3 would have been the cooler announcement.

Just saying...

This was not an announcement, just some steamdb data mining.

LOL, yeah sorry, I had to make clear that I am talking about the news here on GOL.

I guess it's news, because it's the first. I wouldn't say it's much in the way of a big hurdle. It's an 11 year old game with that already runs great on Linux. The only surprise would be if it didn't work. I'm glad that didn't happen.
CatKiller Jan 13, 2022
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It has to start somewhere
It has to start sometime
What better place than here?
What better time than now?
Phlebiac Jan 13, 2022
Doesn't it seem like they are starting this process rather late? Especially since it was originally supposed to ship in December?

If only Valve would make something with a three.

Does SteamOS 3 count? :-p

My reservation is saying "After Q2" as well; I guess by that time there will be enough reviews to get a good idea of whether it's worth jumping in or waiting for an updated model.
Zlopez Jan 13, 2022
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Doesn't it seem like they are starting this process rather late? Especially since it was originally supposed to ship in December?

My reservation is saying "After Q2" as well; I guess by that time there will be enough reviews to get a good idea of whether it's worth jumping in or waiting for an updated model.

I would say they are working on this for some time already, just are in testing phase now and the information are getting to the Steam Store slowly.
mark348 Jan 17, 2022
My favorite Valve's game. So much fun in coop and in single player.
tpau Jan 18, 2022
I don't know really, have to try the thing first. I could imagine Hearthstone could be nice and other deck builders.
Maybe some top down games like glitch punk.
In docked mode a lot more becomes possible.
I want to see how feasible it is as a media center with Kodi and How well you can do other things like browse the Web, watch YouTube or run Citrix to work remotely.
This depends also on the Codecs that are done in hardware so we don't burn our knees with hot device.

The possibilities are almost infinite but what really happens, can't tell befor the hardware is here.


Last edited by tpau on 18 January 2022 at 7:29 am UTC
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