A round-up of our Steam Deck content — the videos keep coming

You're a machine, man! Keep it up! The site is gonna have to rename to GamingOnDeck soon - GOD. But I'm really enjoying the flood, and the improvements we're seeing for Deck are also affecting desktop Linux positively (hello, Apex Legends, Elden Ring and more), so I'm a happy bunny, for sure.

Thanks for the awesome coverage. I'm just wondering if the Steam play time tracker works as expected when:
- playing online, suspending, waiting for a while and resuming the Deck
- starting a game while offline and and later on going online (after having closed the game or when the game is still active)
- playing online, going offline for a while, even maybe suspending the Deck and going online again

QuoteIf there is something specific you want me to take a look at, be sure to comment away.

Dont mind if i do!

Does Proton-GE work [probably but wont hurt to take a look, and if can you configure it with the Deck UI or do you have to go into Desktop Mode as it was seen with Luxtorpeda [also can Luxtorpeda be used just fine with the Deck UI or only via Desktop Mode]

Can you install Ferals Gamemode?

In case you happen to own those games i would love to know how they run: Halo Infinite / Master Chief Collection , Skyrim , Resident Evil 8 , 7 Days to Die , Deep Rock Galactic , Dragons Dogma Dark Arisen , Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic , Saints Row 4 , Metro Exodus , Mortal Kombat 11 , For The King

How are the Thermals after playing for a few hours while also charging the Deck at the same time.

What would you say is the usual battery life if you dont adjust settings and whatnot and just let it run on whatever settings were choosen with no fps limit.

How are the Gyro Controls?

hi I would like to understand if Outward works and Martha is dead...

I'd be interested to see how it performs docked. I have a couple Dell USB-C docks and really hope that's a viable way to play.

Quoting: TimeFreezeHow are the Thermals after playing for a few hours while also charging the Deck at the same time.

I can already tell you that, it gets pretty toasty when doing both after 2 hours.

Quoting: Liam Dawe

Quoting: TimeFreezeHow are the Thermals after playing for a few hours while also charging the Deck at the same time.

I can already tell you that, it gets pretty toasty when doing both after 2 hours.

Toasty like i feel like the device is gonna break if i keep doing that or toasty like yeah it gets warm but the device can handle it?

Quoting: TimeFreeze

Quoting: Liam Dawe

Quoting: TimeFreezeHow are the Thermals after playing for a few hours while also charging the Deck at the same time.

I can already tell you that, it gets pretty toasty when doing both after 2 hours.

Toasty like i feel like the device is gonna break if i keep doing that or toasty like yeah it gets warm but the device can handle it?

Oh it handled it just fine, but it really was warm. As always though, the sides where you grip are cool.

With the magnifier, Stellaris looks surprisingly workable. I was not thinking that would be a game you'd want to play on the deck.

You should start thinking about a name change for this site, giving the amount of content about it lately :)

Gaming on Steam Deck.

I really hope this fever will pass (no offense to the Steam Deckers out there).


Last edited by eldarion on 2 March 2022 at 5:51 pm UTC

Great job on the Steam Deck coverage man! Even though I don't have time to watch all the videos, I really appreciate you taking the time to make them.

The release article you wrote was exceptionally good, I could literally not stop reading.

I'm looking forwards to when you receive your 512GB model and when you do I wish for a screen comparison.

Enjoy the influx of new readers of GOL and remember to take care of yourself in between all the work.

Quite a few games will have odd performance hickups due to downloads in background (disable this on the deck) and also shader caching which should go away after a while.

There was also a outstanding bug with gamescope that causes certain (many) games to have a weird stutter after so many minutes in-game. Apparently it was fixed recently but I haven't confirmed it myself.

Also no steam-deck in Australia; probably not for a long while too given world events.

Quoting: eldarionI really hope this fever will pass (no offense to the Steam Deckers out there).

I hope it doesn't. It's one of the biggest things to ever help Linux gaming as a whole, and any games I write about would work on a Linux desktop too.

Quoting: Purple Library GuyWith the magnifier, Stellaris looks surprisingly workable. I was not thinking that would be a game you'd want to play on the deck.

Me too. I'll admit I'm not the target audience for the Deck and am still a bit skeptical of it's success, but I must say it does appear to be a really nice device and launch (looking solely at the articles here).

I hope it does ok sales wise. It sounds like it certainly is.

This might be an odd request, but could you try running a game which has a native Linux version that works perfectly fine on desktop but is listed as Unsupported? I'm seeing some really surprising ones pop up from my library (e.g. Surviving Mars, or Ultimate Chicken Horse, which I'd've thought would be a shoe-in for the Deck). Do they run on the Deck (and just have such a crappy experience, for whatever reason, that Valve marked them Unsupported)? Or do they really not run? (If so, well…that's that I suppose, it just seems weird that Linux-native games that probably aren't using some sort of anti-cheat or anything wouldn't run on the Deck). Thanks.

Quoting: PhiladelphusThis might be an odd request, but could you try running a game which has a native Linux version that works perfectly fine on desktop but is listed as Unsupported? I'm seeing some really surprising ones pop up from my library (e.g. Surviving Mars, or Ultimate Chicken Horse, which I'd've thought would be a shoe-in for the Deck). Do they run on the Deck (and just have such a crappy experience, for whatever reason, that Valve marked them Unsupported)? Or do they really not run? (If so, well…that's that I suppose, it just seems weird that Linux-native games that probably aren't using some sort of anti-cheat or anything wouldn't run on the Deck). Thanks.

I'm interested, too. My guess for e.g. Surviving Mars is that it works, but they (according to the wording of their message Valve, I'd guess the developers) want to improve the experience before it gets labeled.

Quoting: Liam Dawe

Quoting: eldarionI really hope this fever will pass (no offense to the Steam Deckers out there).

I hope it doesn't. It's one of the biggest things to ever help Linux gaming as a whole, and any games I write about would work on a Linux desktop too.

Only time will tell. It's just that recently the news here looked too much as a Valve PR satalite then a Linux gaming news site. More about steam deck itself and less about actual games.

Quoting: eldarionOnly time will tell. It's just that recently the news here looked too much as a Valve PR satalite then a Linux gaming news site. More about steam deck itself and less about actual games.

As always, I run GOL based on my own personal interests - always have and always will. Any direction we take is simply my personal choice.

Quoting: eldarion

Quoting: Liam Dawe

Quoting: eldarionI really hope this fever will pass (no offense to the Steam Deckers out there).

I hope it doesn't. It's one of the biggest things to ever help Linux gaming as a whole, and any games I write about would work on a Linux desktop too.

Only time will tell. It's just that recently the news here looked too much as a Valve PR satalite then a Linux gaming news site. More about steam deck itself and less about actual games.

Don't you think a successful dedicated gaming device running Linux and hundreds, soon thousands of games verified to run on Linux and what most probably will be number one on many game of the years lists running on Linux at least as good as (supposedly better than) on Windows is like medium important for the topic at hand, "gaming on Linux"?


Last edited by Eike on 5 March 2022 at 7:37 am UTC

Quoting: eldarionOnly time will tell. It's just that recently the news here looked too much as a Valve PR satalite then a Linux gaming news site. More about steam deck itself and less about actual games.

Take heart, then, because the Deck just launched, so this is the biggest it will ever be and the highest concentration of articles you'll ever see about it. As more and more people actually get their hands on one the cachet of exclusivity will wear off, and apart from some big articles I foresee in the future along the lines of "Epic Games caves and ports Fortnite to Linux due to demand from millions of Deck owners" it'll gradually fade into the background fabric of people's lives as everyone who wants one just…has one.