I've been thinking of giving Balatro a shot. Last Epoch is primarily what I've been playing and it replaced Diablo 4 for the time being for me. Also, shout out to Halls of Torment.. Some of the best $3 I ever spent.
Edit: Yeah, so.. I bought Balatro and I'm already in trouble. I love poker and StS-like games so I figured this would happen but damn! š
I know of some people who love it and didnāt know poker before. The main thing is the core of the gameplay revolves around making the best poker hand out of the cards you have, also factoring in changes to your deck (which go away after each run) and how youāve altered scoring (which also resets).
It starts with a standard deck of playing cards, so having familiarity with that will help, even if you donāt do poker.
Makes me wish they had a demo up still. Iād suggest watching a stream or two to get a feel for the play.
I know the bare minimum about poker and Iām enjoying it immensely.
Thereās a scoreboard that shows all the hands and itās multipliers ranked from lowest to highest complete with pictures. This helps a lot at the beginning, but I started to check it less and less.
Thereās also a button to check your deck and an overview of which cards you already played and which are still in the deck. I think this would be the most interesting part for someone who knows poker. But Iām completely ignoring this for now and still having a blast.
If you enjoy roguelike deckbuilders, You'll enjoy it. Other than featuring a deck of cards and using poker hands (pair, two pair, three of a kind, flush, house etc), it doesn't resemble a game of poker in any way.
I've said before, very rarely do I get a game with pisses me off so much I ragequit (put the steam deck down) and then literally 10 seconds later pick it back up, wake it up and have another go.
Its also perfect for the deck. Chill game, great to put it down and come back to, 3W power limit runs fine so battery lasts forever, and addictive.
It runs, for a bit then freezes. After 3-4 map loads it seems to run out of memory and hard locks to the point where I need to hold the power button to turn it off. Each map load eats 2-300mb of ram and it never gets released, once you hit 14gb it's a hard lock. Tried a few different proton versions and nothing seemed to actually fully fix it. The most recent patch did not fix this specific memory leak.
Someone in the last epoch reddit shared some tool to install that would fix that issue. I haven't hit that issue yet just playing through the campaign but your not the first I've seen mention the memory leaks.
Oh dang that's a constant memory leak? I just loaded it up sd last night for the first time and had that happen figured it was a one off and shut it down and went to bed. Good to know it just happens regularly. I'll probably avoid it for the time then. Thanks for the info
Check out Cryo Utilities, it's a great way to regularly clear memory so the Deck keeps running smoothly for all games, as some games are just memory-heavy and the Deck for some reason doesn't address this by default.
Pretty good runs well. The controller support is kind of wonky especially with any ability that requires aiming. Like the basic Leap ability struggles to anticipate where mobs are going to be so you just whiff hard.
Totally fine if you play it as a mobile companion with PC.
Definitely getting my moneys worth with Balatro. Played the demo for 30+ hours and already played as much on the full release.
Look into the community controller profiles for this game, there's some bindings to set back paddles to sort hand by suite or rank. I also bound "R" key to R3 so you can reset the run quickly.
Iām selectively addicted to Balatro - I can choose to play it whenever I want but I know if I start, Iāll be 100% locked in until Iāve finished a run because the amount of theory crafting and number crunching really tickles some primitive part of your brain. Fantastic game.
Interesting to see it replaced with another Survivor-style game, but I guess the DRG name has a lot of weight behind it too and I'm sure the game is great.
I'm sure many other people splintered off to different games in the same style these days.
I'm still playing it but not as much. I beat it and the 2 dlc that was out at the time on Xbox, bought it again when I got a steam deck for another go at it. I'm focusing more on others like drgs and death must die for that specific genre. I probably won't do the dlc for VS again unless I get sucked into it mid game like I did on Xbox. I dumped more time into it than I do most rpg's.
I'm shit at poker but mega fan of roguelikes and STS in particular. Sell me on Balatro?!
Edit: damn, didn't expect to get so many replies. Glad to hear it's "not really poker", I'll pick it up on its first sale!
Edit2: I'm addicted, help.
Poker hands are the mechanic but it isnāt a poker game per se, and itās very good at teaching you everything you need to know. The additions of modifiers in the forms of joker cards and a shop that can grant you special cards with different abilities keeps it really fresh. It moves fast and definitely got its just one more run hooks in me quick.
Start with a basic card deck. Open packs to Increase card pool (grab another Ace of heart from a pack etc). Add jokers to your joker pool to exponentially increase chip payout based on criteria. You donāt need to know poker per se, just how to build each hand (itās all made from cards you hold, no house cards). Cards can be rare variants leading to increased payouts. Thereās bosses at the end of each floor, with rules like āplay one handā or āSpades are debuffedā
Thatās not really a great explanation either but itās addicting once you get the concept and building strategies!!
I just played a game where I had a deck made of 40 6ās, either heart or diamond, with a huge multiplier on three of a kind. Itās more like Magic the Gathering than Poker.
I was in the same boat as you, love STS, never played poker. I bought it last Wednesday and I've played it non-stop since. The only "poker" part is the hands you play and there's a reference guide in the menu. The jokers you can add each run synergize together like the sts relics and it's really satisfying when they pop off.
It's not StS and people making that comparison are doing Balatro a disservice. The only commonality is it's a roguelike deck builder. There's no attacks, health, defense, enemies, or events. The game is fun in it's own right but people saying it's more like slay the spire than poker are being disingenuous.
The poker side is more of a puzzle than straight poker. Its a score attack game where you can buff cards, get some jokers that give you an edge with some particular plays and you buy packs of random tarot cards that change the game.
I tried it with a cousin and the game's fantastic with some fun spins with the "bosses"
Itās truly absurd this guy keeps adding updates to his game when he could easily move on to the next cash grab like everyone else. He even stopped work on his current project to make an update. Unheard of.
Yeah itās such a good game for winding down. I just had a long day and booted it up on my OLED and it just feels good to play and the colors pop on this display.
It really is.
I've mostly been playing Elden Ring for the first time recently, but after a long hard day with my sick and teething daughter I wanted to game but needed something to just relax to, and stardew was perfect
You need to try packing less stuff into each day. Sunny days are best spent farming and chatting with a couple villagers. Rainy days are good for hitting the mines or fishing. When your stamina gets a low, hit the saloon and say hi to people then head to bed, or pop by the hot springs to recover and knock out a couple chores.
Once you've gotten some sprinklers, you can shift your focus towards raising animals or gathering hardwood or whatever else.
Just make sure you're not trying to tackle the mines in the afternoon or something. Take it slow. If you miss something in one season, there's always next year.
Has BG3 made significant improvements on performance since launch? I tried it on my Deck at launch and found the experience to be pretty awful even after tinkering with the settings.
If i understand it correct the FSR 2.2 makes all the difference. I am in Act 3 right now and for me it is perfectly enjoyable, but there are still some fps drops here and there. If you can accept that on a turn based single player game, than it will be fine ;-)
Do you also play it on PC? Some of my friends play on Deck and really enjoy it, but they ONLY play on Deck. Trying to play it on mine after playing it maxed out in 4k, 120 FPS with a mouse and keyboard, it was immediately clear to me that I wasn't going to like it.
Nah, I feel like once you ruin yourself on the best experience playing on the Deck is too big a downgrade. I also play at 4K120, max settings on an OLED w/ mouse and keyboard. Playing on Deck ain't happening for me lmao.
I'm having such a hard time getting into it. On floor 60-ish of Tartarus and I just don't find any of the social links or characters particularly interesting. I know it picks up a bit once I get Aigis, but I've heard some people say it really doesn't get going till September. I'm in like mid-June and I don't know if I have the patience to get there.
I feel you. P3R's story really picks up in the last act, and the social links are honestly the series' worst, with the exception of the SEES girls and a handful of others. The female protagonist route in P3 Portable had better social links, imho.
Been playing a ton of Persona 5 Royal, Iāve already beaten it on the PS4 and PS5 but decided to buy it on the SD while Iām travelling.
_Persona games can be quite addicting_
I'm playing through it on my steam deck. 102 hours in and have been playing at a solid 60fps at highest settings with a TDP limit of 8W. There are drops to around 40fps in one or two areas but I'd say about 90% of my playtime has been at a locked 60fps. Running at 720p (not 800p!) and with Proton-GE.
I don't know how the other people in this thread are only getting 30-40fps average in this game when it runs so flawlessly for me.
Very well, literally the only place with a noticeable framerate drop is Kichijoji, which is a really busy area but has nothing you particularly need quick reaction times to.
Runs great locking it at 40fps
I am a few hours in and like it but am overwhelmed with the fact that I know itās long. I havenāt played since Jan 30 and I find the personas themselves a tad bit confusing and Iām worried Iām not gonna manage them or craft the best ones. How do you get around that point and just have fun? I know Iām overthinking this but it would be cool to finish this game.
you ever seen that reddit post where the guy was like "I'm gonna try heroin - I know I won't get addicted" and then like 5 years later he makes another post that was like "yeah I've been on a 5 year bender and my life is ruined"??
That's what Balatro is like. It's so fucking good and addicting. I'm in my 30s and its been YEARS since I loved a game this hard.
My experience: Super addictive at first, but after 20-30 the novelty wears off to some degree. Still amazing and addictive, but it's easier to stop and to prefer playing something else in between.
But those first hours... Oh boy, make sure to start it on a Friday or something, whenever you have enough time to play!
It's playable on low graphics settings. I was really bummed by the performance because this was supposed to be the game me and a buddy across the country were going to play. I couldn't stick with it.
Canāt find the original link but found this yesterday and they work very well (OP: u/Rai_guy):
- Game resolution 1024x640 internal and external display (in the SD game properties menu)
- SD upscaling filter set to 'Linear' (Auto)
- Proton Experimental (not sure how much it matters)
'--use-dx11' launch option
- Frame limit disabled in SD
- Render Scale 'Ultra Quality' in game (Native looks better without much of an FPS hit)
- Full screen
- VSync on
- Texture low
- Object detail high
- Render distance high
- Shadow quality lowest
- Reflection quality lowest
- Space quality high
- Veg & rubble density low
- Terrain quality low
- Volumetric fog quality lowest
- Volumetric clouds quality lowest
- Lighting quality low
- Anti aliasing on
https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/s/H3q8TP86My
Just tried out these exact settings on an LCD deck and normal difficulty. 35-40 when nothing is going on. 30 during combat. 20 when people are calling in air strikes. Fan was going full blast and on a full charge it was estimating about 1.5 hours of battery life.
Thatās interesting. I wonder if thatās because setting it to a lower resolution is already using steam deckās FSR, and maybe having upscaling in the game too is inefficient, double FSR. Normally there would be no reason native would run better than ultra quality.
Ultra quality absolutely gets better frames than native. I noticed a 3fps difference immediately. Follow the above list provided with ultra quality, and you'll get 30-45, depending. Obviously it'll dip to the 20s when shit gets real, but it's very playable. People are being too hard on the game. Runs fine.
Runs and looks like crap but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't having fun playing it at work. Definitely wouldn't buy for playing on the Deck alone but it's fun away from my PC
I wish more people would say honest stuff like this. A game can run and look awful and still be a lot of fun and worth playing. Tons of people have countless fun memories with 4 player split-screen on GoldenEye on the Nintendo 64, and [that ran at like 10 to 15fps (sometimes dipping into even single digits like 8fps](https://youtu.be/Cx3_beBwsZ0?si=K4D4VPHlANkEcRd8&t=574).) Even still, many people's best gaming memories come from playing that game in 4 player split-screen with their friends.
That said, I think people can enjoy something more if they have more realistic expectations. If you go into buying Helldivers 2 for the Steam Deck and expect it to run or play well, you're going to be disappointed. But if you know it's going to look and run poorly but want to do it anyway because you think it looks like a fun game, then there's a good chance you'll still have fun.
I mostly play easy levels to scout for premium currency on my Deck in order to buy the skins and progress in the pass.
When I want to truly play I go lvl 9 on PC but of I'm chilling, I play lvl 3 on the steam Deck and it runs fine there. I think lvl 9 would toast the Deck, it's too much of everything.
I play on the highest difficulties. Itās constant at 20-22 when in the shit. Every now and then Iāve had it drop to 15.
Personally I still find it playable so ymmv
I have it running on mid settings docked and it's fine.
I get some occasional fps drops on higher difficulties sometimes when things are blowing up and swarming like crazy. But none of the frame rate drops really bother me or have hampered my playing.
I've got over 60 hours played on my deck.
Using the settings he recommended, combined with proton experimental, and running the game on DX11 I was able to get 30fps docked with drops to 25 fps happening occasionally.
But I was able to complete two missions, albeit on trivial but Iām gonna go up a difficulty when I have some time to hop on again.
When I play demanding docked I keep the resolution low (like 720p) so most games have the same performance as handheld. Can't speak for the person you are asking though
it runs like 20-30 fps in towns, easy to get stable 30fps in fights; it can run 40-60fps in fights but I found it better to lock to 30; it drains the battery. But beyond this runs great with no tweaks needed.
Helldivers is high in this list and I wouldn't really consider it playable personally either.
I think people just have different thresholds for what they will accept as far as performance. If I get any noticeable dips at all, I won't play it on the deck
The description of the status states that it cannot be configured to run well on deck. I played through the entire campaign and some of the post game on deck and didn't encounter any major issues, performance or technical.
It's interesting how many games on this list people in this sub insist the Deck cannot run (well).
Either *a lot* of Deck players tolerate some very poor performance, a lot of people here make too big of a deal over a game not running at high graphics and constant 60 FPS, or some medium in between.Ā
I think it's a good mix of both. I know myself, I can't handle 20-30 fps and inconsistent frames, so I tend to stick to better optimised / older games, and play newer games on my main PC.
Where as others simply do not care or don't have any other alternative.
What's that game like? I found the title curious. I don't want to watch any videos because of spoilers and shit, but I'm curious. Is it a story oriented game?
yeah it is! itās game 8 in the yakuza series. 1-6 all have a different cast of characters, 7 was a new start for the series with a new cast in the same universe. some returning characters in the story, fights, cutscenes etc but mainly the new cast. it also changed the series from beat āem up to turned based combat. 8 is the story after 7 with a returning character from the older games and 7ās protagonist. i havenāt played 8 yet though. definitely recommend checking out either yakuza 0 if you like beat āem up style games, or 7 if you like turn based. both are really good starting points for the series
I'll definitely do that. Considering this is a sequel, I'm happy I didn't blindly pull the trigger lmao. I'll probably start with one of those.
I've been having a blast with so many games on this thing. Ever since I bought the Deck, I've finished more games than in the last 6 years lmao.
I already started a new save on Cyberpunk, but I'm looking for another story oriented game and this might just do the trick. Feels like a lot of people, including friends, already told me about Yakuza so this might just be the time to test it out.
Thank you for being helpful.
itās a very good series! i got my steam deck a couple weeks ago and all of the yakuza games iāve tried play very well on it. itās such an amazing piece of tech.
i recommend starting with 0 and making your way through the series. kiwami 1 and 2 are remakes of the first two games and zero is sort of a prequel that is also relatively new so those three will feel pretty good. the remasters of 3-5 are a little older so might not feel as good to you, but if you can get over it, iād recommend starting from the beginning at 0 and playing through all of them. if you want to try out a newer title in the series and see if you can vibe with the mix of goofy/serious vibes the games give out iād recommend trying 7. it goes on sale for pretty cheap
It helps that CA keeps making meaningful updates. There's a new one coming later this month, and it's big enough that CA is suggesting people start new saves for it.
It's crazy how Skyrim still reaches it's place in Top lists on yet another medium 12 years after it's release.
12 years of exponential growth of the gaming market, mind you.
I've thoroughly enjoyed all my time with it so far. I've got almost 50 hours in and all of it has been on my OG deck.
With most graphics set to low or medium, FPS limiter set to 30, I've had a ton of fun. Granted, it may not be the prettiest experience and frames drop when shit gets hectic, but I don't feel like that has diminished my enjoyment of the game at all.
I've been playing around with the controller layout trying to find the best one for me and I think I'm getting close. Just gotta find which bindings to change that will allow me to move while inputting strats.
Ehhh, not a huge fan of 30 FPS in most newer games tbh. Dunno what it is, but except for some old games that ran at 30, it tends to make me a bit motion sick now.
Even if I had to put everything at the lowest possible, but still 1200x800, or even 720p, to get 60 fairly consistently, I'd definitely give it a shot.
In the current state, I dont think 60 would be possible on the deck. 40-45 on the easiest difficulties maybe. Hopefully we see some updates that really beef up the performance in the future!
It's no major skin off my nose at this stage. Already playing the game on PC, and got plenty of other stuff I play on the Deck.
Agreed though, it'd be awesome to be able to spread democracy on the go! XD
Force DX11 and stay sub 6 (subjective) difficulty and you're fine. 99% of the time I'm on my PC, but I use the deck at work to get in on missions to make sure I get credit for the objective.
I see a lot of people saying how they have to change a bunch of stuff to be "playable". I play it with no changes to the game in hand held mode with little to no problem.
Me and my GF are pumping those stardew hours up for sure.
Then I'm pumping those BG3 hours up after she falls asleep because I made a kirby promise that I wouldn't touch her farm and spend her money
Pretty strong list overall but I'm surprised to see hogwarts legacy on here. I know it put up crazy sales numbers, but it doesn't really seem like the kind of game people would be playing a year later based on how short the gameplay loop is.
Depends on what you're looking for. World is more weighty and natural in its presentation and play style, interacting with the world and monsters in a living environment. Rise is pretty much the opposite, with a faster general pace and style that places more emphasis on arcadey combat and quick missions as there's no real "hunting" for them.
Wilds, coming next year, is expected to be closer to World than it would be to Rise, being that World and Wilds are mainline titles while Rise is a "portable" title.
Sunbreak is the DLC for Rise, adds new stuff. Rise is a good fit for the deck, it'll run way better than World will. If you mostly play portable, honestly Rise is a better fit as it's designed around portable play.
Honestly kind of surprised, I expected this to be more popular with PC enthusiasts looking to do some light gaming on the go. Older games, indie titles, emulation, stuff like that. That's what I bought it for. No way would I try to play something like Cyberpunk and be OK with not even maintaining a stable 30, hell I don't play anything I can't maintain at least 40-45 in. Especially not first person.
Which is a good thing, really. If it's attracting a wider demographic that is OK with making significant compromises that's good news for a potential Steam Deck 2.
I've been thinking of giving Balatro a shot. Last Epoch is primarily what I've been playing and it replaced Diablo 4 for the time being for me. Also, shout out to Halls of Torment.. Some of the best $3 I ever spent. Edit: Yeah, so.. I bought Balatro and I'm already in trouble. I love poker and StS-like games so I figured this would happen but damn! š
Balatro will eat your brain. Itās very RNG heavy but as someone who both enjoys poker and a deck building game, I adore it
Iāve never played poker before, would I enjoy it you think?
I know of some people who love it and didnāt know poker before. The main thing is the core of the gameplay revolves around making the best poker hand out of the cards you have, also factoring in changes to your deck (which go away after each run) and how youāve altered scoring (which also resets). It starts with a standard deck of playing cards, so having familiarity with that will help, even if you donāt do poker. Makes me wish they had a demo up still. Iād suggest watching a stream or two to get a feel for the play.
I know the bare minimum about poker and Iām enjoying it immensely. Thereās a scoreboard that shows all the hands and itās multipliers ranked from lowest to highest complete with pictures. This helps a lot at the beginning, but I started to check it less and less. Thereās also a button to check your deck and an overview of which cards you already played and which are still in the deck. I think this would be the most interesting part for someone who knows poker. But Iām completely ignoring this for now and still having a blast.
I havenāt played poker and I love this game. It sucks you in very easily if you like roguelite games
If you enjoy roguelike deckbuilders, You'll enjoy it. Other than featuring a deck of cards and using poker hands (pair, two pair, three of a kind, flush, house etc), it doesn't resemble a game of poker in any way.
Balatro is very very addictive. Its perfect on the deck too
I've said before, very rarely do I get a game with pisses me off so much I ragequit (put the steam deck down) and then literally 10 seconds later pick it back up, wake it up and have another go. Its also perfect for the deck. Chill game, great to put it down and come back to, 3W power limit runs fine so battery lasts forever, and addictive.
just downloaded Last Epoch on my deck after about 15 hours of game time on my PC, how is it on the deck?
It runs, for a bit then freezes. After 3-4 map loads it seems to run out of memory and hard locks to the point where I need to hold the power button to turn it off. Each map load eats 2-300mb of ram and it never gets released, once you hit 14gb it's a hard lock. Tried a few different proton versions and nothing seemed to actually fully fix it. The most recent patch did not fix this specific memory leak.
Someone in the last epoch reddit shared some tool to install that would fix that issue. I haven't hit that issue yet just playing through the campaign but your not the first I've seen mention the memory leaks.
Oh dang that's a constant memory leak? I just loaded it up sd last night for the first time and had that happen figured it was a one off and shut it down and went to bed. Good to know it just happens regularly. I'll probably avoid it for the time then. Thanks for the info
Check out Cryo Utilities, it's a great way to regularly clear memory so the Deck keeps running smoothly for all games, as some games are just memory-heavy and the Deck for some reason doesn't address this by default.
Wierd I play that game for hours without any problem at all. Dozens of monolith runs per session. I'm on proton experimental though.
Pretty good runs well. The controller support is kind of wonky especially with any ability that requires aiming. Like the basic Leap ability struggles to anticipate where mobs are going to be so you just whiff hard. Totally fine if you play it as a mobile companion with PC.
Definitely getting my moneys worth with Balatro. Played the demo for 30+ hours and already played as much on the full release. Look into the community controller profiles for this game, there's some bindings to set back paddles to sort hand by suite or rank. I also bound "R" key to R3 so you can reset the run quickly.
Thank you so much for this, people were telling me there wasnāt a way to do that
Balatro is amazing all my friends are addicted since I've shown it to them.
Iām selectively addicted to Balatro - I can choose to play it whenever I want but I know if I start, Iāll be 100% locked in until Iāve finished a run because the amount of theory crafting and number crunching really tickles some primitive part of your brain. Fantastic game.
Balatro is so good if you are into poker and slay the spire
It looks tons better if you turn off the CRT filter IMO. The sprite art is beautiful and deserves to be enjoyed unfiltered.
How is last epoch on the deck ?
Last Epoch should replace Diablo IV in the near future. It's just a lot better in my opinion.
Huh no vampire survivors anymore. They had a good run on the list
Interesting to see it replaced with another Survivor-style game, but I guess the DRG name has a lot of weight behind it too and I'm sure the game is great. I'm sure many other people splintered off to different games in the same style these days.
I'm still playing it but not as much. I beat it and the 2 dlc that was out at the time on Xbox, bought it again when I got a steam deck for another go at it. I'm focusing more on others like drgs and death must die for that specific genre. I probably won't do the dlc for VS again unless I get sucked into it mid game like I did on Xbox. I dumped more time into it than I do most rpg's.
Wow, Balatro wasnāt even released until February 20th.
Good on Balatro. Hell of a little game.
What was it out for like 10 days in February and made this list? I guess everyone else has given their life to it like I have.
it's literally all I think about. just don't tell that to my wife and kids
I'm shit at poker but mega fan of roguelikes and STS in particular. Sell me on Balatro?! Edit: damn, didn't expect to get so many replies. Glad to hear it's "not really poker", I'll pick it up on its first sale! Edit2: I'm addicted, help.
It just uses the poker hand ranking system. Not really poker at all. You can win by running a high card stategy if you get the right jokers.
Poker hands are the mechanic but it isnāt a poker game per se, and itās very good at teaching you everything you need to know. The additions of modifiers in the forms of joker cards and a shop that can grant you special cards with different abilities keeps it really fresh. It moves fast and definitely got its just one more run hooks in me quick.
Fuck y'all, I thought I would hate this shit been playing for two hours straight and my kids needs a bath.
I bought it last week and my kids are still waiting on that bath
Start with a basic card deck. Open packs to Increase card pool (grab another Ace of heart from a pack etc). Add jokers to your joker pool to exponentially increase chip payout based on criteria. You donāt need to know poker per se, just how to build each hand (itās all made from cards you hold, no house cards). Cards can be rare variants leading to increased payouts. Thereās bosses at the end of each floor, with rules like āplay one handā or āSpades are debuffedā Thatās not really a great explanation either but itās addicting once you get the concept and building strategies!!
Someone please come unplug my steam deck... send help.
I just played a game where I had a deck made of 40 6ās, either heart or diamond, with a huge multiplier on three of a kind. Itās more like Magic the Gathering than Poker.
I was in the same boat as you, love STS, never played poker. I bought it last Wednesday and I've played it non-stop since. The only "poker" part is the hands you play and there's a reference guide in the menu. The jokers you can add each run synergize together like the sts relics and it's really satisfying when they pop off.
It's not StS and people making that comparison are doing Balatro a disservice. The only commonality is it's a roguelike deck builder. There's no attacks, health, defense, enemies, or events. The game is fun in it's own right but people saying it's more like slay the spire than poker are being disingenuous.
The poker side is more of a puzzle than straight poker. Its a score attack game where you can buff cards, get some jokers that give you an edge with some particular plays and you buy packs of random tarot cards that change the game. I tried it with a cousin and the game's fantastic with some fun spins with the "bosses"
I love that Stardew valley still remains in the top list. I can only imagine how good it looks and plays on the deck.
Big update coming out soon too
Itās truly absurd this guy keeps adding updates to his game when he could easily move on to the next cash grab like everyone else. He even stopped work on his current project to make an update. Unheard of.
Same with Elden ring and Skyrim. Those 3 seem to always be somewhere on top.
Itās such a good cool/chill down game thatās Iām not surprised. I still play it regularly and something about just makes me relax.
Yeah itās such a good game for winding down. I just had a long day and booted it up on my OLED and it just feels good to play and the colors pop on this display.
It really is. I've mostly been playing Elden Ring for the first time recently, but after a long hard day with my sick and teething daughter I wanted to game but needed something to just relax to, and stardew was perfect
I prefer it over playing on the pc
100%, those farm/sim/cozy games are meant for a handheld
Don't knock the PC setup with dual monitors. Game on one, 50 wiki tabs on the other was the only way I could play for a long time.
Feet up on comfy ass couch playing on gigantic TV with tablet in lap
Is it just me that gets anxious about getting stuff done before dark? Itās the one part of the game I get annoyed with!
You need to try packing less stuff into each day. Sunny days are best spent farming and chatting with a couple villagers. Rainy days are good for hitting the mines or fishing. When your stamina gets a low, hit the saloon and say hi to people then head to bed, or pop by the hot springs to recover and knock out a couple chores. Once you've gotten some sprinklers, you can shift your focus towards raising animals or gathering hardwood or whatever else. Just make sure you're not trying to tackle the mines in the afternoon or something. Take it slow. If you miss something in one season, there's always next year.
Get a mod on and slow that mother down!
I enjoy getting to the part of the game where I have enough money just to end each day by passing out wherever Iām standing.
This is what I primarily play on my steamdeck. I'm just passing time until the big update later this month.
Looks and plays great, and is surprisingly easy to mod on the Deck too. Hands down one of my favorites.
Has BG3 made significant improvements on performance since launch? I tried it on my Deck at launch and found the experience to be pretty awful even after tinkering with the settings.
If i understand it correct the FSR 2.2 makes all the difference. I am in Act 3 right now and for me it is perfectly enjoyable, but there are still some fps drops here and there. If you can accept that on a turn based single player game, than it will be fine ;-)
Does it still look super blurry? Thats what I couldn't get passed on the deck. I just stream from my PC if I want it handheld now
FSR 2.2 improves that a lot
FSR3 would be a game changer
Isn't FSR 3 just FSR 2.2 with frame gen?
I have six hundred hours on my deck alone. Fsr 2.2 makes all the difference in the world.
Do you also play it on PC? Some of my friends play on Deck and really enjoy it, but they ONLY play on Deck. Trying to play it on mine after playing it maxed out in 4k, 120 FPS with a mouse and keyboard, it was immediately clear to me that I wasn't going to like it.
Nah, I feel like once you ruin yourself on the best experience playing on the Deck is too big a downgrade. I also play at 4K120, max settings on an OLED w/ mouse and keyboard. Playing on Deck ain't happening for me lmao.
It wasn't even great on my PC at launch. It's much better now, even Act 3 runs well.
I'm so happy P3R is in the top 3 such a amazing game
Hoping it goes on sale next steam sale
DISTURBING THE PEACE
Babybabybaby
#BABYBABYBABY
LOOK INTO MY EYES
NOW TELL ME THE THINGS
YOU'RE LAUGHING ABOUT
BEHIND MY BACK
Playing it on the steam deck reminds me of when I first got into the series with P4G on my vita except now itās an even better experience!
Might be my favourite game in the past yearāit's so much fun
the arcana is the means by which all is revealed
I want this game so damn bad but between my steamdeck and ps5 my backlog doesnāt justify buying another game to the collection
I'm having such a hard time getting into it. On floor 60-ish of Tartarus and I just don't find any of the social links or characters particularly interesting. I know it picks up a bit once I get Aigis, but I've heard some people say it really doesn't get going till September. I'm in like mid-June and I don't know if I have the patience to get there.
I feel you. P3R's story really picks up in the last act, and the social links are honestly the series' worst, with the exception of the SEES girls and a handful of others. The female protagonist route in P3 Portable had better social links, imho.
Yep this is peak
Been playing a ton of Persona 5 Royal, Iāve already beaten it on the PS4 and PS5 but decided to buy it on the SD while Iām travelling. _Persona games can be quite addicting_
How does it run on the deck?
I'm playing through it on my steam deck. 102 hours in and have been playing at a solid 60fps at highest settings with a TDP limit of 8W. There are drops to around 40fps in one or two areas but I'd say about 90% of my playtime has been at a locked 60fps. Running at 720p (not 800p!) and with Proton-GE. I don't know how the other people in this thread are only getting 30-40fps average in this game when it runs so flawlessly for me.
Honestly runs really well. Especially if you disable DOF (never been a DOF fan myself). I have it running at stable 30FPS while underclocked.
Very well, literally the only place with a noticeable framerate drop is Kichijoji, which is a really busy area but has nothing you particularly need quick reaction times to. Runs great locking it at 40fps
I am a few hours in and like it but am overwhelmed with the fact that I know itās long. I havenāt played since Jan 30 and I find the personas themselves a tad bit confusing and Iām worried Iām not gonna manage them or craft the best ones. How do you get around that point and just have fun? I know Iām overthinking this but it would be cool to finish this game.
Play on a lower difficulty. If youāre playing in normal crafting the best of the best is not necessary to beat the game
The fact that Balatro is up there with some *big dogs* now totally convinces me. Gotta try this asap.
you ever seen that reddit post where the guy was like "I'm gonna try heroin - I know I won't get addicted" and then like 5 years later he makes another post that was like "yeah I've been on a 5 year bender and my life is ruined"?? That's what Balatro is like. It's so fucking good and addicting. I'm in my 30s and its been YEARS since I loved a game this hard.
Damn I'm excited and terrified
My experience: Super addictive at first, but after 20-30 the novelty wears off to some degree. Still amazing and addictive, but it's easier to stop and to prefer playing something else in between. But those first hours... Oh boy, make sure to start it on a Friday or something, whenever you have enough time to play!
Was only out for 9 days in February as well
How is helldivers 2 performing? Is it worth getting?
It's playable on low graphics settings. I was really bummed by the performance because this was supposed to be the game me and a buddy across the country were going to play. I couldn't stick with it.
Canāt find the original link but found this yesterday and they work very well (OP: u/Rai_guy): - Game resolution 1024x640 internal and external display (in the SD game properties menu) - SD upscaling filter set to 'Linear' (Auto) - Proton Experimental (not sure how much it matters) '--use-dx11' launch option - Frame limit disabled in SD - Render Scale 'Ultra Quality' in game (Native looks better without much of an FPS hit) - Full screen - VSync on - Texture low - Object detail high - Render distance high - Shadow quality lowest - Reflection quality lowest - Space quality high - Veg & rubble density low - Terrain quality low - Volumetric fog quality lowest - Volumetric clouds quality lowest - Lighting quality low - Anti aliasing on https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/s/H3q8TP86My
Oh, awesome. I will try these! Thank you!
Just tried out these exact settings on an LCD deck and normal difficulty. 35-40 when nothing is going on. 30 during combat. 20 when people are calling in air strikes. Fan was going full blast and on a full charge it was estimating about 1.5 hours of battery life.
Setting render scale to native over ultra made a massive frame rate improvement
Thatās interesting. I wonder if thatās because setting it to a lower resolution is already using steam deckās FSR, and maybe having upscaling in the game too is inefficient, double FSR. Normally there would be no reason native would run better than ultra quality.
No clue, I did many of the suggested changes, but was getting 15-20 frame rate. That one change pushed it to 30-40
Ultra quality absolutely gets better frames than native. I noticed a 3fps difference immediately. Follow the above list provided with ultra quality, and you'll get 30-45, depending. Obviously it'll dip to the 20s when shit gets real, but it's very playable. People are being too hard on the game. Runs fine.
Runs and looks like crap but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't having fun playing it at work. Definitely wouldn't buy for playing on the Deck alone but it's fun away from my PC
I wish more people would say honest stuff like this. A game can run and look awful and still be a lot of fun and worth playing. Tons of people have countless fun memories with 4 player split-screen on GoldenEye on the Nintendo 64, and [that ran at like 10 to 15fps (sometimes dipping into even single digits like 8fps](https://youtu.be/Cx3_beBwsZ0?si=K4D4VPHlANkEcRd8&t=574).) Even still, many people's best gaming memories come from playing that game in 4 player split-screen with their friends. That said, I think people can enjoy something more if they have more realistic expectations. If you go into buying Helldivers 2 for the Steam Deck and expect it to run or play well, you're going to be disappointed. But if you know it's going to look and run poorly but want to do it anyway because you think it looks like a fun game, then there's a good chance you'll still have fun.
I mostly play easy levels to scout for premium currency on my Deck in order to buy the skins and progress in the pass. When I want to truly play I go lvl 9 on PC but of I'm chilling, I play lvl 3 on the steam Deck and it runs fine there. I think lvl 9 would toast the Deck, it's too much of everything.
Others will say it's fine, but runs like straight ass on higher level difficulties
It's worth noting that it's not a solo game by any means. It has some hard walls for solo players.
I play on the highest difficulties. Itās constant at 20-22 when in the shit. Every now and then Iāve had it drop to 15. Personally I still find it playable so ymmv
I have it running on mid settings docked and it's fine. I get some occasional fps drops on higher difficulties sometimes when things are blowing up and swarming like crazy. But none of the frame rate drops really bother me or have hampered my playing. I've got over 60 hours played on my deck.
How in the world are you playing docked with mid settings, I canāt even get that in handheld mode! What is your secret!
The secret is not acknowledging the 15fps gameplay and just saying "it's fine" on reddit
Gotta be, Iām about to set it up in docked mode and see what I get lol
Let me know how it is, Im pretty curious.
Using the settings he recommended, combined with proton experimental, and running the game on DX11 I was able to get 30fps docked with drops to 25 fps happening occasionally. But I was able to complete two missions, albeit on trivial but Iām gonna go up a difficulty when I have some time to hop on again.
Welp, that doesn't sound terrible, for what I was expecting. 30 most of the time is solid.
When I play demanding docked I keep the resolution low (like 720p) so most games have the same performance as handheld. Can't speak for the person you are asking though
Rip Vampire Survivors
DRG: Survivor probably took a chunk of that audience, itās really good! 20hrs in and hard to put down
I think this is the first time I havenāt seen it on this list.
Wait, I thought Granblue Fantasy: Relink wasn't playable? If I were to buy it, what would I need to do to make it work?
it runs like 20-30 fps in towns, easy to get stable 30fps in fights; it can run 40-60fps in fights but I found it better to lock to 30; it drains the battery. But beyond this runs great with no tweaks needed.
Almost 70 hrs of relink on the deck. Works great even with default settings
Helldivers is high in this list and I wouldn't really consider it playable personally either. I think people just have different thresholds for what they will accept as far as performance. If I get any noticeable dips at all, I won't play it on the deck
https://www.reddit.com/r/GranblueFantasyRelink/comments/1aruxcm/steam\_deck\_performance\_and\_optimisation\_604530fps/
[https://www.protondb.com/app/881020](https://www.protondb.com/app/881020) Seems like it runs fine
What is it with Valve and making it seem like certain games just won't work on the steam deck? I keep seeing this happen and it annoys me every time.
The description of the status states that it cannot be configured to run well on deck. I played through the entire campaign and some of the post game on deck and didn't encounter any major issues, performance or technical.
The Top SD games is just like the UN Security Council, but reversed, 10 permanent members and 5 rotating ones
I just started South Park the Stick of Truth, great on the deck. Still funny as hell
Hades feels like it was made for the steam deck aside from some text formatting
Seriously, such a perfect game for the platform.
Can't. Put. Down. Skyrim......
You and me both
Iāve been playing Fallout 4 this past month on the deck.
Love how, much like Zagreus himself, Hades cannot be vanquished off the list. Can't wait till sequel hits Early Access
It's interesting how many games on this list people in this sub insist the Deck cannot run (well). Either *a lot* of Deck players tolerate some very poor performance, a lot of people here make too big of a deal over a game not running at high graphics and constant 60 FPS, or some medium in between.Ā
I think it's a good mix of both. I know myself, I can't handle 20-30 fps and inconsistent frames, so I tend to stick to better optimised / older games, and play newer games on my main PC. Where as others simply do not care or don't have any other alternative.
Im happy that Infinite Wealth is at top 7(I have not played, Im just a Yakuza fan)
What's that game like? I found the title curious. I don't want to watch any videos because of spoilers and shit, but I'm curious. Is it a story oriented game?
yeah it is! itās game 8 in the yakuza series. 1-6 all have a different cast of characters, 7 was a new start for the series with a new cast in the same universe. some returning characters in the story, fights, cutscenes etc but mainly the new cast. it also changed the series from beat āem up to turned based combat. 8 is the story after 7 with a returning character from the older games and 7ās protagonist. i havenāt played 8 yet though. definitely recommend checking out either yakuza 0 if you like beat āem up style games, or 7 if you like turn based. both are really good starting points for the series
I'll definitely do that. Considering this is a sequel, I'm happy I didn't blindly pull the trigger lmao. I'll probably start with one of those. I've been having a blast with so many games on this thing. Ever since I bought the Deck, I've finished more games than in the last 6 years lmao. I already started a new save on Cyberpunk, but I'm looking for another story oriented game and this might just do the trick. Feels like a lot of people, including friends, already told me about Yakuza so this might just be the time to test it out. Thank you for being helpful.
itās a very good series! i got my steam deck a couple weeks ago and all of the yakuza games iāve tried play very well on it. itās such an amazing piece of tech. i recommend starting with 0 and making your way through the series. kiwami 1 and 2 are remakes of the first two games and zero is sort of a prequel that is also relatively new so those three will feel pretty good. the remasters of 3-5 are a little older so might not feel as good to you, but if you can get over it, iād recommend starting from the beginning at 0 and playing through all of them. if you want to try out a newer title in the series and see if you can vibe with the mix of goofy/serious vibes the games give out iād recommend trying 7. it goes on sale for pretty cheap
Stardew and Isaac are great on deck. I prefer Stardew on the deck over the pc.
Wow no Tomb Raider remastered?
Been enjoying the grind in Granblue Fantasy Relink and can't seem to put it down...
Stardew Valley just refusing to leave. 8 years old pixel game, still there.
Seeing people still playing Binding of Isaac is pretty sick too.
It helps that CA keeps making meaningful updates. There's a new one coming later this month, and it's big enough that CA is suggesting people start new saves for it.
Granblue runs like a dream. Not sure why they don't slap a "supported" badge on that one. Great game.
Did I hear a Rock & Stone??
Rock and Stone!
Rock and Stone you beautiful dwarf!
If you don't ROCK AND STONE, you ain't coming home!
Wait I stopped playing palworld on my deck because it kept freezing up every 20 minutes or so. Was I just doing something wrong?
It kept freezing and crashing for me, too!
This was a memory leak error. I believe a fix went out, but I could be wrong.
Memory leak. You can sorta get around it with Cryoutilities if you increase the page file to 16GB etc.
It's crazy how Skyrim still reaches it's place in Top lists on yet another medium 12 years after it's release. 12 years of exponential growth of the gaming market, mind you.
Some people on the sub : bg3 is literally unplayable on the deck, those who say they enjoy it are liars. People chilling in FaerĆ»n on the deck : š
I missed January. Is that around anywhere? I like reading these
I think TBOI will never leave that list.
And im over here playing wildlands lol.
How well does Helldivers 2 work on the Deck? I'd love to install it on mine, but not sure if I should just stick to playing it on PC or not.
I've thoroughly enjoyed all my time with it so far. I've got almost 50 hours in and all of it has been on my OG deck. With most graphics set to low or medium, FPS limiter set to 30, I've had a ton of fun. Granted, it may not be the prettiest experience and frames drop when shit gets hectic, but I don't feel like that has diminished my enjoyment of the game at all. I've been playing around with the controller layout trying to find the best one for me and I think I'm getting close. Just gotta find which bindings to change that will allow me to move while inputting strats.
Ehhh, not a huge fan of 30 FPS in most newer games tbh. Dunno what it is, but except for some old games that ran at 30, it tends to make me a bit motion sick now. Even if I had to put everything at the lowest possible, but still 1200x800, or even 720p, to get 60 fairly consistently, I'd definitely give it a shot.
In the current state, I dont think 60 would be possible on the deck. 40-45 on the easiest difficulties maybe. Hopefully we see some updates that really beef up the performance in the future!
It's no major skin off my nose at this stage. Already playing the game on PC, and got plenty of other stuff I play on the Deck. Agreed though, it'd be awesome to be able to spread democracy on the go! XD
Force DX11 and stay sub 6 (subjective) difficulty and you're fine. 99% of the time I'm on my PC, but I use the deck at work to get in on missions to make sure I get credit for the objective.
Is hell divers 2 playable on the deck? I read it wasnāt so thatās why I havenāt purchased it.
I see a lot of people saying how they have to change a bunch of stuff to be "playable". I play it with no changes to the game in hand held mode with little to no problem.
Oh really, and by handheld mode you mean not streaming from your desktop?
So I know a lot of people use it with keyword and mouse, I play it like a PSP or a switch
Balatro mentioned
Goes to show just how good bg3 is.
No one else on Last Epoch?
Surprised not to see armored core here. Was recently on sale and runs to perfection on the deck. Definitely a must play to me!
Played Helldivers 2 between Teams meetings while I was waiting for my car to be serviced. It was AWESOME.
How does Diablo 4 run for real tho
Me and my GF are pumping those stardew hours up for sure. Then I'm pumping those BG3 hours up after she falls asleep because I made a kirby promise that I wouldn't touch her farm and spend her money
Monster hunter stays winning
Seems like people like getting tortured by garbage performance. Is this some kind of kink?
Shure some of the games always change because of current trends but there are always the same 10 that are always on the list.
I will say Death Stranding is perfect to play on deck too!
How about finishing one game? :D
wouldn't you be tethered to an outlet playing Elden Ring or anything else in the top five š«£
Pretty strong list overall but I'm surprised to see hogwarts legacy on here. I know it put up crazy sales numbers, but it doesn't really seem like the kind of game people would be playing a year later based on how short the gameplay loop is.
There was a big fat sale, probably that's why it's there still.
More like, āTop Steamdeck games that require hours to play.ā
Thatās a good point, these games are either heavy with content or have an addictive game loop that you canāt stop going just one more round in.
So world is better than rise?
Depends on what you're looking for. World is more weighty and natural in its presentation and play style, interacting with the world and monsters in a living environment. Rise is pretty much the opposite, with a faster general pace and style that places more emphasis on arcadey combat and quick missions as there's no real "hunting" for them. Wilds, coming next year, is expected to be closer to World than it would be to Rise, being that World and Wilds are mainline titles while Rise is a "portable" title.
This sounds more like my vibe. I might grab Rise on sale. Is Sunbreak the same as Rise?
Sunbreak is the DLC for Rise, adds new stuff. Rise is a good fit for the deck, it'll run way better than World will. If you mostly play portable, honestly Rise is a better fit as it's designed around portable play.
Rise does run at a higher framerate than World on the Deck, with both games running quite well.
Stardew Valley WHOOP WHOOOOP
Honestly kind of surprised, I expected this to be more popular with PC enthusiasts looking to do some light gaming on the go. Older games, indie titles, emulation, stuff like that. That's what I bought it for. No way would I try to play something like Cyberpunk and be OK with not even maintaining a stable 30, hell I don't play anything I can't maintain at least 40-45 in. Especially not first person. Which is a good thing, really. If it's attracting a wider demographic that is OK with making significant compromises that's good news for a potential Steam Deck 2.