I have horrible news.
Ring works perfectly on Linux. Apparently this game is an absolute wanker on Windows. Here it just glugs along gluggingly.
I’ve actually run into several older games that have major issues on Windows but run great on Deck. Many of these require fan patches to fix their windows issues (stuff like increasing how much ram the game can use, etc).
A recent example was I gave a friend a copy of FEAR, just to discover it ran way worse on his high end PC than it does on my Steam Deck.
Can’t stop playing Slay The Spire 2, so gooood
My answer is a bit cheating, because its emulation of Playstation 1 via RetroArch. The game is Dark Deception 3: Dark Delusion. It looks good, and the soundtrack is phenomenal. The manual is not needed, because the game teaches with tutorials. If you want, have a look at screenshots to get an idea how the game looks. Overall game seem to be okayish in gameplay, but makes up with an unusual game concept and good soundtrack.
The game is an Tactical Action Adventure game, with levels to pass. So its more a linear game with stages. Controls are not great, more like tank controls from third person. The idea is to run around, setup traps and attacks and with one of the buttons “use” them at the right time. The character is basically a witch. Bring up the “map” to set traps for the associated button. I’m quite early on, so not sure if I will ever finish this. If you choose to play this game, be aware that there is no autosave and you have to save manually after each stage.
Metro Last Light Redux. Better than the first one and looks good.
It makes me want to read the books.
- Nuclear Option + Saitek X52 HOTAS + LookPilot
- Factorio
Everything is Crab. A roguelite evolution game where the challenge is to out survive the other creatures. Don’t let the cute graphics fool you. It’s a lot of fun and the challenge ramps up quite a bit as you proceed through the difficulty levels.
I just bought Mina, but I just keep on going back to my old comfort game, Binding of Isaac.
How is Mina? I’ve heard some mixed takes on it, but it being from the Shovel Knight devs makes me want to jump on it.
It’s alright, certainly high quality, the difficulty curve is kind of wack. Keeping money in the early game is brutal, but it doesn’t take long until the game pulls a 180 and you don’t lose money ever, on top of facetanking half your problems with sheer stats and item effects. Reminds me of phase locket back in SK and how it makes half the bosses trivial.
I wasn’t impressed by vanilla Shovel Knight and only loved how original and smooth all the DLC were, this feels like going back to SK somehow - even if on paper there’s tons of original ideas here. If you like Shovel of Hope or 2D Zelda (which it sticks to a lot, including the problems) you’ll like this, and if you like both you’ll love this, probably.
Mina the Hollower
Only 3 hours in so far, the combat is a bit challenging already, and I’m still exploring around the starting city.
Finding secret areas is as fun as it was in Shovel Knight, music is great, art is gorgeous, the only complaint so far is how you get stuck with the starting weapon and switching it later requires a lot of money
Slay the spire 2. Still addicted.
It’s so much harder than the first game. I have yet to win a run with either star guy or doom skeleton. Still, great sequel so far.
I’ve been playing a lot of The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy. As someone who enjoyed the Zero Escape games but had never played a Danganronpa, I was unsure about this one, but the demo really gripped me. It plays great on the Deck. The back buttons have been nice for skipping through the VN portions since my A button has gotten loud and clicky.
That game is really long and I’m trying to pace myself though, so I’ve now also picked up Mina the Hollower. I didn’t like the demo, and am not a fan of the retro aesthetic, but I downloaded it to try it out based on the glowing reviews. I don’t know what all they changed from the demo, but I was hooked almost right away. It’s hard starting out, but satisfying and snappy to play, and the GBC-style graphics are better (more readable) on the smaller screen of the Deck than on a TV.
Fae Tactics and LOK Digital are the new ones.
Most likely will not finish either game.
Dust, the Twilight princess port, but I just got to the temple of time and am hard crashing every time I put the master sword in. So I’m going to find something else now. Maybe elden ring again?
They’ve published a bunch of updates, with pretty detailed change logs. Have you checked to see if they addressed that issue?
I haven’t got nearly that far. It’s an absolutely amazing recomp and I love that it exists, but as I’m fiddling with the controls and the camera and the combat I’m just thinking “Breath of the Wild exists, why am I doing this?”
I haven’t, but I’m also fairly lazy and without a robust log, I figured it was a one off bug. But thank you for reminding me that the smartest among us need reminders of oversight.
I’ve been trying to wrap up Trails Of Cold Steel III. I think I’m 80 hours in and near the last chapter.
Slowly rebuilding some of my Switch library on Steam (I prefer my Deck) so I picked up both Cattails games on sale (total of ~$9 atm!) and been replaying those. Very sweet, easy games for a quick dose of fun.
