Looking for those games that you may have heard about but never tried until you got a Deck. Or old games on systems you never had that you’re trying for the first time. Or new AAA games that just released in the last year or two that you picked up for the first time specifically to play on Steam Deck and have kept you glued to the device.
I’m trying to reinvigorate my old, nostalgic love of gaming and hoping to find the perfect Steam Deck + addicting game combo.
hmmm not at the moment…
But when I was playing them:
Horizon Chase Turbo - super addictive arcade racer that is an homage to racers of the past like Top Gun and OutRun. Tons of content and I finally 100%’d everything a couple of months ago including all DLC. Great time. Now just waiting to see when HCT 2 will come out on Steam. Think it’s already out for Switch.
Hollow Knight - can’t say anything more than what others have said in the past but all I can say is ‘What a F****N’ GAME!!’ The world, the characters, the journey… it’s just perfect. A perfect 2D soulslike / metroidvania! Once things calm down and I get into emulation and modding, I want to replay it with the Scarab Mod with full voice acting in the game (saw a preview of it earlier this year and was blown away). And also can’t wait on Hollow Knight: Silksong!!!
This is ongoing when I have time but:
Blade Runner - only a few hours in, but the complexity of the game is astounding. It doesn’t hold your f’n hand, and it makes you think. It really does feel like a full fledged sequel in the world of Blade Runner (it was / maybe still is? before BR2049 came out). Just a really well crafted game. This is what I love about the Steam Deck. There are PC titles I never would’ve played bc I wasn’t in the ecosystem until last year with my Steam Deck.
Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King - nice little TLOZ: ALttP clone that comes into its own after the initial couple of hours
UnMetal - Metal Gear / Solid parody game that is absolutely more than meets the eye. Another game that doesn’t hold your hand and makes you think about what to use in your inventory to complete your objectives. Has some CYOA moments that hilariously changes gameplay segments. And absolutely has a great voice acting overall especially the main character Jesse Fox is a dead ringer for someone attempting a David Hayter voicing Solid Snake impression. And a Colonel type that is “kinda” like a foil to Jesse Fox in a sense that he questions every ludicrous thing you do. Truly great stuff. I will say again, it makes you think and there is some difficulty to it (especially recognizing latter boss patterns)
Faith: The Unholy Trinity - just a creepy as hell, 4-bit Atari style horror game that takes inspiration from things like The Exorcist. I still haven’t finished it bc it’s so creepy, but I will get back to it.
Celeste - like Hollow Knight, I knew of this before but I didn’t attempt to play until I got the SD. An absolute masterclass in platforming. It ratchets itself up in the beginning to keep you on your toes, and then all of a sudden once you’re feeling yourself and your abilities, it throws the first “oh **** oh ****” moment at you and you don’t proceed until you get it down. Doesn’t matter if it takes you 50 tries (😣😆), you want to keep trying bc you got just a little bit further in your previous run. Just addicting. I still need to finish the Main game, but I was addicted to the Pico-8 version of the game every time I boot it up.
I love Horizon Chase Turbo but the rubber banding is so obvious it took the fun away for me after a while.
So I made a post a long time ago about “rubberbanding” (will refer to it as RB) in HCT. It’s there but not there and it’s very hard to explain. To me it’s not like say a Mario kart game or kart racer where there’s always someone behind you (you can clearly tell on the minimap on each stage how close another car is).
There is wonky AI at times. This can be when you boost at the beginning of a race (perfect timing boost at Start) and other cars either look like they’re in park vs moving like other cars. There’s a handful of those moments - also can happen in the middle of the race where cars are just “stuck” on the track.
Then there are cars that boost past you or boost into you that throw you off for a second.
But here’s where I think you think the rubberbanding is.
Later in the game (and this is for almost every track going forward) and definitely in the harder Endurance and Challenge modes), the race starts out and has everything I described above. BUT
There’s one car that does an ungodly boost (seemingly unlimited) from behind you and overtakes everyone. If it’s a series of races where you have to earn 1st place overall to get rewards, it will be the same car every race. If it’s the longer endurance races, it will be between 2-3 other cars who are your main competition.
Now after they’ve boosted, and gotten ahead of you and the pack, it’s up to your skills to beat them. This is where the mini-map comes into play, how many boosts there are on the map and rote memorization of the track (where coin placements, fuel placement, boost placements, sharp turns, or obstacles to avoid all the while trying to also nab 1st place. Sometimes there’s a 2nd place car right near #1 OR there’s the 1st place car far ahead and then #2 and #3 right beside each other and the best you can do is come up to the #4 spot as you’re trying to make your move with however many more laps you have and remaining boosts.
And the trick really is timing of remaining boosts and where you’re in position at. You’ll be able to beat 2 & 3 usually, to be put into the 2 spot. Now you need to see how far away 1 is from your position. It comes with practice but I usually know when I have to quit the race bc the 1 is SO FAR ahead it’s virtually impossible to win. I only do that in single races. If it’s endurance, or challenge, I usually take 2nd place and aim for 1st in the next few tracks.
But let’s say you see #1 off in the distance on the track. And you have a couple of boosts left. It’s all about when and how you use em. This comes with rote memorization of the track, boosting in straightaways or in curves your car’s handling can handle to gain the advantage. Once you get close, DON’T use your boost bc the lead car will boost right with you. Get close, allow them to boost (if it’s not the final lap and they’re not close to the finish line, and tail them, until you get close again, boost in front of them, and boost again. You should win.
This is much harder when the objectives get difficult (like don’t pick up fuel on lap 3 or don’t use boost on lap 1, or don’t get any coins on lap 1, for example).
Then there’s times when you get 1st place on your own and there isn’t a 2nd place car in sight. This is why I kind of say there is no real rubberbanding. You can outclass the competition sometimes.
I didn’t even mention getting all the coins gives you an additional boost. And there’s strategy there and rote memorization of where the coins are can play to your advantage on when you get the boost on the map for collecting them all.
It’s just nuance really. The game has the DNA of older arcade racers so it might be off-putting for some. Hope you give it another go taking into account these strategies.
Hey man, it looks like you’ve put a lot more thought into this than I have so I won’t argue with you.
I will say that no matter how badly I started a race it always seemed possible to win, and no matter how well I started and how far ahead of everyone I got, by the end of the race there were racers hot on my heels even if I didn’t make any mistakes.
Anyway, it probably wouldn’t be fun without some “RB”. I’m not a big racing game player either so it might have just stood out to me because of the novelty.
World of Warcraft Classic
How do you get this set up on the Deck?
It quite easy. Youtube has a lot tutorials. In short: first download battlenet on steam deck and install it. Then add battlenet in steam (add non-steam game). Secondly start battlenet trough steam and log in. Install wow. After that install curse forge for addons. Obviosly you have to install the addon ConsolePort. Also nice to have is VoiceOver for quests. Have fun.
Play Factorio. It runs great, it runs well, and it’s a sandbox game, with a progression path clearly presented.
It’s honestly the BGE I ever played for years, like The Sims 4 for my GF. It I had to play only one game, it will be this one.
Do you struggle with the text or UI being too small?
Not at all. I had some trouble grabbing the controls for the first few hours, but they are great, you just have to have the hang on them ! :D