If you had told me 3 years ago that there was a gaming device that could play Xbox games, PlayStation games, PC games, emulated console games, and online MMO’s all in the palm of your hand, I’d have thought you were insane.
When I first got my Steam Deck, I only had about 20 Steam games like COD: World at War, Far Cry 2, and Crab Champions. It was the first time I was able to experiment with graphics options and rebindable controls. These are great games, but it felt like I wasn’t using the Deck to its utmost power. So I decided to up the games. I played the Dead Space remake, Horizon Zero Dawn, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, and Battlefield 1. A lot of these games are not considered verified by Steam, but you’ll learn to completely ignore that verified checkmark because most games run just fine.
Dead Space was 30fps with stutters.
Horizon Zero Dawn was 40fps at all low settings.
ME: Catalyst was a very smooth 60fps.
Battlefield 1 is a very smooth 60fps. And free online.
I also tried emulating games from the Epic Games store that I had gotten for free, and it worked. My library of available Steam games + Epic games has grown immensely.
But my favorite part of the Steam Deck is it allows me to relive my childhood by emulating the GameCube and DS. I lost my piracy virginity, and it tasted delicious.
So you have verified Steam games, non-verified Steam games, games from Epic and GOG, games you can download from Windows via Wine (I did Poptropica and Toontown Offline), AND all of the emulated games from previous console generations. All on a single handheld device.
