Welcome to this week’s early version (I believe I’m transferring it to earlier within the week going ahead) of the Steam Deck Weekly. Forward of Gamescom 2024, some notable bulletins, trailers, releases, and new Steam Deck Verified video games are the main focus of right this moment’s article. On the overview entrance, the highlights are the Natsu-Mon: twentieth Century Summer time Child, Tomba! Particular Version, and Flock protecting the PC ports forward of Shaun’s full evaluations of the Change variations of the primary two. Earlier than the information and new Verified video games, let’s get into the evaluations and Steam Deck impressions.
Steam Deck Sport Critiques & Impressions
Natsu-Mon: twentieth Century Summer time Child Steam Deck Evaluation
Natsu-Mon: twentieth Century Summer time Child is one in all my favourite Spike Chunsoft releases lately. Given how a lot I reward the writer’s output, I wouldn’t say that flippantly. After a busy June, issues are a bit chilled out on the discharge schedule now, and Natsu-Mon: twentieth Century Summer time Child has arrived on the excellent time earlier than the busy season begins. I didn’t get entry to the PC model till final night time, however I’ve spent the previous few days with the Nintendo Change port of Natsu-Mon: twentieth Century Summer time Child. I’ve loved the sport itself quite a bit with its impeccable vibes and enjoyable gameplay loop. Keep tuned for Shaun’s full overview as I deal with the PC port for right this moment’s article. The 16:9 screenshots are from enjoying at 4K docked whereas the 800p screenshots are when performed on my Steam Deck OLED.
Natsu-Mon: twentieth Century Summer time Child is presently untested by Valve, nevertheless it mainly must be Steam Deck Verified so far as I’m involved. It has Steam Cloud assist, appropriately brings up the on-screen keyboard for textual content entry, and runs with out points exterior just a few efficiency ones I’ll get into. I’ve put in just a few hours into it solely on my Steam Deck OLED right this moment, and every little thing works properly after one particular tweak.
Earlier than the tweak, Natsu-Mon: twentieth Century Summer time Child has two body charge choices proper now: 30fps and 60fps. It doesn’t assist uncapped body charges as of this writing, and the 30fps mode feels fairly unhealthy proper now. In reality, I seen some points with the 60fps mode on my OLED Deck as properly. Because of a tip by a good friend of mine who purchased the Japanese launch, setting the Steam Deck’s display screen (or your individual excessive refresh charge display screen on PC) to 60hz or a a number of of 60hz leads to smoother digicam motion. Taking part in at 60fps at 90hz leads to digicam motion that doesn’t really feel good in any respect with the microstuttering. For those who play on Home windows, take into account setting the fps to 59.95 utilizing exterior instruments for correctly paced frames.
Outdoors the body charge, there aren’t any actual points with Natsu-Mon: twentieth Century Summer time Child on Steam Deck or PC. The picture high quality setting’s most noticeable distinction is the draw distance for foliage and different objects. You may alter decision from 1024×768 all the best way as much as 4K, alter brightness, toggle v-sync, and alter the show mode (fullscreen, windowed, borderless). On the excessive picture high quality preset and enjoying at 4K simply to check, the body charge was within the 20s. Even at 1080p, the excessive preset is an excessive amount of to hit a locked 60fps on Deck. Taking part in on the Deck’s personal display screen at 720p leads to the most effective expertise proper now.
On the management aspect, it has keyboard and controller assist with Natsu-Mon: twentieth Century Summer time Child even displaying PlayStation button prompts when utilizing a DualSense controller on PC. By default and when utilizing the Steam Deck itself, it reveals Xbox button prompts. You may rebind mouse, keyboard, and controller buttons in the important thing config choice on the backside of the controls tab within the settings menu.
Another factor I seen is how the load occasions in sure areas had been surprisingly lengthy on Steam Deck. I swapped to Proton Experimental (bleeding edge) and the load time vanished nearly fully. With this and the 60fps at 60hz setting on Steam Deck OLED, I obtained the absolute best transportable expertise for Natsu-Mon: twentieth Century Summer time Child proper now.
I even have entry to the Broadcast Over Sundown DLC, however I can be protecting that by itself in a separate article as soon as I get round to enjoying it. For now, I’m very pleased with how Natsu-Mon: twentieth Century Summer time Child feels and performs on Steam Deck, and can be replaying all of it the best way over the approaching week.
In its present state, Natsu-Mon: twentieth Century Summer time Child’s PC port is okay, however just a few tweaks will enhance it significantly. After spending nearly all of right this moment with it on Steam Deck, it’s positively a massively improved expertise over the Change model in handheld mode. Natsu-Mon: twentieth Century Summer time Child itself is great, and one other excellent immersive and enjoyable world to sink into this month forward of the busy season.
Tomba! Particular Version Steam Deck Evaluation
Through the years Restricted Run Video games’ most necessary contribution so far as I’m involved, is bringing The Home in Fata Morgana to consoles within the West, and as an entire version with content material not obtainable on PC even right this moment. Since then, my most-anticipated launch was Tomba! Particular Version which has lastly launched on PC, Change, and PS5. I’ve been enjoying it on Steam Deck and Change whereas Shaun works on his full overview of the Change model. Since getting overview codes, Tomba! Particular Version has already been up to date just a few occasions and is in a great place proper now, however there are just a few points holding it again.
Whenever you boot up the sport, you can begin a brand new recreation, view the museum (paintings, scans, gallery), watch interviews and the historical past of Tomba! via movies, try the music participant with the 2 soundtracks, and alter the sport choices. These choices embrace PC port options like decision, window mode, language, vibration, soundtrack choice, background colour for the principle menu, and viewing the credit. Whereas in-game, you’ll be able to pause and use the emulation menu by hitting R2 or rewind utilizing L2. The emulation menu features a few display screen choices, a single filter choice, 3 borders or the flexibility to show borders off, a reset button, save states, and the flexibility to stop the sport. I hope to see extra borders, extra save states, and quicker in-game emulation. Proper now, opening the in-game menu for utilizing objects or something is much too gradual. I’d additionally wish to see extra filter choices.
Revisiting Tomba! via its Tomba! Particular Version launch and in addition enjoying the PS1 unique on my PS Vita has been fascinating. The load occasions for the menu are related, and I hoped we’d see higher emulation on that entrance on Change and Steam Deck. Barring that, I didn’t discover main points. The museum is well the spotlight proper now as a fan of the unique. When it was initially introduced to solely embrace a brand new soundtrack, I used to be disillusioned, however I’m glad the crew managed getting the unique soundtrack as an choice right here.
Given the additional content material included, Tomba! Particular Version is excellent, and I’m glad to have an official launch of Tomba! on PC, however I hope Restricted Run Video games can deal with the save system and a few of the emulation points. For those who appreciated Tomba! again within the day, that is nonetheless value getting.
Flock Steam Deck Evaluation
Flock from Hole Ponds, Richard Hogg, and Annapurna Interactive is a pleasant and colourful recreation that I’m disillusioned I didn’t play sooner. It was launched just a few weeks in the past on Steam and consoles, and I’ve been enjoying it on Steam Deck and PS5 for this overview. I used to be curious to see how the beautiful aesthetic scaled throughout {hardware}, and whether or not it was a great match for transportable play. As of this writing, Flock is marked as Steam Deck Playable and never Verified as a result of some textual content is perhaps troublesome to learn on the Deck’s display screen.
Flock is an journey exploration recreation about gathering totally different sorts of creatures. It’s playable on-line or offline, and has a deal with flight as properly. After a couple of minutes of enjoying it, I used to be bought. Working in the direction of gathering all of the creatures took some time, however you must anticipate to “end” Flock in just a few hours. It initially begins out easy, however grows extra fascinating with how it’s important to appeal creatures and even discover extra of the elusive ones because the story progresses.
On PC, Flock has fairly just a few graphics choices. It runs at 800p on Steam Deck, however getting it to run at 60fps or greater, takes tweaking. For those who’re aiming for 90fps, it’s essential begin on the lowest preset and switch just a few settings up. I like to recommend enjoying with the decision scale at 100 as a result of Flock doesn’t look nice beneath that. Outdoors that, the colourful aesthetic shines on the Steam Deck OLED, and I ended up enjoying Flock extra on Steam Deck than my PS5.
Talking of PS5, I really like the DualSense haptics applied in Flock. Since Flock is in Xbox Sport Go, I additionally performed it a bit there. It runs as anticipated, however there appears to be a bug with audio reducing out that wants fixing. To date, I’ve not been in a position to take a look at the multiplayer on Steam Deck but so I can not touch upon that side of the sport.
Flock is a pleasant and lovely expertise that completely delivered what I wished in a brand new recreation from the Hohokum builders. It sounds superb and is a soothing expertise nearly all the best way. It won’t be for everybody, however Flock managed to hit each proper be aware and I’m now working my approach via it once more on PS5 after enjoying it on Steam Deck.
Flock Steam Deck overview rating: 4.5/5
Information and Trailers
Destiny/Keep Evening Remastered is out this week on Steam and Change worldwide for $29.99. What a shock this was. We knew it was within the works, however I anticipated it in 2025. Having it out this week and this low-cost is stunning. I keep in mind paying greater than double that for a PS Vita bodily from Japan years in the past. Watch the brand new trailer beneath:
There’s nonetheless extra Destiny information this previous week with Destiny/Further Report coming to Steam and consoles subsequent 12 months, as a remake of the PSP unique. Watch the trailer for it beneath:
The ultimate little bit of Destiny information is Destiny/hole Ataraxia Remastered coming to Steam and Change. It is a sequel to Destiny/Keep Evening, and hopefully it means we get a double pack bodily with Destiny/Keep Evening that additionally sees the bundle arrive on PS5 sooner or later:
Capcom has began releasing quick gameplay movies for mechanics and weapons in Monster Hunter Wilds, my most-anticipated recreation of 2025. Watch an important weapon and two of the mechanics trailers beneath:
Deadly Fury: Metropolis of the Wolves’ latest trailer showcases Rock Howard. The sport continues to look unbelievable. Watch the trailer beneath:
Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP is launching about two weeks earlier within the West on Steam and consoles Dragami Video games has introduced. It releases on September twelfth within the West.
Bleach: Rebirth of Souls from Bandai Namco noticed one more trailer this week showcasing Byakuya Kuchiki forward of the sport’s launch on Steam and consoles.
No Extra Robots has revealed Descenders Subsequent, a brand new Desenders recreation with the purpose of making the one excessive sports activities recreation anybody wants. It debuts subsequent 12 months on Steam and Sport Go. It would see extra sports activities added so long as gamers hold checking it out.
Kodansha revealed just a few Fairy Tail indie video games within the type of Dungeons, Seaside Volleyball Havoc, and Delivery of Magic. These are all due on Steam with Fairy Tail Dungeons out on August twenty sixth and Fairy Tail Seaside Volleyball Havoc out September sixteenth.
Obsidian’s Avowed is now releasing on February 18th, 2025 out of its Fall 2024 window. That is doubtless to provide it extra respiration room with the opposite large titles out this 12 months.
Inti Creates has launched a brand new trailer for deckbuilding RPG Card-en-Ciel forward of its launch on October twenty fourth for Steam and consoles. Watch the trailer beneath:
New Steam Deck Verified & Playable video games for the week
Panic’s upcoming Arco being Verified forward of launch is good to see. I’m engaged on a overview of it on Change and Steam Deck. Past that, D3’s latest launch YEAH! YOU WANT “THOSE GAMES,” RIGHT? SO HERE YOU GO! NOW, LET’S SEE YOU CLEAR THEM! 2, Riven, and Minishoot’ Adventures getting Verified alongside Spike Chunsoft’s Quintessential Quintuplets getting a Playable ranking spherical up the highlights of this week from no matter Valve has examined.
- Arco – Verified
- Leisure Go well with Larry 1 – Within the Land of the Lounge Lizards – Playable
- Minishoot’ Adventures – Verified
- Riven – Verified
- The Quintessential Quintuplets – Recollections of a Quintessential Summer time – Playable
- YEAH! YOU WANT “THOSE GAMES,” RIGHT? SO HERE YOU GO! NOW, LET’S SEE YOU CLEAR THEM! 2 – Verified
Steam Deck Sport Gross sales, Reductions, and Specials
There are two notable Humble Bundles on proper now. The primary is the board recreation night time one that includes Wingspan, Dune, and extra right here. The second is the LEGO one right here which is nice worth in case you don’t already personal most of those video games like I do.
That’s all for this version of the Steam Deck Weekly. As normal, you’ll be able to learn all our previous and future Steam Deck protection right here. When you’ve got any suggestions for this function or what else you’d wish to see us do across the Steam Deck, tell us within the feedback beneath. I hope you all have an important day, and thanks for studying.
