My Steam library basically only consists of Witcher 3 and Spiritfarer. I also was gifted a Humble Bundle game for Batman Arkham Knight.
I’m debating on getting Elden Ring and Cyberpunk (both without DLC).
Marvel’s Spider-Man and FF7 Interograde also look like a good value right now for 40 bucks total.
Edit, ended up doing the following:
Becoming a Steam Family member with my dad and buying the following.
- FFVII Retrograde
- Mass Effect Legendary
- Divinity 1 and 2
- Caveblazers
- Portal 2
- Hollow Knight
I also set up emudeck and transferred all my GBA, GBC, and GCN games that I have ROMS for.
Doom (2016) or Doom Eternal. Both fantastic games, run on anything and I saw Doom Eternal on sale foe 10%.
Rimworld works weirdly well on the Deck, if that’s at all up your alley. Hades (both I and II) and BALLxPIT are two of my recent faves.
was gonna recommend considering piracy, but since its against the rules I will respect that and recommend some of my favorite games i play on the SD and my PC instead:
- very chill relaxing game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1455840/Dorfromantik/
- one of my favorite games of all time: https://store.steampowered.com/app/548430/Deep_Rock_Galactic/ (ROCK AND STONE!)
- really good online FPS (i dont actually play this one the sd as i dont like playing it with a controller but ive met people on there that do): https://store.steampowered.com/app/2073850/THE_FINALS/
- and for lasts a non steam game: Minecraft, no not bedrock edition (i dont think that even runs on linux well) java. install the prism launcher and then with that use a modpack with the controlify mod, it has built in steamdeck support. Such a cozy experience playing MC on the Steamdeck, especially with a friend that you’re next to irl.
was gonna recommend considering piracy,
Yeah, my first thought was modchip!
Re: flying the Jolly Roger
I probably will for more expensive games I own on other platforms, such as Jedi Survivor and Expedition 33.
My main issue is that I actually don’t have a ton of data storage since I opted for the very 256 LCD model and need to buy a larger SD card or do some physical tinkering to replace the SSD.
I would look at indie games like nobody saves the world and look for all the emulators and roms I could get my filthy mitts on.
If you don’t have it yet I would spend some of that money on a few months worth at least of mulvad VPN. It would… Open some doors.
I kinda need a list of all games mentioned in this post that are not first-person/in egoperspective (i get mad motion sickness) so I can go and put them all on my wishlist and buy them all one by one
More or less what I’ve been doing since I made the post haha. Pretty much none of these games were FPS outside of Half Life 2 and Portal 1 and 2.
Did that for the last hour now, couldn’t help myself XD
Also I’m currently playing a lot of Spiritfarer, it has been my holiday chill game!
Vampire survivors is a couple bucks and worth every penny. I got slay the spire balatro bundle for 13 bucks and would also recommend.
I’ve been playing this the last two days. It is great, but very addicting.
I would probably get:
- Megabonk (£6.37/$8.61)
- Fallout 3 Game of the Year edition (£5.27/$7.12)
- A Game About Digging A Hole (£3.17/$4.28)
- Power Wash Simulator 2 (£16.99/$22.96) or Katamari Damacy REROLL (£15.99/$21.61)
My favorites on the Steam Deck so far are Marvel Cosmic Invasion (arcade style Beat 'em Up) and Deep Rock Galactic Survivor.
Tactical Breach Wizards!!! Then save the other $40ish for the next sale.
Oxygen not included
Factorio
These two will consume your life for so long and they’re both on sale :D
Factorio is on sale, I thought that never happens?! Also, it’s not on sale for me.
Factorio is nice, but maybe not the one to pick at this budget.
Oxygen Not Included is a solid choice, though.
Biy Sleeping Dogs, it plays great on the steam deck and its now 85% down to 3 euros.
Great story, graphics still hold up.
Furthermore consider Distance (Race like game), the precinct, hot brass, coromon.
“A man who never eats pork buns is never a whole man!”
This is 500+ hours of gameplay:
- Half-Life 2 ($2)
- Portal ($2)
- Portal 2 ($2)
- Psychonauts ($1.5)
- Psychonauts 2 ($9)
- Subnautica ($8)
- Hollow Knight ($8)
- Silksong ($16)
- Hades ($8)
- Disco Elysium ($4)
- The Witcher 3 ($3)
- Terraria ($5)
- Left4Dead 2 ($2)
- Kingdom Come ($5)
- Mass Effect 1, 2, 3 ($6)
Given how many games I absolutely loved are on this list, I feel like our taste in games has a huge overlap and I’m gonna have to try the others
Grim Dawn is < $4
For $50 I’d get (afaict current prices):
- Hades ($7.49)
- Pathfinder: Kingmaker ($2.99) (make sure to force-enable the Windows build on the Steam Deck, the Linux build has issues with gamepad input on the kingdom management screen)
- One Deck Dungeon ($1.99)
- Slay the Spire ($2.49)
- Wildermyth ($16.24)
- Against the Storm ($8.99)
- Terraformers ($7.99)
This totals now $48.18. If you have an additional dollar to spare, I’d also recommend to get something to scratch that retro-gaming itch:
- The Settlers 2 ($2.73 on GoG - needs DOSBox, for which I’ve written an install guide)
That’s now $50.91 in total.
Tomb Raider Survival Trilogy for $7.19
Shadow of Mordor/War for $6.99
Prodigal for $1.49 - Zelda plus date sim
Toem for $3.99 - gotta photograph em all
Crosscode for $5.99 - SPMMOOTY
Saint’s Row 4 $2.99
Vampire Survivors for $3.74 - everybody is legally required to have a copy
20 Small Mazes for $0 Doronko Wanko $0
My main recommendation is “don’t put all of your money into a bunch of PS5 AAA games”. PS5-ish games fit “if we turn all of the settings down, and render in 1/4 rez, and then AI upscale, and still your battery only lasts an hour”. It often isn’t a great experience here.
A strength of the Deck is in delivering an endless back catalog of PS4 and prior styles of games. Another is in bringing forward a ton of indie games that can’t win at “marketing”, can’t afford to develop PS5-level visuals, so they fight like hell on “mixing up new and interesting gameplay” and “price”.
That’s a fair point. I’ll keep that in mind while I play.
If you’re on a budget, make sure to redeem the weekly free games from Epic and Amazon if you have Prime. You can play them all on your deck via Heroic Games Launcher.
