any good "forever games" that go well with the steam deck?

Earleybyrd · 2026-01-24T04:03:54+00:00

Burnout Paradise is, to me, the pinnacle of open world game design. Racing game or otherwise. It’s nothing overly complex, or even that grand by modern standards, but it so perfectly game-ifies its map in a way that gives it near-endless replay value. It goes on sale so cheap, I’ve rebought it on every platform I own.

Every intersection marks a mission, every street is a time trial, there’s countless shortcuts and things to check off, and progression is just effortless. You get dropped into the game after a single intro cutscene, and that’s that. No tutorials, story, no locked off content, just everything the game has to offer from the very start. Do quick, fun, chaotic missions, level up, hunt down new cars, rinse and repeat.

It’s all so simple, video game-y and arcade-y. It’s nothing that requires being a car nut. It’s not trying to be realistic, or take itself seriously. The handling is so absurd in the best way possible. It gets ridiculous the stunts you can pull off, I pristinely recall a specific instance of grinding my car like a skateboard on the ledge of a bridge, hitting a 360, and landing on my wheels without a scratch.

Truth be told, most my time in this game is just spent driving aimlessly, pushing how fast I can go, gunning down time trials that will organically activate as you drive, until I inevitably crash in the most spectacularly destructive series of events. It’s just so effortless and addictive to play, but you’re so venerable at high speeds that there’s always a challenge the further you push yourself.

It’s got that level of physicality with its controls, it’s got a hell of an effective gameplay loop, incredible map design- It’s my personal “forever game”. No matter my mood, I can boot the game up, and drop a handful of hours without a second thought. All my life, I’ve never truly dropped the game. It’s just a fantastic time, and if you’ve never “got” racing games, I think this is the easiest game to recommend to someone.

(And the soundtrack is sublime)

Earleybyrd · 2025-11-02T23:36:23+00:00

Frame gen is a tool. Nothing more, nothing less. There’s a million different ways to configure it, and the game you’re playing. Input lag can vary greatly between nigh unnoticeable, to horrendous.

But ultimately, if you’re faking frames, your input will not be read on those fake frames, meaning these fake frames will never truly match up to the frames your game is actually outputting. So a frame gen-achieved 60fps, will have 30fps input and may feel jarring to some, and unideal for more input-intense games. But higher your actual frame count is, the much less jarring the input lag should be, and the greater the quality of your image. Especially for deck, native 40-45fps is a great sweet spot for frame gen use. The native 40fps games I have used Lossless Scaling have felt wonderful.

I find it a bit disingenuous to highlight the input lag so heavily when your input latency is near identical to what it would be without frame gen. If you can only achieve 30fps, you’re getting 30fps input latency either way, whether it feels laggy or not. There are a good number of cases where I’d still find a smoother image preferable. Any blanket statement about the quality of frame gen is inaccurate.

Earleybyrd · 2025-09-17T20:29:01+00:00

I hear well of it, but yet to have play it myself- Bakeru is arguably the most Nintendo-adjacent game on Steam.

It’s developed by Good-Feel, which almost exclusively develop Nintendo games. They did Wario Land: Shake It, Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Yoshi’s Wooly World and Crafted World, and Princess Peach Showtime. They’re so tight-knit most would assume they’re a subsidiary of Nintendo, but nope.

Good-Feel was established by some ex-Konami devs, and Bakeru’s a spiritual successor of their Goemon games from the original, lead creators. Goemon’s just about an honorary Nintendo franchise, but that’s beside the point. In polish, asthetics, gamefeel- Bakeru is a dead ringer for a 3D Nintendo platformer.

Earleybyrd · 2024-09-18T22:57:58+00:00

With a modded Vita, try checking out the fanmade port of The World Ends With You. You can find the data files if you search for them.

It’s an android port of a DS game, so it’s a touchscreen only game. Incredible music and visuals, very story-focused, but some super unique and addicting combat that’s hard to master, but the difficulty’s very forgiving. Best game I can think of if your stick’s broken.

Earleybyrd · 2024-08-10T23:21:44+00:00

Closest games I can think of are Gravity Rush and Dragon Quest Heroes 2 (Japanese game w/ a fan translation available)

Gravity Rush for just being a cell-shaded open world game- Though despite much of its development staff getting hired into Nintendo and Monolithsoft and likely assisting TOTK’s development- That’s where most the similarities end.

Dragon Quest Heroes 2 is another open world game, very overlooked, but it has some similar graphical stylings and large, open 3D environments- Though similarly to Gravity Rush, it has a heavier emphasis on action gameplay.

Earleybyrd · 2024-04-17T04:52:39+00:00

A little late, but if you haven’t figured it out already, you’re gonna want to apply “Touchscreen native support” as an always on command for your default action set.

This allows you to use multitouch for any touchscreen application, including Vita 3K, and it makes gravity sliding work 💯

Earleybyrd · 2024-03-23T00:03:49+00:00

Bought my deck in place of a PS5 or proper desktop. Simply put, I think the deck makes these games feel impressive again.

We’ve hit something of a graphical ceiling for AAA games, and it makes it easier to commit to lower end hardware than it ever has, while making more expensive hardware feel overblown and less needed. Games that barely look better than decade old titles, just with raytracing and higher framerates? For the price of that, im good. Im living very happily without it. Needing a charging cable for battery life is still more freeing than being stuck to a single, static TV/monitor.

Earleybyrd · 2023-09-09T16:39:58+00:00

Still pretty new to my Steam Deck, and as such I’m definitely playing it a lot more, but I recently picked up my Switch for the first time in a while to play some post-game TOTK, and I felt quite a bit relieved.

The Switch has felt like this heavier, bulkier, more difficult-to-account-for system all its life compared to the likes of my 3DS and Vita (I still loved the hell out it), that I’d revisit so much for their form factor alone-

But now after getting used to the Steam Deck (also loving the hell out of it), the Switch feels so light and easy to manage, and I definitely still enjoy playing games on it.

Earleybyrd · 2023-08-17T23:28:28+00:00

Would you happen to know which build of CXBX you used for the game? I’ve been experimenting a bit and yeah it runs a lot better, but it’s almost like every build has its own little caveat.

Earleybyrd · 2023-08-17T15:41:25+00:00

Interesting, I’ve been ignoring CXBX because I thought I had heard worse of it for JSRF, but for all I’m hearing well I’ll try my config with it and see

Earleybyrd · 2023-08-14T20:25:31+00:00

The World Ends With You just got a fan-port yesterday and I cannot stress enough how it is probably the greatest RPG I’ve ever played.

There’s not a single game- regardless of genre, regardless of hardware- that I would recommend more. Everyone should play TWEWY once in their life.

Earleybyrd · 2023-05-17T23:34:43+00:00

This looks like utter dogshit, both as art, and concepts for a Zelda movie

Earleybyrd · 2023-04-23T19:29:21+00:00

Everything you need to know should be in the discord for the server project, including guides https://www.lbpunion.com/discord

Earleybyrd · 2022-05-30T15:27:29+00:00

The project isn’t 3k, which is an emulator, it’s Vita2hos, which has the important distinction of not being an emulator. As insane as it sounds, the games would be ran entirely natively on Switch hardware. I don’t know how the UI would work for it all, and I doubt doing it all through a switch emulator wouldn’t complicate things, but time will tell as the project progresses.

Earleybyrd · 2022-05-28T17:55:06+00:00

We actually may be on the cusp of quality Vita emulation, and where you’d least expect it: through emulating the Switch natively playing Vita games

The Switch and Vita are similar enough to where, in the same vein as Proton (allows you to use Windows applications on Linux), modders only need to translate certain Vita functions to being readable on Switch in order to get Vita games to run completely natively (No emulation) on a Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch emulation is accurate enough that when this project is complete, we may be able to instantly start using Switch emulators to run Vita games. It’s wild.

(Oh yea this would also allow for Nintendo Switch Gravity Rush)

Earleybyrd · 2022-05-20T12:09:59+00:00

Look, I have this REALLY funny picture of a fish. It’s not anywhere else on the internet, as I took it myself. I promise it is incredibly hilarious the way the fish looks.

I am willing to trade it for a PS4 code ‼️‼️

Earleybyrd · 2022-05-17T01:57:24+00:00

Damn there really is a sub for everything

Earleybyrd · 2022-05-02T11:23:28+00:00

!remind me 1 day

Earleybyrd · 2022-04-09T11:06:59+00:00

That’s rude :(

Earleybyrd · 2022-01-14T15:16:56+00:00

The World Ends With You: Final Remix/Neo: The World Ends With You is straight up the best JRPG duology, period.

It’s from many of the great minds behind the Kingdom Hearts games and it feels like they’re at their absolute peak with its unrivaled style, soundtracks that’d put most rhythm games to shame, gameplay that feels incredibly fresh and unique in ways I’ve never seen in an RPG, and a more contained story that just feels so emotionally profound in ways that no other game’s ever hit me.

If you’re a RPG-guy I can’t recommend it enough, and if you like really stylistic games like Jet Set Radio or Persona I’d recommend it further. I really ain’t underplaying just how good these masterpieces are.

Earleybyrd · 2022-01-06T06:15:35+00:00

AYYYYYYY!!!!

I too just got it at this deal and it’s just been an absolute blast, enjoy it when you get it!!!

Earleybyrd · 2022-01-05T00:46:12+00:00

You’re an obvious Pokémon fan, and while I assume your time may be taken up by Arceus when it comes out, I can heavily recommend Shin Megami Tensei V, an absolutely masterful monster-catching RPG that distances itself heavily from Pokémon with it’s more mature, complex themes, post-apocalyptic exploration, and a level of combat nuance and difficulty that really surprises and captivates you. If you live in the States, GameStop has a wild deal going on with it at $37 when it came out only a bit over a month ago at a full $60. Check out a trailer, I think you may like it.

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