But you love our reviews more, right?
Valve have their own rating system for measuring how games run on Steam Deck, but even following the guidance of whether something is “Playable” or “Verified”, I’ve still run into games that simply do not work on the handheld device.
Enter Steam reviews. Reviews from players who primarily played on Steam Deck will now have a little Deck icon, which when moused over tells you the exact amount of time spent on the Deck.
Steam users can also filter in search of these reviews by clicking the ‘Playtime’ dropdown at the top of the reviews section and selecting “Played mostly on Steam Deck.”
This is a relatively minor change, but ooh it’s a useful one. I play a lot of games on Steam given my career, such as it is, and it makes a big difference knowing upfront whether something is going to work comfortably on the Deck or whether I need to continue hunching over my desktop for 60+ hours every week.
Valve have made a handful of tweaks to Steam user reviews of late. Earlier this month they moved to de-prioritise user reviews that were extremely short or which contained ASCII art, because although these reviews may be funny (or “funny”), they’re not helpful to those making purchasing decisions.
You could always skip the user reviews and read ours, mind. We sometimes review games on Steam Deck and always note when we do (recently, The Crimson Diamond), and James is forever testing games on the device for Steam Deck Academy. Check out his picks for the best Steam Deck games.