The best PC games to play on the Steam Deck

Valve’s Steam Deck pre-orders should start shipping in December, giving you plenty of time to get your collection of games sorted in preparation. Of course, it’s not going to be as powerful as a gaming laptop or PC, so we’ve rounded up the games most suited to the device in its handheld form – particularly ones that scale well with the device’s small 7-inch screen and boast PC controller support for the Steam Deck’s built-in controls.

We haven’t seen any benchmarks of the custom Zen 3 and RDNA 2-based APU, but Valve says the Steam Deck should be able to run most PC games at a minimum of 30fps at the screen’s native 800p resolution. We’ll still have to wait and see whether it can handle the most demanding games, such as Cyberpunk 2077 or Microsoft Flight Simulator.

You’ll be able to easily install Windows onto the device if the built-in Linux OS isn’t to your liking, granting you a much larger library of games. For that reason, we’ve also included some games that won’t be playable out of the box, until you install a Windows OS. Whether it’s a game that can occupy you for a few minutes, or one that keeps you entertained on the longest flight, the Steam Deck looks like it has the pixel-pushing power to keep you entertained.

These are the best PC games to play on Steam Deck:

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You’ll probably want to pair it with the best gaming headset, though, so you can interrogate suspects or deflect attention away from yourself.

persona 4 golden

minecraft

The Steam Deck’s APU should be more than up to the task of running Minecraft, given that the game’s already on anything from the best gaming PC to a mobile phone. The Steam Deck could offer the best portable mining experience, with its powerful x86 architecture and controls that are significantly more comfortable than your phone’s touch screen.

skyrim

cities skylines

Cities Skylines is one of the best city-building games, and it runs natively on SteamOS, so you’ll be able to install and play it out of the box when your Steam Deck arrives. While the controls weren’t the best on its console ports, the Steam Deck’s two track pads should be great for playing strategy games that usually rely heavily on a gaming mouse. Plus, the 16GB of internal RAM should be able to handle even the biggest cities.

need for speed hot pursuit remastered

stardew valley

Animal Crossing: New Horizons might be exclusive to the Nintendo Switch, but Stardew Valley is a great alternative for the Steam Deck. It runs natively on SteamOS, so it’ll work without fuss. It’s a game that you can easily sink hundreds of hours into, even before you take a look at the best Stardew Valley mods – which aren’t available for the Switch.

Of course, with the Steam Deck essentially being a fully-fledged PC beneath its default SteamOS skin, the list of games you can play on the device is nearly endless. The MicroSD storage expansion slot means you’ll be able to install larger games like Grand Theft Auto 5, too, and the Steam Deck has enough ports to connect to the best gaming monitor, keyboard, and mouse so you can properly play competitive shooters like CS:GO.

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