Every article tag can be clicked to get a list of all articles in that category. Every article tag also has an RSS feed! You can customize an RSS feed too!
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

Wreckfest is a smashing good time on Steam Deck

By - | Views: 29,637

Got the need for speed? You should check out Wreckfest! It's a lot of fun and it works amazingly well on Steam Deck.

This isn't a new game, far from it, Wreckfest was released back in 2018. One reason I wanted to try it is that I love these destruction derby style games, and the developer clearly cares about the Steam Deck experience too since they put in a dedicated crash-bug fix. It's hilarious too, you get to drive a speedy lawn mower and even a motorized sofa — and it's as ridiculous as it sounds.

Performance really is surprising too, with it mostly giving a smooth 60FPS on Medium on Steam Deck with Proton 7.0-6. Check out my Steam Deck video below:

YouTube Thumbnail
YouTube videos require cookies, you must accept their cookies to view. View cookie preferences.
Accept Cookies & Show   Direct Link

As for how it runs on Desktop Linux? Trying it there too on Fedora KDE 37 with my Ryzen 5800x and an NVIDIA 2080 Ti and it's a bit different. The Epic and even High settings presets at 1440p did not give a smooth 60FPS, some tracks really struggled. Swapping it down to 1080p, and it didn't make enough of a difference.

The performance on desktop is just odd. At the start of a lot of races, the performance will be a fair amount lower than even 30 seconds into the race, when you're sat with all the other cars. Once you get properly into a race, even on more demanding tracks, the framerate goes up quite a bit sometimes (not always) so it seems directly tied to how many cars you're seeing so turning down the amount of cars on an event will help.

Ignore the big spike on the graph, that's the screenshot being taken. I don't entirely get why, even when making a screenshot without a UI via terminal, that it causes such performance spikes in games. Likely some sort of x11 issue. Wayland still isn't usable enough with NVIDIA for me.

Want to buy a copy? It's available on Humble Store and Steam.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
13 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
13 comments
Page: 1/2»
  Go to:

Alloc Feb 21, 2023
Absolutely great and fun game! Our group of friends is playing it regularly, like at least every second week, for a few hours :) Though we'd all love if they had added nitro boost like the predecessor FlatOut 2 has.

IMO the menu UI is absolutely horrible though. I mean, selecting cars takes a lot of time as you can't click the car you want and directly confirm your selection but rather you have to wait 1-2 seconds until it actually loaded the preview of the selected car. And as the server moderator selecting tracks without any kind of preview / thumbnail? Really? In 2018? C'mon ;)

The biggest gripe for people who only want to have fun with friends and are not into playing the single player stuff: You have to unlock a lot of cars by playing solo. Some can be unlocked by spending the earned in-game cash that you also get in MP but this would take lots of time. No idea why there's no way for servers to say "you can select any car you want (and own in terms of DLC)". Luckily there's a mod that unlocks all of them: "Give Me Every Car And Part".
Beamboom Feb 21, 2023
I think it's SO strange that the steam deck performance can differ this much from the desktop Linux.

But I guess this does demonstrate why some are hesitant with porting their game to Linux. Can't say I blame them.
Solitary Feb 21, 2023
ProtonDB seems to mention that performance gets significantly better after enabling Resizable BAR.

Quoting: BeamboomI think it's SO strange that the steam deck performance can differ this much from the desktop Linux.

But I guess this does demonstrate why some are hesitant with porting their game to Linux. Can't say I blame them.

Blaming entire platform for shortcoming of a game, or a GPU driver. This is common when BFUs compare Linux vs Windows for gaming, I would expect better from actual Linux users though.
Beamboom Feb 21, 2023
Quoting: SolitaryBlaming entire platform for shortcoming of a game, or a GPU driver. This is common when BFUs compare Linux vs Windows for gaming, I would expect better from actual Linux users though.

That's overly defensive don't you think? It's not like this is the first case of these differences.

I'm talking purely from a technical point of view. Not all Linux users are cultists and apologists, thank you very much.

I mean, essentially the fundamental system is the same (or not). Yes different chipsets and drivers, but still. It does indicate to me that the port challenge Indeed is a task with many unknown variables, more to than the other platforms. Something that would make sense I suppose, since the Linux desktop is comparable with a Lego set where the others are matchbox cars.


Last edited by Beamboom on 21 February 2023 at 4:44 pm UTC
fabertawe Feb 21, 2023
I rarely buy non-native games but this looks ideal for my deck. In fact I haven't bought any game for ages, such is the backlog!
Mohandevir Feb 21, 2023
Dirt Showdown on steroids? Looks great and fun.
benstor214 Feb 21, 2023
View PC info
  • Supporter
Quoting: SolitaryBFUs
What is a BFU?
mircalla Feb 21, 2023
  • Supporter
The driving looks fun but how are the tracks? I know maximizing crashability is a constraint but only the last one shown was more than a basic figure-eight and then not by a whole lot (although the ring of fire was a very nice touch).
Alloc Feb 21, 2023
Quoting: mircallaThe driving looks fun but how are the tracks?
https://wreckfest.fandom.com/wiki/Maps
Shows a lot of them (not all due to not being completely up to date AFAIK). There's way more than just pure derby tracks, a lot of them are more for actual racing just with the potential of still wrecking other cars while going for the best position ;)
BlackBloodRum Feb 21, 2023
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
Nice, but I wonder how it compares to the classic, and loved and last of the real set FlatOut Games?
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.