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Here's the top Steam Deck games for December 2023

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Recently Valve revealed the top Steam Deck games overall for 2023, but they only just posted up what the most-played were just for December 2023 which we have now.

So for December 2023 sorted by hours played top to bottom here's the most played. They're all Steam links too so you can click and dive right in if a particular game jumps out at you:

What have you been playing recently on either Steam Deck or desktop Linux?

I am currently going through the original Alan Wake (I have zero idea what's going on…), and after that I plan to finally do a proper Fallout 4 play-through. I decided to actually start going through some of my own library to play through games collecting dust and the Steam Deck is just magic for that.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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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.
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CatKiller Jan 3
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At some point I'll probably try Witcher 3, but my copy was a GOG key that came with my GPU so I'd need to set up Heroic and stuff, and I haven't really been arsed.

In the meantime I'm playing Beyond A Steel Sky on the Deck (and I'll probably play Kona after that if they've fixed the achievements by then) and I'm playing Parkitect on my desktop, so there's no rush.
QuoteWhat have you been playing recently on either Steam Deck or desktop Linux?
Skyrim on Desktop with Steam Link and Steam Controller! Mostly because I had no mindspace for trying out new stuff lately...

I started Divinity: Original Sin 1 but did not have time to play it much past like the first 3 hours.

And I regularly play Fall Guys with friends thanks to the Heroic Games Launcher goodness.
Quoting: CatKillerAt some point I'll probably try Witcher 3, but my copy was a GOG key that came with my GPU so I'd need to set up Heroic and stuff, and I haven't really been arsed. (..) there's no rush.
Setting up Heroic is rather painless ☺️. But yeah this is why we love Steam and the native client!
TightRope Jan 3
Still working my way through Diablo IV. Just finished off Yumeutsutsu Re:Master. Killed some holiday time with that one.
QuoteWhat have you been playing recently on either Steam Deck or desktop Linux?
On desktop, Leaf Blower Revolution, Vampire Survivors, Euro Truck Simulator 2, HoloCure, Space Beast Terror Fright, a few adult-only games, Operencia: The Stolen Sun, Ultrakill, and a few games by Kairosoft. On Deck, mostly VS.

Space Beast Terror Fright runs on Deck, but it has UI issues as it's made for 16:9 ratios, and the small screen kinda hampers visibility.
damarrin Jan 3
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Quoting: CatKillerAt some point I'll probably try Witcher 3, but my copy was a GOG key that came with my GPU so I'd need to set up Heroic and stuff, and I haven't really been arsed

Heroic is completely painless and it mostly just works no problem.

That said, the latest version of W3 is broken on OLED SD (if you have that), as the game detects a HDR screen but SteamOS does not detect the game as running in HDR and it's all very gray and washed-out. Helpfully, HDR can't be disabled in the game.

If you can install the pre-finaldefinitiveedition, or whatever it's called, you should be golden.
tgurr Jan 3
DAVE THE DIVER when docked (with the Steam Deck Dock on the TV) and Halls of Torment in Handheld mode, and half-through with Chained Echoes that I sadly didn't touch for a while now. On the desktop lately sunk some hours into Against the Storm. I can recommend all of them.

I have so many games and many of them looked into for some hours but can't get myself to commit myself to going through one of the *big* ones considering how much time you've to put into it and I'd like to enjoy it without disturbance, where are the good ol' days when this was possible? Or is it just a false memory. And often when you're excited for a big new release it's better to wait ~1 year before even touching it to get the final full product, which takes all the excitement out of it. But maybe all of these are just my personal issues and first world problems.
seamoose Jan 3
> What have you been playing recently on either Steam Deck or desktop Linux?

On my Debian desktop, I recently finished Tiny Tina's Wonderlands (good enough Borderlands game but not a great one) and now playing through UNCHARTED: Legacy of Thieves Collection (which is decent but I think I prefer Tomb Raider in that genre).

I also played through Strange Horticulture (good indie game) on Amazon Luna through Google Chrome on my desktop while it was free for Prime members in December. With its mostly static graphics, it worked perfectly over the network and, hey, can't beat "free"!

On my Deck I've been going through smaller games one after another! Over the past few weeks/months: Lake, Paradise Killer, Haven Park, Smushi Come Home, Tinykin, Mutazione, Walking Dead & Batman Telltale games, Inside, Shardlight, Unavowed, and many others, all of which I liked. Currently playing through Rakuen and Technobabylon, and I've also tried a whole bunch of games that I started but put aside for now (Monster Sanctuary, Crosscode, Creaks, and others). That's one thing I love about the Deck: the ease with which you can sample games and play the ones that tickle your fancy.

With the Deck docked on the TV, my daughter and I recently coop'ed and finished It Takes Two (great game!) and we're now continuing our neverending Divinity: Original Sin 2 playthough.
Got and played through Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart during the steam sale. It played absolutely perfect on the steam deck and got the platinum achievement that I wasn't able to get on the ps5!

Also picked up Life is Strange True Colors and played through it on my steam deck. It ran fairly well at a mostly solid frame rate. Gonna start on Wavelengths this weekend probably
ToddL Jan 3
Quoting: CatKillerAt some point I'll probably try Witcher 3, but my copy was a GOG key that came with my GPU so I'd need to set up Heroic and stuff, and I haven't really been arsed.

If you're using the Steam Deck to play the Witcher 3 from GOG, you could just setup the installer as a Non-Steam Game and after it's done installing, you look for the folder that was created from the installation and update the Target and Start In to point to it. Afterwards, update the artwork from SteamGridDB and you should be good to go if you don't plan on going the Heroic route.

QuoteWhat have you been playing recently on either Steam Deck or desktop Linux?

Since I have too many games in my backlog for the Steam Deck and I only own Baldur's Gate 3 from this list, I'd say I'm playing a lot of Metroidvanias like The Last Faith, Blasphemous 2, Sundered and Ebenezer and the Invisible World. After that, I'll probably look around to see what other games interest me before I continue to add to my backlog.
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