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Razer’s Joro and Basilisk Mobile are made for gaming on the goA pair of new offerings from peripheral giant Razer have mobile gaming in mind. Check out the Joro and Basilisk Mobile. All the comforts of home Do you play games on the go? We’re not talking about mobile games there, but full-on PC fare, by way of a laptop or even your Steam Deck. And … The post Razer’s Joro and Basilisk Mobile are made for gaming on the go appeared first on BrutalGamer .

BrutalGamerMay 8

Review: StarVaders Mixes Deckbuilding With Mech Tactics The roguelike genre’s gotten crowded over the last few years, which means I’m always delighted when a title comes up that feels like it does tread new ground. While StarVaders does feel a bit familiar, given we’re once again building a deck, taking turns on a grid to strategically wipe out enemies, and hopefully surviving an alien apocalypse, its welcoming nature, variety, and wealth of options for wiping out enemies mean it’s quite a promising prospect. Aliens are attacking earth. Things begin with Roxy fixing up a Gunner mech right as the assault begins. She vows to protect her loved ones and everyone else she can, now that she has a suit that lets her do it. But she’s only one of multiple pilots with units standing by. Each person and their mech, be it Gunner, Stinger, or Keeper, employs different tactics and uses different types of artifacts and cards to push back against invading enemies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd_wWZvVCNI StarVader feels like it mixes up a lot of different types of genres, but in action I would say it reminds me most of a hybrid of Into the Breach and Mega Man Battle Network . There is a grid ahead of you with advancing aliens. If they get too close to the bottom of the grid (or certain criteria are met in some circumstances), they can start generating Doom. If you reach five Doom in a run, you’re all done. Success is tied to knowing which missions to take from the map, based on the assessments and potential rewards, building up your deck of cards showing the types of actions and movements to perform, and knowing when it is an acceptable time to basically overheat. When a turn starts in StarVader , five cards will be dealt to you from your deck. These can include ones that shoot, fire bombs, deal damage, allow you to move, provide buffs, summon a support, or involve an array of different types of tactical actions. You will be able to see the areas where enemy attacks will hit on their turn. It is up to you to immediately mitigate that damage by moving or defeating the foe that would hit you, while also taking out as many advancing enemies as you can before their turn. While foes will typically wait to act until their turn, there will be some enemies that respond and move whenever you move, so you need to take that into account as well. Image via Pengonauts Now, here’s when Heat comes into play. All of these characters are in mechs. Every action you perform generates an amount of Heat. So a simple movement or fire card will cause one Heat to be added to your gauge, but more advanced or upgraded actions could increase it by more than that. (Likewise, you will occasionally get cards that give you an edge for a turn by causing ones in a certain category, like with “Fire” in the name, to generate no Heat.) If you Overheat by performing an action when that gauge is full, you can still perform that move and have your turn automatically end after! However, for the rest of that match the card will be Burned and inaccessible. A thing I really appreciated about this design direction is that StarVaders uses a risk/reward system to help frame gameplay, rather than leaving a person concerned about a mech and pilot’s health. Overheating can be advantageous in certain situations and, as long as you don’t go through your deck and need to reshuffle the discards back in, you don’t need to worry about the Burned cards. Getting hit by an enemy attack adds Junk cards to the discard, which are essentially blanks that take up space and do nothing. So you’re really able to focus on tearing through the increasingly numerous hordes of invaders and challenging bosses and prioritize the Doom they generate. Even if a situation gets sticky, being willing to push yourself could mean you’ll still brute force your way through a bad situation. I honestly felt it helped mitigate an occasional issue I’d have with RNG in roguelikes and sometimes a string of bad luck in options and deals ruining a run. Especially since you can reset three times in a match if the problem came down to human error. Images via Pengonauts This isn’t to say that won’t happen. I did have one string of bad luck. But StarVaders seems like a pretty fair tactical roguelike. Especially since it grows with you. Winning means more enemies, new pilots, and opportunities to boost levels. Losing means more knowledge, more opportunities to strengthen yourself, and again more to do. I really felt a sense of growth as I played, so much so that by the time I did hit the difficulties and runs that would provide more of a challenge, I developed enough knowledge of the game and experience with card and mech types I liked to brainstorm possible approaches. In fact, I think the fact that it did involve factoring in different sorts of “classes” with bullet types, ranges, and the Heat gauge meant I was more likely to play differently each time, adding more replay value. Also, I just generally love the ambiance around StarVaders . Yes, there is the same type of end of the world feeling as games like Into the Breach and Kaiju Wars . However, it also has the same sort of anime-esque flavor as something like Megaton Musashi . So even though it’s bleak, it is also hopeful and vibrant. Roxy’s story is a strong start, since we see how dire the situation is as she immediately heads out moments after preparing her Gunner. After I unlocked the Invasion difficulty, it suggested there’s some alternate reality and timeline elements going on. I do wish there were a few more story segments, since these people seem so colorful and detailed, but what is here lets us focus on gameplay more. I had absolutely no idea I’d enjoy StarVaders as much as I would, and it definitely adds something to the ever-growing roguelike genre. It’s compelling, but inviting. You’re given opportunities to learn, but it will absolutely challenge you once you’ve gotten accustomed to its nuances. There are plenty of options when developing your deck, making the prospect of additional playthroughs promising. Fans of the genre should check it out. StarVaders is available for PCs via Steam. A demo is available on itch.io . The post Review: StarVaders Mixes Deckbuilding With Mech Tactics appeared first on Siliconera .

SiliconeraMay 7

Review: Breath of Fire IV Remains a Delight on PC The lack of new Breath of Fire games is downright criminal. Worse, it’s also not really easy to find entries on more modern platforms. Sure, the first two games are in the Nintendo Switch Online SNES library, but that also means dealing with the Breath of Fire II localization. I always felt like Breath of Fire IV is one of the more memorable entries, and the GOG release proves the PC version still holds up well. With Breath of Fire IV, Capcom created a story filled with political intrigue, legendary dragons, and the kind of unstoppable villain that seems difficult to properly defeat. Kingdoms are on edge, due a shaky peace with the Fou Empire and tentative alliances between everyone opposed to them. The problem is, Princess Nina of Wyndia can’t afford to sit back and wait for situations to grow more stable. Her elder sister Elina vanished while on a peacekeeping and morale-boosting journey. To avoid inciting any ill will, Nina heads out alone with the Woren leader Cray in search of answers, finding an amnesiac young man with a tie to dragons in the process. However, even with her efforts, current happenings in the Fou Empire will make conflicts unavoidable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tmvNxgXe4k The Breath of Fire series has always been interesting in how it will always involve protagonists named Ryu and Nina, often with similar sorts of circumstances, who are unique individuals going through unrelated situations each time. (Think of it like Final Fantasy, in a way.) I always loved what Breath of Fire IV did with its story, and the GOG release proves it holds up. By offering these differing viewpoints showing Nina, Ryu, and Fou-Lu’s perspectives at points, we’re offered a well-rounded take on events and get a better grasp of what’s going on in the world. Not to mention, in general, Breath of Fire IV doesn’t shy away from dark scenarios. The stark contrasts between it and other JRPGs of the period and, in some ways, entries in the series helps it stand out. As for gameplay, Capcom tried some things to set Breath of Fire IV apart from other turn-based JRPGs, and I feel like the combat system still holds up as a result. Our characters can end up feeling very unique, even from ones others might build up when playing the game, because of the Masters system that returned from Breath of Fire III . This allows our units to apprentice under designated Master NPCs to gain abilities and increase stats. So if you want Scias to learn how to Steal, you need Stoll to be his Master. Doing so would also provide an Agility boost in stat growth. While it will be in certain allies’ natures to naturally be associated with certain stats, such as Ershin getting high defense, it allows a sense of freedom I really appreciate about the entry. Especially with Ryu, since you really need to rely on the Master system to build him up into the protagonist you need, due to his other abilities being tied to dragons. Images via Capcom and GOG The actual turn-based combat offers some appreciated strategic elements as well. Yes, it does entail selecting actions, then watching as folks take their turns when going up against enemies. However there are some elements that make things a bit more involved. One is that you can execute combos. These can be tied to magic attacks and skills, which can be used by all allies who learn them if you have enough people participate by using qualifying attacks during a single turn, and can be character specific. So Scias could use Ice Sword if you have say Nina use one of her wind spells and Ershin use Blizzard by using a melee skill after that. So there can be a bit of planning to make use of good ally combinations to ensure the three people in-battle work together while the ones not present rest and defend in the back. I really feel like it holds up well because of the combination of the customization and plotting who will be around and active. When you’re not training and fighting, Breath of Fire IV features a bit of a different progression system for exploration than you might expect. For example, you’ll move along dotted lines on a map and find places you can enter with “?” marks or that are designated spots. There are quite a few puzzles, some of them actually challenging and with mechanics that can involve swapping between characters. Images via Capcom and GOG The important thing to note about the GOG release of Breath of Fire IV is that the Capcom game not only runs, it runs incredibly well. I played it on both a Windows laptop and the Lenovo Legion Go, and in each case it worked flawlessly. The presentation is great. The audio sounded good. The rendering options are fantastic. It works incredibly well, so there’s no need for any concern about if it holds up. I also do see what GOG meant when it said the Marlok crane minigame is improved, as it seemed like the shadows were a bit clearer and my accuracy ended up being a bit better when loading crates onto the ship. In terms of execution, Capcom and GOG start us off in a good place. I will say that as much as I enjoyed Breath of Fire IV and getting to play it on PC again thanks to the GOG Dreamlist initiative, actually getting it to run right is finicky on a Steam Deck or handheld gaming PC like a Lenovo Legion Go! The page notes there is controller support. However, there are these minor issues in getting it running right. For example, to actually “start,” the start button on a controller probably won’t work. I had to press the left analog stick for the “confirm” action. There is key rebinding in the options, but I couldn’t get it to work right. Prior to the latest hotfix, I experienced an issue where I couldn’t get Nina to leave the North Desert Crash site, as she’d keep re-entering it even after I exited it via the world map. So while the game did work flawlessly on my Legion Go, issues like that mean it might be best to play it on a laptop so you do get access to keyboard inputs if controller support is leaving you a little flummoxed as to why it isn’t working right. Images via Capcom and GOG However, this is something that could be a moot point by the time people read this review. It seems GOG gets quite responsive about these things. Case in point is a rendering patch. Days after Breath of Fire IV launched on GOG Dreamlist on April 25, 2025 , the company shared a hotfix that allowed people to choose between bilinear and point sampled options, so you could determine if you wanted to smoothed effect or clearer spritework. So the support is absolutely there, and since two hotfixes already launched, it is possible that we’ll see other controller issues adjusted. While I feel like there’s something lovable about most Breath of Fire games, Breath of Fire IV can feel like one of the most memorable ones due to its story and Capcom’s gameplay decisions. So much so that I feel like even without some light enhancements, it holds up well for its age. The extra work GOG put on on compatibility and features helps Breath of Fire IV feel even more worthwhile, even though using a controller with it can feel a bit frustrating as you first find your footing. Breath of Fire IV is available for PC via GOG, and it is also available on the original PlayStation . The post Review: Breath of Fire IV Remains a Delight on PC appeared first on Siliconera .

SiliconeraMay 6

Assassin’s Creed Shadows On Steam Deck Surprised Me More Than Getting Stabbed In The NeckWhen I heard Ubisoft claim that Assassin’s Creed Shadows would be Steam Deck verified at launch , I responded by saying “yeah right” with all the sass I could muster. I’ve tested a lot of games on Steam Deck here at Kotaku. I’ve seen games that should be slam dunks on the device fall short, and even games with the… Read more...

KotakuApr 21

Early Steam Deck Prototype Seemingly Sold On Ebay For $2,000Here’s something odd. Over on eBay someone seems to have spent $2,000 on a Steam Deck prototype which was being sold on the auction site for $3,000. Read more...

KotakuApr 9

Silent Hill f Will Be Playable on a Steam DeckThe PC system requirements and product page say Silent Hill f is "playable" on a Steam Deck, but expect to do some tweaking on the new game.

SiliconeraApr 8

How to Perfect Dodge in South of Midnight As you go through South of Midnight , you'll regularly run into Haints, living embodiments of trauma who want hook-wielding protagonist Hazel dead. Luckily, you have plenty of tools to deal with them, including a snappy dodge that, with proper timing, can deal damage to your attackers. Perfect Dodges can be tricky to pull off, but if you master the timing, you can get through many early-game fights without having to swing your hooks. Here's how to pull off a Perfect Dodge in South of Midnight . Table of contents How Perfect Dodges work in South of Midnight Tips on how to use Perfect Dodging in South of Midnight How Perfect Dodges work in South of Midnight Image via Destructoid You learn how to dodge during your first encounter with a Haint, and it's a pretty bread-and-butter mechanic. Just hit the dodge button (the Circle button on the PlayStation 5 DualShock controller, in my case) while the Haint winds up its attack, and Hazel will roll out of the way. You'll get away just fine with proper timing. Executing a Perfect Dodge, however, asks a bit more of you. To perform a Perfect Dodge, you need to dodge the instant before an enemy takes a swing at you. If you're successful, Hazel lets out a burst of Thread energy that deals a healthy dose of damage to her attacker. As is the tradition in action-adventure combat, judging when an enemy or boss is about to attack relies on careful observation and practice. Thankfully, South of Midnight 's Perfect Dodge timing is more forgiving than Sekiro or Lies of P' s Perfect Parries. I've been playing Soulslike games for years, so I quickly mastered the timing. Tips on how to use Perfect Dodging in South of Midnight Image via Destructoid Once you've got the timing for the Perfect Dodge down, it becomes one of the best tools in your arsenal. The damage you deal with a Perfect Dodge is a burst, so if you time it right, you can hit multiple enemies with the rebound damage. One of South of Midnight's earliest level-up skills, the Rending Step, pairs up with Perfect Dodge. With this ability, you can dash into a forward slash after a successful dodge. It also works with a Perfect Dodge, so you can quickly deal a healthy chunk of damage if you sharpen your dodging game. The post How to Perfect Dodge in South of Midnight appeared first on Destructoid .

Steam Archives – DestructoidApr 7

Review: Keep Driving Is Worth the Trip The journey often becomes the best part about any piece of media. Yes, it is satisfying to see things come to an end. Sure, there’s excitement about getting started. But the part from point A to point B is when it gets interesting. YCJY Games’ Keep Driving focuses on those moments. Sure, reaching the festival at the end is a great culminating moment of “I did it,” but everything getting up to that is what makes it so great. Who are you in Keep Driving ? Whoever you want to be. This is a freeform experience, which means you get to customize your identity. That comes down to your backstory, family situation, and car you drive. These choices help set up your starting position as you prepare for a road trip to see a concert states away with a friend. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT5YZlFKDgA Keep Driving is a sim through and through, though I feel like it sort of dances among the exact type. It’s a road trip and driving simulation for sure. You’re picking out the right way to reach the concert, achieving milestones and going through experiences along the way. There’s even something of turn-based “combat” when on the road and dealing with other vehicles and incidents. There’s resource management, as there will be events that will “hang” from your rearview mirror. Did you pack and manage to procure certain items like gas and food? How do you handle potential hitchhikers? It does get a bit easy when it comes to a successful drive and dealing with things like threats and challenges can repeat a bit, so I would advise pacing yourself and playing for a few days, then pausing for a few weeks before heading back. I also feel like there are other “sim” elements present here that make things feel a bit more involved. Inventory management is a big deal, since you’re limited in how much space is available in each vehicle. You’ll quickly learn which items are really important to you and rely upon them, so just ensuring you’re able to keep stocked up might be the only thing to keep in mind. Picking your upgrades and skills is a priority too, especially since your passengers also have abilities. There’s also some life sim elements to it. This comes up with selecting work, dealing with hitchhikers, and even choosing what exactly you decide to do. The concert is a possible goal, but does it become your priority and only one? Images via YCJY Games It’s so easy to play too! Runs in Keep Driving take a few hours, and there’s a lot of replay value to the game. It’s easy to jump in and figure out how to play. The controls are commonsense ones, and it just works. I didn’t experience any crashes or issues, and I’ve headed out on three trips so far. However, I might say it is perhaps a bit too easy. By my second run, I felt like I didn’t need to stress at all, and if you get to three then you’ll know exactly how to “win.” There’s little challenge and, while satisfying, it might feel tedious after you’ve gone on a few drives. But then, spacing them out and not playing them back-to-back like I did in the circumstances I did would probably help with that. All of this is complemented by design decisions that make Keep Driving stand out among other games. We’re seeing everything from the side as we drive through this 2D world a la Oregon Trail . Impressive vistas and familiar takes on cities appear in the background. Spritework is used to recreate other vehicles and environmental elements. We’re always presented with all relevant information via what I felt was a well-organized UI. Images via YCJY Games The only downside is that Keep Driving feels like it would be perfect on a Steam Deck or handheld PC… but it doesn’t support it really yet. Unless you’re okay with a virtual or actual keyboard up for driving. It’s not ideal, but controller support is promised . When that arrives, it will be a real force to be reckoned with. Keep Driving is about that brief moment of time when you get that freedom to pick up and go. Safety net? You have family. Obligations? You’re young and unencumbered. Opportunities? They’re absolutely everywhere. Each run can and will feel different, as there are so many options and multiple endings. The only downside is, if you marathon it and take multiple trips in a row, you may get bored due to how repetitive and easy it can be. Still, the road is open ahead of you, and it’s a joy to take off and drive. Keep Driving is available on the PC via Steam . The post Review: Keep Driving Is Worth the Trip appeared first on Siliconera .

SiliconeraApr 6

Review: Urban Jungle Pairs Plants With Unpacking Style Gameplay Unpacking set something of a cozy trend by pairing elements like environmental storytelling with room organization, and Kylyk Games and Assemble Entertainment built on that concept with the plant arranging game Urban Jungle. The concept is similar and the inspirations are clear! However, here there are more puzzle-based elements and overt storytelling that attempt to add a little more challenge while also ensuring you know exactly who the character you’re helping is. Like Unpacking , we’re following a specific individual in who loves plants in Urban Jungle as she moves from place to place throughout her life. Ayta Borisova first fell in love with horticulture in 1995 with her grandma, where she was staying with her brother while her mom looked for work. However, that was cut short following her mother getting work abroad. Each chapter follows a year and period in Ayta’s life as she settles into a new place and makes it her own by also placing new plants. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB1aE4ymoF4&ab_channel=AssembleEntertainment The structure of Urban Jungle means that each chapter in the game is a new location and level with challenges, just like Unpacking . So in the first 1995 stage, Ayta is staying with her grandmother and helping her place plants until she hits a certain point milestone by satisfying their needs and unlocking the next chapter. The second jumps to 2001, when Ayta and her brother Nurgun are sharing a room in a new home with their mother. Since Ayta got her first “A” of the year, her mother (and grandparents) gifted her plants to decorate her space. Said plants are a random draw. After you use up the ones in your dock and hit a point milestone, you can select two additional ones to add to your collection. Each one has humidity and light needs. They will also be happier or less healthy if placed alongside other plants. There are different variants of each one, which can involve different sizes or cosmetic designs, to offer a change of pace. While some of the “selection” options will be free, you can use earned coins to “pay” for potentially rarer ones. Images via Kylyk Games This means each stage involves optimal arrangements. Which I found honestly isn’t that difficult. Unlike Unpacking , which often had very specific spots or requirements for certain pieces you’d placed, Urban Jungle is a game that offers a lot of room and opportunities. Need light? Place the plants near a window or turn on an actual light in the room. Need water? Putting one near a watering can, sink, fountain, or hose will work. The plant only likes being around certain other plants? Well, I found there honestly isn’t any incentive to diversify, especially since the plants at each top up are random, so just take only two or three varieties that all get along. I found it is pretty easy to beat the system. Once you hit the point allotment for a stage, you also don’t need to immediately move on. There are often optional objectives, which can involve tidying up elements of a room or interacting with certain objects, and you can get some coins for plants for that. There’s also a free-play option once you’ve unlocked a stage, which allows a little more opportunity to decorate, rearrange, and play around. Especially if it is a location with multiple room sand stories to it. Images via Kylyk Games While it isn’t as subtle about its story as Unpacking, I did enjoy the direction Kylyk Games took with Urban Jungle . It is easy to sympathize with Ayta. I wanted her to enjoy what she loved and to have cozy spaces to live in, especially as she dealt with issues with her brother or job. I was also completely unfamiliar with the Sakha Republic and appreciated cultural elements included. For example, after I heard about Yhyakh in the tutorial level, I went online to learn more about it. I will also say that Urban Jungle isn’t quite ideal on a handheld gaming PC just yet, so if you’re using a Steam Deck, you may experience issues. I was playing on a Lenovo Legion Go , and using the controller scheme wasn’t ideal at the moment. There are times when moving a plant with just a joystick and buttons doesn’t work. Maybe it won’t automatically realize that yes, there is a table/desk/surface it can be placed on and will still slide along the floor. It might not select the right one. It’s fiddly! You’ll need to still use the mouse and touchscreen to play! I also missed a few optional objectives, such as one involving petting a cat and another with a light being turned on, due to the game glitching and both becoming inaccessible when using the controller scheme. Urban Jungle is interesting and happens to be one of the better organizational games like Unpacking that I’ve played. I like the defined identity of our avatar and sympathized with her situation. The concept is enjoyable too, and it scratches similar itches. It also encourages a bit of strategy, since you need to take into account other foliage, light, and humidity. However, it can also feel repetitive and restrictive sometimes, and the lack of proper handheld gaming PC and fully comprehensive controller support keeps it from being a Steam Deck must-have. With a few adjustments to the control scheme, it could be a relaxing way to pass some time. Urban Jungle is available for PCs , and a demo for the game is out now. The post Review: Urban Jungle Pairs Plants With Unpacking Style Gameplay appeared first on Siliconera .

SiliconeraApr 5

Bazzite OS: A worthy Windows replacement, or just a passing fad? For all its ubiquity, Windows OS is a less-than-perfect choice if you're a gamer. It's bloated, overly contrived, and has nothing in the way of a gaming-oriented UI for use in a living room setting. Valve showed us a potential alternative with SteamOS, but would it work? SteamOS is not out yet. Further, it looks like Valve isn't interested in pushing it out for this particular use case anytime soon: instead, the focus as of SteamOS 3.7 is to get it to work on non-Deck handhelds specifically , and even that might take a while. As I've been looking for an off-ramp for Windows for some time now, I decided the right time for experimentation was yesterday, and chose Bazzite OS as my primary consideration. Bazzite OS is, more or less, a third-party attempt at emulating SteamOS, built from the ground up to emulate the experience on a wide array of devices. If you can install Linux on it, you can install Bazzite (which is built on Fedora), and the process is surprisingly foolproof. Picture by Destructoid In a general sense, Windows is fine, and it's what the vast majority of us have gotten used to over the years. It is the de facto go-to option for any modern PC builder. It's big, however. Big, bloated, and expensive if you're actually buying first-party licensing. Sure, it supports virtually everything under the sun, but this quickly turns into a detriment for specific use cases. For an office PC and workstation, then, a Windows PC is the obvious option. If you're building a living room PC to use as a console or a media station, though, you will want to drive the thing using a controller or a remote, and that's not good at all on Windows. Enter SteamOS, which has been designed from the ground up as a media-focused OS. Bazzite functions almost exactly the same, being an unofficial take on SteamOS, and it should support virtually every reasonably modern hardware combo under the sun. My goal for experimentation with Bazzite has been to reduce my reliance on Windows as a whole and turn my old gaming laptop into a Linux-based media powerhouse. For the longest time, the problem was that my laptop used an Nvidia GPU, but modern Bazzite also supports Team Green, which is excellent news across the board. I'm testing Bazzite on an old-gen Lenovo Legion machine. Equipped with 16 GB of DDR4 RAM, a reasonably fast i5-9300H CPU, and the RTX 2060, it serves as a solid baseline for virtually all media reproduction and casual gaming. Most things run fine on this machine, even though the tech running it is getting long in the tooth on top of being laptop hardware to begin with. Picture by Destructoid Installing Bazzite OS is quick, easy, and painless I'm happy to report that there's hardly anything to complain about installing Bazzite. All you need is an appropriately tweaked installation file (drivers, etc.), which is available via the official website , and Rufus to prepare bootable media. Using the default settings worked for me, and it took about 20 minutes for Bazzite OS to install on the laptop. I'm writing this out specifically to assuage any concerns you might have about installing a Linux distro: setting up Bazzite was the first time I've ever installed Linux on my own, and if I didn't mess anything up, I reckon you won't either. Post-installation, one issue I encountered was that the Steam Game Mode UI was laggy, but this was resolved simply by allowing the GPU to render Web View interfaces in Desktop Mode. Easy-peasy. The whole thing functions exactly the same as SteamOS does on the Deck if you set it up that way. Bazzite lets you choose whether your PC boots into Game Mode or Desktop Mode during the installation process, and I've set up my laptop to emulate the Deck in this sense. Crucially, SteamOS's Quick Settings menu also works, allowing you to quickly tune your upscaling options, refresh rate, and a bevy of other things while playing. In my testing (playing Witchfire, 2K Drive, and Sulfur for the most part), there have been no problems, and the performance seems about on-par with what I saw on Windows. I've not conducted truly hardcore benchmarking on this system, however. For that information, I'd recommend checking out Larkin Cunningham's testing from early March 2025, which suggests Nvidia systems may lose some performance on Linux versus Windows 11. In my case, any potential performance dips I might've experienced have been minuscule enough not to notice them, and I do usually notice these things . The one thing that is missing is the TDP limiter, which could be an issue depending on what you want to do with your device. In my case, the laptop's battery is particularly crummy to begin with, and though Bazzite did help me eke out 20-odd minutes of extra battery life (3:10 at full charge versus 2:50ish on Windows 11 at full charge), it's plugged in when in use, anyway. Picture by Destructoid What do I get for my troubles, then? A capable semi-mobile media driver with reasonable workstation capabilities. Since Bazzite OS has a full-fledged Desktop Mode, I can do some light work on it. Everything web-based works by default, and for everything else, there's OpenOffice. A particularly handy app I've grown to love on Linux is CoolerControl , which allows me to control all attached LEDs and fans in a single interface. It, too, worked flawlessly out of the box, and I'm frankly astonished with how easy setting it all up has been. This applies to Bazzite OS in general. I've yet to find something that's outright broken on the OS or doesn't work. Sure, all the usual caveats of SteamOS apply here as well: if a game doesn't support Linux, you won't be able to play it natively on the device you've got Bazzite on. To be perfectly fair, you could get Bazzite OS's biggest boon by simply setting up your PC to boot directly into Steam Game Mode UI on Windows. That is an option, and it will be the preferred way of doing things for those who wish to stick with Windows no matter what. If you're like me, though, and wish to see if things could be done outside of Microsoft's purview, I can happily recommend Bazzite OS. I've had Bazzite installed on my laptop, using it as a media PC hooked up to a TV, for about two weeks now. One bug I've had a few times is that the leftmost Game Mode feature menu will glitch out. Thankfully, it's rare enough that I don't feel too pressed about it. Everything else has been trucking along just fine to the point that I have to go out of my way to look for reasons to use Desktop Mode. In summary, Bazzite OS is, in my experience, good enough for most casual users and those interested in building media PCs. If you'd like to avoid the usual Windows bloat, insistence on constant updates, and the god-awful new AI Copilot feature, this may well be the ticket. You could also dual-boot if you're into that sort of thing! The post Bazzite OS: A worthy Windows replacement, or just a passing fad? appeared first on Destructoid .

Steam Archives – DestructoidApr 2