The upcoming Steam Deck looks set to be capable of running big hitters at launch, including the recently released port of God Of War.
The PC release of Sony’s classic launched yesterday (January 14), offering a host of upgrades over the 2018 PS4 release, including true 4K resolution, unlocked frame rates, 21:9 ultra-widescreen support, Nvidia DLSS, and customisable controls.
However, as noted by Gaming On Linux, the game runs “out of the box” on Linux set ups. This is thanks to Proton, a compatibility layer that allows Windows-based games to run on Linux – the same compatibility layer that Steam Deck will be using. That should mean the game will be fully playable on the handheld gaming PC.
Gaming on Linux does state that “there’s some really heavy stuttering though with an NVIDIA GPU”, advising that “as always with more graphically intense games built for Windows and run through Proton, they need time to build up a shader cache.”
Whether this will prove to be a problem for the Steam Deck is currently unknown, although it’s worth noting that the handheld will utilise a custom AMD RDNA 2 GPU, rather than an NVIDIA. In December 2021, it was revealed that 80 per cent of Steam’s top 100 games work on the handheld, a figure that is expected to rise before launch.
Thankfully, players won’t have too long to wait to find out, as Valve recently confirmed that the Steam Deck is still “on track” for a February 2022 release, after delaying the hardware from its originally planned December 2021 launch. In a blog post, the manufacturer said that “global pandemic, supply issues, and shipping issues notwithstanding, it looks like we’ll be able to start getting these out the door by the end of February.”
In other news, Apex Legends may be getting a native PS5 release soon, after an 80GB patch was spotted, while Halo Infinite will be overhauling its in-game shop, with it set to offer players more bundles of items and lower prices.
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