Here’s How To See What Games You Can Play On The Steam Deck

The Steam Deck is now available. You might be interested in seeing what games you can play on it. Fortunately, you can log into your Steam account and instantly check what's validated for Steam Deck, what's playable, and what won't function on it, thanks to a new Steam page. You'll notice four categories for your Steam Library games after less than a minute: Deck Verified Games From Your Library, Deck Playable Games From Your Library, Unsupported Deck Games From Your Library, and Untested Deck Games From Your Library.

Here’s what each means, according to Valve: 

• Deck Verified: Valve’s testing indicates these titles from your Steam Library are fully functional on Steam Deck, and work great with built-in controls and display.
• Deck Playable: Valve’s testing indicates these titles from your Steam Library are functional on Steam Deck, but might require extra effort to interact with or configure. 
• Unsupported: Valve’s testing indicates these games in your Steam Library currently don’t function on Steam Deck. Valve is continuing to add support for more games over time. 
• Untested: Valve’s testing team hasn’t yet gotten to the remaining games in your Steam library, but we’re testing new games every day. Come back often to see more of your library get Verified. 

Valve's Steam Deck Delayed To 2022

The Valve Steam Deck has been delayed by two months. The handheld PC will now start shipping sometime in February 2022, instead of December of this year. The company blamed the delay on the ongoing global semiconductor crunch that has affected everything from GPU prices to car production. 

"We’re sorry about this — we did our best to work around the global supply chain issues, but due to material shortages, components aren’t reaching our manufacturing facilities in time for us to meet our initial launch dates," Valve said.

If you pre-ordered a Steam Deck before today, you will keep your current place in the reservation line, but the date when your Steam Deck will ship is moving back. Valve said it would update shipping estimates shortly after today's announcement. 

Valve Reveals Dates For Steam’s Autumn And Winter Sales

According to the Steamworks Documentation page notes the Steam autumn sale will take place from November 24th-30th. As for the Steam winter sale, you'll be able to score discounts on a ton of games between December 22nd and January 5th.

Valve's Steam Deck Is A Handheld PC. Starts at $399, Releases In December

Valve has revealed the Steam Deck, which will arrive in December in the US, Canada, the European Union and the UK. The system starts at $399.

It has a 7-inch touchscreen, with a resolution of 1,280 x 800 at a 16:10 aspect ratio, 400 nits of brightness and a 60Hz refresh rate. It features dual thumbsticks, two 32.5mm square trackpads, an analog directional pad, four main face buttons, triggers and a quartet of grip buttons, as well as gyro controls. The Steam Deck also has a headphone jack, stereo speakers, dual microphones and haptic feedback. It weighs around 669 grams and it's just under a foot wide.

Valve has partnered with AMD on the hardware. The custom chipset features a 2.4-3.5GHz processor and a 1.0 to 1.6GHz GPU with 8 RDNA 2 compute units. The handheld PC comes with 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and up to 512GB of NVMe internal storage, which you can expand with a microSD card. Valve says the 40-watt-hour battery will power the device for between 2 and 8 hours on a single charge. The battery life will depend on how resource intensive the games you play are.  

Steam Deck runs on a new version of SteamOS that's designed for handheld use. You'll have access to your full library of games. You can expect to have access to many Steam
features, including chat, remote play, cloud saves and the Steam storefront. The device has a built-in quick suspend and resume feature. Pressing the power button will suspend your game and send the Steam Deck into sleep mode. You'll be able to continue where you left off when you hit the power button again.

Steam Deck will support a variety of Bluetooth and USB-C peripherals. You can plug in a powered USB-C hub and use multiple devices at once. You can connect the system to an external display and play games at up to 8K at 60Hz or 4K at 120Hz. Valve is also making an official dock with DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0 and Ethernet ports, as well as one USB 3.1 connection and two USB 2.0 sockets. You'll be able to use the Steam Deck as an actual PC.

The base $399 Steam Deck comes with 64GB of eMMC internal storage and a carrying case. For $529, you can upgrade the storage to a 256GB NVMe SSD. The 512GB model costs $649 and comes with "premium anti-glare etched glass." The dock will be sold separately at a later time.

Introducing Steam Deck: powerful, portable PC gaming starting at $399. Designed by Valve, powered by Steam. Shipping December 2021.

Learn more at https://t.co/ZOTx3KUCVK and reserve yours tomorrow. #SteamDeck pic.twitter.com/jcgbaKfT9c

— Steam (@Steam) July 15, 2021

Steam Next Fest Happening In June

Valve has announced that the Steam Game Festival will start later this year.The Steam Next Fest will kick off on June 16th and run through to the 22nd. Notably, that means it will overlap with part of this year's likely all-digital E3. The three-day event is slated to start on June 15th. They'll demos of upcoming games to play, livestreams and a chance to chat with the people behind those projects. 

HP's Reverb G2 VR Headset Is The Valve Index But For $599

A new challenger has entered the VR headset space, HP's Reverb G2. Designed with help from Valve and Microsoft, the G2 is a $599 device that may just hit the sweet spot for those looking to get into VR.

The G2 has an 2,160 by 2,160 per eye resolution which compliments the LCDs with lenses designed by Valve. HP has also added a new IPD toggle that allows you to adjust the distance between the lenses to accommodate the gap between your pupils better. When you put on the G2, the speakers will sit about 10mm away from your ears and deliver fully immersive spatial audio. 

The G2 features four cameras that HP claims can capture more movement for tracking. You won't need to use external sensors in conjunction with the G2 to move around in games and other VR experiences. You can pre-order the Reverb G2 starting today. HP expects to release the headset in fall 2020. 

Every Half-Life Game Is Free To Play For A Limited Time

Valve has announced in a new blog post. that every Half-Life game will be free-to play for a limited time so players are ready for Half-Life: Alyx. Users can go to Steam right now and install Half-Life, Half-Life 2, and Half-Life 2: Episode One and Two. 

Half-Life: Alyx is set before the events of Half-Life 2 and stars Alyx Vance, a main character in Half-Life 2 and its episodes. Unlike the other games in the series, the game is played entirely in VR.

Half-Life: Alyx Is A Full-Length VR Title (UPDATE - Release Date)

UPDATE: 2/21/20 - Half-Life: Alyx now has a confirmed release date of March 23.

Valve has announced the return of the Half-Life universe with Half-Life: Alyx. The game will be set between the events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2, the game is scheduled to release in March 2020.

The game set the the course of Alyx and her father Eli as they mount a resistance against the alien Combine. Half-Life: Alyx is a full-length entry to the franchise built for VR, and is compatible with a variety of VR devices including Rift and Vive. Those who own or purchase a Valve Index headset will get the game for free when it launches.

EA Tiltes Are Coming Back To Steam

EA and Valve are partnering up to put games and EA Access titles (EA's subscription service) on Steam. 

The first big game will be Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, launching on November 15. A glance at the title's Steam page seems to indicate that users opting in on Steam will still need to have Origin installed. However, a Respawn dev has stated on Reddit that when Apex Legends comes to Steam it will launch directly from Steam. So We’ll have to wait and see if you really need Origin to play EA titles on Steam. Other title coming to Steam next year include Battlefield V, FIFA 20 and Sims 4. 

Valve Reveals New High End VR Headset, Valve Index

Valve has announced a new high-end VR headset aimed at users who want the best the technology has to offer. Valve Index Preorders for the headset, controllers and base stations are available now.

The headset features 1,440x1,600 LCDs and has 50% more subpixels than OLED, in an array that reduces the screen-door effect that typically accompanies VR. The headset runs at 120Hz, with full backward compatibility with 90Hz. It's also designed with easily replaceable face pads, and Valve says it's encouraging mods and third-party designs for those pads.

The headset is available individually for $499, with the controllers priced at $279 and the base station at $149. A bundle is priced at $999. For more specs and details, visit Valve's page here.

You Can Now Use Your Steam Link Over A Long Distance

Valve has announced that a new feature called Steam Anywhere is now in beta, letting players hook their Steam Link up to an internet connection and access their Steam library from anywhere, provided your Steam library is on a PC with a high upload speed. You’ll need to opt-in to the Steam client beta through the program's settings and make sure you've updated to the March 13 version.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Is Now Free To Play, Adds Battle Royale Mode

Valve has announced that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is getting a smaller-scale battle royale mode called Danger Zone. Plus to boot, CS:GO is going free-to-play as well. 

The new mode puts 8 players together in a larger-than-usual map titled Blacksite and, as battle royale games do, prompts the player to choose where they want to land. The mode has a twist with the ability to track opponents on an in-game tablet using gathered intel and summon drones to you for supply drops. Players can do solo, doubles, or triples, with solos queuing into 16-player matches and groups raising the limit to 18.

The Steam Summer Sale Is Here

The time is upon us, may lord Gabe have mercy on you wallet as the Steam Summer sale has begun. Notable sales include the Fallout franchise range from 30% to 75% off, with Fallout 4 at 50% off. Grand Theft Auto V is 67% off, and Telltale's The Walking Dead is 70% off. The sale is set to run until July 5

You Can Now See How Much You’ve Spent On Steam

Steam and Valve have introduced a tool so you can see how much you’ve spend in Steam. If you so choose, Steam will show you how much money you've spent without the use of external funds used. That's how much money you've put into Steam over the lifetime of your account. You can find the page here, which prompts you to sign in to Steam and then presents you with external funds used as of the most recent cycle, which could be a few days in the past. 

Apple Rejects Steam Link On iOS Due To “Business Conflicts”

Valve's Steam Link was set to release on mobile this week. While the beta version released on Google Play with out issue, the iOS app appears to have hit an unexpected problem. Valve said in a statement that Apple approved then withdrew it from the App Store:

"On Monday, May 7th, Apple approved the Steam Link app for release." It continues: "The following morning, Apple revoked its approval citing business conflicts with app guidelines that had allegedly not been realized by the original review team."

Steam Link is as a way to stream PC games onto TV, allowing players to enjoy their favorite titles from the comfort of their couch. Valve apparently tried to appeal the ruling, pointing out the abundance of free game-streaming apps already live in the marketplace. However, those pleas were overlooked.

"The team here spent many hours on this project and the approval process, so we're clearly disappointed. But we hope Apple will reconsider in the future."

Apple hasn't detailed the reasons behind its rejection, but Moonlight and Remotr are available as alternatives.

New Steam Link App Lets You Stream Games To Your Phone

Valve has announced a new app that allows Steam users to stream their game library to Android and iOS devices. Steam Link is set to launch sometime during the week of May 21 on the App Store and Google Play, and will work with compatible phones, tablets, and TVs. Steam Link will require either a 5Ghz Wi-Fi network or wired ethernet connection to a Mac or PC running Steam. Steam Link also offers support for Steam controllers and Apple's MFI controllers, as well as other unnamed controllers. Valve is also launching a Steam Video app later in the summer that will let Steam users watch their purchased movies and shows on Android and iOS devices, and includes streaming and offline viewing options.

You Can Now Use The Nintendo Switch Pro Controller On Steam

The Nintendo Switch’s Pro Controller isn’t just for your Nintendo Switch. Now, you can use it on Steam. The Steam Controller team recently announced that “the latest Steam Client Beta adds support for the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller. We think it is a great device with a feature set that pairs nicely with your Steam catalog. The d-pad is ideal for fighting games and platformers and the gyro enhances aim in your action/FPS titles”. If you want to try it out for yourself, you will need to opt in for the Steam Client Beta. The Pro Controller can be used as a native configurable controller, and it even has motion control support.

Team Fortress 2 Update Overhauls Matchmaking

Valve's popular free-to-play shooter Team Fortress 2 has received a surprise update. The new update includes changes to competitive mode as well as balance changes to weapons.

Competitive Revamp

• The matchmaking system used for Competitive Mode has been overhauled. Players will now be ranked using a model based on the Glicko rating system used in CS:GO.
• The old 18 Competitive ranks have been consolidated into 13 new ranks. You can view the new ranks on the updated Competitive FAQ page (http://www.teamfortress.com/meetyourmatch/faq/)
• Competitive ranks have been reset and players must win 10 matches to earn a new Competitive rank
• Note: The previous system started everyone at Rank 1, and required – in most cases – considerable time for players to reach a rank that properly reflected their performance. The new system – by way of placement matches – considerably shortens the time required to reach an appropriate rank
• The requirements to access Competitive Mode have changed: If you do not own a Competitive Matchmaking Pass, you must now be at least Casual level 3 in addition to being a Premium user and having a valid phone number associated with your account.

This update also fixes a number of bugs. You can read the full list here.

Steam Introduces Digital Gift Cards

With the Steam holiday sales coming within the next few months, Valve is adding a way to send digital gift cards to friends Steam Wallet balance. You can only send funds to a Steam Friend you've had for more than 3 days, but once you select them, "send money" appears as an option. Easy! They come in the typical denominations of $5, $10, $25, $50 and $100. You can buy them with major credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, and JCB), PayPal or Bitcoin.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds Breaks Steam’s Peak User Record

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has broken another Steam record. The battle royale shooter just surpassed Valve's Dota 2 to claim the all-time record for concurrent players. 1.34 million players, surpassing the previous record of 1.29 million set by Dota 2. That's not bad for a game that was only released in Early Access form in March.

Highest peak player count on @steam_games! A sincere thank you to all our players & the amazing @PUBATTLEGROUNDS team I get to work with! GG pic.twitter.com/z8V2rdmQmm

— PLAYERUNKNOWN (@PLAYERUNKNOWN) September 16, 2017