Small update for the Deck is all fixes. Patch notes are as follows: General Fixed the new Big Picture Mode overlay being incorrect[ly] sized when the monitor is set to display scaling other than 100% Fixed DLC hover on game details page being cropped Steam Input Fixed an issue with gamepad navigation in the Steam Deck haptics calibration screen Fixed an issue w/ enabling Gyro for Switch controllers If you’re on desktop and you’re opted into the beta branch for Steam, there is a similar update available, with the addition of a MacOS bug being fixed in regards to the close button on the Steam login window.

Today’s Deck client update (beta) continues further optimization for loading times for users with big game libraries. A case has been fixed “where the UI would think that a game is running when it’s not, leaving games in an ’exiting forever’ state.” Desktop Mode got some love as well, particularly with the New Big Picture Mode. A checkbox can now be checked off when launching a game that has a selection, making that choice the default selection.

Small update for Proton Experimental is mostly focused on bug fixes. Though we did get a new game to play: eXceed - Gun Bullet Children. The EA Desktop (the EA App? I’m not sure) should now properly update, ensuring that games can now run, though this may require a few game restarts. Forza Horizon (probably both 4 and 5?) should now have the default mapping with the Logitech G920 wheel. And a regression was fixed for the Star Wars: The Old Republic launcher “failing to pen.

If you’re looking for a keyboard, System76 has every option out there. Whether you want the standard Launch, the Launch Lite for a more affordable keyboard without the USB hub, or want to have as many features as possible with the new Launch Heavy, your bases have been covered. Apparently the Launch Heavy has been around for the past few weeks, even though the embargo lift date wasn’t until today. At any rate, here’s the features it has over the standard launch:

Great news, Portal with RTX is out now! Per the Steam store page description: Experience the critically acclaimed and award-winning Portal™ reimagined with ray tracing in this free DLC for Portal owners. Start thinking with portals, with RTX on. I’d love to report how it runs…if I had a RTX GPU. I should have just kept the Thelio as an excuse to try it. If you don’t have a RTX GPU clicking “Play Game” won’t do anything.

Congratulations to Valve, and especially CodeWeavers, who have tirelessly put forth the effort to make gaming on Linux and the Steam Deck easier and easier as the weeks and months go by. Proton 7.0-5 went from being a release candidate back in October, to Proton Next a month later, and now we’ve hit the stable release. What’s changed since Proton Next? Well, nothing, really. All of the same games are playable.

Heroic Games Launcher continues to get TLC from its massive 2.5.0 update. The Mac version of the app definitely got some attention here – with the inclusion of Wine, DXVK, and Winetricks support – but the Linux version got some updates as well. It’s mostly fixes. They are as follows: Fix the issue with the download’s progress going crazy and duplicating the installation/update. Fix a crash on the Install dialog on some games Fix sideload games not being added to steam automatically.

Well, this is a relief to see. Seems like NVIDIA themselves are the scalpers – rather than the ones who greedily buy them in bulk and sell them at three or four times the price – at least when it comes to the 4080/4090. See, the price of the 4080 is so expensive that it hasn’t appealed to that many people. As a result, scalpers who bought these cards, thinking that people were going to be desperate enough to scoop them up, are regretting their purchases.

Today’s update to GE-Proton doesn’t seem too exciting, although we did get a few Protonfixes added for Skeleton Boomerang and Re-Volt. Protonfixes were removed for King of Fighters (no longer needs FPS cap) and Squad (no longer needs EAC workaround). A launcher fix was added for Secret World: Legends. Aside from that, everything else is updates. Wine staging has been rebased. DXVK-NVAPI, DXVK, VKD3D, and the “media converter” have been updated, although the patch notes don’t mention to what they’ve been updated to (presumably, they’ve all been updated to the latest git).

Yesterday’s Proton Experimental update mostly focuses on bug fixes. But in addition to game-specific fixes, we’ve got support for another game: 雀姬 (Mahjong ladies) – which, I believe, points to an anime board game. Hidraw has been enabled for Simucube racing wheels and Fanatec pedals. In case you’re not aware, hidraw “provides a raw interface to USB and Bluetooth Human Interface Devices (HIDs)” and is “useful for communicating with non-conformant HID devices which send and receive data in a way that is inconsistent with their report descriptors.