Bus Bound was provided by Saber Interactive for review. Thank you!
Bus Bound comes to us from stillalive studios, and if that name sounds familiar, it's because they were the developers behind the popular Bus Simulator series, which last received a game back in 2021. With the new Bus Simulator 27 being handed over to a new development team, stillalive worked with Saber Interactive to bring us Bus Bound, the next evolution of bus simulators.
Bus Bound, however, takes a diversion from its predecessors. Instead, it presents a rather Utopian view of public transportation. All public transportation is free in Emmerville, the city where the game takes place. Rather than dealing in money, your service is measured in terms of "likes". Passengers will like your service if you arrive on time, drive safely, and obey the rules of the road.
Because no money is involved, the game's progression is entirely based on this "likes" system, which feels a little silly. You unlock new areas to service and, occasionally, new vehicles to use based on these likes, which is odd but acceptable. What is really strange, however, is that when you serve an area enough and gather enough likes, you can upgrade the area, which causes entire parts of the city to change; new infrastructure, new trees and parks are added, and buildings are updated.
From a purely gameplay perspective, that's pretty neat to have your actions change and update the city in such a way. But in the back of my mind, I'm wondering how a bus route to the neighborhood managed to create such a huge change and encourage the government and businesses to pour substantial money into the area. Maybe I'm thinking too deeply, and perhaps it's right that "Bus Bound" no longer carries the "Simulator" moniker, because in this regard, the game feels very idealistic, rather than having any sort of realism.
When you're actually driving the buses, we do see the development team's pedigree from their previous Bus Simulator days. The vehicles feel weighty; you need to plan your turns so you don't clip other traffic or roadside infrastructure with the corners of your bus, and you do need to obey traffic laws, such as traffic lights and stop signs, and slow down for speed bumps. I wouldn't say the driving is as involved or detailed as the Euro/American Truck Simulator games, but you do have to plan ahead.
There are also a variety of bus types. Some are smaller, almost minibus-like, holding only 15 or so passengers, making for an easier, more responsive drive. Then you have the mix of Diesel, Hydrogen, and Electric buses. Diesel buses are pretty sluggish, whereas Electric buses have a noticeable difference in how quickly they pull off the mark. It's nice to see the differences in how these buses drive represented in the game.
The AI traffic was an issue for me when I previewed Bus Bound, and I'm glad to say that the traffic behavior has improved, mostly. The AI still seems to struggle at junctions. The game uses the "Right on Red" rule, meaning traffic can still enter a junction on a red light if they are turning right. But AI following this rule shows some disregard for other traffic, often pulling out in front of other road users and causing traffic to stop at junctions, or sometimes giving way to other traffic in junctions, even though they have the right of way, causing needless traffic jams.
Arguably, these issues make the traffic appear more human-like and realistic, but it's a degree of unpredictability that is rare in simulation games and could annoy those who expect everyone to obey traffic laws as written. The developers are clearly aware of this issue, as I had seemingly endless traffic jams, with cars despawning right in front of me so I could continue playing.
Then, there's the management aspect of the game. Bus Bound is all about the betterment of the city, and to do that, you need to make sure your bus service covers all areas. Enter the Line Editor. From here, you can create custom bus routes that you will drive along and make sure that every part of the city is catered to. You'll complete objectives, mostly in the form of receiving enough likes at a specific bus stop, which in turn will unlock new vehicles and new areas to create lines in.
Unfortunately, that is about as deep as Bus Bound goes into management and logistics. I hesitate to call this game a simulator because, aside from the realistic driving physics, it presents a very idealistic worldview, aiming to transform the city into a pedestrianized, public-transport-centric metropolis. It's definitely a feel-good game in that regard, but I'm not sure who the target audience is, as it lacks the depth I would want from a simulator yet presents itself as one.
The gameplay loop is "build a line > drive the line until you get enough likes on those bus stops > upgrade the district > repeat these steps in the new district just unlocked". It's repetitive, and as you progress, the objectives become more difficult, meaning you have to repeat a line over and over to complete them, and the lack of management tasks in between makes it more tiresome than it otherwise would be.
The external camera is also awkward at some junctions, with street props/decoration interfering with the camera, pushing it very close to the bus, and making it difficult to see traffic when attempting to pull out.
Bus Bound does feature online co-op play for up to 4 players, which definitely helps break up what could be a somewhat tedious experience. It's worth bearing in mind that only the host will make progress on their save.
As is often the case with these simulators, controllers are well supported, and I would always recommend you use one over a keyboard. Bus Bound also supports 1280x800 as a resolution to take full advantage of the Steam Deck's display.
Bus Bound is quite intensive on both the CPU and GPU, but fortunately it also offers decent visual scalability, so we can get the game to a playable level on the Steam Deck.
Set all your quality settings to their lowest, then disable VSync, set the in-game frame limiter to Unlimited, disable Raytracing, and set upscaling to FSR Performance mode. You'll want to apply a 30 FPS limiter in your SteamOS settings.
With these settings, most of the game will play at 30 FPS; some intensive areas of the city will drop into the mid-20s. Streets such as Mason Drive, which is several lanes wide with many parked cars, will drop you to 25-27 FPS for almost the entire stretch. For most areas, though, you will be hitting 30 FPS with occasional drops to 28 or 29, definitely playable given the slow-paced nature of driving a bus.
When the framerate got a little stuttery, sometimes the audio would cut out and resume a second or two later. It didn't happen often; I hit a patch every hour or so, but it is distracting when it happens.
As for the power draw, expect it to be around 17W-22W, depending on where you are in the city, giving you around 2.5 hours of playtime on a Steam Deck OLED, and around 1.5 hours on a Steam Deck LCD. Temperatures were mostly around 65 °C - 70 °C.
Bus Bound features a UI Scale slider, color blind filters, and subtitle size adjustment.
Bus Bound feels like it has a conflicted identity. Presenting us with a somewhat realistic driving simulation, backed up by almost no management or logistics gameplay. Unless you want to drive a familiar path, day in, day out, then Bus Bound isn't the game for you.
Performance on the Steam Deck isn't great, but it's acceptable. If you can forgive the odd frame rate drops here and there, you can play through the game. The controller is a fine way to play driving games, too.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.
Cairn was provided by The Game Bakers for review. Thank you!
Last year at Day of the Devs, I got to look at many different titles, but none stuck with me like Cairn. It was a short, simple demo of just climbing up a rock wall, but the amount of care needed to control each limb, the physics of the protruding rocks and cracks, and how they affect our body, and the need to watch over our food and water, while using special tools to help our climb, lured me right in. And now that I have played the full game, I can say that joy I felt playing last year is still there in its entirety.
The story of Cairn follows Aava, a well-known climber who decided to tackle her most difficult mountain yet: Kami. As she goes up, she will encounter a unique cast of characters and confront her own demons while digging deep into her own psyche to discover why she can’t stop climbing. It’s quite an intriguing story overall, and I was very interested to figure out why Aava has this mentality. Combine that with a recurring Marco and his more “chill” attitude with climbing and the lore of Kami itself, and I was pretty satisfied. Ultimately, I felt it was worthwhile to stop at caves that were out of the way, finding documents and supplies to further push the story along in a neat way.
The beauty of Cairn comes from learning the most efficient ways to climb the mountain face and knowing what to do in dangerous situations. There are so many factors that can drastically affect your climax, like depleting stamina, needing food and/or water, and even weather conditions like rainfall. So, not only do you have to take some time to plan your route and ensure your path will have enough protruding rocks to get a grip on, but you’ll have to plan ahead of time for worst-case scenarios. Do you have enough pitons to use if worst comes to worst? Do you have a solid footing when your stamina starts to drop, and your entire body shakes? Do you have water and food on hand in case you start to get dehydrated? These will be constant questions that pop into your mind and can make or break your climb.
The balance of strategy and survival is key here. On one hand, you have to plan every single step of your journey. The location you place your hands and feet will factor into how you climb, and choosing spots to put less stress on your limbs will make or break your climb. Constantly looking around the mountain to discover cracks or protruding rocks will become an enjoyable norm. There's something so satisfying about finding a good foothold and watching Aava extend upwards to gain some solid momentum.
However, going too quickly or not finding footholds can lead to falling off the mountain quickly. This isn't a race to the top; taking your time is rewarded with the chance to actually stay on the mountain. We aren't completely left to our own vices either. We can put Chalk on our hands to increase grip strength (essential for spots without footholds, but cracks for grabbing on with our hands exist), and we have a limited number of Pitons to use. Pitons can act as checkpoints on the mountain, making it so that when we fall, our rope will latch onto the Piton instead of us falling to our deaths.
On the other hand, we will have to manage our health, hunger, thirst, and temperature using the assortment of foods and medicines available on the mountain. They can be found all across the mountain in leftover backpacks, cooling pots, and we can even find plants to eat. Most of what we find can be cooked in our tents to boost their effects, giving us extra buffs and more.
And, as with any survival game, supplies are limited. You can only carry a certain amount in your backpack, and you have a set amount of pitons, adding extra challenge and decisions that need to be made. It could end up being very helpful to go off the beaten path, maybe even going down to a new platform that has food or other items you can pick up. Scavenging for resources will give an edge, and it becomes necessary to stock up and prepare.
Kami is a huge mountain, and it would be tough to climb it without being able to save while going up. There are save points we can find throughout the caves and edges on the mountain, and it's at these points that we can set up our tent, sleep to regain health and pass through the night, cook food, tape up our fingers to increase our grip, repair our Pitons, and manage our backpack.
The save system is a hit or miss for me. There's a lot we can do at each point, which I appreciate, but there were more times than I could count that I died and was sent back so far. It could be devastating to lose all of that progress, and it reminded me of how I felt losing progress for games like Baby Steps or Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy. It can really suck, and it made me wish for a little more forgiving system. There are some cutscenes where we are hanging on the mountain in our tents, so I wish I could do that for cooking or saving mid-climb. It would make sense if this were limited to however many Pitons I have to keep the difficulty up, but the points can just feel a little too far from each other in some parts of the mountain.
Still, all of the gameplay elements work together nicely and create this wonderful combination of strategic survival that I found worthwhile. Taking the time to carefully plan out each move, one foot or hand at a time, became my favorite aspect of Cairn. I would sometimes even spend 5-10 minutes just inspecting the mountain to decide the route I would take to go up, and watching it work out (with careful Piton placement) became this euphoric experience.
Cairn may be Verified for the Steam Deck, but it does have some larger problems I didn't expect. The game can drop significantly when looking at more of the mountain than what's in front of us. Even with the game on the lowest settings, which is the default, it will drop below 30 FPS, sometimes even going down to 15 or 20, depending on how much of the mountain is in view. It's a little bit of a bummer, though I am thankful that the bulk of the gameplay will stick to 30 FPS when it needs to. The game doesn't really need a high framerate, which helps a lot, too.
Still, I couldn't help but be a little disappointed with Cairn's performance. It seems to be rendering a little too far, so looking out at the mountain or in certain angles will bring performance way down. Climbing is more stable, since we are only looking at the mountain face in front of us, but even at the lowest settings possible, looking towards the mountain would bring performance down. Still, to stabilize it as much as possible, I do recommend bringing down the resolution and using SteamOS' FSR upscaling to supplement. The visuals make it blend in nicely, and it boosts performance enough to stay stable where it counts.
This also brings battery drain down when not climbing, without changing visuals too much. There is some extra detail on the rock faces and more foliage on the ground, but I wouldn't say the visuals suffer enough from High to Low to justify the extra battery drain and performance drops. And with there being throttling and framerate drops when looking at the whole mountain, even on Low, I would rather keep it at lower settings to minimize the moments of drops during actual gameplay.
There isn't a specific accessibility tab for Cairn, but it does have some nice assist options to help with our ascent, like fall rewinding, infinite gear, auto-saving, and turning off the survival elements. But we also have other settings, like manual limb selection, highlighting limbs, skipping quick reaction mini-games, displaying the in-game time, changing subtitles size, and remapping controls.
We do have 16:10 resolution support, as well as controller and cloud save support. There are no HDR settings.
Cairn combines strategy and survival to create a unique experience that I want to keep coming back to. The combination of strategy and survival in climbing a treacherous mountain is well-balanced, keeping gameplay engaging and fun throughout. It can be brutal and unforgiving with how quickly you can fall, and save points are a little too scattered in some areas, but it was hard to find any moment that didn’t make me want to try climbing again.
I do wish it ran better on the Steam Deck, but I would still consider it playable since it doesn’t need high framerates to be fully enjoyed. Still, I had a great time playing it in bed, and I can happily recommend it.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.
Train Sim World 6 was provided by Dovetail Games for review. Thank you!
Train Sim World 6 is the latest iteration in the yearly train simulator franchise. It brings with it some new routes and trains, supports the DLC for previously released iterations, and gives us some new features in a very familiar package.
Regarding the actual simulation of the trains, it's hard to fault Train Sim World 6. The train cabs are detailed with a plethora of knobs, switches, and dials. At first, it's quite overwhelming, as you would imagine a real train would be, but it does feel good once you learn the procedures for operating the train and are flipping switches and turning dials like it's second nature.
Likewise, the physics of the trains aren't to be sniffed at either, with acceleration and deceleration taking into account the type of train you're using, as well as the weight of your carriages, one of the key elements of driving a train is planning well ahead of where you are, due to the time it takes to speed up and slow down such a large vehicle, and the game conveys that well, along with providing a handy timeline warning you of upcoming signals, stops or speed limit changes.
Of course, if you are feeling particularly confident, you can also disable the HUD entirely and rely on visual cues and your train control panel to keep you advised.
The gameplay is largely centered around carrying out routes, making sure you obey signals, stopping in the correct position at stations, and sticking to your timetable, which is a heck of a task when you can't figure out how to turn the train on! These are presented as missions/scenarios, although you can choose your own train and drive as you please in "free roam". It can be quite monotonous, but you probably knew that when you opened a review about a train simulator, there's only so much they can do.
In my opinion, the best way they've combatted this is by allowing you to get up and walk freely around your train, even while it's in motion, exploring the cabin and passenger carriages freely. Even if you aren't currently driving, exploring the trains and seeing what different trains are like inside can be nice.
Train Sim World 6 introduces random events like signal and train faults to break up the monotony. Sadly, the system feels half-baked, with only specific faults able to happen on specific trains and specific events on specific routes. This is very reminiscent of racing "simulators" back in the 1990s, where your engine would randomly explode or punctures would happen, but no reason was given, and your driving was fine. Hopefully, it's a system that can be expanded and improved upon in future iterations.
There is a big selection of trains and carriages, even without Train Sim World's absurd DLC offerings. The routes, however, are a bit thin on the ground, especially if you go straight in with the standard edition and don't own previous versions of the game. You might want to approach Train Sim World 6 with the understanding that you will want to purchase DLC at some point unless you're fine with traveling the same couple of routes over and over.
The visual quality of the trains and routes is a bit of a mixed bag. Seemingly, Train Sim World 6 is still using Unreal Engine 4. On the plus side, this means the game is fairly easy to run. On the downside, it's starting to show its age a bit.
Train Sim World 6 impresses with its attention to detail, with stickers throughout the train, detailed cabs, and realistic stations, giving it a feeling of authenticity. But it still features low-quality textures, particularly if you explore the carriages on foot. The shading, while decent, is not at the quality we've expected from games on their highest settings in the past few years, either. Buildings and other railside assets are also repeated in some areas. No Ray-Tracing is available either, and that's a shame given the very metallic and glass nature of trains, both internally and externally.
Before getting into Train Sim World 6, expect a hefty wait to process Vulkan shaders. My Steam Deck took around 20 minutes to do this before I could boot the game. Fortunately, subsequent boots were quicker at processing shaders and usually only took 1-2 minutes.
The game supports 1280x800 resolution, so there are no black borders on the Steam Deck. Despite how in-depth the simulation and controls are, it also has pretty good controller support.
I will say that using individual controls in the train is quite difficult on the Steam Deck, as many buttons and switches are small, and it can be hard to pinpoint them with your crosshair. You can zoom in with the left thumbstick to make this easier, but it can be frustrating. Thankfully, key controls, such as throttle and brake, are mapped to your shoulder buttons, making them easily accessible.
When it comes to actual performance on the Steam Deck, we can run at 30 FPS here. I recommend you choose the Medium preset and make sure Volumetric Fog and Motion Blur are enabled in the "General" settings menu. You can also increase Texture Quality to "High."
The game holds 30 FPS with these settings, but do expect some traversal stutters, especially when traveling at high speeds. Once you get beyond 50 MPH, I noticed frequent stutters as new objects loaded in. The game does remain playable, though.
The power draw was around 18W-21W, and temperatures were around 60C-65C. So, you can expect around 2.5 hours of battery life on a Steam Deck OLED and around 1.5 hours on a Steam Deck LCD.
Train Sim World 6 does contain assists, which help you operate the train. This allows you to focus on driving and less on other tasks you might otherwise need to handle. There are also subtitles for certain voiced lines.
Train Sim World 6 will likely be your go-to destination for a train simulator for the next year. Still, I can't help but feel like its throne could easily be toppled if another simulator appeared using newer technologies and a deeper look at the inner workings of trains. Train Sim World 6 gives us a good idea of what being a train driver is like, but with the introduction of "faults," it would have been nice to know why or what caused the fault.
As for Steam Deck compatibility, Train Sim World 6 runs fine. It's not the best experience, with some issues regarding highlighting and selecting buttons in the cab and traversal stutter, but it is ultimately playable.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.
TROLEU was provided by Critical Reflex for review. Thank you!
When I was at Gamescom last month, I had the pleasure of meeting with some of my good friends. As we were talking, they casually brought up a couple of games they were looking forward to, and one was described as Papers, Please-esque. Then I saw the game, and it was as they said, with way more kicking, dancing, and ridiculousness mixed in. That’s how I was introduced to TROLEU. Ultimately, it’s a simple game, with a simple goal, and it has so much hilarity thrown in that I couldn’t stop playing, even when it was 4 am and I desperately needed sleep. I just had to finish one more route.
TROLEU’s goal is simple. You are a bus conductor, taking money, checking passes, and handing out tickets to passengers on your bus. Some passengers will have cash, and you need to give them the correct change, while others have a card that you have to swipe. And in Papers, Please fashion, some will have a bus pass that you need to check and make sure their picture matches, and it isn’t expired. At the end of our route, we need to have made a specific amount of money to succeed in completing the route effectively.
That’s the gist of it on the surface, but there’s more to keep in mind. TROLEU pushes the limits with new rules, mandatory stops, and consistent hazards that create this chaotic symphony that makes the experience feel unique. It becomes a game all about managing time, helping passengers while also cleaning up spills to keep them from slipping. Some get on holding items that can fall if they do, which can cause even more chaos, so it is very much in your best interest to keep everything tidy.
I like the combination of gameplay mechanics where we need to keep the bus tidy and move around like a normal first-person game, but as soon as we talk to customers, we get to move our hands individually to grab the specific items and tickets we need to. It does make helping them harder, but I like how much it adds to the chaos.
TROLEU also has a satisfaction bar that can go up and down depending on how your legal passengers are treated. The lower it is, the happier they are. Treating them well will lead to a shady person with a roguelike-esque shop to get on and offer us more tickets and upgrades to purchase. However, kicking them around, watching them slip, or forgetting to quiet loud passengers will bring the bar up and trigger an inspection. The inspector will come on and check every person there to make sure they are all legal passengers. If they are, he will leave in his own chaotic fashion by flinging himself out of the bus. But if he finds an illegal passenger, he’s coming for you. Now, you can kick and throw other passengers at him when he’s coming at you to stop him, so if you feel confident, you can let him get angry.
Mixed with the variety of environmental hazards that come with each of the six levels and their harder, night shift counterparts, there’s a lot to love. I found myself going back in and playing more of the endless mode just for fun, and getting new unlocks to make my playthrough more enjoyable and exciting. Even though the number of levels is limited, the variety and feel between them, with different passengers, hazards, and environments, keep it fresh.
Now, I love the general gameplay; it’s fun, energetic, and chaotic in all the right ways. However, there are times it just gets way too chaotic, and can quickly lead to feeling very overwhelmed. All it can take is one mess up where a beach ball swings into everyone, knocking them down, while 5 new passengers come on board to feel completely overwhelmed. It got to the point where, as soon as this started to happen, I pretty much knew it was over and restarted the run to save me the frustration of bodies flying all around and the inspector kicking me off. Yes, we can throw bodies to stop the inspector when he’s coming after us, but my kicks sometimes completely missed, and I’d end up getting thrown out, or as I was frantically trying to help passengers who hadn’t been helped yet.
There are items we can buy that do help with that, like the ticket bomb, but that doesn't stop it from feeling a little overwhelming at times.
The fighting mechanics also feel a little off. They are using Guitar Hero-style prompts that need to be pressed at the right time. It’s a little unforgiving, and there wasn’t a lot of leeway if I was off timing by a little bit. It also wasted a lot of time, time I could have used to kick them off and start getting to other passengers. Ultimately, I found that just avoiding fights and kicking people off or paying them some money to pacify them worked better and saved me tons of time. For a game where we are frantically running around and trying to get everything done, locking us into a fight like this feels against what the core of TROLEU is all about.
For the most part, TROLEU is solid on the Steam Deck. It runs at 60 FPS nicely and won't dip downwards. However, it does tend to hit performance pretty hard when there are lots of people on the bus. I wouldn't expect a game that looks like this to hit 14W battery drain and over, but it does. It isn't unplayable by any means, and generally sticks below 15W the whole time, but I was still quite surprised. There really aren't any graphical settings to change, and we can reduce the framerate, but it's not as enjoyable.
While performance is solid, there is one big issue that stops me from wanting to play more on the Steam Deck. On the beach level, we are introduced to a new mechanic to check money using a magnifying glass to see if the banknotes are fake. The mechanic itself isn't that bad, but trying to play using the Steam Deck's gamepad just doesn't work. Every time I pick up the magnifying glass, it goes right into a corner that I can't get out of, stopping me from using it. It doesn't stop progression, but it is a nasty bug that means some people may give fake banknotes without me being able to tell. I was able to fix this by switching to the Keyboard and Mouse scheme, which could indicate this is a controller issue and not a Deck-specific issue.
Overall, it is playable, and the biggest issue will most likely be fixed in a patch post-launch, but it does stop my enjoyment a bit. I hope it gets fixed soon, because I genuinely feel like this is the perfect game to play on the go. There are some tutorials that seem to be missing their images or videos, but it's described well in the window, so it doesn't hurt the learning experience.
There are some options to change sensitivity for the camera and our hand, language, field of view, screenshake, and exit warnings, but that's about it.
The game does support 16:10 resolutions and has solid controller support, but no cloud saves. There are no HDR settings.
TROLEU is a comedic Papers, Please! that has the makings of being a must-have game. Balancing helping passengers with keeping the bus tidy to avoid the onslaught of chaos is enjoyable, and the little things like the people's designs, how they fling themselves out of the bus, and just the overall situation is hilarious. There are times when it can become too chaotic, and it does start to get overwhelming when mixing in the fighting mechanics, but it never completely frustrates.
It is playable on the Steam Deck, and I do find it enjoyable, but it drains more than I expected and has a key issue that makes checking banknotes impossible. It doesn't stop progression, but it can make it harder to get more money or a high score. And if that inspector comes in, it could be trouble. Still, it is playable, just needs a little love to get it into that essential status for portable play.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.
RoadCraft was provided by Focus Entertainment for review. Thank you!
RoadCraft was a really intriguing game to me when it showed up last year. I was a big fan of SnowRunner and was looking forward to the Expeditions game. RoadCraft looked like another, unique spin on the franchise. But does it stick to what makes games like MudRunner and SnowRunner so appealing? Well, the answer to that is both yes and no.
SnowRunner was all about you and your vehicle against the unforgiving terrain, you had to plan ahead and persevere through rugged terrain to reach your objective. RoadCraft, however, takes a different approach. Instead of focusing on your vehicle, RoadCraft puts the emphasis on infrastructure. Your vehicle cannot take damage, it does not have fuel, and the functions available to you are purely practical ones for the purpose of building roads or moving cargo; you can't even control your headlights in this one.
What you will mostly be doing in RoadCraft, then, is fixing roads and other infrastructure. While the game does feature almost identical vehicle and terrain physics to SnowRunner, the actual muddy and difficult-to-pass terrain in RoadCraft is in the minority, with most of the roads being fairly easy to traverse, relatively speaking. It's your job to fix up those difficult-to-traverse patches with the equipment on hand, so that supply lines (driven by AI drivers) can deliver goods to where they need to go.
Unfortunately, I quickly found the work to become tedious. You first need to pour sand near the area you want to repair, so you'll need to drive a dump truck to the quarry to fill up with sand, then drive the dump truck to the road, deposit the sand, then get into a bulldozer, level the sand out, then go back into the dump truck, go back to the quarry to fetch more sand, drive back to the road, and rinse and repeat. In some cases, you need to do this a good 7 or 8 times. It becomes mind-numbing.
To combat this, the game allows you to hand over the task to the AI, but that, in turn, defeats the point of the game. You can just assign an AI to build the road, and they will, but then all you're doing is selecting a road to build and then selecting a truck to build it from the map, which isn't exactly much gameplay. The problem is, the AI doesn't play by the same rules as players have to (they have infinite sand, for example), so it's much quicker for the AI to build a road than the player, several times quicker, in fact. It's infuriating that you get punished for putting in all that hard work yourself.
The actual satisfying part comes from when the job is all finished and you get onto plotting the route for the AI vehicles to follow. This is a pretty neat feature, and probably the most interesting part of the game for me, personally. I like seeing the AI make use of the work I've done and watch them travel through a previously impassable part of the map. They're a bit stupid and follow your route exactly, so they can't maneuver around obstacles, even little rocks or barrels, so you have to make sure the route is fully clear before they travel along it.
I did encounter an issue as at the start of maps, you have no equipment available except your pickup. I had to plot a route from a depot to a garage to get it working so I could access my vehicles. Unfortunately, the road between the two was in a poor state, and no matter what I did, the AI truck could not find a path through, as it constantly got stuck in mud, making each attempt more difficult, essentially soft-locking me from continuing. The developers put a "reset map progress" button in, probably for this reason, but it does mean you lose all progress you've made on that map up to that point, which is annoying.
Occasionally, RoadCraft switches things up a bit, requiring you to remove objects such as wrecked cars and miscellaneous scrap from the roads using your bulldozer or a crane, this is less tedious work, but I am super clumsy and usually ended up destroying the terrain while clearing the scrap, meaning I needed to go and fix the road anyway!
Besides repairing and clearing roads, you'll also be tasked with transporting supplies, laying cables, and performing other assorted tasks to get communities back on their feet following natural disasters. This varies the gameplay up a little, but you are essentially driving from point A to point B. Laying cables is both the most interesting and possibly most frustrating task, as it involves digging trenches. Sometimes, you have to dig trenches across roads, meaning you now need to go back and lay a road again; otherwise, supplies can't get through. RoadCraft truly does require the patience of a saint.
I also found that sometimes object locations don't save. I cleared a road of debris to allow traffic through before saving and quitting. Upon reloading the game later, the debris was back on the road, preventing traffic. Terrain deformation also isn't always saved, it seems.
The game has co-op for up to 4 players. Unfortunately, with the way that RoadCraft is structured, you often only have 1 main objective to do at any one time, meaning in a 4-player game, at least 1 of the players is probably twiddling their thumbs wondering what to do. If your objective is to repair a pipeline, only 1 vehicle is needed to carry the pipe, maybe a secondary vehicle with a winch to pull it out of the mud if you get stuck, but what are the other 2 players meant to do for 15 minutes while they fix the pipeline? Nothing, it seems.
There isn't really an exploration element to RoadCraft, as there seemed to be in SnowRunner, so if you aren't doing an objective, there's no real point in going off the beaten track, as it were.
Visually, RoadCraft does look quite nice; it won't win any awards, but it certainly doesn't look bad, and when different weather effects roll in, it changes the overall atmosphere of the game quite well. Sound-wise, the game isn't as impressive, engine sounds quickly become irritating, and when using equipment like the bulldozer, you can hear specific audio files being played over and over; it's not great audio design. There is music in the game, but it's used sparingly as a sort of ambient sound that gets played occasionally and is very much in the background.
You'll also have plenty of content to get through, with 8 decent-sized maps, with increasingly complex terrain and objectives, plenty of vehicles to unlock, including bulldozers, cargo trucks, cable layers, cranes, steamrollers, dump trucks, and more!
I did have some graphical issues with the game on my PC, too. Textures sometimes did not load in fully, resulting in a blurry experience for several seconds before they loaded in, and I had flickering shadows. Hopefully, these issues will be fixed at launch.
RoadCraft runs reasonably well on the Steam Deck. We have good controller support, as well as 1280x800 as a resolution choice.
As for performance and settings, the game already applied the "Low" preset when it booted on my Steam Deck, and I think it's pretty much the best we can hope for out of the game. I also recommend you disable the "Mirrors" option that is left enabled on the Low Preset, too, or else using the cockpit view causes some serious slowdown. The game sets a 30 FPS in-game limit, so we don't need a frame limit set in SteamOS.
Using these settings, we can expect a somewhat stable 30 FPS. I did experience frame drops on occasion, as the CPU usage spikes and makes it vie for power with the GPU, causing drops to around 26 or 27 FPS from time to time, especially on foliage-dense maps. You also get occasional stutters. The game remains playable, though, and the FSR does a reasonable job of resolving a decent image, so it's not too bad to look at either.
Power draw is around 16 - 20W, so expect about 2.5 hours of battery life from a Steam Deck OLED, and around 1.5 hours from an LCD. Temperatures were also around 65C-75C.
RoadCraft supports a wide variety of languages, and all voiced dialogue is subtitled. You can disable camera shake and rebind controls.
Is RoadCraft a bad game? Not necessarily, I could see how some people might enjoy it. For me, the game doesn't have the feeling of "survival" that SnowRunner has, where you are constantly trying to plan your own route and trying to protect your vehicle and preserve fuel, and because of the frustrating traversal and nature of the tasks at times, it isn't relaxing like American/Euro Truck Simulator. The game just feels rather... shallow, with similar objectives that take an age to complete, that you have to do over and over.
The best parts of the game are watching your AI Trucks use the path you built/cleared, and the off-road terrain physics and deformation remain as good as ever. Sadly, the terrain deformation is losing its luster after 5 games, and the rest of the mechanics RoadCraft introduces aren't robust enough to support the game.
RoadCraft is playable on the Steam Deck, although we do have to make some visual sacrifices, and performance still isn't fully stable. While it can be enjoyed, you might want to look elsewhere for the best experience.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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MotoGP 25 was provided by Milestone S.r.l. for review. Thank you!
My experience with superbike racing games is pretty limited. In fact, the only superbike racing game I've played was MotoGP 06 on the Xbox 360, and my memories of that game are of me repeatedly falling off and sliding down the tarmac on my face. While my racing skills have not improved and have quite possibly declined over the past 20 years, the MotoGP series is still going strong, and MotoGP 25 carries on that legacy, albeit with a bit more accessibility than in the past.
Going straight into the riding feel of the game, and I have to say it feels great to control. There's a good amount of scalability in how "realistic" you want the physics to be. Playing on the more "pro" settings brings back the nightmares I had from MotoGP 06, where going off the racing line, or steering/accelerating slightly too hard, will fling you off your motorcycle and into the gravel, but there's also far more beginner-friendly "arcade" settings.
The "Arcade" settings aren't arcade in the sense of playing a game like Road Rash or Burnout Paradise, but they make riding much more accessible to your average player. If you're fully steering and hit the accelerator on the apex of a corner, it will still throw you off the bike, so the game still demands some fine control. Still, I found this riding style much more enjoyable as someone predominantly used to cars in racing games.
There are a few modes that you can enjoy in MotoGP 25. You can do a "quick" race for yourself, setting up an entire session with practice, qualifying, and a race. You can play online multiplayer, you can do the MotoGP Academy, which are short tests of skill, and you can play in the game's career mode, which is probably what most players will be doing.
There's also a "Race Off" mode, like a sub-section in the game, where you can ride minibikes around kart-like circuits, or Motocross bikes on tarmac circuits. It can be a fun and silly diversion from the main game, with smaller grids and unique environments.
The Career mode is as expected if you've played a Milestone racing game before. You play through a series of races, gradually building relationships with other riders and improving your vehicle via Bike Development. And yes, MotoGP 25 also has the silly fake social media system where you can respond to comments with a positive or negative statement, affecting your relationship with other riders. As one option always seems better, it's still baffling why this system makes it into the games.
What is pretty neat, however, is that the game allows you to play Moto3, Moto2, or MotoGP categories. If you're not too confident, you can select a lower vehicle class and enjoy a slightly more manageable ride. They're still fun to drive, but you'll be going about 80MPH slower on a Moto3 than a MotoGP, a bit like Formula 3 compared to Formula 1.
Another point I wanted to make was that the AI, much like the riding physics, is highly flexible. The game allows you to select AI difficulty based on a percentage, meaning you can lower it as low as 20%, where I was, on average, about 15 seconds a lap quicker than them. I bumped it up to 40% to see the difference, and I was around 5-6 seconds a lap quicker. Having them at around 50-60% seemed like the sweet spot for me as a new rider. However, the fact that they can go much higher shows that the AI should present a decent challenge for most players.
When it comes to the visuals, MotoGP 25 holds up pretty well. You're still treated to some nice visual effects even with lower settings. Riders are animated well, allowing you to see small movements for gear shifts and throttle adjustments. You can even choose from multiple camera angles, including an in-helmet cam, which is as disorientating as you might imagine.
One thing I did notice, however, is that during the race, there is no music at all. I understand that the developers perhaps wanted to focus on the sound of the engines, but at the same time, racing games customarily have background music as you race, and it feels a little odd for that to be absent here. There is your generic "Hype" music that plays in the menus.
MotoGP 25 is a solid little racer. If you're familiar with Milestone racing games, you know how this one goes, but if you like their formula and motorcycle racing, then I think you'll have a good time with MotoGP 25. Nothing immediately stands out as a "problem" to me, and while there are a couple of things I'd have liked, such as music in races, it's a fairly minor issue, and I might be alone on wanting that.
MotoGP 25 supports 16:10 resolutions, including the Steam Deck's 1280x800, so there are no black borders around the screen. It also has great controller support; I wouldn't recommend playing this game on a keyboard.
Things aren't so rosy when it comes to performance, though. While the game offers many graphical settings, the scalability doesn't seem to be there, with the difference in performance between Low and Ultra being fairly small.
In the end, to lock 30 FPS in all racing situations, I had to pretty much set the graphical settings as low as possible and then set FSR3 to Performance. Stress testing the game with a full grid of superbikes on a rainy track, I only got it to dip as low as 31 FPS, but at points, it exceeded 50 FPS.
Unfortunately, MotoGP 25 is a game where you want absolutely no frame drops, as it's a highly precise racer, so I'd rather keep the framerate steady instead of aiming for 40 FPS and having drops into the low 30s on occasion. We do get the occasional stutter, but it doesn't affect playability.
The power draw is around 13W-16W, but it varies depending on the track and weather conditions. Temperatures were around 65C-75C, again, varying. Expect battery life to be about 3.5 hours on a Steam Deck OLED and around 2.5 hours on an LCD model.
MotoGP 25 has many driving assists, with Pro and Arcade riding styles available. It can help you with automatic throttle, braking, and steering (while in corners). You can also have an automatic transmission/clutch, suggested line, and rewinding if you make a mistake. The game can also be played in slow motion in offline game modes.
MotoGP 25 is another entry in a long line of games. I don't think it does anything revolutionary, but playing it safe while offering slight improvements might be enough for players who haven't played a MotoGP game in a while. There's nothing glaringly wrong with MotoGP 25, so this is a safe choice if you're after a Superbike racing game.
Thankfully, we can lower the settings enough to get a playable Steam Deck performance. The image becomes a little fuzzy, but maintaining the 30 FPS is crucial, and we can just about manage it. The controls work fine, and I can say that the game is fully playable on the Steam Deck.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.
As a pretty huge wrestling fan who watches anything and everything wrestling-related, I was pretty pumped to give WWE 2K25 a go and review it. Despite not having experienced the last one or two installments, my familiarity with the prior WWE 2K games is pretty high, having sunk countless hours into Universe Mode and downloading hundreds of Community Creations. There is much more of the same here, but better!
WWE 2K25 continues the long-running wrestling video game series, developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K Sports. This latest entry improves on existing mechanics, introduces new gameplay mechanics, modes, and an updated Showcase. This time, it centered around The Bloodline Dynasty. While next-gen console players get exclusive access to the newly hyped “The Island”, PC and Steam Deck users still get a pretty fantastic experience packed full of customization, engaging game modes, and tons of replayability.
Before diving into the new mechanics and game modes, it’s worth highlighting early on that WWE 2K25 has surpassed my initial expectations of how great this game looks on the Steam Deck and how it performs. It is incredible! More on that further below…
Reeling through the new mechanics, we have the addition of a free, third-person camera mode that offers greater freedom to be the cameraman and get some pretty cool angles during entrances, and in the midst of the action. Turning this on allows free camera movement with the right stick. The typical right-stick commands, like pinning or picking up opponents, would then require holding RT alongside them - not the biggest change, so it's worth playing around with. This is especially useful in the more chaotic matches, where you can use this to help see what your Superstar is doing, as it can get a little hard to focus on timing your reversals and actions right.
One of the things I have always loved about these games is the sheer variety of game modes that they include to appease all types of fans. There is quite literally something for everyone here, and while I doubt many will be in love with every facet of WWE 2K25, I’m sure there will be one or two that you low-key become obsessed with.
Chain wrestling makes a welcome return, further refining the technical grappling aspects of the game. This is usually triggered by Superstars who have the technical ability, and you’ll be thrown into a mini-game where you will select your grapple action and try to beat your opponent in finding the right angle to focus your stick on to get the upper hand. We also have the return of intergender wrestling, where men and women can wrestle each other! But unlike previous installments, if you’re in a mixed-tag scenario, the men and women can just go at it, without the need to force a tag!
MyFaction remains a highly addictive game mode where players collect wrestler cards from the past and present to form a faction of four male and four female superstars. Different card tiers introduce unique stats, forcing players to adapt to various match stipulations and rulings, continually needing to grow their collection. Outside of the online play, which I have never gotten along with on WWE games, there is plenty to do.
World Tour is a new area in MyFaction, where you travel across themed cities across the world and complete specific tasks to earn rewards and new cards. For example, Philadelphia, the home of ECW, features more extreme match types, and Rob Van Dam can be found here. We also have Faction Wars, a gauntlet-style mode where your health doesn’t reset after each match and you face progressively tougher "Boss Factions," and Weekly Towers, which offer simpler objectives compared to other modes, providing a unique card once complete.
While microtransactions are present and extremely tempting early on, grinding through MyFaction mode without spending any real money is possible and can be rewarding. My favorite part of this mode is the ability to create unique tag teams and use Superstars you would see or dream of using anywhere else! What would you even call a tag team of Solo Sikoa and Jake “The Snake” Roberts!?
MyGM also returns with its biggest update in a while, introducing online multiplayer. Beyond this, the mode feels similar to past iterations, balancing your booking decisions with frustrating restrictions. MyGM is probably my least favorite area to sink my time into. The mode just feels very light and restrictive. However, I guess that is part of the challenge, and it is still a welcome mode that I am sure others adore. It just isn’t for me.
If you want a freer and more sandbox-style fantasy booking sim, Universe mode is where it’s at. Again, very much the same as last year, you can fantasy book to your heart's content, pushing and burying whoever you wish to, completely overhaul the WWE schedule and weekly shows, add/remove titles, and bring legends back. Essentially, book and play your way, crafting whatever stories you want. It doesn’t provide any of the required strategizing or rulings set in MyGM, it just serves as the ultimate space for your storytelling.
We then have MyRise, which is WWE 2K25’s career mode, and lets you take your custom superstar from Indie Darling to future Hall of Famer. While the story here is never anything special and usually a little silly, it’s still fun and not too long-winded to play through. Your dialogue choices impact small areas of the story’s direction, which leads to different outcomes, and more importantly, different rewards. Rewards include things such as different arenas, outfits, and clothing options, as well as past superstars (such as Scott Steiner, and Alundra Blayze) and earlier versions of current stars (like 2017 Rhea Ripley, 2012 John Cena, and even Cody Rhodes’ Stardust!).
There are also a bunch of MyRise-exclusive characters you meet on your journey who are also unlockable and can then be used in other modes. These rewards are incentives to play through and complete this mode. The only downside is that some of the rewards can only be obtained after a second playthrough.
The final mode that has been a staple in past years is Showcase Mode, and this time around, we go through The Bloodline Dynasty. All those familiar with the Anoa’i family and The Rock’s lineage know that this family has been ever present in WWE, but it feels so much larger when you work your way through the stories told here. What I love about this mode is the integration with real-life moments you get to replay, alongside the ability to rewrite history like helping Umaga become WWE Champion, Tamina, or having Yokozuna annihilate Hulk Hogan. All of these matches are woven between each other thanks to the narration of Paul Heyman who does an incredible job sucking you into each match's story, while also teaching a nice little nugget of WWE history each time.
Every scenario you are thrown into has a long ol’ list of mini-objectives and one or two timed objectives to complete during the matches. Completing all will typically unlock the superstars involved, the legacy arena, and the title involved, too. However, the timed ones were incredibly annoying to complete at times. It's almost as if the AI knew that I had 30 seconds to get them outside the ring and hit two heavy attacks because they just suddenly decided to become a reversal king and keep running away!
If you just want to dive into a Royal Rumble, an Elimination Chamber, or take part in Bloodline Rules, you can do so in the quick play mode. One of my favorite new match types for this year is the Underground Rules match. Here, the ropes have been ripped off, and there is a crowd of onlookers surrounding the ring. The objective? Win by submission or knockout. I’ve sunk plenty of time here, mostly putting legacy titles on the line and trying out some wrestlers that fit the “underground” vibe. Rezar has been my go-to.
There is a Performance Center that walks players through the basics, and it also provides you with in-game currency as you progress through it, allowing you to get a start. The game is pretty easy to pick up anyway, with adjustable difficulty levels.
As touched on earlier, online matches can be fun, but I had a lot of trouble with lag, which seems to be a known issue for some, and certain players have learned to manipulate it to their advantage. This is very annoying when you come across this, and is one of the main reasons I tend to keep WWE 2K25 as a mostly offline experience personally. With the exception of Community Creations, which has some great custom wrestlers based on real athletes, and helps keep the game feeling fresh.
The game looks incredible, the character models are crisp, the lighting and animations exceed my initial expectations, and overall, I am so impressed by how great everything looks. Wrestler entrances, facial expressions, fluid movement, enhanced commentary, and crowd noises enhance your gameplay experience and bring an elevated level of realism to the WWE 2K25.
There will naturally be a slight bias here, given that I am an existing fan of the franchise and sport, and just love playing these games, but I believe that WWE 2K25 is great. Of course, it is that much more special if you are a fan and familiar with the company and stars, but even as a neutral, there is a lot of fun here to be had, balancing realism and simulation with an enjoyable match engine and modes, tons of customization, plenty to grind for and unlock, and flexibility and the variety of ways to play is more than enough to keep you occupied and coming back for more and more.
Controls are mapped well, with no need for any tinkering at all, load times are surprisingly quick, and there is little to no interruption when going from match to match in all modes. There is a lot to love here in terms of performance.
On the Steam Deck, WWE 2K25 runs beautifully. It maintains a solid 60FPS frame rate, with more chaotic matches dipping to around 57-59FPS, but this is not noticeable in the slightest. By default, the quality is set to medium, but you can whack that on high with no dips in performance at all. That is the same for all other areas of the in-game settings. You can max it all out without worrying about any performance dips if you wish to.
The only option that wasn't turned to max was the sharpness when using Dynamic Upscaling. I found that setting the sharpness in the graphics setting to 6 hit the sweet spot for character models, with any less looking poor, and any higher, not looking as clean as it did on 6. But that was my own personal preference, and if you think it looks fine on 10, go for it! You'll still get a buttery smooth performance.
Testing the Benchmarking in-game, throws itself into a chaotic, eight-man Hell in a Cell match with lots and lots of moving parts, with the results only proving what has been shared here, with an average of 59.6FPS, meaning that Visual Concepts has done a great job optimizing this for the Steam Deck. I turned off FSR to see if we could hit a consistent 60FPS in benchmark mode, but it seems to have made no difference from a quality or performance perspective. My recommendation is to leave it on, but you can go either way. One thing I noticed was that cut scenes tend to default to 30FPS, even when amending the in-game settings to 60FPS… maybe a bug, or something, but nothing to really sweat over as they still look great.
The only area that prevents WWE 2K25 from being a “Best on Deck’ game is the battery performance. I found that if you are going from match to match, which you likely will be, the battery won’t last very long. The expected life span is between 1.5 to 3 hours, with the latter half being where more time is spent in menus or modes like Universe or MyGM doing the “admin” stuff. But if you are like me, and grinding match after match in MyFaction, that battery life is going to drain fast…
I tried to extend the battery life a bit by lowering the frame rate, but I noticed that gameplay dramatically slowed down. It did provide an extra half an hour or so of estimated battery life, but with everything moving slower, you are probably going to lose that half hour waiting for the referee to count to three!
In all honesty, though, I can’t complain at all. WWE 2K25 looks and runs amazingly. It seems that the "out of the box" settings are the (only) way to go. WWE 2K25 will be a mainstay on my Steam Deck. Until 2K26 is out, that is.
WWE 2K25 includes a few accessibility-related options within its ‘Extras’ section. You can adjust the difficulty, add subtitles to all areas of the game (besides in-match commentary), fully customize the control layout in-game, and choose from one of two mini-games when using submission moves and pinning. One being a button mash, and the other a more precise method. However, some of these mini-games have a default option in events like Showcase mode and MyFaction, which cannot be amended and therefore may not be suitable for some players.
While “The Island” may be missing for us PC and Steam Deck folk, WWE 2K25 still delivers an outstanding experience, packed with content for all types of fans. Whether you thrive on the competitive grind of MyFaction, enjoy the creative freedom of Universe Mode, or just want to jump into quick matches with your favorite superstars, there’s no shortage of ways to play. The game excels in customization, variety, and replayability, with impressive gameplay, visuals, and performance, especially on the Steam Deck, making it one of the strongest entries in recent years.
That said, the game isn’t perfect. Online play still suffers from frustrating lag issues, and MyGM, while improved in some areas, remains restrictive and the weakest, least complete part of WWE 2K25. Battery life on the Steam Deck is also something to keep in mind if you’re planning long play sessions on the go. But these are all minor gripes in what is otherwise a (Dwayne “The) Rock”-solid wrestling game that blends realism with arcade-y fun in all the right ways.
If you’re a longtime WWE 2K player, I reckon you’ll find plenty of refinements and new additions to keep things fresh. If you’re new to the series, this is one of the best jumping-in points in years. It’s not perfect, but with its deep customization, stacked game modes, and rock-solid gameplay, WWE 2K25 delivers an entertaining and addictive experience.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.
Assetto Corsa EVO was provided by 505 Games for review. Thank you!
Assetto Corsa EVO is in Early Access and the content and performance of the game is subject to change, this review is based on Version 0.1.4 at the time of writing.
I was very excited to hear about Assetto Corsa EVO when it was first announced and even more excited when I got to review it. The game takes a slightly different approach to its predecessor, Assetto Corsa Competizione (ACC). It's more akin to the original Assetto Corsa, with a focus on the single-player experience, whereas ACC was largely focused on hosting online leagues and tournaments.
In fact, Assetto Corsa EVO does not currently have multiplayer elements, although multiplayer is planned for later in 2025. Instead, we are presented with more of a foundation for what is to come rather than a complete game.
The best word to describe the content available in Assetto Corsa EVO right now is 'barebones.' Regarding ways to play, there are only single-player practice sessions around a choice of 8 tracks, based on 5 locations, and quick races, also on those tracks. You'll also have 20 cars to drive, from an Abarth 695 to a Porsche 911 GT3 or Ferrari 488.
So, in terms of content, the game is quite lacking, especially considering the price tag of $39.99; you are definitely purchasing Assetto Corsa EVO to invest in its development to become the game that developers are saying it will be.
The main aspect of a driving simulation game like this is the physics. And I will say, the physics of Assetto Corsa EVO feel great. I was playing on an Xbox gamepad, and while games like ACC could be difficult to play on a gamepad, Assetto Corsa EVO doesn't feel that way. With some basic assists in place, as long as you drive well, it's perfectly possible to have a clean (and fast) race using just a gamepad. I think this is a great thing for EVO, especially as it caters to those interested in a single-player experience and not just online leagues.
That doesn't mean a wheel won't be faster or safer, though. If you start getting into a skid, the force feedback makes it much easier to correct. Likewise, when my Ferrari 296 began fishtailing on Laguna Seca, it was difficult to regain control on a gamepad due to the lack of force feedback. After a few poor reactions, the car spun completely.
Likewise, how your car drives changes drastically depending on the surface you're on. While it's easy to maintain control on the track, put a wheel onto the grass or dirt, and you can expect a sudden loss of traction, as you would in real life. Even worse, the terrain isn't smooth anymore, and your car can easily bump into the air from the rough terrain, making braking or steering difficult. Rainy weather also makes controlling the car a challenge; you'll need to maintain good throttle control at all times or risk spinning your wheels, and you'll need to compensate for the wet track by braking far earlier than you would expect.
So the physics seems pretty solid, but how about the AI, seeing as they are your main (and currently only) opponents in Assetto Corsa EVO? They're a bit of a mixed bag, but they do the job pretty well when left to their own devices. There are a couple of oddities, such as their habitually scraping against the pit wall on Laguna Seca, which could cause them to spin out or veer across the track in reaction to the collision. They will also make natural mistakes, such as going slightly offline/off track or accidentally cutting a corner, making them seem more human-like.
The problem with the AI comes when they have to interact with the cars around them. While the AI seems to cope fairly well with side-by-side racing, they seem less competent when you're in corners. If you brake slightly too much, the AI doesn't seem to respond and will simply hit into the back of you, and once you're spinning and they're pushing you, they will continue to accelerate, a move that would get you banned in an online league.
The AI seems to position itself quite well in response to the cars around it, but it doesn't seem to want to compromise its own race by slowing down in order to avoid a collision, something that is part of (serious) racing. I can't be too harsh on the AI, it does do a decent job of simulating perhaps a rookie human driver, but it's no replacement for racing against skilled fellow humans.
Now comes the presentation, which Assetto Corsa EVO crushes. The game looks pretty great, and even in the lowest settings, the cars can rival the appearance of other games like Gran Turismo and Forza. On the higher settings, the detail is beyond those games. Track environments are detailed, plenty of trees and foliage (depending on graphics settings), and the rain looks great on the windshield. The sounds likewise have a lot of detail; they are not just one-note sound effects, and the engines feel like they have depth.
Unfortunately, this comes at a cost. The game is difficult to run, even on a mid-range gaming PC. With my Ryzen 5 5600 and AMD RX 6600 XT (8GB), a full-grid (30 cars) race in the rain is unplayable even on the lowest settings at 1080p. If I lower the grid to 8 cars, I can play at around 30 FPS at 1080p Very Low settings. This seems like a VRAM issue, as even on the main menu the game is using 7GB of VRAM. So, I wouldn't recommend you purchase Assetto Corsa EVO unless you have a graphics card with at least 12GB of VRAM.
Unfortunately, Assetto Corsa EVO struggles to run on the Steam Deck. While I could get into a practice session on Mount Panorama, this was only by lowering the settings to the absolute lowest they could go, along with FSR 3 on Ultra Performance quality. The game still used over 7GB of VRAM to accomplish this.
The frame rate was actually decent, often above 50 FPS, but the high VRAM usage makes the game unstable. As soon as I attempted to start an actual race, my Steam Deck crashed entirely to a black screen, forcing me to hard reset the device—even with a 4G UMA Buffer set in the BIOS.
While we may see optimizations in the future, the game is using 7GB of VRAM on a track with a single car and no weather conditions to manage, which means that it's unlikely we'll see the game run well on Steam Deck.
Assetto Corsa EVO has rebindable controls and some driving assists, such as ABS and Traction Control, but no general accessibility options.
Assetto Corsa EVO, in its current state, has some promise. Assetto Corsa EVO's The driving physics is impressive and some of the best I've experienced. The graphics and sounds are also fantastic. But right now, the content is thin on the ground, the AI needs to be polished, and the game's optimization is poor. Is it worth the $40 price tag? At the moment, no. Only those who wish to support future development should buy the game right now, as there isn't much of a "game" to speak of as of writing.
And due to the poor optimization and high VRAM usage, Assetto Corsa EVO, unfortunately, isn't playable on the Steam Deck.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.
Zoochosis was provided by Clapperheads for review. Thank you!
This review was created using an LCD Steam Deck. OLED testing will be carried out at a later date.
Zoochosis is an intriguing little game. I like animals more than most humans, and a horror zoo simulation game grabbed my attention. Unfortunately, it is that unpleasant mix of great ideas and middling execution. It is a shame because the game’s atmosphere has some potential. However, I believe Zoochosis has a worthy player experience, although I recommend waiting for a deep sale before diving in.
Zoochosis isn't your average zoo simulator. Favoring a bodycam, from a first-person point of view, you take on the role of struggling father Paul, who is applying for the lucrative role of a zookeeper at a mysterious reserve called Pine Valley Zoo. With economic turmoil threatening the future of his family, Paul needs this job to secure a healthy life for his wife and daughter and is determined to go along with the job, even as things deeply go to shit.
I appreciate how they approached the mechanics, although they could be better implemented. These could have been tutorial prompts, but players have an immersive way of learning how to play instead. Even with the game’s short runtime, I preferred this approach. For instance, when I failed to tranquilize the sick giraffe, I expected to have to repeat the attempt. Instead, Oliver finished the training, citing how he could not be bothered to tell me again. That made me laugh, even when I wanted to shoot him with the gun. Sadly, the game would not let me.
While the game's visuals are average, the creepy sound design and the oppressive lighting sell the mood of the place. I noticed some severe voice clipping in dialogue, as the characters responded to each other almost before the other finished their sentence. However, I liked the Doctor’s character: an impatient, passionless asshole that belittles you.
Despite the short runtime, Zoochosis's mechanics are quite detailed. Players have plenty to do during their trial night, including carrying food into the cart by hand, pulling it along tram tracks, storing it inside the train, chopping ingredients, and caring for the animals.
Caring for the animals involves making sure they have the correct food, sucking up their feces with the handy vacuum and storing it for analysis, keeping an eye on their temperature with the heat gun, correctly diagnosing their illnesses, and injecting them with the proper medications to keep them ‘healthy.’
If the animals get out of control, you must fight them into submission, which is quite a challenge given your limited tools. While it was clunky with little room for error, I appreciated how realistic it felt. Paul is a zookeeper, not a marine.
The tension and narrative of Zoochosis ramp up fast, and it becomes clear that this is a terrible workplace. Strange monsters climbing through walls, wild critters jumping out, and frantic phone calls about missing coworkers are some of the treats awaiting you. I don’t like the jump scares as a horror mechanic, but some moments made my flesh crawl.
For instance, I was ordered to bring in a fresh ‘supply’ of meat to be chopped up. That turned out to be a live, naked woman whose sedatives wore off by her screaming for help. Oh, and the Doctor has you injected with a parasite from some abomination called ‘The Mother’. It’s pretty unsettling, and Paul has to work with an outside journalist to work on a cure and expose Oliver’s horrific crimes.
Zoochosis can be completed on a short weekend, and I appreciate it for not drawing things out past their welcome. The story did not surprise me at any point, but there are multiple endings to discover. Sadly, I got one of the bad endings. Players can only access the one good ending by curing all the sick animals, which makes sense. However, because of the game's autosaves, there is no way to return to a previous point, so players will need to start another game to see if they can get a different ending. While autosaving makes sense in short games, I do wish there were manual saves so I could go back to get a different ending without needing to restart entirely.
There aren’t any shortcuts, and the slow animations of accessing an interface, collecting and chopping food, depositing inventories, and moving the cart along the rails pad out the game far more than necessary. I like immersive games, but when that immersion is in the way of enjoying the game, I feel it’s a problem. I felt no desire to start a new game once I finished.
While I enjoyed Zoochosis' atmosphere, the gameplay felt like it was stumbling over its own feet. Despite the game’s handful of hours, most of that is taken up by the pacing of animations, which is plodding to the point of boring. That is probably the point because working in a zoo of horrors while trying to survive isn't riveting. Still, I grew increasingly frustrated with how long it took to complete anything.
In fairness, developer Clapperheads has been steadily improving the game since its launch with patches and content updates, but there is still a fair bit of jank to contend with. Most of these bugs were oddities like animals clipping through terrain or each other, floating objects, and the audio bugs I mentioned earlier. When moving into an animal enclosure, I had one infinite loading screen and a hard crash that forced me to reboot. While I only lost 20 minutes of progress, the lack of manual saving and tedious player actions made getting back to where I was more frustrating.
I also encountered a couple of navigation issues. This was more prevalent in the training montage, but the dark environments sometimes made it difficult to find what I needed.
Finally, the game needs more content. Zoochosis has some impressive management mechanics that could be applied to a free-play mode. The gameplay has a lot of depth, but the short story length is almost a detriment. I would like to see some free-play additions to the game, as it would add much-needed replayability. Its current offerings make it hard to justify the $25 price tag.
While Zoochosis is playable on the Steam Deck, I found it a woeful player experience. Things get off to a bad start on the main menu. The game is locked to 30FPS automatically, with no options to change that in the settings. Furthermore, no graphical options are showing on the Deck. Whatever performance you have is what you can get, which is even more unfortunate when the game struggles to hit 30 FPS, even without any limits.
I found this baffling, given that the graphical settings are present in the PC version and that a patch in November was said to have improved the Steam Deck performance. I tried various things to get it to show up, including reinstalling the game, changing Proton versions, and adding the "SteamDeck=0 %command%" launch option in Properties. None of these attempts worked, which is unfortunate. I’m unsure what is happening, and perhaps someone else will have better luck than I did.
With few options available, I had limited choices on how to proceed. That doesn’t mean that Zoochosis is entirely unplayable, as the standard controls worked great, and I could still play through the game.
The power drain still surprised me, given how much the Steam Deck struggled with the game. I was pulling over 20 watts on average, which translated to less than 2 hours of battery life. I tinkered with TDP settings to find a decent battery life without sacrificing too much performance. Limiting the TDP with a 40hz refresh rate averaged around 20 FPS during gameplay while keeping the battery draw around 14 watts. This improved battery life significantly, but the performance drop is too steep to recommend.
So, the best way to experience the game is without changing anything. It is playable, but it won't particularly be enjoyable.
Zoochosis is available in English, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish - Latin America, Turkish, Ukrainian, Spanish - Spain, Arabic, and Portuguese - Portugal. However, only English has full voice acting right now.
Players can toggle nudity, subtitles, bodycam, sprint mode, and auto-aim. You can adjust the brightness, toggle colorblind mode, change controller vibration, change gamepad sensitivity, and toggle the invert look vertically or not.
Zoochosis is a polarizing game as the reviews on the Steam Store suggest. It is an enjoyable horror sim with a great atmosphere. There are some truly disturbing moments throughout its story, and it puts quite the twist on a zoology game. I wish we had more games around managing zoos, and the developers have put a lot of heart into creating it.
Unfortunately, the ponderous gameplay and overall janky nature have brought down my enjoyment of the game. My shoddy experiences of Zoochosis on the Steam Deck do not help that. The mechanics are surprisingly in-depth for a bodycam game, but the short story means we do not have enough time to enjoy those mechanics without some free-play mode.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.
Farming Simulator 25 was provided by Giants Software for review. Thank you!
It's time for a brand new Farming Simulator! But is brand new the right word for it? Or is Farming Simulator 25 merely a small upgrade over Farming Simulator 22? It's actually a story of two halves, so let's get into it and see what this iteration of the series is all about.
As you've come to expect from the series, Farming Simulator 25 brings a collection of new vehicles for you to own. Gone are the days of Farming Simulator 15 where you only had access to a paltry collection of 140 vehicles from over 40 manufacturers. Farming Simulator 25 boasts over 400 vehicles from over 150 manufacturers. I'm not quite sure why you need this amount of selection, but maybe that's because I'm not super into the whole farming ecosystem. If you're a farmer or are at least familiar with farming equipment, you can likely find your model in Farming Simulator 25.
One of the major new additions to the Farming Simulator franchise that was touted for Farming Simulator 25 was the addition of "Asian-style" farming. Farming Simulator has historically been focused on Europe and North America for its locations, but now the franchise has expanded to include an Asian map. So is this new map worth all the fuss?
I could take or leave the new map itself. The maps and world of Farming Simulator have always been a bit of a letdown for me, and the new Asian map is no exception. Largely, the map looks like any other map when you're out in the rural areas. Only once you enter the town does the game give an "Asian" vibe, mostly due to the neon signs outside the buildings. Unfortunately, the Asian map still uses many assets from the Western maps, meaning all signs are in English, and the neon-lit streets look dead due to a lack of pedestrians and traffic.
The exact location of where Hutan Pantai (the Asian map) is based isn't made clear either. The name is Indonesian, but the traffic drives on the right, which wouldn't be the case in a place like Indonesia or Japan, which drives on the left. So, instead of focusing on a specific country, the developers just focused on a large region with many cultures and designed the map around that. This design philosophy likely made the map feel generic and not very immersive. The majority of the map could easily be set in America or Europe.
Another set of improvements touted by the developers is the visual ones. While my ability to test these on the Steam Deck is somewhat limited, as we can't run at full graphical settings, the game does look pretty nice, and there are plenty of rendering techniques on display here, such as bloom, depth of field, good quality shading and lighting, as well as ambient occlusion. This combines to create a nice-looking image where metal reflects the sun, trees provide nice shading, and dirt adorns your vehicles as they work.
Ground deformation was also mentioned as an improvement to visuals and gameplay, although I didn't particularly notice this when I played. My trucks/tractors made slight grooves in the soil, but nothing that would actually affect the gameplay in any meaningful way, and it looked more like a tire track visual effect than actual deformation of the terrain.
Farming Simulator 25 also brings in new weather effects, including disasters such as twisters and hail, which can damage your crops. I found these to be rare, however. After playing an in-game year, which is several hours of playtime, I only experienced 1 bout of snow and hail in an entire crop cycle, with probably <5% of playtime having a weather effect active. Even though the game is supposed to have settling snow and snow physics, the snow never truly settled on the ground, and the vehicles drive the same in wintry conditions as they do in summer. Overall, it's pretty disappointing.
New crops have been added, but they function the same as the other crops in the game, so getting too excited about them is hard. Likewise, baby animals have finally been added to the game, which has some impact on gameplay, but I found myself buying animals rather than trying to breed them. The time saved probably outweighs the money saved.
Aside from these aspects, it's largely "business as usual" for Farming Simulator 25. All of the features you enjoyed in Farming Simulator 22 have carried over, and it follows the same love-it-or-hate-it gameplay of... well, farming. You'll be planting and harvesting, all with that thrill of loading up your trucks with grain from your fields, then you'll be getting confused about where to sell your wheat, and then finally stumbling upon the place that's buying wheat and making 25 cents, only to rinse and repeat. You can also do all of this with up to 16 players in multiplayer.
The vehicles perform identically to Farming Simulator 22, with the same control scheme and physics. It's still a joy to manually adjust your harvesting head and switch it on/off to begin harvesting, and swing the pipe out of the side to load up a trailer truck driving beside you as you harvest. There are no changes here, but it was always a highlight, so no changes are good.
So, is Farming Simulator 25 a revolutionary improvement for the series? No, but I wasn't expecting it to be either. I will say that they don't seem to have made anything worse, which isn't always a given these days. The visuals are nicer, the game seems pretty well optimized aside from some stuttering, and you have more variety in what you can do, such as more crops to grow and additional ways to earn money, like construction projects.
You also have access to a wider variety of vehicles and tools, and they are laying the groundwork for interesting features in the next Farming Simulator, even if they aren't there yet, such as natural disasters and terrain deformation.
Would I recommend you buy Farming Simulator 25 if you already own Farming Simulator 22? Probably not, the upgrades are marginal and unless you are a hardcore Farming Simulator fan, it's probably not worth the price right now. Running Farming Simulator 22 with mods can give you a nicer experience right now, but in a year, when Farming Simulator 25 mods catch up, some patches have been introduced, and the game is on sale, it might well be worth the upgrade.
Farming Simulator 25 covers the Steam Deck basics of having good controller support while supporting 1280x800 resolution, meaning no black borders around your screen. We also have some nice extra technologies like Intel's XeSS and AMD's FSR3.
There are many graphical options in Farming Simulator 25, but I've kept it fairly simple by choosing a preset and then modifying a couple of settings to make for a more stable experience. It should be easy for you to copy the settings yourself.
Set the SteamOS frame rate limit to 60, and there's no TDP Limit for this one.
I'm using a modified version of the Medium preset, so go ahead and set your game to the Medium settings, turn VSync to Off, set your Framerate Limit to 30, set your in-game HUD Scale to 125% for easier-to-read text, then press the "X" button to open the advanced graphics menu, and adjust the following settings:
Switch SSAO down to Medium, Terrain Quality down to Low, Light Quality to Medium, Max Mirrors to 0, Post-Process Anti-Aliasing to Off, and FSR 3 to Quality. The game does have frame generation, but as our FPS is on the lower side, it introduces too much input lag to be nice to play.
These settings smooth out the Medium preset a lot, especially disabling Mirrors, as with them on, you'll get severe stutters when switching to a cockpit view.
With these settings, I got a pretty constant 30 FPS during play. Very occasionally, the FPS dropped to 28 or 29 when in one of the cities, but the game remained perfectly playable.
The power draw tends to stay around 12W-14W, but it can go as high as 16W in the towns. You can likely expect about 2.5 hours of battery life from a Steam Deck LCD and around 3.5 hours from the OLED.
Temperatures stay lower in the 60C-65C range, with slight fan noise.
Performance in multiplayer games seems considerably worse than single-player, with a much heavier load on a single CPU thread, seemingly caused by player activity when multiple players are driving. This means that you'll struggle to stay above 25 FPS in larger multiplayer games, although if you are just playing with 2-4 players, you might get away with it.
Farming Simulator 25 has a few accessibility options, such as adjusting the game's economic difficulty, simplifying the crop cycle, colorblind mode, disabling what is akin to camera shake/sway, and various assists/simplifications for controlling vehicles.
Farming Simulator 25 talks a big game about the new features it has over previous iterations of the series. But those changes aren't quite big enough for me to recommend that you dive in right now. Give mods some time to catch up to the level they are in Farming Simulator 22, fix a couple of collision bugs I encountered, and maybe go on a sale, and then it's worth the upgrade.
Farming Simulator 25 runs well on the Steam Deck for the most part. The controls are great, and while performance in larger multiplayer games borders on unplayable, if you play solo or with a small group, it should run just fine.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.
