We at Windows Central are big gaming handheld enthusiasts. Some of us play on Steam Deck, others prefer ROG Ally, and a couple of us even have a Legion Go we like to play on. Regardless of which device we own, we can all agree that playing titles on gaming handhelds from our couch, beds, or even while traveling is fantastic.
Here are the games we’re currently playing on our various gaming handheld devices, along with any notes for important setting adjustments.
Tomb Raider I–III Remastered (Steam Deck LCD)
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I was a SEGA and Sony kid growing up, saving my allowance and trading in as much of my previous-generation hardware as I could to afford the latest PlayStation games. However, Tomb Raider never made it into my collection, keeping my only first-hand experiences locked to a short playable demo included with the Official PlayStation Magazine (RIP.) It seemed like a great game, and I never had an issue with tank controls since Resident Evil 2 remains one of my all-time favorites, but 2024 marks the first time I’ve played the real thing.
I’m supposed to be a well-adjusted adult with a continued gaming hobby, but I can say with certainty that I would never have had the patience for Lara Croft and her brutal and obtuse level design back in 1996. This remaster, despite giving me no real legitimate nostalgia outside of the iconic theme music played even on the demo disc, clearly shows how much things have improved via a shortcut button that instantly switches between the clunky retro visuals and the new lick of paint.
The game runs perfectly on Steam Deck with practically zero stress on the internals and no need to kick up the fans for thermal control, keeping the console almost silent and the battery lasting for hours of painful gameplay as I fall into yet another hidden spike pit. Arguably, the best improvement made in this modern remaster is the ability to save your game wherever you stand and not rely on ‘save crystals’ found in the original — and I’ve saved mine over 100 times in only 4 hours.
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You’ll quickly learn to love this new quick save feature, as first-time players will likely suffer the same fate as me and spend far too long running around confusing levels looking for near-invisible keys or an unusual trick to progress (I’m looking at you, Colosseum and Cistern.) Yes, the beautiful visuals have a tremendous downside in that key items blend painfully well into the background, so I’m regularly switching back to the original graphics to see if I missed something.
Still, it’s great fun when you finally figure out a puzzle; just stick to the classic tank controls and not the awful ‘modern’ alternative.
Recommended Tomb Raider I–III Remastered settings for Steam Deck:
I made zero changes to settings on Steam Deck and everything worked perfectly on launch. It even played fine at 4K while connected to my JSAUX Steam Deck TV Dock (as listed in our best Steam Deck accessories).
— Ben Wilson
Immortals Fenyx Rising (ROG Ally Z1 Extreme)
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Last year, I wrote about how Immortals Fenyx Rising is my favorite underrated game. I love its vibrant open-world filled with puzzles and tough enemies as well as its sarcastic story that explains Greek mythology while making fun of how salacious it tends to be. The first time I played Immortals Fenyx Rising was on my PS4 just after the game released. So, last November when this adventure went on sale for a ridiculously low price, I bought two additional copies — one for my nephew’s Nintendo Switch and a PC copy to play on my ROG Ally.
So what’s the story? A young person (either male or female) named Fenyx shipwrecks on an island and discovers that her shipmates have all been turned to stone. She bumps into a mysterious stranger and learns that the powerful Titan named Typhon has stripped the Greek gods of their powers. Now it’s up to her to return the gods to their natural glory while traversing around a colorful open world filled with difficult bosses and puzzles.
This means taking down mythological creatures like griffins, cyclopses, chimeras, minotaurs, and more. The game has five difficulty modes including a simple Story mode or extra hard mode so you can find a level that fits your playing desires.
Gameplay-wise, it’s clear that Ubisoft’s Immortals Fenyx Rising was heavily inspired by the success of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but also features playful Assassin’s Creed Odyssey elements. There are shrine-like challenges dotting the map, plenty of things to collect, you can climb just about anywhere, tame wild horses to ride, and you can glide anywhere with the help of Ikaros’ wings. What’s more, you can become more powerful as you level up your stats and gear. It’s a fun adventure that feels rewarding to play.
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I personally love fast-gliding down from a tall statue and summoning my horse before I land to keep my momentum going. It makes traversing the map very fun.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve beaten the main game and am now running through post-game DLC entitled A New God, which provides far more challenging tasks than the base game. It’s definitely been keeping me on my toes in a good way. This DLC can be purchased separately with the Season Pass or comes included with the Immortals Fenyx Rising Gold Edition.
Recommended Immortals Fenyx Rising settings for ROG Ally:
For the most part, I played Immortals Fenyx Rising in 25W Turbo mode on high graphics settings while the ROG Ally was docked to my TV (see my Unitek Cooling Dock review). With these settings, the game tended to hover between 36FPS and 40FPS. However, frame rates can also be improved to around 50FPS by decreasing graphics settings to low or ultra-low. Plus, you can always play in 15W Balanced mode if you want the battery to last longer for handheld play. The one big setting change I suggest is to have your ROG Ally VRAM set to 6G if it isn’t already. If you need help with this, you can find instructions on my Nightingale handheld guide.
— Rebecca Spear
Persona 3 Reload (ROG Ally Z1)
The beauty of my ROG Ally is that it allows me to get lost in a game without feeling guilty for being away from my family. My office/game room is in a separate building away from my house and when I play for long game sessions, I have a hard time spending that time away from my wife and kiddos. With the ROG Ally, and especially with Persona 3 Reload (see our Persona 3 Reload review) which supports seamless cross-saves through Xbox Play Anywhere, I can turn off my Xbox, turn on my ROG Ally and go in the house and keep playing while the family is watching a T.V. show.
I find myself sitting down to enjoy a quick game session with Persona 3 Reload, only to realize hours have passed, and the game is performing perfectly. While I normally play plugged in, if you run the game at 15 watts on battery mode, it can last an hour or two before needing to be plugged in again.
Recommended Persona 3 Reload settings for ROG Ally:
- Best settings:
- Graphics Quality: Always set to Low
- On Battery
- Operating Mode: 15 Watts
- Rendering Scale – 100%
- Frame Rate Limit – 30
- Plugged in
- Operating Mode: 30 Watts
- Rendering Scale: 75%
- Frame Rate Limit: 60
Above are the specs I think are best for Persona 3 Reload on the ROG Ally Z1 non-extreme. Even though I have the weaker ROG Ally, the game still runs amazingly via Xbox Game Pass.
— Colton Stradling
Last Epoch (Steam Deck LCD)
Last Epoch is a new indie action RPG that has taken Steam by storm, but not without some growing pains. Last Epoch’s servers struggled to handle the massive influx of players at launch, but they have since stabilized and allowed me to play online. Last weekend, the game reached a peak of 265,000 concurrent players, which is an impressive feat for an indie action RPG title.
What makes Last Epoch so popular? Well, some people are calling it “Diablo 4 but better… and cheaper.” They’re not completely wrong as it’s half the price, but better is definitely a subjective take. As a fan of Diablo, I was curious to see what the hype was about, though it’s not officially compatible with the Steam Deck yet. Unfortunately, if you want to play Last Epoch on your Steam Deck, you’ll need to use a workaround, as the game won’t let you past the character creation screen otherwise (more on that later).
So, how do I like the game as a die-hard Diablo fan? Well, I have to say that Last Epoch is one of the few action RPGs that I’ve enjoyed as much as Diablo. Last Epoch is a fresh and innovative take on the genre, and it might appeal to fans of both Diablo and Path of Exile, who tend to be at odds with each other. It combines the simplicity and polish of Diablo with the complexity and depth of Path of Exile. Thanks to its five years in early access, the game has refined and polished its loot system, character building, skill trees, and crafting, based on community feedback. The gameplay is fun and satisfying, as I slash my way through dungeons and different timelines. I haven’t reached the endgame yet, which is where the game really shines, but the community outlook so far is positive.
The story itself is… meh. Nothing about it engages me, which in action RPGs isn’t really an issue being that most people skip the dialogue, but it’s where Diablo stands out with its world-building and fascinating characters. I wrote a full timeline of Diablo lore throughout the franchise, I can’t see myself having quite the same love affair with Last Epoch. But that’s okay. There is enough room for both games to coexist, and Last Epoch is filling a gap for me while I wait for Season 4 of Diablo 4. Whether I’ll keep playing Last Epoch in the long run remains to be seen.
Recommended settings for Last Epoch and how to play on Steam Deck:
I’ve written a full guide on how to play Last Epoch on the Steam Deck, which is not as hard as it sounds. You just need to switch to Desktop mode, install ProtonGE, go back to Gaming mode to tweak your game settings, and force the game to launch with the latest version of ProtonGE. The game is not perfect on the Steam Deck, and the controller support and menu navigation could use some improvement, but the performance is decent. I get around 60FPS most of the time, with some drops to 40 when there are too many enemies on the screen.
It’s not perfect on the Steam Deck, and even with controller support navigating the in-game menus and settings can be a little tricky, but during gameplay it holds pretty steady at 60 FPS, only really dropping to 40 when the mob density gets overwhelming. Touch Deck, I’ve had no issues yet.
— Jennifer Young
Hypnospace Outlaw (ROG Ally Z1 Extreme)
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I don’t even have to look at the rest of this article to be immovably confident that Hypnospace Outlaw is the weirdest game on this list. At the very least, it counts among the strangest titles that I’ve ever delved into, but in all the very best ways. This intriguing indie game from No More Robots envisions an alternative reality in which the rapidly evolving universe that was the internet in the late 1990s is actually accessed in your sleep via special headsets designed and released by MerchantSoft (with absolutely zero similarities to another “M” company in the real world).
You play as a volunteer Enforcer, tasked with patrolling the low-res halls of Hypnospace in search of ne’er-do-wells defiling MerchantSoft’s money-making creation with harassment, content infringement, illegally distributed software, and more. This may all sound like typical game stuff so far, but you interact with Hypnospace Outlaw through HypnOS — an operating system that again resembles an alternate reality version of classic systems like Windows 2000.
You have a customizable desktop complete with wallpapers, screensavers, moveable icons and stickers, and an app launcher housing all your apps, programs, and managers. Every part of Hypnospace Outlaw from the boot-up screen to the settings follows this theme, with you navigating through the game with interfaces pulled straight out of the 90s. Most of the content is through the internet browser, through which you can access dozens of pages created by other Hypnospace users. It’s incredible the amount of interconnected detail contained within this game, and it just keeps expanding and evolving as time goes on.
I’m not going to say too much more because Hypnospace Outlaw is best experienced on your own. Just know it’s a detective-puzzle game unlike anything else you’ve ever played.
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Recommended Hypnospace Outlaw settings for ROG Ally:
Hypnospace Outlaw isn’t swimming in different settings, and it has honestly run flawlessly on the ASUS ROG Ally in the 15W mode. There’s really not much you need to do or can do, and most of the in-game settings are literally settings for HypnOS, like changing your wallpaper. The only thing I recommend is to note the controls for gamepads; it shouldn’t surprise you to hear that Hypnospace Outlaw is designed with mouse and keyboard in mind (including its own set of keyboard shortcuts!), but I’ve not had any issues playing the game on ROG Ally with the handheld controls.
There’s also a group of hidden, experimental settings buried in the BIOS of HypnOS. No, seriously — you’ll need to access the BIOS before signing in with your profile to find these options. One of these options is “Fullscreen Scaling,” and I highly recommend enabling it (but leave the advanced options below it alone). HypnOS is low resolution as the time period demands and occupies a smaller window as a stylistic choice, but it’s unnecessary on a handheld’s comparatively tiny screen. Enabling this makes the game properly full-screen, and it’s a big improvement.
— Zachary Boddy
Hollow Knight (Legion Go)
The game’s minimalistic yet clear UI paired with my bad eyesight and my ASUS ROG Ally’s 7-inch display makes it a solid portable game in the first place, but what’s really infectious about it is its gameplay. This is probably the best Metroidvania-style game I’ve played since Super Metroid on the SNES back in the day. It’s similarly tough, too, although I may simply be remembering Super Metroid as being tougher than it was due to my age at the time.
Hollow Knight is often described as a “Soulslike” due to its soft death penalties, mysterious, post-calamity world, and evocative atmosphere (see our list of the best Soulslikes). It also has punishing, but tight and fair combat atop some enchanting art and characterization. It’s a great game for playing on trains and planes because it’s relatively easy to find a save spot and jump out if you need to catch a connection or something like that. It’s also entirely offline as well, and has Xbox Play Anywhere support for syncing progress to my Xbox Series X or my main gaming PC.
The other core reason I’m playing Hollow Knight is that it’s 2D, and runs flawlessly at 60 FPS even in low-power states. I’ve moved from the ASUS ROG Ally to the Lenovo Legion Go for its kickstand and detachable joysticks, which I find myself absolutely in love with. I do miss the VRR on the ROG Ally’s screen, though, because in low-power states you do sometimes find that even a game like Hollow Knight can skip frames here and there, but it’s a minor gripe.
Recommended Hollow Knight settings for Legion Go:
Running in low power mode, you can easily get around 2.5 to 3 hours of battery life on the ASUS ROG Ally and the Lenovo Legion Go as a result, which is why I tend to opt for 2D titles on these kinds of devices, at least when I’m not near a power outlet (or I’m just too lazy to get my charger out). I’m going to stick it out with Hollow Knight until I’ve seen it through, and then perhaps move on to Persona 5 (see our Persona 5 review), which also has Xbox Play Anywhere, and also runs incredibly well in low-power modes.
— Jez Corden
Ultrakill (Steam Deck OLED)
Playing “Ultrakill” on the new Steam Deck OLED has been a fantastic dive into the “boomer shooter” genre. The game’s retro-inspired design, running smoothly at 90 FPS, delivers a challenging and satisfying experience reminiscent of classic shooters. With its diverse weapons and relentless gameplay, “Ultrakill” is a must-try for veterans and newcomers. It’s a game that captures the essence of the genre beautifully.
Recommended Ultrakill settings for Steam Deck:
I went with the default game settings as well as default Steam Deck resolution and the game played very well. Most game options are mostly to tone down gameplay, so you can make changes as you see fit.
— Daniel Rubino
Tons to play on gaming handhelds
With one of the best gaming handhelds like Steam Deck, ROG Ally, Legion Go, and various other devices on the market, it’s easy enough to play your favorite PC games wherever you want. The team here at Windows Central is always eager to dive into new titles or classic hits, and so we’ll continue to update this page regularly with the latest games we’re all playing.
Check back each month to get our best gaming handheld game recommendations, as well as the best-optimized settings for these titles.
