Grim Dawn, Factorio, Project Zomboid, FTL, Rimworld, Crusader Kings, Papers Please, Red Alert, Stacklands… the list goes on.

The Steam Deck’s trackpads (and Steam Input in general) are the most underrated and game changing aspects of the Deck and the old Steam Controller.

Playing keyboard and mouse, or mouse only games is totally doable and a joy on the Deck.

I’ve actually chosen to change some games from using gamepad to Keyboard and Mouse since the Deck is so good (for instance Factorio does do gamepad but it’s much better to just use KB&M via Steam Input).

I’d argue Grim Dawn is better on the Deck as I’ve got so many fancy radial menus etc set up, it’s actually easier to play than pressing the number row etc. And with the touch screen, you can rapidly tap different enemies without needing to touch the “mouse”.

Desktop mode I find just fine, steam controller was how we operated a htpc for a few years. Gamepad control worked for kodi, but anything else I had to drop into desktop and mouse around with the touchpads and triggers. Little bit more finnicky with the deck because of the size of the pads though.

I’ve been in Grim Fandango and the Monkey Island (1-3 are my jam) lately. Technobabylon. I’ve been working my way through games I haven’t had time for because of work, like Gemini Rue, the Rusty Lake games. I never played Day of the Tentacle back in the day either so I’m keen for that one. Va-11 Hall-a.

I could not get handy with fps games on the deck at all. I really wanted to run Borderlands 1 again but I was just getting murdred trying to aim with gamepad controls. Touch on right pad activating gyro set me on the right path, and that technique translates to my steam controller when I dock too. It feels more natural to be able to flick around like with a mouse as week. I briefly had a ps3 in 2010. I could not play fps well with a pad. I went from Sega to Dos, to Win 95/98, back to Sega. So I never played around with thumb joysticks. They were never part of my life until I bought a ps3 and just fumbled around with it.

Also Blood. I’m through the first two episodes but put it away for a while.

Been on a Kknd kick in the last few months. But it’s worked so well I’ll move into some other favourites when I’m done - Dark Reign, Total Annihilation, Blood and Magic.

Last year I did my 3000th Fallout 2 run on my desktop pc, but now I’ve got a deck I’m planning to do my first ever fallout 1 play.

In Torchlight 2 (this has been my deck go-to for hack and slash), I play using both pads to move mouse. Getting into the rhythm of it, I easily cover the entire screen by flicking over one pad and setting off in the other. It’s a technique I started using on steam controller some years ago.

I haven’t played Grim Dawn on deck yet, but I understand people are playing it with native gamepad control, I’ll see how that goes.

I play a lot of point and click games (just replayed Grim Fandango), and text entry is way better with touchpads than joysticks. I've also played a couple city builders, and I prefer touchpads for that

That said, I prefer joysticks most of the time, especially for games with a lot of action like Metroidvanias and whatnot with a lot of fighting.