James Archer

3 weeks ago | rockpapershotgun.com | James Archer

Steam Deck owners will be familiar with the practice of peering into a new game’s Steam store page and hoping, begging, praying to whatever god is yet to abandon this cruel joke of a reality that it has a little green tick mark on it. This is, of course, the Steam Deck Verified programme, wherein Valve gives good behaviour stickers to games that function fully on their handheld PC.

3 weeks ago | rockpapershotgun.com | James Archer

Published on May 12, 2025 Steam Deck Academy brings together all our guides and explainers on getting the most out of your Steam Deck, no student loans or sweaty dormitories required. I couldn’t offer many Steam Deck-specific insights in my look at Doom: The Dark Ages’ PC performance last week, because a crashing issue was inconsiderately – dare I say, rudely – blocking me from even reaching the main menu.

4 weeks ago | rockpapershotgun.com | James Archer

I’m liking Doom: The Dark Ages more than local reviewist Nic does, possibly because spending most of 2024 remoulding my brain to learn Elden Ring has unduly engorged the part that appreciates a good parry-and-riposte. C'est la vie demons, and colleague. There is one issue that bothers me, though: why, of all the games on Bethesda’s production lines, was this chosen to be the next game that follows Indiana Jones and the Great Circle in making ray tracing effects compulsory?

1 month ago | rockpapershotgun.com | James Archer

Back in the decidedly less macabre context of a week ago, I played a few matches of Apex Legends' Season 25, which centres around new legend Sparrow. His debut is scheduled for May 6th, barely enough time for EA’s ink to dry on their mass laying-off of the people that made him (fifth most played game on Steam, y’know, maybe tells you something). He’s Space-Italian, has a folding bow on his arm, and - fittingly for how I feel about this game right now - is a massive bastard.

1 month ago | rockpapershotgun.com | James Archer

Proton, the compatibility software co-developed by Valve and CodeWeavers for helping Windows games run on Linux – and, thus, the foundation for the Steam Deck – is getting its first full version update in nearly a year. Proton 10.0 is now available in beta form, heralding compatibility fixes and improvements in enough games that I gave up bothering to do an accurate count. Loads, basically.