Following criticism for how the next-gen Fallout 4 Steam Deck patch effectively made performance worse on the handheld, despite earning a Verified rating, a new Proton Hotfix update has fixed the issues. Not only is the Deck performance overlay now more accurately reporting data, but crashes are much rarer. However, the graphical settings remain inaccessible.
Playing Fallout 4 on the Steam Deck OLED, our pick as the best handheld gaming PC, is now an experience that lives up to Valve’s Verified rating, something that couldn’t be said late last week when the update was first released.
Many of the technical issues are a result of the age and implementation of the Bethesda Creation engine, but that couldn’t excuse Valve upgrading the rating of Fallout 4 on Steam Deck when so many issues had reared their ugly heads.
However, just a few days after the release of this new patch, a Proton Hotfix has launched and appears to fix most of the issues we identified during testing. This includes the performance overlay now displaying more accurate real-time data. However, you will need to enable the use of a compatibility tool in the Properties menu of the game.
As I stated in my original piece covering the issues, the performance of Fallout 4 was “okay”, and my gripe wasn’t that Fallout 4 was unplayable, but instead that Valve had deliberately improved its Steam Deck rating at a time when the game was discovering a new wave in popularity, despite issues becoming more prominent.
My time testing the new patch was far more enjoyable after this update, and while there is still the odd moment where the game struggles, the experience is now far more acceptable compared to the pre-hotfix experience, with far fewer crashes.
In my opinion, Valve’s highest rating should be reserved only for games that you can genuinely boot with no fear of technical mishaps or glitches, alongside stable performance. Fallout 4 didn’t meet this standard, but it’s much closer now after the hotfix.
If you haven’t jumped on board with the handheld craze, you can win a Steam Deck OLED in a giveaway courtesy of Wired Productions.