He claims they removed the ability to adjust graphics options. This is false- they just removed the launcher so it’s tucked away in the launch options instead. Unless you’re the kind of person who wants to change the settings every time you open the game I’d call this an improvement still.
He also claims that the FPS is lower than what the Deck is reporting and claims it feels bad. Fails to go into any methodology or even say if he tries to verify the FPS any other way. Maybe I’m just used to actual journalists doing actual research, but isn’t this the point where most competent people would look to install 3rd party monitoring tools? Maybe hook it up to a capture card or external monitor? Look at frame time graphs? Like, we have the technology to support these claims, but this is just one dude saying it “feels okay”. He makes references like “we tested” but doesn’t include any test results.
Not to mention… Go look at Valve’s publications about the Verified tag. I can’t find a single reference to the frame rate anywhere. So even if the frame rate is low, that’s not part of the testing process. What is or is not “playable” is incredibly subjective and variable. Some games are fine at 30, some need 60, some really benefit from >60, some games can even survive as playable at 15 FPS. Some games run mostly at 60 but dip occasionally. Some will be impacted by the performance settings on the Deck. Not to mention devs are constantly pushing updates and it’s not worth the time to re-test for Deck verification that often for a possible +/-1 FPS difference.
Then he mentions crashing. No solid data or anything, just mentions a crash. He doesn’t mention, but anytime I hear anyone complain about a Bethesda game crashing my first question is “are you using mods?”. It would be incredibly irresponsible to do “testing” with mods, but at this point I’m not sure whether the author is sharing real experiences or just parroting what he read on Reddit.
There may very well be valid concerns here, but it’s impossible to tell because of how bad this article is.