Oblivion, Steam Deck, and two virtual fists are the perfect match

destructoid.com:

I was seven or eight years old when I first booted up The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion on my dad’s Xbox 360. This was before I knew the term “RPG” or even understood the scope of its sprawling open worlds. Countless playthroughs began and died as I fumbled through Cyrodiil, only to start over again.

That was around 2006, and I really began appreciating Oblivion when I played the 5th Anniversary Edition on PS3 some years after. Sure, I ran through it on PC eventually, but it sat in my library for ages, a childhood memory awaiting its chance to shine again.

Then I got my Steam Deck and reinstalled Oblivion as a bit of a joke. Its PC version doesn’t offer official controller support, but I keep it installed everywhere else, so why not on my handheld? The idea of portable Oblivion began nagging me in the days since, especially as Valve gave it the “Playable” designation. It’s not the esteemed “Verified” status, but it was something.

But that’s all it took, and now, most of my free time gaming in the past few weeks has since been with Oblivion on my Deck. For the first time since I was a teeny tiny girl who could barely read, Oblivion was my obsession.

It was honestly a small hurdle acclimating to Oblivion‘s controls on the Steam Deck. As mentioned, the PC version doesn’t support controllers, so I tried its community-sourced controller scheme.

It’s pretty much like the NorthernUI mod regarding functionality but takes better advantage of the Steam Deck’s quirks. The right trackpad acts as a mouse in-game, with R2 operating as a left click. Meanwhile, the left trackpad allows players to access functions like quick saving and quick loading.

The back buttons weren’t very useful either, as other buttons fulfilled the same actions.