The so-called Next Gen Update for Fallout 4 causes irritation in some places in the hours after the release, especially on the Steam Deck. Bethesda's role-playing game is now “Verified”, but the developers apparently achieved the status in a rather unusual way.
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The highest classification that Valve gives for the classification on the Steam Deck is verified. Basically it means nothing other than that the respective game problem-free runs on the standard configuration of the handheld PC. Fallout 4 has so far not been allowed to ascribe this label. With the Next Gen update release on the evening of April 25th That has changed – unfortunately not necessarily for the better.
Fallout 4: Update removes launcher and graphics settings on the Steam Deck
According to numerous reports Reddit and in Steam Forum Bethesda apparently made little effort to maintain verified status. Instead of offering improvements on the performance side, the biggest change is that it's on the Steam Deck no launcher more for Fallout 4. The pop-up before each game start wasn't necessarily pleasant to use on Valve's handheld, but it did provide convenient access to all important graphics settings.
That is no longer possible. Without the launcher, you no longer have a simple option to do this on the Steam Deck to change optionsto potentially reduce shadow or texture quality. In other words: You are currently tied to the standard configuration on the Steam Deck, which does not necessarily guarantee the best possible performance.
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Some users even report that the update has had exactly the opposite effect and that they are achieving lower FPS than before. Others write about Fallout 4 after the patch crashes significantly more often. In addition, the post-apocalyptic role-playing game should only be displayed on the Steam Deck OLED at half the targeted FPS because there is a bug with the 90 Hertz screen.
Workaround for Steam Deck users
There have been mods for these problems in the past, but some of them currently don't work due to the next gen update. To at least get to the graphics settings of Fallout 4, you can Restore launcher.
All you have to do is add a command line to the game's start options on your Steam Deck: “SteamDeck=0 %command%” (without the quotation marks). The familiar launcher should then start again and you will have access to the graphics settings.
However, that there is such a thing Workaround needed, which basically just restores the previous status quo, but should certainly not be in the spirit of the update. We can only hope that Bethesda will help with a hotfix. Anyway The Fallout series is currently more popular than ever before.