I really love this handheld so many windows games work so well on it and adding games from other platforms then steam is quite easy over the desktop mode. I’m playing the Skywalker Saga Lego Game and it’s a lot of fun and the graphics are amazing
I do. I got it on launch and have used it a ton.
It’s perfect. It does everything I want it to do and much more, and at a very salient price point. I have one complaint and that is that after ~30 mins of play my arms start to ache. Ergonomics could be improved, and almost certainly will be in the future.
The SteamDeck is not a portable. It doesn’t fit regular pants pockets. The performance of the battery isn’t also super impressive. Those two things needs attention.
I got a pair of the xreal air glasses to use with the deck. Now I have a big screen and I can keep my arms down where they’re comfy. 7/5 would recommend.
xreal air glasses
That looks sick, but it costs about as much as the Steam Deck itself. Maybe if I win a lottery.
I got the original ones not the fancy new ones on ebay for £112, the cable was broken and the nose pads were missing but I bought some foam pads and a new cable for £15.
Absolutly worth it. They also plug into my phone for watching movies and shows. I work away from home a lot and the glasses along with noise cancelling headphones are brilliant at blocking out all the idiots who’d otherwise think they could talk to me.
I also have pain in my arms and neck after playing with the Deck in handheld mode. I had the same with my kids’s Switch and don’t have it with my Playstation 5, so I guess it’s related to the form factor and not necessarly to any flaw in ergonomics.
This is my main issue with it, it is so uncomfortable. It is too large, weighty and the buttons are not all comfortably placed in my opinion.
The PS Vita feels so much better in hand but then becomes a bit cramped after a few hours play so I’d really love something in between the two for me personally.
I have large hands and steam deck is the first console that feels right. But I guess that proves your point.
This year I made a ‘promise’ to play the top 20 NES games as when I was a child/teen I never managed to beat any of those.
Steam Deck is such a boon that I can play my nostalgia games one hour before when I go to bed instead of doom scrolling reddit or whatever.
And I have actually beaten smb 1 and ninja gaiden (with save states) and megaman 2 without any saves and I feel so good!
Not on a steam deck, but I did buy another PC based handheld.
As a Dad with a somewhat demanding job, I don’t get a lot of time on my gaming PC anymore. Having something that’s not squirreled away in a corner that turns on/off quickly has made it a lot easier game somewhat more casually.
I’m generally happy with the performance of my handled, but there is some tension between most of the steam games I’m trying to play on it and the realities of a hand held.
For example, many games on steam are designed for larger screens. Sure, they’ll render fine on a small screen, but things that were very obvious on a large screen can become harder to spot because the game designers could assume more real estate.
I also find myself gravitating toward games that were either built for a console or PC games that don’t require a lot of keyboard actions. For example, I’m presently playing through the original Borderlands after having last played it on PC quite a while ago. I don’t think I would attempt StarCraft II on my handheld though.
Heck yeah!
A very good friend gifted me one when he upgraded to the oled model, and it totally brought back my love of gaming. I hadn’t really been able to because of health issues, what with not being able to stay at my desk very long.
But this sucker? It’s running everything I’ve thrown at it so far. Baldur’s gate 3, and 2. Genshin. Stuff like stardew valley.
The worst one to get set up was genshin because they insist on having their own launcher. Makes updates a pain in the ass. Luckily, I don’t play it often, so I don’t care much lol.
I can be in bed, on the couch, even in the john if I want to, and enjoy the hell out of the experience. Worst case, I might have to fiddle with settings if the game doesn’t have native controller support, or piddle with stuff like heroic or lutris if a game is pissy installing.
Emulation is top notch on it too. I go back and forth playing Steam games and emulated games.
I’ve been replaying a ton of games I played as a kid. Even stuff I was playing as a teen/young adult in the 360 era sometimes works on this thing!
I tried emulation, but I really struggle with the different button graphics showing when emulating PS2 or Gamecube games. I don’t know which button X is supposed to be. :\
If you like those Anime gatcha games try Wuthering waves it’s free on Steam and since the last update it’s approved for the steam deck. I installed it and it works great
I don’t own one, and I don’t plan to buy one.
But I love it because it’s enabled Linux support for basically every game I could want.
So now, outside of work, I can have a blissfully Windows-free existence.
I actually bought it with the idea it would be my new laptop (justify it) but I use it so much for gaming I dropped that idea.
I love mine too, but I feel like using non-steam games ain’t so easy (controllers layout settings issues) and the switch between docked/handheld mode should be improved.
But yeah it’s clearly a great machine giving you access to so many cheap games 👍
Have yet to test the Deck or any other portable console-like PCs, but about Linux it is pretty straightforward nowadays for running Windows games, mostly requiring some occasional tweaks and troubleshooting, but nothing major. _
Also in the topic of facilitating usage, maybe you’d be interested in checking Heroic Launcher if you have games on Amazon Prime, EGS and/or GOG? Makes running the respective platforms’ games pretty easy too.
Thanks, didn’t know about Heroic Launcher, will try it out for GOG games
I installed this launcher I got a bunch of „free“ games from Amazon prime works great
Lutris too. As far as ease of use goes, nothing beats SteamOS. Nothing. It’s the closest to fully featured plug&play I’ve ever seen, it all just works.
I love mine. Being able to play Baldur’s Gate 3 on a handheld feels insane, never mind playing it multiplayer with a bunch of mods and it still running fairly smoothly. They’ve really improved the rendering for BG3 since the final patch came out. Emudeck has been great for reliving some childhood nostalgia as well.
Saying that, 90% of the time I’m using it as a balatro machine.
I like it. I just wish they’d fix the always downloading shader precache bug. I don’t want to always be downloading, Valve.
I think you have to go into desktop mode to find the setting to disable shader pre-caching but it’s 100% better with it disabled!
What exactly is happening when it’s downloading that stuff.
I haven’t really thought about it.
