8 ms·

The killer features of the Steam Deck

135 points by lawn 3y ago

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
tomerbd 3y ago
Call me old fashioned I just read the Holy Bible before opening intellij at morning for 2-5 minutes. And at the end of the day close intellij the 15min of Talmud.
user3939382 3y ago
I wasn’t sure if I’d end up using it, but I got one after realizing how many 4-key shortcuts I need in my IDE. I created some nice colored keys for my IDE and especially the step debugger and haven’t looked back.
- WithinReason 3y ago
  "Steam Deck" vs. "Stream Deck"
- barterr 3y ago
  Are you talking about a stream deck?
- mariusor 3y ago
  Did you make a confusion that TFA is about the "Stream Deck"? The Steam Deck is a game console. :P
  - user3939382 3y ago
    lol I’m so dumb.
    - madeofpalk 3y ago
      Confusingly, the Steam Deck and Stream Deck 2 were announced just days apart.
WithinReason 3y ago
I agree that 1 second sleep is an amazing feature of the Steam Deck. It's also worth figuring out the ins and outs of Steam input: Sequences of keypresses with specific delays, gyro as mouse, repeating presses, use of back buttons, etc.
- nkozyra 3y ago
  Sleep is instantaneous but resume is more like 4-5 seconds (sometimes a bit more) than 1 second. Which is not a complaint, it's still incredible to stop and restart gaming like that but it's worth pointing out. I love this thing and I haven't even bothered with emulation yet. The library is obviously great because it's steams library but I don't love how they push you to the (slightly limited) great on steam titles because if they included compatible ones there would appear to be much more. A lot of the games that are not listed as great on steam are in fact great on steam but you need an onscreen keyboard at some point for five seconds and it gets dinged. I think they need a "almost great on steam" designator to let people know this.
  - WithinReason 3y ago
    > I think they need a "almost great on steam" designator to let people know this. There is an equivalent called ProtonDB Badges which is a plugin for Decky: https://github.com/OMGDuke/protondb-decky https://github.com/OMGDuke/protondb-decky It contains crowd sourced badges from ProtonDB from what are typically "advanced users"
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
j7ake 3y ago
Are these features also available for Nintendo switch ?
- chalsprhebaodu 3y ago
  Access to your existing steam library? No.
- manojlds 3y ago
  Did you even open the article?
torginus 3y ago
One of the first sentences in the article stuck out to me: >I wanted my kids to play games instead of passively consuming endless amounts of YouTube. I'm kinda surprised that modern parents consider watching youtube a worse activity than gaming.
- bombcar 3y ago
  In an old Wodehouse school story the kids are being chastised for reading Great Expectations by Dickens instead of their schoolwork.
- jdhawk 3y ago
  I'd still rather have them play in the real world over either, but at least its a semi-active activity (problem solving, hand eye coordination?) vs a purely consumptive one.
- omneity 3y ago
  Barring bad time-management habits, gaming stimulates and develops both motor and intellectual skills, and offers a safe and sandboxed environment to experiment and get exposed with various topics. (YMMV with multiplayer games, but that's also an experience in and of itself) Watching content is a passive activity. At best you're accumulating information.
  - veeti 3y ago
    It's also a great medium for learning English, if you are not a native speaker.
    - imp0cat 3y ago
      Gaming or youtube? It's a trick question, both are great.
      - bartvk 3y ago
        Yup. And gaming as in board/roleplaying-games too.
bullen 3y ago
The only showstoppers are the screen is too small to code on and battery life is too short.
- JKCalhoun 3y ago
  Yeah, dock solves both. But I expect you're wanting a mobile device.
- madeofpalk 3y ago
  > screen is too small to code on That's like saying VS Code not running on the Nintendo Switch is a showstopper. Technically true for a usecase no one agrees is appropriate for it. Get the dock for the Steam Deck and you can plug a real keyboard, mouse, and monitor into it :)
- LegitShady 3y ago
  buy a laptop?
  - bullen 3y ago
    For somebody who is used to old IBM ThinkPads (600X and X61s, I stopped moving around after that) this is not an option. The only possible device I would consider using is a JH7110 tablet with bluetooth keyboard and mouse. But it has to be low res screen and the GPU driver has to be perfect.
    - LegitShady 3y ago
      Do you think a tablet and bt kb/mouse is more similar to a thinkpad than a modern day thinkpad? I don't understand what point you seem to be making here. You can absolutely get another laptop. There's nothing keeping you stuck except you.
      - bullen 3y ago
        Modern laptops are complete garbage. I had a 200X at my last job it was slow (DDR4 is so much slower than DDR3 when in a low power laptop) and the screens are to high res, can't read anything without zooming and then it looks bad. That combined with weight and bulk. The drivers being crap too. And a bunch of things I forgot... like price etc. makes it unviable. We need cheap, open hardware and software. No big companies involved.
thatnerdyguy 3y ago
Totally agree the sleep is the killer feature. I will have to quibble with Overcooked resulting in "collaborate with each other in a very nice way" ... when more often than not you end up screaming at your loved ones "I TOLD YOU TO GRAB THE F*CKING ONIONS!!!"
- nolroz 3y ago
  No game can lead the family into anger and resentment faster then overcooked.
  - mmh0000 3y ago
    My wife and I used to play overcooked… Now we call it the "divorce game". We don't play it anymore.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
    A true modern successor to Monopoly:)
  - galkk 3y ago
    Settlers of Catan would like to have a word with you.
hoseja 3y ago
Oh wow the sleep feature sounds magical. Kudos for actually managing to implement it, shame it's not more ubiquitous. OTOH, does the Deck still ship without Hall-effect sticks?
- Arch-TK 3y ago
  Yes but you can retrofit them (either immediately or if/when they start to drift) which I get is not as good as having them OOTB but on the other hand, I don't have nearly enough time to play games to have to worry about stick drift for probably a good few years.
sebstefan 3y ago
The fact that they opened up the OS completely is such a shock in the corporate landscape we live in. I should buy one just for that, it's such a great move for the consumer and it's sad that we've come to expect the opposite.
- zirgs 3y ago
  Yes, turns out that you can have a successful console without locking it down.
  - Novosell 3y ago
    It's not really a console though.
    - garfij 3y ago
      Why isn't it? My gut reaction is that I don't agree with you, but I can't immediately put into words why. I think it's possibly that I view a "console" for gaming as a combination of a form factor and development environment and this seems to fit that bill. I'm interested to hear the other side though.
      - Novosell 3y ago
        To me a console comes with a lot of restrictions. Good luck loading entirely arbitrary code on your PS5. This doesn't hold as true for older consoles, but they still hardly try to help you. Getting a normal desktop session on the Deck is trivial. At that point, what's the difference between me opening Big Picture Mode on my desktop PC and calling it a console? The fact it's not a static hardware stack, I guess? I think we'll struggle to nail down what a "console" is, cause the steam deck has a lot more in common with my desktop PC, primarily used for gaming, than it does with a NES.
    - zirgs 3y ago
      You could install Linux on a PS3 - it is still a game console, because that's its primary purpose.
assbuttbuttass 3y ago
Another killer feature: cloud sync. I've been playing Baldur's Gate 3 recently, and it's an amazing experience to seamlessly switch between playing on my PC, and on the couch with my steam deck
snide 3y ago
I know it's not as popular, but when evaluating handhelds I decided to go with a Logitech G Cloud instead. I don't see it come up as often, so I thought I'd introduce folks to it. Here was my reasoning. Ergonomics. It's a handheld. If it's not comfortable for long-term play then it really doesn't matter what capabilities it has. The core ergonomics and weight of the G cloud is the best of any handheld. Battery life: Similar to the above. It's a handheld. Steam decks just don't have the capacity to last very long on the move. The G cloud, which is either doing light emulation or streaming games from someplace else doesn't need to do much. It's essentially a phone with a nice screen. When I saw the battery life of the Steam Deck it didn't matter that I had two decades of games with Steam. I'm not carrying around something that bulky with a fan on a trip to Europe.The few times I need to go on the move without a good connection I'm happy enough to emulate something or play an Android game on it. I just don't see how people play SDs without having a power cord nearby, resting them on your knees. As an alternate to a gaming computer the Steam Deck is great, as a support device that targets being a handheld I think things like G Cloud and the Odin are a better target. The downsides are that it's Android based and altogether a different category. For handheld gaming I wanted something portable that I could play casually. The minor, occasional input or stream lag isn't as big a deal in these scenarios. I'm not playing competitive Counter-Strike on this thing. I also acknowledge that the G Cloud might not last long in production! The Steam Deck is popular, and the G Cloud might not get support 10 years down the road from Logitech. These portable devices all will need upgrades / updates and I figured I could wait till the next cycle regardless.
- viraptor 3y ago
  > Steam decks just don't have the capacity to last very long on the move. This really depends on the game. A long game of one of the new dooms? Unlikely. Disco Elysium, or something largely 2D? No problem. > I just don't see how people play SDs without having a power cord nearby, resting them on your knees. I've done a 3h SD session on a train ride (trains and planes is also where you can't stream games) and... it's ok. Could be more comfortable, but also it's good enough.
  - snide 3y ago
neom 3y ago
First time seeing this. Is someone making it for Steam/Valve or did they build it themselves? I didn't realize they have a hardware group (admittedly last time I played a video game was around the time Unreal Tournament was released). Looks really impressive either way.
- jckahn 3y ago
  It’s developed by Valve.
- ryathal 3y ago
  Valve has released a handful of hardware pieces, though most were failures. There was the steam machine(s), which were just Linux pcs that valve put together as a response to windows thinking about going to an exclusive app store, the steam deck is really a continuation of that effort. Steam also had the link, which is actually a pretty good casting device to link a pc to a tv over wifi/ethernet, but the lag was a bit too much for gaming, especially without a wired connection. The steam controller was marketed alongside the link as a way to make a pc more like a console, it had some positive buzz, but never got super popular. Valve also released a vr headset called the Index back in the vr craze, but that whole market is pretty niche. TLDR. Valve has been making hardware for a while now, but it's mostly about proving there is a viable non-Microsoft market if they are forced out of Windows.
carlosrg 3y ago
I see he's emulating Nintendo Switch games, which is a game console actually being sold, same as the games. I see no mention of him actually buying the games he's emulating, so this effectively is piracy.
- PcChip 3y ago
  Why wouldn't you assume he owns them?
- viraptor 3y ago
  > I see no mention of him actually buying the games he's emulating, so this effectively is piracy. No, we don't know if the author bought the games or not and there's no reason to expect him to say it. Just as you didn't say you bought the computer you wrote that message on rather than steal it.
- garrettjoecox 3y ago
  Oh no. Somebody call the police
- norwalkbear 3y ago
  I emulate the switch games I own as well because the emulator can play the games in 4k with less frame drops on my gaming PC. I still play my switch on the go tho.
- cableshaft 3y ago
  I buy Switch games and play them on my Switch (bought and playing Super Mario Wonder on it right now), but I also would like to play them on my Steam Deck as well (haven't gone through that process to get Switch games working yet, only older systems, but I will eventually). For some games, it would be nice to only have to bring one portable system with me (like I own Advance Wars Reboot, but I think I'd prefer playing it on Steam Deck and being able to bring it with me along with the rest of my Steam library). Same with older systems. I own tons of retro games, but I'd rather play them on Steam Deck (especially since it has integration with Retro Achievements) than dig out my old consoles.
Greenpants 3y ago
Much like the author, I'm also really loving the Steam Deck as someone who casually plays a game or two. It really is like a more powerful Switch with the option for much more, and cheaper, games. What I'm missing in many reviews that is gladly mentioned here is the ability to use the right trackpad as a mouse. I've also played many older games in handheld, like Impossible Creatures, which are pretty much impossible if you aren't emulating a mouse. The Steam Deck delivers in this sense, which very few competing manufacturers seem to realise. As happy as the author is with the sleep & wake functionality however, as someone who only wakes the Steam Deck once every three days or so, it is unfortunately pretty common to wake my Steam Deck to an almost empty battery.
jitl 3y ago
I love my Steam Deck but about every other time I use it I’m reminded it’s Desktop Linux. For example my Bluetooth headphones will gradually lose connection over a play session and start cracking before finally going silent. Sometimes a game won’t start until I reboot the system. The on screen keyboard sometimes doesn’t show up when it’s needed, or shows up when it’s not needed. Games crash more frequently compared to other systems. Even sleep - feature everyone is raving about - doesn’t work perfectly like it does on Nintendo Switch or PlayStation. Sometimes games come back from sleep without sound, or at 15 fps until I quit and relaunch. It definitely feels more shaky and less polished than a Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, or iPhone. I still love it, but don’t expect that level of quality from it.
- squigz 3y ago
  I don't think it's fair to expect that level of quality... yet. You've named 3 companies that have been making related devices for literally decades. Valve... hasn't :P
  - mrWiz 3y ago
    Certainly it's fair to mention it, though. As a person who has never used a Steam Deck, reading about these experiences alongside the positive ones helps paint a fuller picture for me.
  - animatethrow 3y ago
    GNOME and KDE have been doing Linux desktops since the 1990s, "literally decades". At Microsoft and Apple there are evidently product managers incentivized to ensure bluetooth earbuds "just work" and do not hang the bluetooth settings app. Apple has sold more than 150M AirPods, has over $12B revenue from them, and would lose a lot of profit if they don't "just work". Core desktop Linux devs on the other hand be like, "Whatev.. I don't use bluetooth on my 24-core BeastStation. Not my problem." They have the brains and talent to make it work, but not the motivation. Open source people work on what they find interesting.
    - squigz 3y ago
grotorea 3y ago
Stupid question, but is sleep just normal PC suspend-to-RAM? Doesn't that work on normal PCs? I think I've had some games have trouble with it and graphics cards, did Valve fix that?
- jetrink 3y ago
  > is sleep just normal PC suspend-to-RAM? Doesn't that work on normal PCs? Yes, but it's very well implemented. In fact, it's so quick and dependable that if I'm playing a game and someone comes up to talk to me, I'll put the device to sleep rather than pausing. (Not for any particular reason, it's just muscle memory now.) I've played a dozen or so games of all types so far and have never had a problem with suspend yet, so it seems that Valve did put a lot of effort into it.
  - grotorea 3y ago
    Interesting. I would get nervous doing that because I've had quite a few instances of failure to wake from RAM successfully, and I think it has something to do with graphics drivers and having games running. Nice that Valve figured it out.
- cramjabsyn 3y ago
  Its a lot easier to do when you own the hardware design and drivers
moribvndvs 3y ago
I’ve been working from home for a long time now and, in addition to being over the hill and too exhausted from work and life in general, I’ve somewhat recently hit a wall with gaming where it feels too much like work (to game, I sit at the same desk, in the same office, just switch monitor and input to a different computer). It has really depressed the hell out of me. I had the good fortune of a friend selling the top end Deck for very cheap and I gotta say it reinvigorated gaming for me. I can simply go somewhere else in the house, plop down, and get right to it. The usual anxiety or exhaustion that prevents me from firing up my gaming PC is gone. I’m finding myself more motivated to try the plethora of older or lower spec games that have been languishing in my library that are actually really fun and easy to drop into casually, unlike the chain of disappointment that AAA gaming has become. I can put in a headphone and play something casual next to my partner if they’re doing something else, and they have appreciated that rather than me locking myself way for an entire day. I did try a Switch but the hardware and OS was too limited and closed off. The exclusives are largely uninteresting to me, and I don’t want to have to buy titles twice if I already have it and want to jump a title onto more powerful hardware (it’s nice that I can casually mess around with Baldur’s Gate 3 but if I’m really in the zone I can fire it up on PC to get buttery frame rates and full visual glory for deeper immersion). That’s the killer feature for me: helping me enjoy gaming again. Unfortunately, the right shoulder button stopped working and I had to send it in to be fixed. It should be back tomorrow and I cannot fucking wait. When’s the last time I’ve been excited about anything gaming related? As an aside: if you start working from home permanently or a long period of time, my unsolicited advice is to keep your workspace in a separate area from leisure if it’s possible, otherwise one will ruin the other. I was fine for _years_ in a combined office/den but around the time of the quarantine it flipped in my head and now it feels like I’m chained to my desk permanently.
- squigz 3y ago
  > I’ve been working from home for a long time now and, in addition to being over the hill and too exhausted from work and life in general, I’ve somewhat recently hit a wall with gaming where it feels too much like work (to game, I sit at the same desk, in the same office, just switch monitor and input to a different computer). It has really depressed the hell out of me. This is related to why a lot of people feel working from home is more stressful or distracting than not - there's no tangible "mode switch" from "being at home" to "working", and many people struggle with that. Advice I've often heard (and given) is to a) have a separate space for work vs play, and b) have a routine in the morning that switches you to "work mode" - i.e., don't just wake up in your PJs, make a coffee, and plop down at your work station. Quick Edit: I should have finished reading your comment :)
Ivoah 3y ago
> But if you want to play through the Zelda series you’d have to collect almost every Nintendo console. Minor nit-pick, but IIRC the Wii-U can play every Nintendo made Zelda game except for Tears of the Kingdom.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- free_bip 3y ago
  Does this include gameboy games like Link's Awakening? I don't remember if it was developed by Nintendo but Oracle of seasons & ages too.
  - Ivoah 3y ago
    Yeah, that’s including the game boy games as they are (were?) available on Virtual Console. I put the “Nintendo made” qualifier to exclude the CD-i games
- staticman2 3y ago
  WII U can't play 3ds games, so no that's not correct. It also can't play gamecube games unless you hack it, if I recall correctly, so that excludes the obsure 4 Swords gamecube came which was never ported. Incidently Steam Deck can't do 3ds games well either, apparently AMD support for the 3ds emulators are very bad.
deafpolygon 3y ago
I'm not so sure the person should be advertising that they play Nintendo Switch games on the Steam Deck. Clearly, we're not at the point where dumping Switch games are exactly legal- and it's not likely the person dumped their own legally-purchased Switch games. I mean, it seems like something that would ruffle Nintendo's feathers and get them in a heckle. Maybe I'm wrong. Aside from that, I'm on board with all of the other bullet points raised. Especially #1.

135 points by lawn 3y ago

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

Call me old fashioned I just read the Holy Bible before opening intellij at morning for 2-5 minutes. And at the end of the day close intellij the 15min of Talmud.

user3939382 3y ago

I wasn’t sure if I’d end up using it, but I got one after realizing how many 4-key shortcuts I need in my IDE. I created some nice colored keys for my IDE and especially the step debugger and haven’t looked back.

WithinReason 3y ago
"Steam Deck" vs. "Stream Deck"
barterr 3y ago
Are you talking about a stream deck?
mariusor 3y ago
Did you make a confusion that TFA is about the "Stream Deck"? The Steam Deck is a game console. :P
- user3939382 3y ago
  lol I’m so dumb.
  - madeofpalk 3y ago
    Confusingly, the Steam Deck and Stream Deck 2 were announced just days apart.

WithinReason 3y ago

I agree that 1 second sleep is an amazing feature of the Steam Deck. It's also worth figuring out the ins and outs of Steam input: Sequences of keypresses with specific delays, gyro as mouse, repeating presses, use of back buttons, etc.

nkozyra 3y ago
Sleep is instantaneous but resume is more like 4-5 seconds (sometimes a bit more) than 1 second. Which is not a complaint, it's still incredible to stop and restart gaming like that but it's worth pointing out. I love this thing and I haven't even bothered with emulation yet. The library is obviously great because it's steams library but I don't love how they push you to the (slightly limited) great on steam titles because if they included compatible ones there would appear to be much more. A lot of the games that are not listed as great on steam are in fact great on steam but you need an onscreen keyboard at some point for five seconds and it gets dinged. I think they need a "almost great on steam" designator to let people know this.
- WithinReason 3y ago
  > I think they need a "almost great on steam" designator to let people know this. There is an equivalent called ProtonDB Badges which is a plugin for Decky: https://github.com/OMGDuke/protondb-decky https://github.com/OMGDuke/protondb-decky It contains crowd sourced badges from ProtonDB from what are typically "advanced users"
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

j7ake 3y ago

Are these features also available for Nintendo switch ?

chalsprhebaodu 3y ago
Access to your existing steam library? No.
manojlds 3y ago
Did you even open the article?

torginus 3y ago

One of the first sentences in the article stuck out to me: >I wanted my kids to play games instead of passively consuming endless amounts of YouTube. I'm kinda surprised that modern parents consider watching youtube a worse activity than gaming.

bombcar 3y ago
In an old Wodehouse school story the kids are being chastised for reading Great Expectations by Dickens instead of their schoolwork.
jdhawk 3y ago
I'd still rather have them play in the real world over either, but at least its a semi-active activity (problem solving, hand eye coordination?) vs a purely consumptive one.
omneity 3y ago
Barring bad time-management habits, gaming stimulates and develops both motor and intellectual skills, and offers a safe and sandboxed environment to experiment and get exposed with various topics. (YMMV with multiplayer games, but that's also an experience in and of itself) Watching content is a passive activity. At best you're accumulating information.
- veeti 3y ago
  It's also a great medium for learning English, if you are not a native speaker.
  - imp0cat 3y ago
    Gaming or youtube? It's a trick question, both are great.
    - bartvk 3y ago
      Yup. And gaming as in board/roleplaying-games too.

bullen 3y ago

The only showstoppers are the screen is too small to code on and battery life is too short.

JKCalhoun 3y ago
Yeah, dock solves both. But I expect you're wanting a mobile device.
madeofpalk 3y ago
> screen is too small to code on That's like saying VS Code not running on the Nintendo Switch is a showstopper. Technically true for a usecase no one agrees is appropriate for it. Get the dock for the Steam Deck and you can plug a real keyboard, mouse, and monitor into it :)
LegitShady 3y ago
buy a laptop?
- bullen 3y ago
  For somebody who is used to old IBM ThinkPads (600X and X61s, I stopped moving around after that) this is not an option. The only possible device I would consider using is a JH7110 tablet with bluetooth keyboard and mouse. But it has to be low res screen and the GPU driver has to be perfect.
  - LegitShady 3y ago
    Do you think a tablet and bt kb/mouse is more similar to a thinkpad than a modern day thinkpad? I don't understand what point you seem to be making here. You can absolutely get another laptop. There's nothing keeping you stuck except you.
    - bullen 3y ago
      Modern laptops are complete garbage. I had a 200X at my last job it was slow (DDR4 is so much slower than DDR3 when in a low power laptop) and the screens are to high res, can't read anything without zooming and then it looks bad. That combined with weight and bulk. The drivers being crap too. And a bunch of things I forgot... like price etc. makes it unviable. We need cheap, open hardware and software. No big companies involved.

thatnerdyguy 3y ago

Totally agree the sleep is the killer feature. I will have to quibble with Overcooked resulting in "collaborate with each other in a very nice way" ... when more often than not you end up screaming at your loved ones "I TOLD YOU TO GRAB THE F*CKING ONIONS!!!"

nolroz 3y ago
No game can lead the family into anger and resentment faster then overcooked.
- mmh0000 3y ago
  My wife and I used to play overcooked… Now we call it the "divorce game". We don't play it anymore.
- yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
  A true modern successor to Monopoly:)
- galkk 3y ago
  Settlers of Catan would like to have a word with you.

hoseja 3y ago

Oh wow the sleep feature sounds magical. Kudos for actually managing to implement it, shame it's not more ubiquitous. OTOH, does the Deck still ship without Hall-effect sticks?

Arch-TK 3y ago
Yes but you can retrofit them (either immediately or if/when they start to drift) which I get is not as good as having them OOTB but on the other hand, I don't have nearly enough time to play games to have to worry about stick drift for probably a good few years.

sebstefan 3y ago

The fact that they opened up the OS completely is such a shock in the corporate landscape we live in. I should buy one just for that, it's such a great move for the consumer and it's sad that we've come to expect the opposite.

zirgs 3y ago
Yes, turns out that you can have a successful console without locking it down.
- Novosell 3y ago
  It's not really a console though.
  - garfij 3y ago
    Why isn't it? My gut reaction is that I don't agree with you, but I can't immediately put into words why. I think it's possibly that I view a "console" for gaming as a combination of a form factor and development environment and this seems to fit that bill. I'm interested to hear the other side though.
    - Novosell 3y ago
      To me a console comes with a lot of restrictions. Good luck loading entirely arbitrary code on your PS5. This doesn't hold as true for older consoles, but they still hardly try to help you. Getting a normal desktop session on the Deck is trivial. At that point, what's the difference between me opening Big Picture Mode on my desktop PC and calling it a console? The fact it's not a static hardware stack, I guess? I think we'll struggle to nail down what a "console" is, cause the steam deck has a lot more in common with my desktop PC, primarily used for gaming, than it does with a NES.
  - zirgs 3y ago
    You could install Linux on a PS3 - it is still a game console, because that's its primary purpose.

assbuttbuttass 3y ago

Another killer feature: cloud sync. I've been playing Baldur's Gate 3 recently, and it's an amazing experience to seamlessly switch between playing on my PC, and on the couch with my steam deck

snide 3y ago

I know it's not as popular, but when evaluating handhelds I decided to go with a Logitech G Cloud instead. I don't see it come up as often, so I thought I'd introduce folks to it. Here was my reasoning. Ergonomics. It's a handheld. If it's not comfortable for long-term play then it really doesn't matter what capabilities it has. The core ergonomics and weight of the G cloud is the best of any handheld. Battery life: Similar to the above. It's a handheld. Steam decks just don't have the capacity to last very long on the move. The G cloud, which is either doing light emulation or streaming games from someplace else doesn't need to do much. It's essentially a phone with a nice screen. When I saw the battery life of the Steam Deck it didn't matter that I had two decades of games with Steam. I'm not carrying around something that bulky with a fan on a trip to Europe.The few times I need to go on the move without a good connection I'm happy enough to emulate something or play an Android game on it. I just don't see how people play SDs without having a power cord nearby, resting them on your knees. As an alternate to a gaming computer the Steam Deck is great, as a support device that targets being a handheld I think things like G Cloud and the Odin are a better target. The downsides are that it's Android based and altogether a different category. For handheld gaming I wanted something portable that I could play casually. The minor, occasional input or stream lag isn't as big a deal in these scenarios. I'm not playing competitive Counter-Strike on this thing. I also acknowledge that the G Cloud might not last long in production! The Steam Deck is popular, and the G Cloud might not get support 10 years down the road from Logitech. These portable devices all will need upgrades / updates and I figured I could wait till the next cycle regardless.

viraptor 3y ago
> Steam decks just don't have the capacity to last very long on the move. This really depends on the game. A long game of one of the new dooms? Unlikely. Disco Elysium, or something largely 2D? No problem. > I just don't see how people play SDs without having a power cord nearby, resting them on your knees. I've done a 3h SD session on a train ride (trains and planes is also where you can't stream games) and... it's ok. Could be more comfortable, but also it's good enough.
- snide 3y ago

neom 3y ago

First time seeing this. Is someone making it for Steam/Valve or did they build it themselves? I didn't realize they have a hardware group (admittedly last time I played a video game was around the time Unreal Tournament was released). Looks really impressive either way.

jckahn 3y ago
It’s developed by Valve.
ryathal 3y ago
Valve has released a handful of hardware pieces, though most were failures. There was the steam machine(s), which were just Linux pcs that valve put together as a response to windows thinking about going to an exclusive app store, the steam deck is really a continuation of that effort. Steam also had the link, which is actually a pretty good casting device to link a pc to a tv over wifi/ethernet, but the lag was a bit too much for gaming, especially without a wired connection. The steam controller was marketed alongside the link as a way to make a pc more like a console, it had some positive buzz, but never got super popular. Valve also released a vr headset called the Index back in the vr craze, but that whole market is pretty niche. TLDR. Valve has been making hardware for a while now, but it's mostly about proving there is a viable non-Microsoft market if they are forced out of Windows.

carlosrg 3y ago

I see he's emulating Nintendo Switch games, which is a game console actually being sold, same as the games. I see no mention of him actually buying the games he's emulating, so this effectively is piracy.

PcChip 3y ago
Why wouldn't you assume he owns them?
viraptor 3y ago
> I see no mention of him actually buying the games he's emulating, so this effectively is piracy. No, we don't know if the author bought the games or not and there's no reason to expect him to say it. Just as you didn't say you bought the computer you wrote that message on rather than steal it.
garrettjoecox 3y ago
Oh no. Somebody call the police
norwalkbear 3y ago
I emulate the switch games I own as well because the emulator can play the games in 4k with less frame drops on my gaming PC. I still play my switch on the go tho.
cableshaft 3y ago
I buy Switch games and play them on my Switch (bought and playing Super Mario Wonder on it right now), but I also would like to play them on my Steam Deck as well (haven't gone through that process to get Switch games working yet, only older systems, but I will eventually). For some games, it would be nice to only have to bring one portable system with me (like I own Advance Wars Reboot, but I think I'd prefer playing it on Steam Deck and being able to bring it with me along with the rest of my Steam library). Same with older systems. I own tons of retro games, but I'd rather play them on Steam Deck (especially since it has integration with Retro Achievements) than dig out my old consoles.

Greenpants 3y ago

Much like the author, I'm also really loving the Steam Deck as someone who casually plays a game or two. It really is like a more powerful Switch with the option for much more, and cheaper, games. What I'm missing in many reviews that is gladly mentioned here is the ability to use the right trackpad as a mouse. I've also played many older games in handheld, like Impossible Creatures, which are pretty much impossible if you aren't emulating a mouse. The Steam Deck delivers in this sense, which very few competing manufacturers seem to realise. As happy as the author is with the sleep & wake functionality however, as someone who only wakes the Steam Deck once every three days or so, it is unfortunately pretty common to wake my Steam Deck to an almost empty battery.

jitl 3y ago

I love my Steam Deck but about every other time I use it I’m reminded it’s Desktop Linux. For example my Bluetooth headphones will gradually lose connection over a play session and start cracking before finally going silent. Sometimes a game won’t start until I reboot the system. The on screen keyboard sometimes doesn’t show up when it’s needed, or shows up when it’s not needed. Games crash more frequently compared to other systems. Even sleep - feature everyone is raving about - doesn’t work perfectly like it does on Nintendo Switch or PlayStation. Sometimes games come back from sleep without sound, or at 15 fps until I quit and relaunch. It definitely feels more shaky and less polished than a Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, or iPhone. I still love it, but don’t expect that level of quality from it.

squigz 3y ago
I don't think it's fair to expect that level of quality... yet. You've named 3 companies that have been making related devices for literally decades. Valve... hasn't :P
- mrWiz 3y ago
  Certainly it's fair to mention it, though. As a person who has never used a Steam Deck, reading about these experiences alongside the positive ones helps paint a fuller picture for me.
- animatethrow 3y ago
  GNOME and KDE have been doing Linux desktops since the 1990s, "literally decades". At Microsoft and Apple there are evidently product managers incentivized to ensure bluetooth earbuds "just work" and do not hang the bluetooth settings app. Apple has sold more than 150M AirPods, has over $12B revenue from them, and would lose a lot of profit if they don't "just work". Core desktop Linux devs on the other hand be like, "Whatev.. I don't use bluetooth on my 24-core BeastStation. Not my problem." They have the brains and talent to make it work, but not the motivation. Open source people work on what they find interesting.
  - squigz 3y ago

grotorea 3y ago

Stupid question, but is sleep just normal PC suspend-to-RAM? Doesn't that work on normal PCs? I think I've had some games have trouble with it and graphics cards, did Valve fix that?

jetrink 3y ago
> is sleep just normal PC suspend-to-RAM? Doesn't that work on normal PCs? Yes, but it's very well implemented. In fact, it's so quick and dependable that if I'm playing a game and someone comes up to talk to me, I'll put the device to sleep rather than pausing. (Not for any particular reason, it's just muscle memory now.) I've played a dozen or so games of all types so far and have never had a problem with suspend yet, so it seems that Valve did put a lot of effort into it.
- grotorea 3y ago
  Interesting. I would get nervous doing that because I've had quite a few instances of failure to wake from RAM successfully, and I think it has something to do with graphics drivers and having games running. Nice that Valve figured it out.
cramjabsyn 3y ago
Its a lot easier to do when you own the hardware design and drivers

moribvndvs 3y ago

I’ve been working from home for a long time now and, in addition to being over the hill and too exhausted from work and life in general, I’ve somewhat recently hit a wall with gaming where it feels too much like work (to game, I sit at the same desk, in the same office, just switch monitor and input to a different computer). It has really depressed the hell out of me. I had the good fortune of a friend selling the top end Deck for very cheap and I gotta say it reinvigorated gaming for me. I can simply go somewhere else in the house, plop down, and get right to it. The usual anxiety or exhaustion that prevents me from firing up my gaming PC is gone. I’m finding myself more motivated to try the plethora of older or lower spec games that have been languishing in my library that are actually really fun and easy to drop into casually, unlike the chain of disappointment that AAA gaming has become. I can put in a headphone and play something casual next to my partner if they’re doing something else, and they have appreciated that rather than me locking myself way for an entire day. I did try a Switch but the hardware and OS was too limited and closed off. The exclusives are largely uninteresting to me, and I don’t want to have to buy titles twice if I already have it and want to jump a title onto more powerful hardware (it’s nice that I can casually mess around with Baldur’s Gate 3 but if I’m really in the zone I can fire it up on PC to get buttery frame rates and full visual glory for deeper immersion). That’s the killer feature for me: helping me enjoy gaming again. Unfortunately, the right shoulder button stopped working and I had to send it in to be fixed. It should be back tomorrow and I cannot fucking wait. When’s the last time I’ve been excited about anything gaming related? As an aside: if you start working from home permanently or a long period of time, my unsolicited advice is to keep your workspace in a separate area from leisure if it’s possible, otherwise one will ruin the other. I was fine for _years_ in a combined office/den but around the time of the quarantine it flipped in my head and now it feels like I’m chained to my desk permanently.

squigz 3y ago
> I’ve been working from home for a long time now and, in addition to being over the hill and too exhausted from work and life in general, I’ve somewhat recently hit a wall with gaming where it feels too much like work (to game, I sit at the same desk, in the same office, just switch monitor and input to a different computer). It has really depressed the hell out of me. This is related to why a lot of people feel working from home is more stressful or distracting than not - there's no tangible "mode switch" from "being at home" to "working", and many people struggle with that. Advice I've often heard (and given) is to a) have a separate space for work vs play, and b) have a routine in the morning that switches you to "work mode" - i.e., don't just wake up in your PJs, make a coffee, and plop down at your work station. Quick Edit: I should have finished reading your comment :)

Ivoah 3y ago

> But if you want to play through the Zelda series you’d have to collect almost every Nintendo console. Minor nit-pick, but IIRC the Wii-U can play every Nintendo made Zelda game except for Tears of the Kingdom.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
free_bip 3y ago
Does this include gameboy games like Link's Awakening? I don't remember if it was developed by Nintendo but Oracle of seasons & ages too.
- Ivoah 3y ago
  Yeah, that’s including the game boy games as they are (were?) available on Virtual Console. I put the “Nintendo made” qualifier to exclude the CD-i games
staticman2 3y ago
WII U can't play 3ds games, so no that's not correct. It also can't play gamecube games unless you hack it, if I recall correctly, so that excludes the obsure 4 Swords gamecube came which was never ported. Incidently Steam Deck can't do 3ds games well either, apparently AMD support for the 3ds emulators are very bad.

deafpolygon 3y ago

I'm not so sure the person should be advertising that they play Nintendo Switch games on the Steam Deck. Clearly, we're not at the point where dumping Switch games are exactly legal- and it's not likely the person dumped their own legally-purchased Switch games. I mean, it seems like something that would ruffle Nintendo's feathers and get them in a heckle. Maybe I'm wrong. Aside from that, I'm on board with all of the other bullet points raised. Especially #1.