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More than 75% of Steam games tested are playable or verified on the Steam Deck

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Re: More than 75% of Steam games tested are playable or verified on the Steam Deck

#221
post #127
post #9

For people that own a Steam Deck, how do you like it? And how do you use it? I would like to talk myself into buying one, but I can’t think of a decent use case.

I’ll go against the grain and say I don’t actually like mine very much and here’s why. I’ll caveat it with saying I got it for trips. - it’s underpowered. I knew that going in but so many games have to be played at either a really low setting or you chew through battery life quicker than i can manage. - battery life is pretty poor. Most games give me an hour or two of use. While I rarely game that long in a stretch,…

Maybe you were one of the unlucky ones and got the loud fan. They switched to a much quieter fan in the newer machines.

You can try to replace it with some parts from ifixit or somewhere else.

I refunded my first too because it was just too loud and I didn't had the right situation for it.

Now one kid later and a newer deck with a silent fan, I'm very happy with the deck again.

Re: More than 75% of Steam games tested are playable or verified on the Steam Deck

#222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you discover good indie games to play?

Looking through Steam sales for sub-$10 titles with "Very Positive" or "Overwhelmingly Positive" reviews is a good filter. Some of my favorites over the years include Slay the Spire, Celeste, Vampire Survivors, and FTL. Edit: How can I forget the "holy trinity" of mystery indie games? Return of the Obra Dinn, Outer Wilds, and Her Story. These are brilliant games that really make you feel like a detective.

If you haven't tried it, play The Case of the Golden Idol. I liked it as much as Return of the Obra Dinn and it was one of my GOTY last year.

Re: More than 75% of Steam games tested are playable or verified on the Steam Deck

#223
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ll go against the grain and say I don’t actually like mine very much and here’s why. I’ll caveat it with saying I got it for trips. - it’s underpowered. I knew that going in but so many games have to be played at either a really low setting or you chew through battery life quicker than i can manage. - battery life is pretty poor. Most games give me an hour or two of use. While I rarely game that long in a stretch,…

Just to add some context here. Some of this doesn't line up with my experience. - my battery life is roughly 2-4 hours depending on the game. I'm playing Yakuza like a dragon right now and the battery lasts close to 3 hours - my screen is plenty bright. I don't play in direct sunlight, but I do sit out on my porch during the day and it's fine. - I've not had an issue with it being underpowered. I played Harry Potter…

I’m glad your experience is better but I’d just point out a few things.

Battery life is heavily dependant on the games being played. Yakuza isn’t typically that demanding so I’m not surprised you’re getting more. Playing something like Forza kills my battery pretty quickly.

The screen is 400nits. It’s also not got great gamut coverage. That’s what I mean by it being dull and dim. It’s usable but it’s really dependent on the content and context what clarity is like.

Yes it can play Harry Potter but at what settings and frame rate? The capability to play a game isn’t an issue, it can play most things. But it’s essentially a mobile PS4. Which is great, but it’s also only capable of playing games at settings comparable to a downclocked PS4. Again, something I knew going in but I figured they’d have better thermal management if I was giving up more contemporary performance.

Re: More than 75% of Steam games tested are playable or verified on the Steam Deck

#224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are discovering indie games? You are in for a treat! I essentially play only indie games, with rare exceptions once or twice per year.

How do you discover good indie games to play?

Sibling answers are good but if you want to go deep, twitter/game dev mastodon is a great place. I try to follow anything that looks or sounds interesting, though it often takes years before actual release.

Re: More than 75% of Steam games tested are playable or verified on the Steam Deck

#225
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Cinema is so expensive nowadays. and that's not even taking in account the overpriced pop-corn

Nor the fact they still show ads before the movie you paid for.

I kind of wouldn't mind too much, but they start the movie around 30 minutes late just to show ads and trailers.

Re: More than 75% of Steam games tested are playable or verified on the Steam Deck

#226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mostly play managemen/city builder style games like Cities Skylines or Factorio. Have you tried any of those types of games and if so what's been your experience?

I play a ton of these on Deck. Very satisfied with it. I am also a pause - command - unpause kind of player though. But the trackpads work better than you'd expect, and often have community layouts for the controller than add things that make it even nicer than playing with mouse and keyboard (the rotary menus for city overlays are awesome)

“Better than you expect” but still not ideal. It’s doable, but I just don’t get the same enjoyment out of mouse heavy games. But with cloud save it can be great to dip in when not at the computer

Re: More than 75% of Steam games tested are playable or verified on the Steam Deck

#227
post #208

I'm currently using a Steam Deck to play through Diablo IV and it's absolutely amazing how well Diablo IV runs. Once you get it working, it works great. That being said it did take me an unbelievable amount of tinkering to get it to work. And unfortunately SteamOS comes with all of the typical bugginess you would expect from a Linux OS baked into a handheld device (keyboard disappears, trackpads stop working randomly…

Maybe you didn't know what you were doing? There are some tutorials to follow online which makes it easy.

For non-SD users reading this: you can get D4 running in about the time it takes to download Battle.net and the game itself. You basically install Battle.net on the deck, and then create a launcher from within Steam. That's it.

Re: More than 75% of Steam games tested are playable or verified on the Steam Deck

#228
post #77
post #9

For people that own a Steam Deck, how do you like it? And how do you use it? I would like to talk myself into buying one, but I can’t think of a decent use case.

I've clocked over 100 hours of playtime on mine since buying one in January. It's great. I've especially used it for reading visual novels. (Unfortunately Valve broke the per-platform playtime reporting that SteamDB had, so I can only say that I've played for at least 105 hours.)

Have you done any ie- PC-98 emulation? I've been debating whether to just host a VM dedicated to that and remote in or try running natively on the deck.

Re: More than 75% of Steam games tested are playable or verified on the Steam Deck

#229
post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to add some context here. Some of this doesn't line up with my experience. - my battery life is roughly 2-4 hours depending on the game. I'm playing Yakuza like a dragon right now and the battery lasts close to 3 hours - my screen is plenty bright. I don't play in direct sunlight, but I do sit out on my porch during the day and it's fine. - I've not had an issue with it being underpowered. I played Harry Potter…

I’m glad your experience is better but I’d just point out a few things. Battery life is heavily dependant on the games being played. Yakuza isn’t typically that demanding so I’m not surprised you’re getting more. Playing something like Forza kills my battery pretty quickly. The screen is 400nits. It’s also not got great gamut coverage. That’s what I mean by it being dull and dim. It’s usable but it’s really dependent…

I played Harry Potter on medium-high settings. If you keep the resolution at the native screen resolution and turn off things that aren't needed on a smaller screen (eg AA or super sampling), the performance is better than PS4 and roughly the same as a PS5. Performance isn't really a concern for me unless I'm plugged into an external display.

Re: More than 75% of Steam games tested are playable or verified on the Steam Deck

#230
post #147

Valve had a sequence of strange failed experiments -- the Steam Controller, Steam Machines/SteamOS, Steam Link. But somehow these all came together to make the Steam Deck which is an astounding success. I don't know if Valve are geniuses or just incredibly lucky.

It’s an overnight success that was years in the making!

Exactly. It's a really big leap for a pure software/services company to start making hardware, and there's no way you get the Steam Deck - at least not a good Steam Deck - without the experience that comes from making those earlier products.
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