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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

#281
post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, if Valve gives their Steam Machines concept another go with their much improved compatibility and operating system, I think they may have an actual chance. They'll need to come up with a replacement for their terrible Steam controller that tried and failed to be a mouse, but if they just stick the two sides of the Deck together I think they're already almost there. They'd also need to keep costs down like t…

Out of curiosity, did you personally actually use the steam controller? From what I've read/heard, it was a bit tough to get used to, but appreciated by many. My impression was also that the steam deck touch pads were just the next step in [the steam controller]'s evolution, rather than something else altogether. All of that being said, I've unfortunately never had the opportunity to try it myself, so I don't really…

I have one. I wanted to like it, but it just lacked. The feedback on the large directional buttons is limited, the controller isn't terribly comfortable to hold, and the ABXY buttons are at quite an awkward position. The trackpad to play PC games was an interesting idea, but it just didn't work for me because it lacked precision or range.

My biggest issue is that the touchpad lack precision that a normal joystick would provide, and you need quite some force to push the directional buttons underneath the DPAD.

It wasn't a complete design failure. I do miss the button on the end of the triggers, that was a smart choice. I find the Deck paddles a lot harder to press than the ones on the Steam controller.

The deck took everything the Steam controller tried to do and just did it better. The trackpads is still there, including the force feedback, but it's no longer used in place of usual controls.

With these lessons learned, I think Valve will be able to design an awesome controller!

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

#282
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is for me, personally. I moved over in 2022 to PopOS and haven't looked back once. Gaming is good (even better than Windows for some titles, like Elden Ring). Coding is better. Web-browsing is identical. OS annoyances are vastly better. I can stream myself playing Cyberpunk on Twitch, I can edit images in Krita. There's nothing I want to do on desktop Linux that I can't anymore. That's really kind of insane for me…

what GPU do you have in your desktop? I have a Nvidia 3070 and have been hesitant to switch over as I heard the support isn't as good as AMD

The easiest thing to do would be to just try it as long as your distro packages or otherwise manages the nvidia driver (which PopOS does). I don’t use desktop Linux anymore, but when I had a 2060 I dual-booted it with Arch (btw) and it worked fine except for the whole EGLStreams-instead-of-GBM-for-Wayland thing - and that’s since been resolved.

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

#283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like it. I use it fairly frequently too. The killer feature: instant on/off AKA 'Pause'. I've had a single-player game of CIV5 going for MONTHS now. The Steam Deck is PERFECT for pick it up, play for 5 minutes (or a couple of hours), pause it, and resume later. I have 2 main use-cases: -couch-playing. When the Wife-unit is watching her shows, or I get bored but still want to be in the same area as her; I can play t…

I've been on the fence about getting one. The one thing that's slowing down my decision making is whether or not the matte anti-glare screen is worth the premium price, or if the regular screen glare is fine enough inside. Also seen some people say a screen protector works, but can bubble with the heat. Happen to have any insight on this? $360 vs $540 on sale right now is tempting. Upgrading the storage to a larger N…

I have the 256GB version which has regular screen. Glare hasn't bothered me inside at all in the year and a half I've owned it. However, I have not played it outside - in the shade / twilight it may be OK depending on your personal threshold. In sunlight, forget about it :)

FWIW I've added a microSD card and it's fine. Updating the internal nVME is not on my radar, because the whole point of SteamDeck, for me and my personal use, is for it to be "play and forget", as opposed to a hobby in and of itself :). YMMV :-)

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

#284

Though I've long since given up on my gaming days, I purchased a Steam deck last month, mostly out of impulse. I'm frankly astonished at the amount of playable games, and also the amount of quality indie games out there. I spent $50 picking on-sale indies and quickly had a backlog. Its been more enjoyable (and surprisingly comfortable) than I expected too. I'm definitely in the very casual crowd at this point, gaming…

PSA: Two of my favorite games, Limbo and Inside, are on sale now for a bundle deal of $3. That’s a great value.

Inside was an amazing game. The feeling of the environments you go through is just indescribable, like a combination of megalophobia/submechanophobia and mystery.

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

#285

I cannot sing high enough praises for the Steam Deck. I am someone who virtually never plays computer games. One exception is Flatout 2 which is a game I really like and would sit down to play for an hour or two every year or so in the past ten years. But in that decade I have switched to macOS and even though there is a Flatout 2 port in the App Store, it is 32 bit and thus not playable anymore either. I bought the…

Ah, I'd forgotten how much fun Flatout was! Used to have a blast playing that, Burnout, and Carmageddon. Lately I've been playing Redout Enhanced Edition which was free on Epic awhile back. Bought a new controller to play it.

I considered getting a Steam Deck, but I just don't see myself carrying it around to play it somewhere else. And if I'm going to be here in my comfy chair at my computer with a big screen anyway, it doesn't make sense.

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

#286

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.

But were they failed experiments if they led to this? Apple did the same thing with random features like LIDAR scanners in phones that you have no reason to use. Everyone questioned their thinking. Turned out they were doing that in order to make the best VR headset ever made.

As individual commercial products, they were failures, yes. They weren't kept in-house or released only as dev-kits; they attempted to commercialize them and failed badly. I'm glad they learned from the experience!

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

#287

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?

Cannot recommend Adam Millard's youtube channel enough. Every year he reviews his top games, many of them make it to my wishlist. ex. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0Eo7fwGBJ4 You can have a look at other years as well.

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

#288

Sometimes I find the Proton version of a game working better than native. For example Pathfinder Kingmaker which has some kind of interface bug that makes it difficulty to progress after a certain point because the kingdom management interface doesn’t work correctly. Loaded proton version, no bug and the performance is waaaaay better. Smooth gameplay. I’m guessing here that native games are often linked to some SDL v…

https://www.techradar.com/news/steam-deck-plays-elden-ring-b...

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

#289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW you can use the Steam UI to configure any controller if you launch big picture mode on desktop. I've used it to remap my Stadia controller and an Xbox controller and it works almost as good as the Deck configuration. I say almost as good, because the "Steam button + joystick" mouse controls don't work for very long; the Xbox button gets mapped to the Steam button, but holding that will turn off the controller...

Oh awesome. I suppose you can also do the menu overlays? Obviously there's no track pad to put them on but I imagine could work well mapped to eg a left joystick.

Sure can! I'm not sure how the touch menu is supposed to be operated, but radial and hotbar menus are available for sure.

The UI is quite clearly designed for use with a touchpad, so your mileage may vary, but it works okay in my tests.

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

#290
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also love that feature for the exact same reason! Somewhat disappointed with Outer Wilds though ;)

Outer Wilds was an incredible, absolutely unforgettable experience for me. What didn't you like about it?

Outer Wilds gave me plenty of enjoyment, but isn’t a favorite. I got through nearly the entire game on my own. Near the end there were two sequences (the collapsing ground area and the sandy/thorny area) where I knew roughly where I wanted to go, but making a single mistake meant restarting from scratch, then sitting and waiting about eight minutes for the stars to align so I could try again. I finally resorted to a guide to navigate those two paths.

Later, I found the final sequence so frustrating that I gave up and watched the rest on YouTube—and was glad I did, because that ending would not have landed for me, at all. It reminded me (to its detriment) of Majora’s Mask, a game that actually did a good job of convincing me to care about the NPCs and their situations over the course of the story.

Funnily enough, Outer Wilds has been on my mind lately, because I just played through Tunic, a different (and for me, much more enjoyable) take on the “play the game blind” concept.

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