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    1. Steam Deck OLED - A thought and some feelings

      I guess this is just a thing I like to do lol. I got an OLED Steam Deck and have been playing around with it for about a week, so I wanted to share what all I got. TL;DR: OLED is the definitive...

      I guess this is just a thing I like to do lol. I got an OLED Steam Deck and have been playing around with it for about a week, so I wanted to share what all I got.

      TL;DR: OLED is the definitive version of this product. If you're at all interested, whether or not budget is a concern this model is worth looking at, especially if you can actually get your hands on one to try for a bit. Words aren't quite what they need to be to get across how it looks and feels.

      The long of it:

      Valve wasn't kidding about stuff like a little performance improvement and better battery life. It feels like someone took the LCD deck and made a checklist of every single thing that could be improved, and then did it. The result is just about the best refresh of a product I've ever seen.

      The screen is the most obvious upgrade and it really is great to look at. It is a big jump to go from an LCD at 60hz, to OLED at 90hz with HDR available. As great as VibrantDeck is, no amount of color fuckery can really reproduce what is happening when you have these features. For games that support HDR, it can feel like you've actually made an upgrade, because of how differently it can handle things like bright flashes of light and particle effects on top of the color differences. The refresh rate is tied to the frame limiter by default, so when you drop the frame limit the refresh rate tends to stay double whatever that is. 40fps/80hz feels better than 40/40 to me, like stuttering just isn't as bothersome.

      Be aware it's on developers to implement HDR, which means sometimes you run into a game with a shitty implementation. FFVII R comes to mind. Just know that if you run across a game where this feature seems to make the game look terrible, it's not the device doing it.

      The improvements to the battery do mean something like a ~40% increase. Games like Armored Core VI and Elden Ring tended to last about 1.5-2 hours on the LCD model, on OLED it's more like 2.5-3, and this is the sweet spot imo. Rare that I'm gonna sit down and play for that long in the first place, so having this much power available means being able to play here and there with much less concern. Games that already played well in a low power state just get that much more time. One thing to know if you're coming from an LCD - it doesn't save your power profiles. Input profiles yes (if you saved them), but power settings need to be redone game-to-game.

      The device itself is a little lighter, and it feels like it sits in my hands a little better. The difference is minute, but noticeable, and nice. All of the buttons feel good, the sticks have slightly more resistance to them, and the trackpads are much nicer to use. In particular, the way you click the trackpads is more forgiving by default, so while it is a little easier to mis-click it feels more like using a "real" trackpad. The deck in general is the only device I find doesn't really aggravate my carpal tunnel, and the OLED model keeps that up.

      On the software side there isn't really a difference - SteamOS is more or less exactly the same with a few OLED-specific settings. Most of your info gets saved and loaded up when you log in. Cloud saves are one piece of course, but too, any controller profiles you saved will come back, and the SD card can just be freely transferred/there isn't really any setup to it. From boot to play I mostly just waited on the game to download - setting up the device was as simple as waiting for it to do an update, then log in, and that's it. It doesn't pester you to register for anything/no ads.

      Things like sleep/wake and transitioning to desktop mode are faster and more consistent. Pretty regularly, my LCD model would fail to sleep/wake correctly - I'd put it to sleep and upon waking it, it would reboot. Inconsistent but often enough to get annoyed with. With the OLED model, i notice this doesn't happen as often. It still does, but much less frequently. The improvements to the trackpads means I use desktop mode more often, it feels much nicer to navigate. All of the stuff I had before was simple to install and restore - emudeck, decky, cryoutilities all installed without any issues and worked fine after I moved over all my stuff from the first deck. Haven't hit any issues with decky plugins either.

      Even the carrying case got a pass. It's been redesigned a little, with an extra velcro fastener bit and tighter mold inside, black instead of white.

      Transferring my information was about as easy as you could do. There are several options - I mostly used KDE connect, but there's also Warpinator, and a deck plugin called DeckMTP that can let you do a direct USB connection. Literally just copy/paste, once I installed all the stuff I had before I could just drop in the old device's things and be good to go. One thing to be aware of, is that for games which don't support Steam Cloud, you need to copy their save data over. That's gonna mostly be in a folder in /steamapps called CompatData. Takes a little doing but it's not hard to figure out. The hardest thing to set up was STALKER Anomaly, and all that was was about a five step process of clicking things in Wine. By the way, if you make a custom controller profile for a non-steam game, when you add that game to the library make sure it has the same name as before and your controller profile will be saved!

      Overall I'm impressed to the point I intend to hold off buying any more PC hardware until a Deck 2 appears. If that product gets the same kind of attention this one did there's no doubt in my mind it will be fantastic. Considering too, the ability to dock and use peripherals, I think I'd feel safe recommending an OLED steam deck as a replacement for a gaming machine + non-work computer to just about anybody. $399 as a base price for PC Gaming is fucking awesome, and $549 for this improved model, at least I feel is very much worth it. $150 for an OLED screen, more storage, bigger battery is not bad. The deck is a hugely popular product, which means you get the added benefit of folks constantly tinkering and messing with stuff to make it work, on top of the odd developer specifically targeting it (such as in Cyberpunk, or how Bannerlord reworked its control scheme). Those kinds of communities exist around other devices, but not nearly to the same extent, and they'll die fast as those products come and go.

      So that's what I got. I hope this was informative and helpful. If you have any questions I'm happy to answer as best I can. I'm super happy with the deck as a product, it feels a lot like getting to see what it looks like when someone goes the distance and throws their full weight behind this kind of product.

      Edit: I don't know how well this will come through looking on different screens, but here are a few screenshots from AC VI and Morrowind that made use of HDR. Even if it doesn't come through - if you've never owned a deck and were considering one, yeah stuff can look this good on it! It's amazing.

      51 votes
    2. Bought my first Steam Deck after seeing the deep discounts on refurbs...what should i know as a first time Steam Deck/PC gamer?

      As title says, once Valve announced the OLED deck, I saw the refurbished originals go on a deep discount and figured it was time to buy in. So I ordered a refurb 512GB and I’m so excited for it to...

      As title says, once Valve announced the OLED deck, I saw the refurbished originals go on a deep discount and figured it was time to buy in. So I ordered a refurb 512GB and I’m so excited for it to arrive! Been in a gaming rut for a long time now and, having never been a PC gamer, I’m look forward to checking out a bunch of games I’ve never played before.

      What tips do you have for a first time Deck owner?

      Any essential games I should be sure to get?

      And finally, is it possible to get games I own on the Epic Games Store (I collected all their free games over the years) or Xbox Game Pass PC games on my Steam Deck?

      44 votes
    3. Steam Deck users, has anyone found a compact docking setup?

      I live in a pretty compact house, and have my work office upstairs in a corner of one of my kids bedrooms. Obviously, gaming in there after they are asleep is a no go! Our one tv is usually given...

      I live in a pretty compact house, and have my work office upstairs in a corner of one of my kids bedrooms.

      Obviously, gaming in there after they are asleep is a no go! Our one tv is usually given over to my wife on evenings I break out the Steam Deck - which has been my first foray back into gaming since having kids and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

      However, I'm interested if anyone has found a neat solution to use it in e.g. desktop mode without a conventional monitor or TV to dock with, that I could break out quickly on a breakfast bar and then stow easily.

      I'm envisaging some kinda of Frankensteined cheap laptop shell housing to contain the screen and keyboard-

      Steam Deck -> USB C Dock -> HDMI out to laptop screen and USB out to keyboard.

      Anyone familiar with something resembling this kind of setup, or something similar?

      19 votes
    4. Any VR enthusiasts? I'm looking for a high level comparison of the overall VR rigs, and what is on the near horizon.

      For the first time in my adult life I actually have some real discretionary money, and the one personal purchase I've wanted to make for a long time is a VR rig. I was hoping for input I can be...

      For the first time in my adult life I actually have some real discretionary money, and the one personal purchase I've wanted to make for a long time is a VR rig. I was hoping for input I can be pretty sure isn't tainted by capitalism/ads.

      Cost-vs-value will matter a lot, but the actual cost isn't too big a concern anymore. Budget up to maybe $3-4K if it's really worth the money.

      And to note, I already have a pretty gnarly personal computer that is more than capable of running VR games (Ryzen 9 3900X 12-Core / RTX 3090 / 32GB DDR4) -- I just need the rig.

      28 votes
    5. Looking for a wired gaming headset (preferably with mic) that works for many ear piercings

      I game a lot, and I have many ear piercings (the troublesome ones are industrial and cartilage and for ear buds, both tragus, but I'm looking for just normal headsets). Most headsets make my ears...

      I game a lot, and I have many ear piercings (the troublesome ones are industrial and cartilage and for ear buds, both tragus, but I'm looking for just normal headsets). Most headsets make my ears ache after 20-45 minutes. I can almost pick out how much they're going to hurt when I try them on, and nothing at my local Best Buy has anything available that feels right. Additionally, many are heavy and sit on the top of my head like a brick - before I completed my ear decorations, that was usually my peeve.

      Currently, the only headset I adore is SteelSeries Siberia (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002SN9RN8). I can wear them for hours. Sadly, I cannot get a replacement. I tried their Arctis 5 and immediately sent it back. The Siberia does not have a mic, so that's basically the only reason I am wanting to get another set.

      If anyone can recommend something with the following characteristics, I'd be willing to drop a pretty penny on them... not that I can afford to, but it'll be an investment if it lasts as long as these Siberia have!

      • Preferably cloth ear surface texture;
      • Preferably something that doesn't sit heavily on the head - though the ones I've tried that clamped for staying on my ears would give me headaches as well;
      • Must be wired. No bluetooth. Caveat: if it has a usb dongle, could be doable. (My computer does not have BT capabilities.) I hate things running out of battery though, so it will have to be good;
      • Must have extendable head band up top, if its method is not gripping on your ears without head support;

      I'm sure I've missed something, but if there's a fellow ear-pierced gamer whose had issues with many headsets but found the perfect one, please recommend! Thanks!

      10 votes
    6. What are the best portable retro consoles under 120 US dollars?

      The idea is to get a console to play raging in complexity from the NES, SNES, up to Nintendo DS and PSP. Anything above that is not a priority or a necessity. But it would be nice to have a screen...

      The idea is to get a console to play raging in complexity from the NES, SNES, up to Nintendo DS and PSP. Anything above that is not a priority or a necessity. But it would be nice to have a screen large enough to handle DS games in some form. Can I find anything decent in that price range?

      Thanks :)

      24 votes
    7. What game encouraged you to make your new PC, or upgrade?

      Since the minimum and recommended specs for Starfield have come out, I've been budgeting to do a big upgrade on my PC with an AMD 6800 xt and a fancy new 1 TB SSD (which is the first game I've...

      Since the minimum and recommended specs for Starfield have come out, I've been budgeting to do a big upgrade on my PC with an AMD 6800 xt and a fancy new 1 TB SSD (which is the first game I've ever seen that requires an SSD) just so I can run the game in all it's space epicness.

      What was the game that you were so excited for that you made the jump to upgrade your PC to the next gen of hardware? New or old!

      41 votes
    8. What's your gaming setup?

      With all the new people running around, thought it be a good time to ask what everyone uses for gaming... Are you a console convert? A portable gaming pro? Desktop diehard? Lifelong laptop...

      With all the new people running around, thought it be a good time to ask what everyone uses for gaming...

      Are you a console convert?
      A portable gaming pro?
      Desktop diehard?
      Lifelong laptop leaderboard-er?
      Teak-tabletop-till-you-die?
      Archive level retro-gaming repository?
      Custom collectible card game covers?
      Tired of my poor attempts at alliteration?

      33 votes
    9. Steam Deck or ASUS ROG Ally?

      I'm interested in buying one of the new PC gaming handhelds, and I'm torn. If I went for the Steam Deck I'd be buying the 512GB version, so the price difference between it and the ASUS is only...

      I'm interested in buying one of the new PC gaming handhelds, and I'm torn. If I went for the Steam Deck I'd be buying the 512GB version, so the price difference between it and the ASUS is only about £50/£100 more. The ASUS seems to do a lot better in benchmarks, has a nicer screen, and comes with Windows 11. I love Linux but there's several games I'd want to play on it that the anti cheat just won't work with Linux. I know you can dual boot the Steam Deck, so that could also be an option. The main thing that is making the decision more difficult is that the Steam Deck has touchpads, and the ASUS apparantly has inferior thumbsticks and D-pad. But then again the ASUS is sleeker and lighter, so potentially more portable? Sorry for the ramble, I just wanted to express my thoughts so far, and hear what you all think. Help me decide!

      35 votes
    10. Happy Birthday to the Steam Deck!

      It has been one year since the Steam Deck officially launched. At the time: you had to wait a long time, months even, to be able to get the hardware the number of supported games was low the...

      It has been one year since the Steam Deck officially launched.

      At the time:

      • you had to wait a long time, months even, to be able to get the hardware
      • the number of supported games was low
      • the software was still highly buggy and rough around the edges

      Currently:

      • it is available on-demand, though unfortunately not for all countries
      • there are nearly 3,000 Verified and 5,000 Playable games on the device (with many more unconfirmed titles that work anyway)
      • the software is much more mature and a healthy ecosystem of third-party applications and support has sprung up

      For those here who have Steam Decks, let us know your thoughts on the device, this past year, and the future to come.

      Happy Birthday, Steam Deck!

      23 votes
    11. Steam Deck and Docking Station now in-stock and available!

      EDIT: It is official! We're happy to announce that with today’s batch of order emails, we have completed our reservation queue. We are now in-stock and Steam Deck is available for purchase! The...

      EDIT: It is official!

      We're happy to announce that with today’s batch of order emails, we have completed our reservation queue. We are now in-stock and Steam Deck is available for purchase!

      The Docking Station is available for purchase now! Learn more about it here, or order one here.


      Previous post:

      I wanted to give everyone here a heads' up that it seems like Valve is through most of its preorders for the Steam Deck, so the delay between reserving one and receiving a confirmation is essentially negligible at this point (unlike the months-long waits of the past).

      Anecdotally: my husband put in a reservation on Sunday and received confirmation on Monday, the next day (US 512GB model).

      Less anecdotally: /r/steamdeck is unofficially confirming this for all queues except the EU 64GB model.

      If you've been waiting out the wait time for a Steam Deck, it looks like your time has come! You should be able to get one almost ASAP moving forward.

      Also, if you're on the fence about it, I cannot recommend it enough. I absolutely love mine.

      17 votes
    12. Two weeks with the Steam Deck

      I received my Steam Deck on June 6th and have used it literally every day since then. Here are some assorted thoughts that might be of value to people either waiting on theirs or on the fence...

      I received my Steam Deck on June 6th and have used it literally every day since then. Here are some assorted thoughts that might be of value to people either waiting on theirs or on the fence about ordering:

      The Good

      • I had no idea until I got it that there's an official Deck test game: Aperture Desk Job. It's essentially a cute test/tutorial for the Deck's controls, set in the Portal universe. Takes about half an hour, but it's a fun onboarding for the device.
      • On the past two Saturdays, I have woken up and played Vampire Survivors with one hand while I held my morning coffee in the other. This is the way.
      • The control remapping options are absolutely incredible. It is a very robust system. Even simple fixes (like putting A on a back paddle so I can play Vampire Survivors one-handed) can make a world of difference.
      • I haven't run many heavy games on it, but I started up Bugsnax, and it was keeping a solid 60 FPS and looked great.
      • Emulation on the device is a dream. I haven't done anything past OG PlayStation games yet, but the power of the device, the robust control customization, and the ease of installing emulators (adding Flatpaks in desktop mode) make this absolutely ideal for revisiting older consoles. I've spent probably 80% of my time on the device in PSOne games.
      • Battery life is fine, but I don't really use it. I bought a long power cord and spend most of the time with it plugged in on my couch since it has passthrough. I thought the cord sticking out the top of the device would bother me, but it hasn't really been an issue.
      • Game selection is increasing steadily (1700+ verified games currently). If you're buying it to play specific games you might be disappointed, as there's still a lot that doesn't work. If you're buying it for games in general though, there is plenty to keep you occupied.
      • The grips are MUCH more comfortable for bigger hands than standard Switch joycons. Those would always cramp my hands, but the Deck feels natural and comfortable.
      • The middle of the device gets warm to the touch during gameplay, especially on more demanding stuff, but the grips remain cool and you won't feel the heat at all unless you specifically move your hands to the back middle of the device.

      The Bad

      • The paddles on the back are a little awkward, and I accidentally click them more than I like. In most games they're not mapped to anything so it's fine, but in emulators I use them for save states. I had to set them to respond to long presses only so my accidental clicks didn't mess things up.
      • The software is... still getting there. I get navigation issues on store and profile pages frequently, along with frequent UI lag. It's a bit unpolished at the moment.
      • Don't know if it's specific to my hardware or a software bug, but sometimes it won't log me in to my Friends list and the only fix is a reboot.
      • I wish the control sticks had deeper indents for your thumbs. They're pretty flat, and my thumbs tend to slip off on stick-focused games (most noticeable on my right (aiming) thumb during 20 Minutes Till Dawn).
      • Bluetooth headphones have to be manually reconnected in the Settings menu each time. No idea why this is, but it's a bit of an inconvenience.
      • Mid-game suspending is still clunky. I don't really do it, as I don't trust that it'll save like it should. It also still counts playtime while suspended but seems to have a rollback feature? I put the device to sleep with a game open that I'd played for 20 minutes and came back to it saying I'd played it for 3 hours. The playtime ended up dropping back down to 20 minutes, but only after I restarted the device.

      The Ugly

      • There isn't any ugly. I absolutely love this device. Despite my nitpicks above, I think it's nothing short of splendid. I'm more excited about this than I've been about anything in videogaming in a long time.

      If anyone has any questions, ask away! Also if any other people here have their Steam Decks and want to chime in with their experiences (@Autoxidation), go for it!

      36 votes
    13. Playdate handheld console release thread

      Playdate announced on Twitter that they are beginning shipping today: Oh! A new Playdate Update video is here! It recaps the great developer things we've released this year, like Pulp and the...

      Playdate announced on Twitter that they are beginning shipping today:

      Oh! A new Playdate Update video is here!

      It recaps the great developer things we've released this year, like Pulp and the Playdate SDK. Please enjoy it. https://youtu.be/BmrtkBmFSn4

      There's one extra important bit in the update. Playdates in Group One will begin shipping…

      …today.

      The embargo on reviews also lifted:

      Also, ArsTechnica released reviews of all of the Playdate games. SPOILERS ahead:

      20 votes