• Activity
  • Votes
  • Comments
  • New
  • All activity
  • Showing only topics in ~games with the tag "steam deck". Back to normal view / Search all groups
    1. Humble Choice - March 2024

      March 2024's Humble Choice is now available with the following eight Steam games. Steam Page Opencritic Steam Recent/All Operating Systems Steam Deck ProtonDB Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of...

      March 2024's Humble Choice is now available with the following eight Steam games.


      Steam Page Opencritic Steam Recent/All Operating Systems Steam Deck ProtonDB
      Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin – Ultimate Edition 70 41/60 Win ❓ Unknown 🟨 Gold
      Nioh 2 - The Complete Edition 85 87/88 Win 🟨 Playable 🟨 Gold
      Saints Row 63 56/64 Win ❌ Unsupported 🟨 Gold
      Citizen Sleeper 84 91/94 Win, Mac 🟨 Playable 🎖️ Platinum
      Black Skylands 77 80/82 Win ✅ Verified 🟨 Gold
      Soulstice 71 70/78 Win 🟨 Playable 🎖️ Platinum
      Afterimage 76 77/80 Win ✅ Verified 🟨 Gold
      Destroyer: The U-Boat Hunter N/A 68/77 Win 🟨 Playable 🟨 Gold

      Does anyone have experience with any of the games and, if so, would you recommend them? Is there anything in here that you're particularly excited to play?

      14 votes
    2. Humble Choice - February 2024

      February 2024's Humble Choice is now available with the following eight Steam games. Steam Page Opencritic Steam Recent/All Operating Systems Steam Deck ProtonDB Life Is Strange: True Colors 81...

      February 2024's Humble Choice is now available with the following eight Steam games.


      Steam Page Opencritic Steam Recent/All Operating Systems Steam Deck ProtonDB
      Life Is Strange: True Colors 81 89/90 Win ✅ Verified 🟨 Gold
      Scorn 68 77/82 Win ✅ Verified 🎖️ Platinum
      Destroy All Humans! 2 - Reprobed 68 78/73 Win ✅ Verified 🎖️ Platinum
      Beacon Pines 81 98/97 Win ✅ Verified 🎖️ Platinum
      There Is No Light: Enhanced Edition N/A 74/81 Win ✅ Verified 🎖️ Platinum
      Children of Silentown 70 87/81 Win ✅ Verified 🎖️ Platinum
      Oaken 77 81 Win, Mac, Linux ❓ Unknown ✅ Native
      Snowtopia: Ski Resort Builder N/A 65 Win 🟨 Playable 🎖️ Platinum

      Does anyone have experience with any of the games and, if so, would you recommend them? Is there anything in here that you're particularly excited to play?

      12 votes
    3. There has never been a better time to game on Linux

      I've been running Linux full-time pretty much since Valve released Proton. I remember submitting reports to ProtonDB back when it was just a shared Google Sheet! In the years that followed I made...

      I've been running Linux full-time pretty much since Valve released Proton. I remember submitting reports to ProtonDB back when it was just a shared Google Sheet! In the years that followed I made it a point to test and report out on different games as new versions of Proton were released and support improved. I thought it important that we have a good data set for what worked and what didn't. Over those years I tested hundreds of games and submitted as many reports to the database.

      In thinking back over my gaming in 2023, however, I realized that I fell out of the habit of submitting reports because I'm so used to Proton working that it's stopped occurring to me that it might not.

      That doesn't mean that there aren't some games that don't work -- it simply means that the success rate that I used to have (maybe 30-50% on average) has risen high enough that I'm genuinely surprised if something doesn't work (it's probably somewhere around 95% for me now, though that's biased by the types of games that I play). I actually tried to remember the last game that didn't work, and I genuinely couldn't tell you what it was. Everything I've played recently has booted like it's native.

      Honestly, I genuinely don't even know which games are native and which run through Proton anymore. I've stopped caring!

      I got my Steam Deck halfway through 2022. It was awesome, but it was definitely a bit rough around the edges. There weren't that many compatible games. The OS had some clunkiness. It matured though, and has gotten better. Among my friend group, I'm the only person who cares even a little bit about Linux. If you asked any of them to name three different Linux distributions they'd stare at you blankly because they wouldn't understand the question. Nevertheless, of my friends, SIX of them have Steam Decks and are now gaming regularly on Linux.

      There are currently ~4,300 Deck Verified games and ~8,700 Deck Playable games according to Valve. On ProtonDB, ~8,600 games have been verified as working on Linux by at least three users, while ~19,700 games have been verified by at least one user. There is SO much variety available, and the speed with which we've gotten here has been pretty breathtaking.

      This was my device breakdown for my Steam Replay for 2023:

      • 55% Steam Deck
      • 32% Linux
      • 10% Virtual Reality
      • 4% Windows

      The only non-Linux gaming I did was VR and some local multiplayer stuff I have on a Windows machine hooked up to my TV.

      I don't want to proselytize too much, but if you have a general interest in gaming, you could probably switch over to Linux full time and be perfectly happy with the variety of games you have available to you. Not too long ago, making the jump felt like a huge sacrifice because you'd be giving up so much -- SO many games were incompatible -- but it no longer feels that way. You can transfer and most of -- probably almost all -- your library will still work! Also, if a particular game doesn't work, there isn't too much sting because, well, there are thousands of others you can give your attention to.

      If you have a specific game that you must play, then it's possibly a different story. If you love Destiny 2, for example, then full-time Linux definitely is not for you. The same goes VR -- it's simply not up to snuff on Linux yet. There are other niches too that don't transfer over as well (modding, racing sims, etc.) so, of course, this isn't a blanket recommendation and everyone's situation is different.

      But for a prototypical person who's just your sort of general, everyday gamer? It's reached a point where they could be very happy on Linux. In fact, as proven by my friends and their Steam Decks, it's reached a point where people can be gaming on Linux and not even know they're doing that. That's how frictionless it's gotten!

      I don't really have a point to this post other than to say it's incredible that we are where we are, and I'm beyond appreciative of all the effort that people have put in to making this possible.

      83 votes
    4. Humble Choice - December 2023

      Sorry for the delay in posting this month. December's Humble Choice is now available with the following eight Steam games: Steam Page Opencritic Steam Recent/All Operating Systems Steam Deck...

      Sorry for the delay in posting this month.

      December's Humble Choice is now available with the following eight Steam games:

      Steam Page Opencritic Steam Recent/All Operating Systems Steam Deck ProtonDB
      Expeditions: Rome 81 82/88 Win Playable Platinum
      Midnight Fight Express 76 82/91 Win Verified Gold
      ELEX II 65 61/75 Win Unsupported Gold
      Nobody Saves the World 80 87/91 Win Verified Platinum
      The Gunk 70 86/86 Win Playable Platinum
      The Pale Beyond 78 96/91 Win Mac Verified Platinum
      Last Call BBS TBC 95/95 Win Mac Lin Playable Native
      From Space TBC 88/67 Win Verified Platinum

      Does anyone have experience with any of the games and, if so, would you recommend them? Is there anything in here that you're particularly excited to play?

      14 votes
    5. 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
    6. 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
    7. 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
    8. Humble Choice - November 2023

      November's Humble Choice is now available with the following eight Steam games: Steam Page Opencritic Steam Recent/All Operating Systems Steam Deck ProtonDB Hardspace: Shipbreaker 83 88/89 Win...

      November's Humble Choice is now available with the following eight Steam games:

      Steam Page Opencritic Steam Recent/All Operating Systems Steam Deck ProtonDB
      Hardspace: Shipbreaker 83 88/89 Win Verified Gold
      WWE 2K23 81 77/81 Win Unsupported Platinum
      Unpacking 83 94/92 Win Mac Lin Verified Native
      Friends vs Friends TBC 85/81 Win Verified Gold
      The Legend of Tianding 81 97/95 Win Verified Platinum
      SCP: Secret Files TBC 89/89 Win Playable Gold
      Souldiers 76 80/65 Win Verified Gold
      Prodeus 82 90/93 Win Mac Playable Platinum

      Does anyone have experience with any of the games and, if so, would you recommend them? Is there anything in here that you're particularly excited to play?

      11 votes
    9. Humble Choice - October 2023

      October's Humble Choice is now available with the following eight Steam games: Steam Page Opencritic Steam Recent/All Operating Systems Steam Deck ProtonDB The Quarry Deluxe Edition 79 85/80 Win...

      October's Humble Choice is now available with the following eight Steam games:

      Steam Page Opencritic Steam Recent/All Operating Systems Steam Deck ProtonDB
      The Quarry Deluxe Edition 79 85/80 Win Unsupported Gold
      Metal Hellsinger 79 97/97 Win Playable Gold
      Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes 73 94/88 Win Playable Platinum
      Rebel Inc: Escalation N/A 88/83 Win Mac Playable Gold
      Spirit of the Island N/A 78/71 Win Verified Gold
      Lords and Villeins TBC 36/77 Win Playable Platinum
      A Juggler's Tale 71 100/95 Win Verified Platinum
      Mr. Prepper TBC 75/82 Win Playable Platinum

      Does anyone have experience with any of the games and, if so, would you recommend them? Is there anything in here that you're particularly excited to play?

      14 votes
    10. Humble Choice - September 2023

      September's Humble Choice is now available with the following eight Steam games: Steam Page Opencritic Steam Recent/All Operating Systems Steam Deck ProtonDB Tiny Tina's Wonderlands Chaotic Great...

      September's Humble Choice is now available with the following eight Steam games:

      Steam Page Opencritic Steam Recent/All Operating Systems Steam Deck ProtonDB
      Tiny Tina's Wonderlands Chaotic Great Edition 78 72/76 Win Verified Platinum
      Deceive Inc. 72 80/86 Win Verified Gold
      The Forgotten City 84 93/96 Win Verified Platinum
      Aces & Adventures TBC 97/91 Win Playable Platinum
      Patch Quest 81 100/95 Win Verified Gold
      Foretales 75 88 Win Playable Platinum
      Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus 76 73 Win Mac Verified TBC
      Autonauts vs Piratebots TBC 84 Win Playable Platinum

      Does anyone have experience with any of the games and, if so, would you recommend them? Is there anything in here that you're particularly excited to play?

      19 votes
    11. Humble Choice - August 2023

      August's Humble Choice is now available with the following eight Steam games: Steam Page Opencritic Steam Recent/All Operating Systems Steam Deck ProtonDB Disco Elysium – The Final Cut 89 93/93...

      August's Humble Choice is now available with the following eight Steam games:

      Steam Page Opencritic Steam Recent/All Operating Systems Steam Deck ProtonDB
      Disco Elysium – The Final Cut 89 93/93 Win Mac Verified Gold
      Chivalry 2 82 81/82 Win Unsupported* Silver
      Trek to Yomi 72 70/71 Win Playable Platinum
      Road 96 78 92/91 Win Verified Platinum
      Arcade Paradise 76 90/89 Win Verified Platinum
      SuchArt: Genius Artist Simulator N/A 100/98 Win Verified Platinum
      Tin Can TBC 87 Win Playable Platinum
      Hot Brass TBC 82 Win Unsupported* Platinum

      *Both games that are marked as unsupported on Steam Deck on Steam itself are reported as working on Linux on ProtonDB.

      Does anyone have experience with any of the games and, if so, would you recommend them? Is there anything in here that you're particularly excited to play?

      27 votes
    12. Humble Choice - July 2023

      July's Humble Choice is now available with the following eight Steam games: Steam Page Opencritic Steam Recent/All Operating Systems Steam Deck ProtonDB The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition...

      July's Humble Choice is now available with the following eight Steam games:

      Steam Page Opencritic Steam Recent/All Operating Systems Steam Deck ProtonDB
      The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition 80 68/43 Win Playable Silver
      TemTem 75 51/84 Win Verified Platinum
      Yakuza 4 Remastered 77 92/92 Win Unsupported Gold
      Roadwarden 83 95/96 Win Mac Lin Playable Native/Gold
      Kraken Academy!! 73 93/93 Win Mac Lin Verified Native/TBC
      Merchant Of The Skies TBC 87/87 Win Mac Lin Verified Native/TBC
      Ozymandias: Bronze Age Empire Sim N/A 93/91 Win Mac Playable Platinum
      Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate TBC 94/93 Win Verified Platinum

      Does anyone have experience with any of the games and, if so, would you recommend them? Is there anything in here that you're particularly excited to play?

      34 votes
    13. Diablo IV works on the Steam Deck

      Just tested it myself. Here’s the process that worked for me, in case anyone else needs a guide. No guarantees, of course, but hopefully it works for others too: From Desktop Mode Download the...

      Just tested it myself. Here’s the process that worked for me, in case anyone else needs a guide. No guarantees, of course, but hopefully it works for others too:


      From Desktop Mode

      Download the Battle.net installer
      Add the installer as a non-Steam game
      Change the installer settings in Steam to run with Proton Experimental
      Run the installer
      (tip: to make it easy to find the launcher in the next step, you can change the install path to be in your downloads folder instead of deep in the Proton path)

      Once installed, exit the installer
      Add the installed Battle.net Launcher.exe as a non-Steam game
      Change the launcher settings in Steam to run it with Proton Experimental
      Run the launcher
      Log in
      Install Diablo IV
      (tip: uncheck the high res textures option which is on by default to save yourself about 40 GB of space)
      Close launcher
      (tip: if D4 is the only Bnet game you’re planning on playing, you can rename the launcher in Steam to Diablo IV)

      From Gaming Mode

      Launch the launcher
      Click the Play button on Diablo IV
      Enjoy!


      Other Tips

      During installation or the game, whenever you need a keyboard, press STEAM + X to call it up.

      Occasionally, during installation or in the Launcher in game mode, my trackpad input would get wonky or stop responding. When this happens, hold the STEAM button down while using the trackpads, and they should work again.

      Beyond that, the game automatically worked from me. It loaded low graphics settings (which are perfect for the Deck) and recognized my controller. It even opens with some accessibility settings before you start playing that lets you scale the font size up too, which makes it easier to read on the small screen.

      I can’t say much about how the game actually plays as I really just did this to test if it works. I’ll be putting in my first actual time with the game tomorrow.

      34 votes
    14. 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
    15. 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
    16. 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
    17. 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
    18. Three weeks of Steam Deck game compatibility data

      I've been checking in each Friday since the release of the Steam Deck to see the number of games that have been added to the Deck's different compatibility categories. I felt like it was a bit...

      I've been checking in each Friday since the release of the Steam Deck to see the number of games that have been added to the Deck's different compatibility categories. I felt like it was a bit past time to keep bumping the release thread, so I went with a new topic.

      Here's where we're at currently:

      2022-02-25 2022-03-04 2022-03-11 2022-03-18 Week 1 Change Week 2 Change Week 3 Change
      Deck Verified 433 535 721 798 +102 +186 +77
      Deck Playable 398 471 580 678 +73 +109 +98
      Deck Unsupported 389 711 775 837 +313 +64 +62
      Steam Total Games N/A 67,165 67,399 67,627 N/A +234 +228
      15 votes
    19. Steam Deck launch day megathread

      The Steam Deck is launching today and the embargo on review units will be lifted. Use this thread to post any and all noteworthy coverage, information, or thoughts.

      34 votes
    20. A practical take on Steam Deck performance (but really just general observations intended for Reddit hype)

      Edit: Formatting by the generous PetitPrince. Steam Deck AMD Ryzen 7 4800U 7nm TSMC process 7nm TSMC process AMD Zen 2 CPU AMD Zen 2 CPU 4 cores / 8 threads 8 cores / 16 threads 2.4GHz base clock...

      Edit: Formatting by the generous PetitPrince.

      Steam Deck AMD Ryzen 7 4800U
      7nm TSMC process 7nm TSMC process
      AMD Zen 2 CPU AMD Zen 2 CPU
      4 cores / 8 threads 8 cores / 16 threads
      2.4GHz base clock / 3.5GHz turbo 1.8GHz base clock / 4.2GHz turbo
      unspecified L3 cache (4~8 MB) 8 MB L3 cache
      AMD RDNA 2 GPU AMD Radeon RX Vega 8
      8 CUs 8 CUs
      1-1.6GHz up to 1.75GHz
      4-15 Watts 15 Watts (10-25W and up to ~48 total system in some laptop benchmarks)
      16GB LPDDR5 5500MHz LPDDR4 4266MHz
      128-bit memory bus width (32-bit quad channel) † 64-bit memory bus width (32-bit dual channel)
      40Whr battery (2-8 hrs gameplay) †† /

      † shared between CPU and GPU; exact memory access scheme unspecified
      †† ~2.5 hrs at rated 15W APU power draw; also consider SSD, screen, controls, WiFi, etc.

      7nm process

      This APU is probably on the exact same TSMC process node as the Ryzen 7 4800U.

      CPU cores

      Half the cores; worse multithreading performance. More power for the GPU†.

      † power management features probably do this in practice.

      Overall this shouldn't matter much. Maybe impacts people who compress game files or want to use the Steam Deck for things other than gaming.

      CPU clock speeds

      A somewhat low max boost. Probably from power and thermal considerations. Is it the sustained max boost? With just the CPU? How about max GPU? Can it clock higher when docked?

      A surprisingly high minimum clock. I hope it can clock lower than 2.4GHz.

      Overall, this is subject to power and thermal limitations and management. Needs to be tested by a trusted third party. I am hopeful that as a handheld PC, we can adjust clocks and boosting behavior. These behaviors may be different on Linux compared to Windows.

      CPU cache

      Unspecified, I expect 8MB from AMD but we could see 4-6 as a cost and power saving measure.

      GPU

      Docked performance will likely be held back by the 8 CUs.

      The clock speeds look good, about what was expected. Same goes for sustained boost as for the CPU boost.

      By implementing the Radeon RX Vega 8 on 7nm, the process improvement gains have already been realized. Additionally, I speculate that AMD has had ample opportunity for some under the hood improvements to the aging microarchitecture. Some benchmarks found it to be 30-40% faster than an RX Vega 10 (a larger GPU) on the older process node. However, the clock speeds were twice as high compared to the RX Vega 10. Consider also that the 15W laptop was pulling ~48 watts.

      Since it becomes difficult for me to speculate on GPU microarchitectural improvements, I will consider the APU's 8 CU RDNA 2 GPU to have comparable performance to the Ryzen 7 4800U's Radeon RX Vega 8.

      This is mostly for convenience. It may be realistic to expect somewhat lower performance because the handheld Steam Deck APU is unlikely to be allowed to pull more than 20~25 watts. More on this in the battery life section.

      By far the most significant improvements from the RDNA 2 GPU, in my mind, stem from the latest GPU features; modern video decoding, Vulkan features, mesh shading, and more. Also, being the same microarchitecture that console developers will be targeting.

      Feel free to substitute your own speculative performance, but please don't let hype bias your expectations, and be careful when seeking out benchmarks.

      APU power draw

      4 watts is pretty clearly the minimum idling draw seen in windows laptops with Zen 2 CPUs.

      Unfortunately this is high compared to ARM CPUs. It may also be subject to the level of optimizations done on the firmware and the custom Linux distribution. People willing to roll their own might be able to get this lower? It would require getting your hands dirty, and don't bank on it. I'll be happy if Valve actually gets idling consistently down to 4 watts.

      As for 15 watts, it is pretty clear that commonly shared expectations of the hardware are not tailored for this rated power draw. People are expecting performance that comes with 40-80 watts. I expect the APU to draw as high as 20~25 watts in certain circumstances, but this is speculation, and cannot be verified until Steam Decks are in the hands of trusted third party reviewers such as Gamer's Nexus.

      And make no mistake, drawing anything over 15 watts in the APU will have battery life implications, which I will cover later.

      RAM

      If there is anything I am allowing to build my expectations, it is probably this. To my knowledge, we haven't much seen LPDDR5 in devices yet, so there is some novelty and some unknowns.

      Compared to DDR4/LPDDR4, even this reduced speed (saving more power btw) LPDDR5 memory will be faster, finally reaching something similar to dedicated GDDR memory speeds on older budget discrete mobile graphics cards. It has plenty of new power saving features, and should generally draw less power anyway.

      But let me be clear on what it isn't; it is not GDDR5, and it is not GDDR6 as seen in the Xbox Series X or S. Please do not confuse these. I have seen people refer to it as all kinds of things. IT IS NOT GDDR, IT IS NOT LPDDR4, IT IS NOT LPDDR6.

      Okay. With that out of the way, the other half of this that has me tentatively hopeful is the listed 128-bit quad channel memory. I am not qualified to speak on the nature of memory accesses and on memory channels, but generally, this should be responsible for the memory bus bandwidth to approach that of budget discrete graphics cards.

      Hopefully this improves the GPU performance significantly.

      Also, while I initially assumed 16 GB of RAM was such overkill for the target resolutions that it could only be to pander to the PC gaming crowd which would identify the gratuitous RAM with a premium product, I speculate it was just a byproduct of having four memory packages for quad channel. I'm guessing the smallest packages LPDDR5 came in was 4 GB. Anyway, I might be wrong on this account, and it doesn't much matter; there is more than enough RAM, faster I believe than any older APU already on the market (we aren't counting the consoles okay), and it should save power all the while.

      Considering people would still be buying the Steam Deck regardless, I say well done Valve, even if it was required to hit performance targets or actually a financial boon behind the curtain.

      Storage

      At first I was upset the base model was eMMC rather than an NVMe SSD, given how cheap 64/128 GB SSDs are in bulk. On second consideration, it makes a lot of sense.

      I speculate that at best, the base model has an extremely narrow profit margin. Even a cheap SSD might eat into that. But even more, eMMC should be more than enough for anyone intending to use the Steam Deck primarily for 2D games and emulation, which is historically a staple segment of the handheld market. These are the games that will also be happy on a microSD.

      In this way, there is some product segmentation for the mid and high tier models, which are making money on the storage.

      I personally have placed a reservation for the base model, although I intend to upgrade the storage myself. However, it is difficult to obtain benchmarks of power draw for m.2 SSDs of this size beyond "less than bigger NVMe drives because fewer chips and no DDR4 cache probably", so it might not be an advisable tradeoff to anyone but the budget conscious and those seeking a full 1TB fast NVMe storage.

      Speaking of power, my limited findings are suggesting ~3.5W power draw from appropriate m.2 NVMe SSDs, meaning the eMMC model may also deliver the best battery life (even before accounting for less demanding titles). That is probably the listed 8 hours.

      Keep in mind I don't know much about the power draw of eMMC, and the power management differences between eMMC and NVMe.

      One last thing; Microsoft promised optimized games for the Series S that would have reduced asset sizes for the reduced storage. A promise it appears they haven't been able to deliver on. However, this is a very good idea and I would be THRILLED if Valve was able to wrangle a user selection of asset quality when downloading games. Some PC games have higher quality assets as DLC, and generally as a handheld PC we have some ability to do this manually. Compressing game files might also be an avenue?

      Battery life

      Everyone looks for different things in a product. So far I've tried to provide a relatively practical, unbiased take on the Steam Deck's listed specs, leaving it up to readers to decide what they care about.

      But if you saw the Steam Deck and a short battery life never once crossed your mind, it probably isn't a concern for you. I don't know what your usecase is; maybe permanently docked, perhaps just keeping it around the house. It doesn't really matter, and I think the Steam Deck is a particularly solid value for you in particular.

      It is pretty easy to do a battery life calculation. So everyone should do so with their own speculations on the total system power draw, when gaming, idling, etc. Things to account for are the APU, screen, WiFi, SSD, RAM, and so on.

      I figure something like 1.5 < x < 2.5 hours for full fat gaming. I probably should have watched the video (holy cow can you believe I'm going to post this whole essay without watching the video!?) but I believe 6 hours 30 fps was thrown around, so that should be the upper limit possible for general gaming and optimized titles. I'm pretty confident the 8 hours is a best case scenario only on the eMMC model running 2D or generally less demanding games.

      The math here is simple so make up your own mind!

      Lastly, with a PC we have some wiggle room to optimize settings and we can also destroy battery life I'm sure. So remember, frame limits are your friend on a 60 hz screen, and on mobile devices in general. Also, reducing settings possibly. It really goes against my nature as a PC gamer though, considering I play Skyrim with an ENB on a GTX 660M. At a stuttery 10~15 fps. Yeah, sometimes a stable 30 fps is the way to go, but I'm a hypocrite who just can't wait to run 1080p and downscale to remove jaggies!

      Weight

      I wasn't sure if I should include this, as I am skipping other things like the microSD card slot (other than that I genuinely would have preferred a regular SD card slot so I could emulate having game cartridges; actually, I need to look up splitting game files across onboard and removable storage).

      Still, it deserves a mention; I have no clue if it will be too heavy for me. I suspect going from the Switch to the Steck will be frustrating, although some have pointed out that the placement of buttons and joysticks will make it easier to rest it while playing. Also I'mma just call it the Steck from now on, my apologies.

      Overall, it looks bulky and heavy and might be a pain to tote around. But modding makes this worth it for me personally.

      Actual Performance Numbers Please, or APNP

      I am now realizing this is way too long, and I'm spiraling out of control; there's no way I can edit all this! How long has it been since I've slept? Did I eat yet today? I will be downvoted to Oblivion for posting something this unwieldy and unreadable!

      Oh well. Before I loose consciousness, I pretty much expect 1280x800 30fps on all titles. Doesn't that seem too low? But there are overheads that go into running unoptimized PC ports of games on Linux, and frankly while Proton does great things, I'm mostly familiar with it on a desktop. What is the experience with a power budget? The Radeon RX 8 struggles with 1080p on some titles; will the Steck be able to hit 1080p 30fps on all titles, let alone 60fps?

      Anyway, I've made my base expectations. I personally anticipate for 1280x800 60fps for all titles, albiet at a limited battery life, but I don't think we can take it for granted. Docked performance, remains to be seen. 1080p 30fps seems realistic. Basically my clunky 11lb gaming laptop from 2012 with the GTX 660M, but with waaay more RAM and a tenth of the power draw. In a handheld.

      Freesync

      I don't think the display supports freesync or, as I've seen some people say, Valve would advertise that. Seems strange given the market, and if expertly implemented could potentially let the display downclock way down when appropriate. To tired to check, but possibly could be implemented down the line? That means NOT a feature, unless it is on the box when you are paying BTW.

      Wow, I Can't Believe FlippantGod Won't Shut Up

      The price is right, folks, but please don't pretend that this will double as a serious VR rig. That isn't the sort of thing you speculate on before a console is even released and benchmarked by trusted third parties.

      What do y'all think of my expectations? Too low? Too high? Any interesting morsels I may have missed? And lastly, will Reddit eat me alive if I post this there? Willing to take any and all criticisms when I wake up! And hey, if someone high up on the Tildes social ladder wants to tag this "Steck", I will forever be in your debt. I am much too scared to do so myself.

      31 votes