PC and Steam: Thread 02

[MartyG]

Nah, that’s probably Marty. I always hop a series generation, so after I end up with a 5080 I’ll wait it out until the 7080.

I upgraded that to a RTX-4090 a while back.

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/tim-sweeney-emailed-gabe-newell-calling-valve-you-assholes-over-steam-policies-to-which-valves-coo-simply-replied-you-mad-bro/?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter.com

[MartyG]

The whole fee thing is a red herring with EGS anyway, Epic isn't the savior of indie devs they make out they are. Ultimately Sweeney wants to be Valve because money.

Given there's zero requirements to put your game on Steam, as you can easily self-publish and keep all your sales cash to yourself on PC, one might think that there is an advantage to doing so that makes the 30% fee (or 20% in some circumstances) a worthwhile investment - you know, such as a massive marketing reach, stable platform and the ability to generate keys for distribution / demos / reviews / giveaways etc, along with all the community profile stuff.

It's not like the wall gardens of iOS / Android where there is a load of self-publishing hurdles (needing to unsafely sideload etc).

[eastyy]

So a fighting game i backed on Indiegogo so long ago they released a "sequel" https://store.steampowered.com/app/2..._the_Eastward/ ...but to be honest after 9 years it is such a minor update....3 new characters and some other improvements but still looks the same and has the same content

[MartyG]

Hmm, no rollback for a competitive 2D fighter - seems suspect.

[MartyG]

Any EDF PC fans out there? Then this might be of interest: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/e...-friends-unite

[Lebowski]

Caved a bought a OLED steam deck this week, I did a fair bit of digging around and looking at the other systems on the market currently, as I'd been hearing all sorts of stuff about rival Units with better specs (Claws,rog Allies etc). One thing I found surprising is a lot of the higher spec handheld pc's don't always translate to massive leaps in performance. Running windows is a more power hungry OS than the custom Linux OS steam deck uses for a start, and the work the community and developers are putting into optimising games for steam deck narrows things down quite considerably.

So while on paper a lot of Vales competitors can boast of a lot higher spec, this doesn't always turn into massive leaps in real world performance due to the above factors.

[Neon Ignition]

It's an incredibly comfortable device also which considering the size is no mean feat. I had a go on the PS Portal the other day and whilst it's fine it still feels like an uncomfortably wide DualSense, somewhat unnatural to hold. Whether it's emulation, old games, the majority of new games, PS5 remote play, using it as a quick way to do things like play lightgun games on the TV etc it's a top choice for almost every situation. I largely stick to going through the default Steam OS as it's primarily used for back catalogue clearing but literally holding two buttons can switch me over to booting it into Windows 11 also which is running entirely of an SD card should it be more convenient for any task. I know the other devices can be set up in a very similar way but the justifications for the higher RRP's they charge aren't there.

[hudson]

My Steam Deck has been a desktop device now for about 6 months I love it though. I don't have a main PC. Just a macbook (for music making) and my Deck (plus lots of consoles).

But I am able to play a lot of those games I tend to miss out on. This year, the likes of Lethal Company etc. It runs great too. Even got to play Enshrouded (which still needs optimising - Deck support is coming though).

[nonny]

I love my OLED steam deck. It now gets daily use either docked or in handheld mode and it really does feel like a significant bump over the LCD model as a result of smart tweaks and revisions.

It isn't perfect of course, but it is still easily the best handheld of it's kind on the market right now, despite the power difference to the likes of the Ally etc..

I'm about to install Windows 11 back on mine as I sourced a 2TB ssd of Aliexpress the other day for £82. Valve hasn't delivered all the drivers for Windows yet where the OLED is concerned but it's still useable as it's just the BT / Audio drivers missing.

I'm running Windows 11 on it off an external SSD at the moment and it flies. I've also tweaked how it boots and added a switch-like theme to it (which I use in decky loader in SteamOS) which makes it boot straight into Steam big picture mode in a very stream line way.

The only thing I wish would happen now is Valve supports Windows a bit more (may never happen) or at least some 3rd party tools release that allow you to bring up the same quick menu side panel you get on SteamOS.

I basically want to be able to access BT, brightness TDP etc... in a more direct way.

[Neon Ignition]

My main change would be the battery life - and I say that as someone who always finds low battery life complaints to be overblown. The Deck gets tanked insanely quick as soon as anything pushes it to even a modest extent

[nonny]

My main change would be the battery life - and I say that as someone who always finds low battery life complaints to be overblown. The Deck gets tanked insanely quick as soon as anything pushes it to even a modest extent

Yes the battery life on the OLED is way above acceptable for an actual handheld where the LCD and most of the competition have very limited battery life.

As a handheld it is exceptionally well balanced. As a docked experience it's behind the competition but you forgive it's lack of power because everything else is so good.

[Lebowski]

I'm not sure if I would ever use mine docked, if I'm using the TV it will be on the Xbox or PS5, the steam deck is going to be a pure dad station to get some decent gaming time in when the TV is occupied. I'd been looking at all sorts of things recently including a desk set up and a dedicated monitor, but with space at a premium and two teenagers in the house, the deck felt like the best option.

[nonny]

I'm not sure if I would ever use mine docked, if I'm using the TV it will be on the Xbox or PS5, the steam deck is going to be a pure dad station to get some decent gaming time in when the TV is occupied. I'd been looking at all sorts of things recently including a desk set up and a dedicated monitor, but with space at a premium and two teenagers in the house, the deck felt like the best option.

The next thing I'm looking at is the Xreal Air Pro AR glasses... I've a big birthday looming and I'm emigrating back to Australia end of year so they'd be the perfect travel companion for the Deck.

Large monitor setup in handheld mode wherever I go basically. Really tempted to grab those and they're also useful connected to other stuff.

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.mmorpg.com/news/guild-wars-3-confirmed-to-be-in-development-though-it-seems-its-still-in-its-early-stages-updated-2000130976