Steam Deck: Thread 01

[fuse]

I'm not sure I like the layout of the buttons, but I'm still very interested in this, and a lot of that comes down to the dock. The idea of a no-maintenance, super compact PC setup in the living room is very appealing.

[eastyy]

Was tempted but that button layout did look like would cramp my hand lol.

Love the idea of a Handheld Pc just the specs of them are never quite what they need to be, will see how this benchmarks when reviews are out

[nonny]

I'm not sure I like the layout of the buttons, but I'm still very interested in this, and a lot of that comes down to the dock. The idea of a no-maintenance, super compact PC setup in the living room is very appealing.

Yeah that control layout is odd but they've obviously done it to add those mouse pad areas to each side.

In the ign videos he basically said it felt weird but it was comfortable and he got used to it rather quickly. I dunno I think with a device this size it really depends on the weight distribution as well and how it balances in the hands.

Holding it that far near the top might be a good thing if it's too heavy. It's impossible to know without trying it though...

[Cassius_Smoke]

This looks cool as ****. I mean it's massive, but I want one.

[nonny]

Me too but in the back of my mind I can't forget the Steam Controller, Steam machines and how they've tried and failed before.

This looks great and we'll thought out, and reasonably priced. But given we can't try it, pick it up and scrutinise it we're left with trusting them...

I'm probably going to reserve but I'm also not totally convinced. But as someone who has a fairly large steam/epic/xbox game library on PC having never owned a gaming rig this is really something which suits my play style.

[Brad]

I feel like the best part of this is that if it sells well it might encourage devs to make their games compatible with it and get us towards eliminating the only reason for Windows continued existence; gaming

[Dogg Thang]

So is this pretty much compatible with any regular game on Steam? If so, I want one.

[MartyG]

Yeah, pretty much, so long as it runs on Linux (which is the default OS - you can install Windows on it if you must) - it helps that it's running at 720P which means that APU isn't having to push out a huge amount of pixels, I doubt it's going to be able to do much at 4K when docked, but even so, as a portable gaming device and retro emulator and media player on a dock (and Valve have said that this will work with any compatible USB-C dock, not just theirs) - this is very appealing.

Given how good their Index is and the Steam Controller was, I don't have any major concerns about ergos and hardware - the Index is the most comfortable VR headset I've used; I'm quite sure they've done focus testing on the control layout - but yeah, going to have to hold and use one to know for sure.

[Asura]

So is this pretty much compatible with any regular game on Steam? If so, I want one.

Yeah, pretty much, so long as it runs on Linux (which is the default OS - you can install Windows on it if you must)

Not just that. The device runs Proton, which is SteamOS's abstraction layer that lets Windows games run under Linux. Valve believe over 90% of games on Steam will "just work", while of the remainder, most of them will run to a degree where most users won't care about the issues. Though I'm unsure exactly how this works.

[Mr Ono]

Hopefully offline play. Would be ideal for long haul flights and holidays.

[MartyG]

Yes, I should have clarified that: Linus Tech Tips did a vid on it a while back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T_-HMkgxt0

[QualityChimp]

I'm also interested in this.

It's got the potential to be a gamechanger, but also the possibility to be an nGage.

Definitely watching this, though.

Got us chatting about how many Steam games we have in our libraries.
I'm not really a PC gamer, just use a couple of boardgame simulators and had a hankering for some older games that I played around 2000, so have a bunch of Half-Life games, Star Wars III, SHOGO and Max Payne.

Steam Library Totalizer: 19

Your turn!

[MartyG]

Steam Library Totalizer: 19

Your turn!

I'm not going to post the number on here, but if you're really interested, it's on my profile

[QualityChimp]

Bwah hahhah hah ah!

I'll never stress about my pile of shame again, Martino!

EDIT: I guess it's not a pile, if it doesn't physically exist, so no shame.

[MartyG]

I'll never stress about my pile of shame again, Martino!

This is why I started do the unplayed games challenge thread, so I'd actually get through some of them - and if I can play them anywhere on the Steam Deck, it should only take another 10 years or so to get through them.