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Steam Deck |OT| Nintendo Switch 2

Maiden Voyage

Gold™ Member
So what's everyone planning on buying when the sale starts later today? Looking forward to everyone's Deck recommendations when the sale starts.
I bought like 50 games on sale already in the past few weeks. I’ll probably skip most of the sale unless there is something really compelling.
 

AndrewRyan

Member
So what's everyone planning on buying when the sale starts later today? Looking forward to everyone's Deck recommendations when the sale starts.
The winter sale starts today?!?
5Y9G98b.gif
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
I bought like 50 games on sale already in the past few weeks. I’ll probably skip most of the sale unless there is something really compelling.
Same here - I bought like 30 switch games since black Friday - stocking up for next year. Also picked up Valkyrie Elysium for the PS5. But - this is what I typically do, stock up during the holidays so I have tons of stuff to play til next year when the holidays hit.

There's a sale today?
Steam Winter sale starts in approximately 1.5 hours.
 

Maiden Voyage

Gold™ Member
Same here - I bought like 30 switch games since black Friday - stocking up for next year. Also picked up Valkyrie Elysium for the PS5. But - this is what I typically do, stock up during the holidays so I have tons of stuff to play til next year when the holidays hit.


Steam Winter sale starts in approximately 1.5 hours.
Who is making the thread and I vote for you. :messenger_beaming:
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
I have a question. is this symbol supposed to indicate playable on Steam Deck?

E64Lfzh.png
It means that the game has a native Linux version. It just means if it's running on the deck, it shouldn't have any incompatibilities (not having to use Proton to convert the Windows version). A safe bet that it will probably run fine on the Deck.
 

Sleepwalker

Gold Member
Furthermore, the games store page will more often that not have a part where it says

Steam deck: verified
Steam deck: playable
Steam deck: unsupported
 
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rofif

Can’t Git Gud
question about factory reset:
-will system/steamOS updates have to be reapplied?
-Does it remove everything or only steam folder? So will stuff I leave on desktop be gone too?
-Can I turn it off after reset, so my nephew will see it fresh like first setup?

other question not about reset. Is there any point doing system updates from desktop mode? Or just steamOS updates in gaming mode ?
 

Maiden Voyage

Gold™ Member
question about factory reset:
-will system/steamOS updates have to be reapplied?
-Does it remove everything or only steam folder? So will stuff I leave on desktop be gone too?
-Can I turn it off after reset, so my nephew will see it fresh like first setup?

other question not about reset. Is there any point doing system updates from desktop mode? Or just steamOS updates in gaming mode ?
Try it and report back. For updates, there shouldn’t be an actual difference besides preference in how to initiate the update.
 

calistan

Member
Just picked up Days Gone in the sale. Looks great, but that battery life... ouch. Looks like I'll have to play this one sitting within 3 feet of a wall socket.

o2PPqne.jpg
 
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BadBurger

Is 'That Pure Potato'
Team Fortress 2 plays surprisingly well on Deck. I typically hate playing FPS's with a controller, but it handles super well for pretty much every class aside from sniper.

Just picked up Days Gone in the sale. Looks great, but that battery life... ouch. Looks like I'll have to play this one sitting within 3 feet of a wall socket.

o2PPqne.jpg

Many settings can be tuned down for this game without it looking any worse on the 800p screen. I also suggest 40Hz and 40fps which you can configure in the hardware performance settings.

Seriously, most big fantastic looking PlayStation ports look just fine on medium to low settings on the Deck. Just toy around.
 
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BadBurger

Is 'That Pure Potato'
Sorry to spam the thread, but has anyone else's Deck been uninstalling and installing games really slowly after the latest update? I have a 512GB model, didn't do any kind of customization. I've poked around in the OS and can't see anything obvious. All processes and daemons seem to be operating fine, it's just the read/write IO to disk is super slow all of the sudden.
 

Maiden Voyage

Gold™ Member
Team Fortress 2 plays surprisingly well on Deck. I typically hate playing FPS's with a controller, but it handles super well for pretty much every class aside from sniper.



Many settings can be tuned down for this game without it looking any worse on the 800p screen. I also suggest 40Hz and 40fps which you can configure in the hardware performance settings.

Seriously, most big fantastic looking PlayStation ports look just fine on medium to low settings on the Deck. Just toy around.
Are you using the track pads for aiming or joystick?

Sorry to spam the thread, but has anyone else's Deck been uninstalling and installing games really slowly after the latest update? I have a 512GB model, didn't do any kind of customization. I've poked around in the OS and can't see anything obvious. All processes and daemons seem to be operating fine, it's just the read/write IO to disk is super slow all of the sudden.
No, but my internet has been a bit slow lately in general. I think it might be due to the extreme cold.
 

BadBurger

Is 'That Pure Potato'
Are you using the track pads for aiming or joystick?


No, but my internet has been a bit slow lately in general. I think it might be due to the extreme cold.

I use both. It works really well that way. Joystick, but then trackpad for finer shooting when needed.

Well, I think I may end up resetting my Deck. It's super slow, something is definitely wrong.
 
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Rex_DX

Gold Member
As I get ready to get emulation set up and explore much deeper into desktop mode I got this little Rii keyboard and mouse combo. All in one.
a.jpg


Its fucking fantastic and even fits inside the case with a dock, charger, headphones, cables, etc. Snug fit, but everything I need lives inside the case. Obviously I'm not using it to game with though. That would be painful. But still, it makes typing and using Linux so much better than without.

Highly recommend it to anyone who wants a travel keyboard or something portable to fully take advantage of the Deck. Its cheap too at about $30USD.
 

CrustyBritches

Gold Member
I use both. It works really well that way. Joystick, but then trackpad for finer shooting when needed.

Well, I think I may end up resetting my Deck. It's super slow, something is definitely wrong.
Sometimes updates fuck with the Deck. I don't know when it happened, but a recent update removed Power Tools from my Deck, and I also started to have weird storage issues with 'Other' all the sudden taking up over 200GB out of 350GB on my internal NVMe when only DOOM Eternal and 2-3GB of OS patches and shader caches were on there.

I did a fresh dual-boot install of SteamOS+Win10, installed FFVII Remake Intergrade to the internal drive and about 8 games to the microSD, and now 'Other' only takes up about 6GB. Who knows what happened, but it's working fine now.
 
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Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
Had it ordered a while ago (shipped in early September), but only opened it on Christmas Day :). Gotta save something for the big day.

In person it seems the Game Gear had a child (not that I mind that hehe). Great piece of HW, but due for an OLED update one day for sure, still this was known… the amount of games that will only be available for the Deck and not Switch or even PS4/PS5 will always be massive and all my other computers are Mac’s so (only 1 x86 based too)… super excited :).
SOCmPKm.jpg
 
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Foilz

Banned
I'm tempted to pick a deck up but the battery life horror stories is whats keeping me from shelling out the cash. Is 2-3 hrs really the norm?
 
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jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
I'm tempted to pick a deck up but the battery life horror stories is whats keeping me from shelling out the cash. Is 2-3 hrs really the norm?
It depends on the game and how demanding it is. Something like Stardew Valley I can play for 6 hours without it going dead. Other things like Assassin's Creed Valhalla it's closer to 60-80 minutes.
 

Maiden Voyage

Gold™ Member
I'm tempted to pick a deck up but the battery life horror stories is whats keeping me from shelling out the cash. Is 2-3 hrs really the norm?
You can optimize for battery life. If you’re looking to play recent AAA titles at max fps & settings, you’re going to have a bad time.
 

BadBurger

Is 'That Pure Potato'
I'm tempted to pick a deck up but the battery life horror stories is whats keeping me from shelling out the cash. Is 2-3 hrs really the norm?

For the most demanding games, yea (edit: it can actually be as low as an hour if you try to crank some game like Horizon on default settings). It's not ideal, but there are plenty of external batteries under $50 USD that one can affix to the back of the Deck using 3D printed or even off the shelf stuff to greatly extend the battery life. Just velcro will do. It's sucky, but people end up getting like 4 hours of playtime with even the most demanding games that way.
 
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CrustyBritches

Gold Member
2-3hrs battery life on modern games is really good. That would be considered optimized settings for battery life when it comes to high-end handhelds. You can drain the Deck battery in 60-90min with uncapped frame rate under full load with high-ultra settings.

If you’re willing to play at Switch settings you can do better than V1 and Switch Lite, coming in just under V2 at max brightness + WiFi. For Doom Eternal at 600p/30fps without res scaling at Switch settings, 100% brightness + WiFi with TDP limit at 7-8W you’ll be looking at ~3h45m in mainly combat scenarios. Switch V2 hits ~4h7m, but with dynamic res scaling from 612p max all the way down to 360p min.

Hell, if you’re willing to play at 30fps/768x480 FSR, 55% brightness, Airplane Mode, rumble and haptics off, at 5W TDP limit you can hit ~4h30m battery life in Eternal. The Deck offers a lot of flexibility in that regard. For my tastes, I like settings that will hit around 1.5-2hrs in modern AAA games. My Deck play sessions rarely exceed that.
 
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Filben

Member
I think people expect too much from a 420EUR handheld. Yes, it's a pretty efficient power house for its size and price, but it's still on a small battery and if people expect standards from next gen consoles and PC with a smaller resolution only (means 60fps) those expectations are too high. Just because you CAN play many games at 60fps and it CAN run modern AAA games doesn't mean without sacrifices apart from fidelity.

If you play indie games the Deck can run between 4-7hours which is amazing game time. And if for some reason that is still too little, you could always bring a power bank and recharge, if you're on a long trip without wall charge and have literally nothing else to do than to game.

Personally, I wouldn't want to play a highly immersive and beautiful AAA games on the train anyways (and all long distance trains here have wall plugs). I leave those games for my TV or 21:9 monitor and gaming PC with best settings in my comfy environment. And if I'm at home battery life isn't a problem anyways.

Those "horror stories" are either well exaggerated or highly anecdotal and specific to one's situation. In most cases it shouldn't be a big problem.
 

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
Had it ordered a while ago (shipped in early September), but only opened it on Christmas Day :). Gotta save something for the big day.

In person it seems the Game Gear had a child (not that I mind that hehe). Great piece of HW, but due for an OLED update one day for sure, still this was known… the amount of games that will only be available for the Deck and not Switch or even PS4/PS5 will always be massive and all my other computers are Mac’s so (only 1 x86 based too)… super excited :).
SOCmPKm.jpg
6EvJMrV.png

QxdQCA2.jpg

jROYCTx.jpg


CD music, pre-configured DosBox settings, etc… no popping sound effects or music and… it is CD music!!! So happy, nothing required, bought it on Steam and just well played it from the Deck without doing anything more than I would do on any game console. So so happy!!! Portable Krondor!
 
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Maiden Voyage

Gold™ Member
Just got all achievements on The Ramp in about 50 mins including some idle time. It’s fun and a solI’d foundation to build from. I’d love to see it more fleshed out, with missions and goals. Plays perfect on the Deck.

Just glad I paid like $.50 or $1 for it based on what is there. Not sure I’ll pick it back up as I prefer the depth & complexity of Session or SkaterXL.

 
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BadBurger

Is 'That Pure Potato'
Steam Deck activity from my Steam Replay: https://store.steampowered.com/replay

It doesn't show all of the other, non-Steam games I played on the Deck (like emulators or stuff launched with third party launchers) or the times I was playing offline in a hotel or what not. But it's surprising, I thought I played same other games for far more hours. Guess not. Must have had a few marathon sessions with these games.

vL8t6EJ.png
 

Kupfer

Member
Looking good.
The Deck really makes me play games I wouldn't touch on the main computer (again).
Love the device.
ZpdmD17.jpg

I'm surprised that more than a third of my playtime was on the Deck. When I consider how many resources a real PC eats up in power, maintenance, upgrades, etc., the Deck is a really fine and efficient thing.
 
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Assaulty

Member
Got MCC in the steam sale. Have had the thing for 3 months now but its stil nothing short of magical to see some of your favorite games play natively on a handheld device. I don't think it'll ever grow old to me.
 
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