Steam Deck Announced - Reservations Start July 16th

[Mount Suribachi]

Shame I had an alarm for when to preorder it and while the servers were bad right when preorders were opened, I got my preorder in almost immediately. Doesn't look like I made the first wave because I didn't get an email for it.

As I understand it they're sending out emails every Friday. You can check in Steam whether you're scheduled for Q1 or Q2 delivery

 

[Mount Suribachi]

My brother who isn't into PC gaming because he doesn't want to ever have to mess with settings, drivers, etc, was interested in this because it looked like a console that would let you play PC games.

But from what I gather it doesn't have any kind of steam deck specific configuration that it applies to every game. It sounds like you still need to tweak settings yourself for each game before they're guaranteed to run well?

It depends. Some games are "deck verified" which means you can just install and play.

Some are "playable", so you can fire it up and play, but not all functionality works eg there might be a screen icon to use RMB, but there is no RMB on a Steam Deck.

Some are "unplayable". This is mainly VR games, and multiplayer games like PUBG that use anti cheat software that isn't Linux compatible

And then there's a whole slew of games that are "untested" that Valve are slowly working through.

 

[aleshemsky83]

I actually pre-ordered it and cancelled. It's like $650 canadian for the 250 GB version and there's just no way I can justify getting the eMMC memory version. I might buy one off marketplace when someone gets bored of it.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

My brother who isn't into PC gaming because he doesn't want to ever have to mess with settings, drivers, etc, was interested in this because it looked like a console that would let you play PC games.

But from what I gather it doesn't have any kind of steam deck specific configuration that it applies to every game. It sounds like you still need to tweak settings yourself for each game before they're guaranteed to run well?

For what it's worth, it's not very difficult. They have presets and then settings where you can go into each and every little detail. He can probably just go straight to the presets and pick medium and play like that with little to no issue. If he really wants to, then he can play around with individual settings but it's not necessary at all. A lot of indie games, especially Unity titles, have practically no settings at all.

 

[Commander Clueless]

I'm on the Q1 train for the 256GB model. Will probably buy it, but not entirely sure it will see much use.

It might end up in my friend's hands.


That said, I'm really excited to see where this goes. Maybe a Steam Deck 2 down the line can replace my gaming PC entirely

 

[Beau Knows]

For what it's worth, it's not very difficult.

It's not difficult, but he was under the impression that it would be like a console where "it just works", I think that's what he's looking for. I'll probably try to nudge him towards the Switch instead.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

I'm curious how games will react. There's a decent amount of games that detect your hardware and will change the settings the first time it loads to your hardware. If Steam Deck becomes popular, I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of games have a Steam Deck configuration where it knows you're on a Steam Deck and just changes the settings for you.

 

[Mount Suribachi]

I'm curious how games will react. There's a decent amount of games that detect your hardware and will change the settings the first time it loads to your hardware. If Steam Deck becomes popular, I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of games have a Steam Deck configuration where it knows you're on a Steam Deck and just changes the settings for you.

You gotta think thats the plan. Valve are selling the Deck at a loss so that they can sell more games on Steam - which benefits the developers, as well as Valve, obviously.

 

[Mikeaveli]

Anyone else got their hands on one? Mine came in the mail yesterday and I'm having a great time. Playing old favourites like Fallout New Vegas and Dark Souls on a handheld is just awesome. I'm also surprised at how well Civilization VI works using the touchpad.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

I just got mine last week. It's pretty neat. I admittedly don't think I'm going to use it that often but it'll be great for vacations. I drove an hour and a half to stay the weekend on Easter and already got a lot of use for it there. I'll still use it here and there at my house but it's hard to justify sitting next to my PC while using it lol.

 

[aleshemsky83]

You gotta think thats the plan. Valve are selling the Deck at a loss so that they can sell more games on Steam - which benefits the developers, as well as Valve, obviously.

They might be selling the 64 GB model at a loss but the other models are more expensive than a ps5 or series X, and I'm pretty sure the PS5 is actually sold at a profit. I'd be surprised if valve is losing money.

 

[Mount Suribachi]

Anyone else got their hands on one? Mine came in the mail yesterday and I'm having a great time. Playing old favourites like Fallout New Vegas and Dark Souls on a handheld is just awesome. I'm also surprised at how well Civilization VI works using the touchpad.

How stable is Civ VI? It's a unstable mess that crashes after an hour on console.

 

[Commander Clueless]

It's a pretty cool device. Mine came in and I played with it for the last couple weeks. It's impressive.

I ended up selling it to a friend who will probably get more use out of it but kudos to Valve.

 

[Mikeaveli]

A new beta firmware update allows you to adjust the refresh rate of the display between 40-60 Hz. So far it works great and should help smooth out some games I was having trouble running at a stable 60 FPS like Dark Souls 3.

How stable is Civ VI? It's a unstable mess that crashes after an hour on console.

I have 45 hours played and don't remember having technical problems with it, though most of those hours were back at launch so I may have forgotten.

 

[Mount Suribachi]

Mine arrived 2 weeks ago. Got the 521GB SSD version. Very impressed with it so far.

I play mainly strategy games and my old man eyes struggle with the text on the smaller screen, so I'm plugging it into a monitor or my tv. Gotta say, sat on the sofa playing EU4 or Football Manager on a 52 inch screen with bluetooth mouse and keyboard is pretty awesome. It did require a bit of fiddling with the settings to get them both running properly and I launch them both from desktop mode.

Played a bit of Half Life 2 on the deck itself and that works great. I used to play RPGs on my XB1 but I think the SD is going to be great for those kind of games.

 

[Supermassive]

Mine arrived 2 weeks ago. Got the 521GB SSD version. Very impressed with it so far.

I play mainly strategy games and my old man eyes struggle with the text on the smaller screen, so I'm plugging it into a monitor or my tv. Gotta say, sat on the sofa playing EU4 or Football Manager on a 52 inch screen with bluetooth mouse and keyboard is pretty awesome. It did require a bit of fiddling with the settings to get them both running properly and I launch them both from desktop mode.

Played a bit of Half Life 2 on the deck itself and that works great. I used to play RPGs on my XB1 but I think the SD is going to be great for those kind of games.

I've been playing Black Mesa on mine the last while. The game plays great but there are some serious lighting issues, especially in sewers and dark multi-platform areas that juuuust about kill the vibe. I'm hoping HL2 will be a better experience.

 

[Devil Dancer]

I'm close the Holy Grail: GamePass on Steam Deck.

I've installed Windows on a SD card, and I can launch GamePass games, now I just have to find a workaround for controller support - Valve hasn't released a controller driver for windows yet, but there are 3rd party options.

 

[mattihp]

With the OLED launching the refuebished 512gb is dirt cheap. Very close to buying.

What is the best portable set up for it with a case and a power bank?

Is there something one can do wirh it that is not very obvious but is peetty cool? Streaming and emulating I would see as obvious.

Thanks!

 

[Frankie Spankie]

They come with a case. I don't think it matters what power bank you get.

I got one for when I'm traveling or waiting some place for an appointment so I don't really do anything with modding with mine. I just run the SteamDeck compatible games and have fun with it here and there. If I'm at home, I prefer to just use my PC so the SteamDeck is just sitting there otherwise.

 

[mattihp]

They come with a case. I don't think it matters what power bank you get.

I got one for when I'm traveling or waiting some place for an appointment so I don't really do anything with modding with mine. I just run the SteamDeck compatible games and have fun with it here and there. If I'm at home, I prefer to just use my PC so the SteamDeck is just sitting there otherwise.

The case they come with is bulky and very basic. Would be nice with a more usable one. I don't have a pc so I would use it some more at home. Would be nice with a powerbank that has 65w and plays nicely with a custom case

 

[mattihp]

Ordered the refurbished 512gb edition. Looking forward to trying it out! Emudeck and 7 days to die will be the first downloads. Any good stand that goes well with basic usb-c hubs?

 

[mattihp]

Are the stock thumbgrips good enough? I am probably gonna use my stadia controller for this. Should it suffice or do I have to hold onto one of my ps4 controllers?

 

[mattihp]

What's the best hockey game for the steam deck? EA on ps3 emulator?

 

[Mikeaveli]

What's the best hockey game for the steam deck? EA on ps3 emulator?

I tried playing NHL Legacy Edition on RPCS3 and it was unplayable on steam deck unfortunately. The CPU isn't powerful enough. The Gamecube/PS2 games should work well though.

 

[mattihp]

I tried playing NHL Legacy Edition on RPCS3 and it was unplayable on steam deck unfortunately. The CPU isn't powerful enough. The Gamecube/PS2 games should work well though.

I play ps3 games on my samsung s20+ which processor is ridiculous in comparison. Many switch games look to be running pretty darn good on the steam deck so it's not the processor.

The key might be to cap the gpu usage. Seems people get far more demanding ps3 games to run well