I’ve been considering purchasing a steam deck. My pc is in my office, which limits interaction with the rest of the family if I want to play anything. I’ve tried playing mobile games, but just can’t get use to the controls. Think it’s worth getting one?
Worth it 100% for me, I love mine. I didn’t think I would use it much, I honestly bought it initially to just support the project and help FOSS friendly hardware and software.
But once I started playing on it, I fell in love. I play lots of indie games and smaller studio games, like Brotato, Hollow Knight, Battle for Wesnoth, Core Keeper. I also installed RetroArch and play all of my favorite Game Boy games. I play Old School Runescape with my friend, some kart racing games, some fighting games.
I also have Jellyfin installed on there, so I use it docked to my TV as a box for streaming from my Jellyfin server to my TV for movie nights. Discord runs pretty well on it in the background, so it works well for group party games like Pummel Party with my friends. Also games like Table Top simulator to play DnD, and virtual board games.
Idk, it’s just a perfect device for me. Super moddable, repair friendly, FOSS friendly, powerful enough to play most games without issue, works with every kind of Bluetooth device I’ve tested it with, controllers, headphones, etc. And now that it’s been out for well over a year, all of the most severe and annoying bugs have been fixed, so the general experience is very smooth and stable.
I bought it last year, and I could not have been happier. It is awesome. Although I also have a gaming laptop, I reach for Steam Deck more often - it’s because of it being a hand held.
The moment that there will be a next version of Steam Deck, I am ordering it.
Others here have probably mentioned it, but I’ve heard the Deck is fantastic in situations where you use a main powerhouse PC to run a game (especially at the Deck’s resolution of 800p), then stream it through your local network to the Deck.
I don’t do that, but I daily drive a Steam Deck and can attest that it’s a fantastic device handheld. It’ll play a TON of stuff at low/medium settings natively, and you have a big PC to handle the top tear graphics-card-melters, which you can stream from (in that scenario the Deck is fine as it takes very little of the load).
My only caution point is the small screen. It’s 7 inches diagonal, so small print in games can be tough, especially if you have 40s eyes like me. Otherwise, it’s exceeded wildly beyond my expectations.
Yes it’s worth it, exactly for the reason you state. You can play it while also being in the same room with other people. Sure, not always being the best companion but when your spouse is watching a series you are still around.
@Johnpwrinkle Well worth it. It can handle quite a bit locally, and can stream from steam on your main pc (or be set up to several cloud services).
