GreenAlex

As time goes on I lean more and more into PC gaming with emulation for older systems. Resistant to hardware and disks/cartridges failing and there are fewer concerns with online functionality going away completely. There’s a lot to like about the Switch but with it being literally their only console that still has any online features, I have serious concerns about longevity.

Outside of the major changes of the screen and battery, there’s minor changes in pretty much every area of the OLED. Whether that’s worth it depends. For me, the Deck was my main device, and for that it was completely worth selling the old model and upgrading. If it won’t be your primary gaming device or it will almost always be docked (so not benefiting from the screen or battery), then maybe not. In either case, the power is basically identical and some software changes have been made to massively improve the LCD screen, so you really can’t go wrong.

It’s been a while but I think I also struggled to hit a solid 60 without substantial graphical downgrades. The biggest thing to check, if they haven’t fixed it, is if you’re using proton? The Linux version of the game, at least as of last year, is total crap. Running the Windows version through proton is a substantial improvement. Hopefully enough to get you to 60fps.

Factorio is indeed a great choice. Whenever you’re ready for more Monster Hunter, Risse+Sunbreak is also amazing (playing it now myself). ARPGs like Grim dawn and Chronicon also give plenty of playtime if they’re your style.

I haven’t looped back to the game since it was added. How would you say the controller support is compared to the trackpad style setups that were previously required on Deck?

It’s a fair point. I completely forgot fast travel was a thing when I played Spider-man because I enjoyed swinging around. I think teleportation is often used as a crutch to get around the fact that travel does tend to be boring (hello Bethesda).

It’s rare for crap like this to hit a game I’m currently playing, but here we are. It is astounding to me that this company managed to absolutely bomb its reputation so quickly after building it back up over the last 10 or so years. I’m not even sure what any of this is supposed to accomplish, as people are reporting that mods still work if you have an OS that can even start the game.

Steam’s verification badges are a good starting point for a game’s playability. For more information, or to confirm if a game can actually be played when Steam says otherwise, give ProtonDB a look.

Valve has done well at making the Steam Deck a ‘play things out of the box’ experience but there may be occasions where you’ll need to do a bit of tinkering. If that happens there’s thankfully a lot of good community resources out there to help you work through it.

Unless you don’t care about audio delay, you’ll ideally use a pair that has a low latency mode. I personally can’t use any otherwise, and even then the delay is too much for a game such as Hifi Rush.

I just started undervolting the other day. Currently -30 across the board on my OLED with no negative results so far (even though I’m playing Baldur’s Gate right now). I haven’t yet tried to get more aggressive with it.

I think the general consensus is that it’s possible to get up to a roughly 3-4% improvement in performance depending on how low you can get it. I think the battery benefit is in that same percentage ballpark, too, but I’m less sure on that one.

I like the Jsaux Modcase for the extra grippiness, the protection is more of a bonus. You’re probably going to see damage to sticks and screen from a drop before the areas that one of these cases would cover.

I recommend giving Plate Up a look!

Trying to keep it tame this time as Monster Hunter Rise has me plenty busy. Got Forza Horizon 4 and may come back for an Aeon’s End expansion later.

No wrong choice here. Hardware improvements in all arease but (mostly) performance, or a bunch of games.

I’d pick the OLED myself but my game library is also plenty big.

Don’t blame you. I’m thinking that I will but that’s only because a buddy of mine has already offered to buy my current one. I wouldn’t consider it without selling the old.

Until they drop the price and improve the game I’ll just be plugging away at Grim Dawn.

To be fair, the Deck is underpriced for its power level. I unfortunately can’t find the quote but if memory serves they were planning to achieve a 30fps target on the device for a few years, which obviously hasn’t quite panned out. Given that this year has been notorious for badly optimized games, I would personally attribute the problems the device is having to that, rather than the Deck itself being too weak to keep up.

It makes total sense. Just a bit of a bummer when looking at the reality of devs being awful/not caring about optimising their games. The Deck is just barely hanging on with this year’s big titles.

Thankfully, there’s plenty of older and/or more lightweight options out there.

Hopefully I’m not being overly optimistic in agreeing. I love my Deck but am not impressed at all in the rest of the handheld market. Being stuck on Windows and not having necessary tools like the trackpads means that I’m not hopeful for the market if the Steam Deck doesn’t continue.

Yeah we played some today and still dip below 30 in act 2, so I’m guessing the final act is still in rough shape. Still managed to feel much smoother, though, so hopefully they continue the trend.