I’ve been on the fence for a while thinking about getting myself a steam deck. I got a great gaming computer and I’m wondering if it can possible accompany it in some way, or is it just the excitement of getting new tech kicking in.
What do you do with your steam deck? What makes you glad that you got it?
For me, it’s been useful to get in some gaming time while still being around my family/kids. I have a gaming PC too, but it’s in my office which is kind of cut off from the main living areas of our house. The SD allows me to play and still easily pause to do whatever for my kids or talk to my wife, etc. The sleep/wake is *chef’s kiss.
My other use case is emulation. It’s really good at it, and even passable at emulating the Switch. Though the sleep/wake doesn’t work with those, it’s a trade off.
I also have a great gaming PC so I do most of my major AAA gaming on that. People will talk about how great games like Elden Ring, RE4, or even Cyberpunk run on the deck but the experience is so degraded on the mobile platform that I’d rather play other games on Deck.
Things like Emulation, JRPGS, Platformers, Indie games fucking excel on the deck. The experience playing them there is so much better when being able to take it and go places.
If you are only interested in playing major AAA games or shooters, probably not worth it
Playing PS2, PS3, Dreamcast, and GameCube games that the Retroids can’t handle. It’s amazing how almost everything runs well. other things I’ve bought things would be hit or miss, but this is the most consistent device I’ve seen so far.
I can play while sitting with my wife on the couch.
I can play while supervising my kids playing outside.
I can play while visiting my in-laws. This is the big one, as we probably spend at least a month there, every year.
Steam deck seems to be a great solution for a gamer dad
As a dad with young children it’s amazing. I’ve convinced both my brothers to get one and several of my coworkers.
Even if you don’t have kids, being able to watch TV with the wife on the couch and play games is awesome.
Modded skyrim! So far, I’m 15h in with about 2h of game play. Having a blast so far :)
Did you follow a guide to get Skyrim modded on the deck? I’ve modded it on Windows but never Linux.
I installed MO2 on my deck using using this github repo https://github.com/rockerbacon/modorganizer2-linux-installer
Get visual c++ through protontricks so most mods will work without any trouble
Honestly there’s no game it can’t play. Like besides super specific games that can’t be emulated yet (Xbox 360 & original Xbox don’t work, RIP), I’m yet to encounter something that it can’t run. Like even shit that you’d expect to be totally unplayable without a keyboard or just kinda… No problem on deck 🤷♂️ the controller bindings or so customizable even Factorio or Apex are as close to PC as a handheld can get. It’s wild.
The Steam Deck can’t play Fortnite, Destiny 2, Genshin Impact, and a handful of other (mostly online, often free-to-play) games with anti-cheat not enabled.
It’s not because it technically could not, it’s because those game companies don’t let it.
All the various anti-cheat things are supported by the Steam Deck. It’s just a bad policy decision by the game maker to not enable it for Linux, including the Steam Deck.
To be clear: There are several f2p games and other games with anti-cheat that are enabled for the Steam Deck.
And: I do have a Steam Deck and also game ony desktop PC that runs Fedora Linux. And every game I care about (aside from Fortnite, which my nephews play) runs well.
So I basically agree, but I’m pointing out a few very small exceptions.
Oh yeah you’re right! Still though, it’s pretty straightforward to toss windows on if those are your main games, or even dual boot if you wanna get spicy with it! Even then it’s certainly got the power to handle em, even with all windows’ bloatware!
