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Steam Steam Deck owners, I have some questions I am hoping you can help me with

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Steam Deck being on sale right now, I am thinking about biting the bullet and getting one for myself (I've wanted one forever, and this is as good a chance as any to do it), but I have some hesitations, mostly coming down to me fucking hating PC gaming and the entire experience it entails.

Put simply, I hate PC gaming. I want things to be seamless. I want to turn the machine on and play my game. I don't want to have to fiddle with settings or drivers or troubleshoot why my game is suffering from stuttering. I don't want to have to manage multiple drivers, switch between integrated and discrete GPUs, turn off background programs before starting the game, none of that bullshit.

"PC gaming is almost as seamless as console gaming now" goes the counterbuttal every time I bring up this point. I have fallen for it multiple times, and I have never walked away agreeing. Not even once. If you feel that way, that is absolutely fine, but for whatever my own messed up standards are, this has never held true. At its best, PC gaming was still worse than the worst console UI and experience (which would be Xbox at the moment), and right now, with PS5/Switch providing instant, blistering, seamless plug and play and PC gaming running into shader compilation issues and multiple poor ports, there is no comparison between the two for me.

But the Deck - I am told the Deck sidesteps or minimizes a lot of these issues to a very large degree. I am told it brings things reasonably close to the console experience (with the caveat that it's not a console so it will never be perfectly equivalent). And, like, that's really what I want to ask Deck owners - in your experience, and based on my rant above, how likely am I to be able to deal with the Steam Deck? How good is the UI? How much babysitting and micromanaging is necessary before I can get into my game? Can I just turn a game on and play? Is there any prepwork necessary?

I really want to get one, but I don't want to waste money on a device I would fundamentally hate using, so I would appreciate your insights and impressions using it!
 
Depends on what you want to play

Stick with Verified or even Playable games and you'll probably be fine, especially if you do no other tinkering. If you want to play stuff that isn't officially supported you're likely to have a tougher time of it

The experience playing verified games is pretty similar to a console one I'd say. Maybe a tad bit more jank but not to a significant degree
 
NabiscoFelt said:
Depends on what you want to play

Stick with Verified or even Playable games and you'll probably be fine, especially if you do no other tinkering. If you want to play stuff that isn't officially supported you're likely to have a tougher time of it

The experience playing verified games is pretty similar to a console one I'd say. Maybe a tad bit more jank but not to a significant degree
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So I’ve checked the list of games I’d want to play, and it looks like almost all of them are verified (a couple are playable); it’s basically just Yakuza, as well as sim and strategy games. Going forward I may purchase multiplatform games on Deck instead of PS/Xbox but I’d make sure I’m not buying something that’s not confirmed to run well, so I’m not too concerned about future purchases as much.

If the list of playable and verified games isn’t too jank to run, that’s basically exactly what I was hoping to hear.
 
The Steam Deck, for my opinion, actually fulfills the ever promised "console experience on a PC." I've had one for about a year now. I've never had to mess with graphic settings, never had to close background programs, never had to worry about internal/discrete graphics (I don't know if the Steam Deck even has an internal graphics card). The OS is speedy, buying and playing games is simple; I would argue better than the other bloated console stores. Hopefully that assuages most of your concerns.

Now, a couple of additional considerations:

-You can buy a $40 dock and hook up the Steam Deck to your TV. You get the hybrid experience and a dedicated place to charge it, highly recommend it.

-One minor downside: the Bluetooth doesn't function in standby. You cannot power on the Steam Deck with a controller, have to get up and press the power button.

-Proton: this is where the tinkering comes into play. The Steam Deck is a Linux system playing your Windows games. To make that happen, Valve uses a compatibility layer called Proton. 90% of the time, it functions flawlessly in the background. You'll never notice it. But there are some games, old visual novels, newer indie titles, things in Early Access that aren't checked for Steam Deck compatibility. For these, you may have crashes that can be fixed by changing your Proton version. This is one option in one menu, not nearly as bad as most PC tinkering, but you should know that it can crop up. On the Steam page for any game, Valve listed whether the game works on Steam Deck without a hitch. If the game isn't "Verified," you may have to work with Proton.

-The battery life is poor, depending what you play, similar to the original Switch.

If you have any specific questions, I can try to answer them. Just let me know.
 
I'll try to keep it short, because I'd say the fundamental answer you're looking for isn't so easy to give. It depends a lot on how you'll end up using the device, SteamOS, what games you'll likely end up playing. The Deck isn't as easy to use and as pick-up-n-play as a Switch, but it's most certainly easier to use than a traditional gaming PC. It falls somewhere in the middle of the two.
Personally, after circa a year of Deck usage, six years of Switch ownership, and around three years of Windows PC gaming, I can't fully recommend the Deck to people who aren't at least in the slightest bit willing to tinker with some stuff here and there, because you'll need to do just that with the Deck as well. Valve's verified programme is a nice idea, but definitely lacking in execution, both in terms of false positives as well as negatives. You won't get happy with the Deck if you're not willing to do even the bare minimum that PC gaming inherently requires. At least you won't as of now/today.

May I ask why you even want to branch out beyond maining Switch/PS anyways, especially if you own an Xbox as well for their stuff on there?
 
UI is good PT, better than the switch in many (most?) ways. The options and configurations at your fingertips, even as a fellow "don't like to fiddler", are appreciated.

In terms of launching a game and it Just Works TM, while it hasn't been flawless for me since owning it as an early adopter, its now had a year of constant updates.

Update cadence and transparency is another welcome Valve practice that Nintendo should crib. Game support has steadily multiplied and as the device continues to gain traction with time on market, it will only increase since devs will increasingly factor in launch/near-launch Deck verification. Meanwhile Valve themselves will be toiling away at growing that Deck verification ratio.

Let me say this about hardware experience tho: Build quality is pretty nice buy my initial in-hands impression was still negative due to the bulk and the weight over the switch. Enough so that my wrists literally hurt after playing for a session and I seriously contemplated just returning it or selling it. Obviously I've kept it, and that hasn't been a big issue. Maybe I learned how to hold it? Not sure what changed.

Overall I like the device and it is basically my first "gaming PC". My prior "gaming PC" was Nvidia GeforceNow hahah.

All that said, ultimately you have been intrigued by it, its On Sale now, a successor will not come for years, and you have 14 days to return.

I think its safe to bite!

I'm eyeballing the Spring Sale now and coincidentally enough have Yakuza 0 in my cart 😎 (along with ANNO: Mutationem and Disco Eysium). Another thing about the Deck and Steam in general, the economy of game access is ridiculous both in lower prices and available freebies. Even most common indies are usually cheaper on Steam than eshop (Thats mystifying to me).
 
If you really prefer handheld gaming over gaming on a TV it's a no-brainer. Being able to play games like Cyberpunk 2077, Dead Space, Elden Ring, etc on the go is something else. I played the Tomb Raider reboot on it from start to finish and was super impressed with how well it looked and ran.

It's an awesome piece of hardware but I think it's still got some kinks to iron out. Some of the verified and playable games are still finicky and require messing around with to work (Tomb Raider required me to download stuff in desktop mode to get to work ideally), the battery life isn't great, and docking isn't nearly as seamless as the Switch. Also, while I know some people love it, the thing is fucking huge.

I'm not ready to leave my Xbox just yet but come V2 or V3, with enough hardware power and smoother movement between docked and undocked, I could honestly see myself going Steam Deck only.
 
UnrulyUmbreon said:
The Steam Deck, for my opinion, actually fulfills the ever promised "console experience on a PC." I've had one for about a year now. I've never had to mess with graphic settings, never had to close background programs, never had to worry about internal/discrete graphics (I don't know if the Steam Deck even has an internal graphics card). The OS is speedy, buying and playing games is simple; I would argue better than the other bloated console stores. Hopefully that assuages most of your concerns.

Now, a couple of additional considerations:

-You can buy a $40 dock and hook up the Steam Deck to your TV. You get the hybrid experience and a dedicated place to charge it, highly recommend it.

-One minor downside: the Bluetooth doesn't function in standby. You cannot power on the Steam Deck with a controller, have to get up and press the power button.

-Proton: this is where the tinkering comes into play. The Steam Deck is a Linux system playing your Windows games. To make that happen, Valve uses a compatibility layer called Proton. 90% of the time, it functions flawlessly in the background. You'll never notice it. But there are some games, old visual novels, newer indie titles, things in Early Access that aren't checked for Steam Deck compatibility. For these, you may have crashes that can be fixed by changing your Proton version. This is one option in one menu, not nearly as bad as most PC tinkering, but you should know that it can crop up. On the Steam page for any game, Valve listed whether the game works on Steam Deck without a hitch. If the game isn't "Verified," you may have to work with Proton.

-The battery life is poor, depending what you play, similar to the original Switch.

If you have any specific questions, I can try to answer them. Just let me know.
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Thank you so much for the detailed answer! My big thing is that I’m still going to prioritize Switch where I can (better screen, better battery life, and I personally prefer how it feels in the hand more than the Deck, which I’ve had the chance to hold, and found surprisingly comfortable but not as much as the Switch). Any game that’s also Switch, I’d get on Switch. The Deck is more for coverage of games not on Switch at all (like the aforementioned Yakuza, or something like ER). I’d mostly only want it for some big(ger) games or PC only strategy and sim stuff like Democracy.

Based on what I’m reading it sounds like within the use case I have planned for it, the Deck would hold up to my expectations. I’ve already made my peace with the battery and screen being worse; I’m not sure about the dock (maybe I can get it down the line!), I mostly prefer portable play anyway. So some of the jank you’re mentioning (such as the Bluetooth controller issue) thankfully wouldn’t apply as much to me (though I assume if I ever do move up to using it docked too, I’d find that annoying, if they haven’t already issued a fix for it by then lol)

Imitatio said:
I'll try to keep it short, because I'd say the fundamental answer you're looking for isn't so easy to give. It depends a lot on how you'll end up using the device, SteamOS, what games you'll likely end up playing. The Deck isn't as easy to use and as pick-up-n-play as a Switch, but it's most certainly easier to use than a traditional gaming PC. It falls somewhere in the middle of the two.
Personally, after circa a year of Deck usage, six years of Switch ownership, and around three years of Windows PC gaming, I can't fully recommend the Deck to people who aren't at least in the slightest bit willing to tinker with some stuff here and there, because you'll need to do just that with the Deck as well. Valve's verified programme is a nice idea, but definitely lacking in execution, both in terms of false positives as well as negatives. You won't get happy with the Deck if you're not willing to do even the bare minimum that PC gaming inherently requires. At least you won't as of now/today.

May I ask why you even want to branch out beyond maining Switch/PS anyways, especially if you own an Xbox as well for their stuff on there?
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My hope is that since my usage of the device is planned to be for specific, fairly high profile games (or PC specific ones to begin with) I wouldn’t run into the jank. But you are right, the experiences you are describing are the ones I’ve heard of from some friends who do own it. The caveat being they play EVERYTHING on the Deck, whereas I’m only planning on using it for certain specific games.

As for why, mostly because I emphasize and value portability and flexibility and the Deck lets me cover games that can’t or won’t come to Switch in a portable format as well; realistically, once I get the Deck, I can see my usage of PS5 and especially Xbox completely plummet depending on how well I take to it (I assume PS5 isn’t affected as badly because there are still some exclusives I’d want to play at launch that I’d get there).

uncleoptimus said:
UI is good PT, better than the switch in many (most?) ways. The options and configurations at your fingertips, even as a fellow "don't like to fiddler", are appreciated.

In terms of launching a game and it Just Works TM, while it hasn't been flawless for me since owning it as an early adopter, its now had a year of constant updates.

Update cadence and transparency is another welcome Valve practice that Nintendo should crib. Game support has steadily multiplied and as the device continues to gain traction with time on market, it will only increase since devs will increasingly factor in launch/near-launch Deck verification. Meanwhile Valve themselves will be toiling away at growing that Deck verification ratio.

Let me say this about hardware experience tho: Build quality is pretty nice buy my initial in-hands impression was still negative due to the bulk and the weight over the switch. Enough so that my wrists literally hurt after playing for a session and I seriously contemplated just returning it or selling it. Obviously I've kept it, and that hasn't been a big issue. Maybe I learned how to hold it? Not sure what changed.

Overall I like the device and it is basically my first "gaming PC". My prior "gaming PC" was Nvidia GeforceNow hahah.

All that said, ultimately you have been intrigued by it, its On Sale now, a successor will not come for years, and you have 14 days to return.

I think its safe to bite!

I'm eyeballing the Spring Sale now and coincidentally enough have Yakuza 0 in my cart 😎 (along with ANNO: Mutationem and Disco Eysium). Another thing about the Deck and Steam in general, the economy of game access is ridiculous both in lower prices and available freebies. Even most common indies are usually cheaper on Steam than eshop (Thats mystifying to me).
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Yeah, the bulk of it is something I find uncomfortable relative to the Switch and that I will probably endure I continue to prefer Switch when given a chance.

I will admit I didn’t know about the return window, that… actually makes my decision for me. If I don’t vibe with it, I return it.

(Yakuza 0 portable is basically 90% of the attraction for me for this device lol so that is a real well timed sale haha)

Xaltmas said:
If you really prefer handheld gaming over gaming on a TV it's a no-brainer. Being able to play games like Cyberpunk 2077, Dead Space, Elden Ring, etc on the go is something else. I played the Tomb Raider reboot on it from start to finish and was super impressed with how well it looked and ran.

It's an awesome piece of hardware but I think it's still got some kinks to iron out. Some of the verified and playable games are still finicky and require messing around with to work (Tomb Raider required me to download stuff in desktop mode to get to work ideally), the battery life isn't great, and docking isn't nearly as seamless as the Switch. Also, while I know some people love it, the thing is fucking huge.

I'm not ready to leave my Xbox just yet but come V2 or V3, with enough hardware power and smoother movement between docked and undocked, I could honestly see myself going Steam Deck only.
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See, minimal jank, I’d be fine with putting up with. Like downloading an update or having to install some patch or profiles to be able to play a game properly? Not ideal, but fine, I can deal with it. Especially if the flip side is, as you mention, all these games on the go that I otherwise cannot get in that format.

Thank you so much for your detailed answers everyone, I really appreciate them all (and you!) 😊
 
Phantom Thief said:
So I’ve checked the list of games I’d want to play, and it looks like almost all of them are verified (a couple are playable); it’s basically just Yakuza, as well as sim and strategy games. Going forward I may purchase multiplatform games on Deck instead of PS/Xbox but I’d make sure I’m not buying something that’s not confirmed to run well, so I’m not too concerned about future purchases as much.

If the list of playable and verified games isn’t too jank to run, that’s basically exactly what I was hoping to hear.
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Yakuza games are a mixed bag on it. Zero and Kiwami run great, Kiwami 2 and 7 run like shit despite being verified. 3/4/5/6 are totally unsupported

Strategy and sim games aren't a great experience on the Deck either. If you wanna play those, you're best off with an actual PC
 
robertman2 said:
Yakuza games are a mixed bag on it. Zero and Kiwami run great, Kiwami 2 and 7 run like shit despite being verified. 3/4/5/6 are totally unsupported

Strategy and sim games aren't a great experience on the Deck either. If you wanna play those, you're best off with an actual PC
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Hmmm. 0/K2/5/7 are the ones I’d want to play, so that’s… all but one of them with problems, it sounds like

Why are strategy and sim games not good on Deck? Is it controls? I actually don’t mind using console style controls for those genres (loved Civ 6 and Cities Skylines on consoles!). Or is it something else?
 
Phantom Thief said:
Hmmm. 0/K2/5/7 are the ones I’d want to play, so that’s… all but one of them with problems, it sounds like

Why are strategy and sim games not good on Deck? Is it controls? I actually don’t mind using console style controls for those genres (loved Civ 6 and Cities Skylines on consoles!). Or is it something else?
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It's pretty much controls (also much easier modding)
 
I have a Steam Deck being shipped to me and I have a lot of similar concerns. I also hope I can figure out modding for some games without too much trouble.
 
The Steam Deck is literally just a PC in a different form factor, so expecting to get it and sidestep anything special that comes with PC gaming is a bit of a fool's errand imo. The device also shines because of the fact it doesn't sit inside of a walled garden. Unsupported games from outside the steam service and the emulation power this thing has at the price point are two of the biggest plusses to using this thing. You can stay within the walled garden of verified games and have a good time without having to do too much, but you'll probably still wanna do some settings tinkering to optimize your preferred perf level vs battery life. The only thing that it avoids that a regular PC doesn't is that since it's a preconfigured system coming from Valve that means there's a lot of stuff already preset in the verified games to get you going.

I wouldn't really be looking to get one if I was searching for a console like experience. I'd get one if I was interested in playing more niche/indy stuff on that from factor as well as emulation. I'd argue it's actually easier to get into emulation on this than on a desktop thanks to the community installers and configs out there. Outside of that, I'd call the AAA-AA range experience console lite like what was alluded to earlier. It's like 3/4 of the time it's plug and play inside the verified page, and the last 1/4 of the time you're gonna just getting a perf profile set up. You REALLY are going to want to branch out of that because there are tons of unsupported games that will just work like that, and plenty more that would require like one tweak off ProtonDB's list to get going.

If you're planning on getting one, I'd be open minded to doing a good amount of set up to get it to where you want it. It's an enthusiast machine for people who want to have access to a wide range of stuff on a portable; it's not just a higher spec console on the go. I cannot stress enough how much having an emulation library on this thing is probably the biggest selling point, with the second selling point to me being that I can play niche Japanese RPGs/VNs/etc with translation patches on mobile. Those are the things you should really think about if you wanna get one of these, because the consolization experience is just what I would call passable. You can get to a console experience using the community tools to configure the device, and then go from there with the wide range of stuff I mentioned with less tinkering than on a traditional desktop. But really, if you're buying to stay within the verified realm expecting a seamless experience, don't. It's a waste of money because it's too limited. You have to be open minded to at the minimum at least using ProtonDB and the community made config tools to get enough out of it.

I personally really love that once I got it to a point I like it, it's the most convenient machine I have for just throwing stuff on to a plug n play launcher. I'd highly recommend it on that basis, and just encourage people who are not into tinkering to look around on youtube to see how EmulationStation, Proton compatibility fixes, and plug ins work to see if you'd be willing to set it all up. Again, you can ignore all of this if you think you get your money's worth sticking to verified stuff. I just personally don't see a point in having one if you're not willing to at least consider using that stuff. If it helps to have an opinion on difficulty from my POV, I'm a fulltime PC player with enough building/tinkering experience to get about anything running. I'd rate the difficulty of getting the Steam Deck to that mostly plug and play experience like a 2 out of 10. It's pretty sweet how good the community support is for all this. So Idk, ymmv but this is how it looks from where I'm sitting. It lands in the middle for me most of the time, where it really turned into the plug and play everything machine I wanted after a day of set up.
 
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As far as RGG games go, they’ll work. I’ve looked into it, and you can see people’s experiences using ProtonDB. 3 is verified, 4 isn’t but it’s supposed to work, and 5 works except for some cutscene/audio issues. The Dragon Engine games should work with some tinkering. The Steam Deck has a built in version of FSR you can use if you have to.
 
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Ultimately, the Steam Deck is a PC, and a PC running Linux that runs most games non-natively through a (generally incredibly good) compatibility layer. For verified and playable stuff, the experience is generally seamless (the usual playable caveat is 'have to enter text through the on-screen keyboard', you can pull up the keyboard at any time using the Steam button + X), but outside of that you may need to tinker.

The UI is great, functional and elegant. You can switch to a Linux desktop by holding down the power button, but if you purely want to stay within the Steam ecosystem you won't necessarily need to ever do that. You would need the desktop to do things like grab emulators, get non-steam games, get custom versions of Proton for games that aren't officially playable but have workarounds, but the community is pretty good and has plenty of guides. Emulators particularly are easy, because there's a simple solution (Emudeck) that does a lot of the grunt work for you.

It's not on the same level as a Switch for plug and play, but for essentially a handheld PC it does as good a job as I think you're going to get.
 
I think it's also worth considering that, according to Valve themselves, this is only the beginning of a multi-generational project for them, so (a) Steam Deck successor(s) is/are 100% in the works and coming. Which means that the current shape of the device and OS certainly is in an overall early phase (even if it's in pretty solid to good form already!), and that there's a lot more to come. What I, then, expect them to deliver with the next device is an experience even more welcoming to console folks than the current one, so either waiting for an iteration or keeping this context in mind at least while trying out the current model and UX would certainly prove sensible in my opinion.
 
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I also have always been PC gaming averse, and the deck completely has converted me lol. But ofc, ymmv
 
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Is it possible to play games from the Epic Games Shop, Amazon Prime Gaming or GOG.com on a Steam Deck? I have dozens of free games from those and would want to be able to access them if I got a Steam Deck.
 
Not going to lie, mine is actually currently collecting dust.
It's because the huge backlog that i have on switch and also because of switch as a whole.
There are a lot of good points on the steamdeck, like it's a pc and you can do everything. Also the steambacklog you have like forever keeping the games whatever generation you are in. And a lot of other good things as well.

Thas said, i really hate
  • Worst dpad in history
  • The UI of steamdeck is a complete mess
  • Familiy share is a nightmare, switching users is some next level bs
  • Proton is still bugged
  • Dock is not click and play and provide some issues on my side (i have the official dock)
  • Also connection issues to tv is not rare.
  • While the analogstiicks are better, it's not that comfortable to hold
  • No oled screen
  • No hd rumble
  • No attachable controlls, if you have drifting, your are ...

If money isn't an issue, switch + steamdeck is the best combination.
 
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I don't like gaming on PC, I like gaming fast and easily, and the deck, even if makes things a bit easier, still need some configuring spec in each game, so its not for me. Also, I was able to play with a deck for several days and it was pretty uncomfortable to me. Almost 1 kg weight and really, really big, it made the switch to look smaller. The short battery life didn't help either.

Don't take me wrong, its a great machine and a really competitive entry on the portable PC market, but its nothing near a portable console, just shares the physical appearance, that's it. But I have to say, since I was able to try it, my love for the switch increased a lot more. The perfect portable console.
 
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You definitely need to tweak stuff around, but it's way more accessible than a standard PC that has many more variables. It's like a console experience, using an emulator to play games. Most games should be playable with little touching up, but some games may require you to go into the steam menu, edit controls, Frame rate, resolution etc. For me, it's a god send compared to standard PC gaming.
 
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Phantom Thief said:
Steam Deck being on sale right now, I am thinking about biting the bullet and getting one for myself (I've wanted one forever, and this is as good a chance as any to do it), but I have some hesitations, mostly coming down to me fucking hating PC gaming and the entire experience it entails.

Put simply, I hate PC gaming. I want things to be seamless. I want to turn the machine on and play my game. I don't want to have to fiddle with settings or drivers or troubleshoot why my game is suffering from stuttering. I don't want to have to manage multiple drivers, switch between integrated and discrete GPUs, turn off background programs before starting the game, none of that bullshit.

"PC gaming is almost as seamless as console gaming now" goes the counterbuttal every time I bring up this point. I have fallen for it multiple times, and I have never walked away agreeing. Not even once. If you feel that way, that is absolutely fine, but for whatever my own messed up standards are, this has never held true. At its best, PC gaming was still worse than the worst console UI and experience (which would be Xbox at the moment), and right now, with PS5/Switch providing instant, blistering, seamless plug and play and PC gaming running into shader compilation issues and multiple poor ports, there is no comparison between the two for me.

But the Deck - I am told the Deck sidesteps or minimizes a lot of these issues to a very large degree. I am told it brings things reasonably close to the console experience (with the caveat that it's not a console so it will never be perfectly equivalent). And, like, that's really what I want to ask Deck owners - in your experience, and based on my rant above, how likely am I to be able to deal with the Steam Deck? How good is the UI? How much babysitting and micromanaging is necessary before I can get into my game? Can I just turn a game on and play? Is there any prepwork necessary?

I really want to get one, but I don't want to waste money on a device I would fundamentally hate using, so I would appreciate your insights and impressions using it!
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It’s possible to use it like a switch on a lot of games but not all games, drivers are updated automatically through system updates and there’s no background processes to close, you may still have to change graphic settings of games depending on what the default is

A small amount of tinkering will allow you to do things like increase the battery life, improve the screen color, or play games your not supposed to be able to play on it like Diablo 4

The battery life can last as little as 1 hr 40 mins or as long as 6 hrs depending on what game your playing and the settings you used (system wattage and frame rate settings)
If you set your watts to 11 and frame rate to 30-40 you can get as much as 2.5 hrs out of even the most demanding games like resident evil 4 remake, if you don’t adjust those settings though resident evil 4 remake won’t even get 2 hrs for example

Those are easy settings to change though right in the steam OS ui and takes less than 10 seconds, I usually just leave my watts at 11 for everything and forget about it, my framerate I leave at 60 for indie/2d games and leave it at 30-40 for 3D games, even though a lot of 3D games can run at 60 fps I still leave them at 30-40 for battery life

Also don’t expect every single game old or new to work on deck, like 95% of them most likely will but don’t expect 100%
 
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Brannigan said:
Is it possible to play games from the Epic Games Shop, Amazon Prime Gaming or GOG.com on a Steam Deck? I have dozens of free games from those and would want to be able to access them if I got a Steam Deck.
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Yes, I don’t have games on those services so I never tried but it’s possible
 
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I got my Deck today and so far I've been quite happy with it. Deck verified games are as simple to boot up as a Switch game, and it feels good in my hands.

Looking forward to really going down the rabbit hole with mods and whatnot down the road.
 
Mekanos said:
I got my Deck today and so far I've been quite happy with it. Deck verified games are as simple to boot up as a Switch game, and it feels good in my hands.

Looking forward to really going down the rabbit hole with mods and whatnot down the road.
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Download decky loader and install vibrant deck, your screen will look much better, once your comfortable with it

Also read my post I replied to phantom thief with
 
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Okay, after spending a couple hours with it, I really like it. Some quick impressions:

  • Initial setup was more fiddly and involved than either the PS5 or the Switch, and it took a bit to have everything set up
    • I ran into some trouble with the downloads where the Deck kept dropping the internet connection. It took a bunch of restarts and power cycles, but it's good now, and blisteringly fast (seriously, I am impressed at how quickly it downloads things)
  • After it is set up, it is frankly astonishing how easy it is. Yakuza 0 is pick up and play; MGSV, in spite of the warnings it threw in my face, also is. Apparently Age 2 is as well, I have it downloaded but I have not yet played it, so I can't attest for that myself, but I am excited to see how it pls (especially excited to see how they got the control scheme over)
  • The UI is great, the sleep mode is convenient. I am impressed at how well they streamlined the PC gaming experience here so that even someone like me who is traditionally averse to any form of micromanagement of my computing devices its finding the whole thing super easy
    • I will say, it lacks the immediacy and quickness of the Switch (>3 sec to get back into my game), and the UI is definitely more, uh, "janky" than PS5 or Switch (my preferred systems at the moment), but it is, surprisingly, better than the Xbox UI
    • Some complaints I have pertain to things such as the inability to download things in sleep mode (I understand why this is, but it's a huge omission for my specific use case, and I hope they manage to patch it in somehow, albeit I am not sure if these AMD chips even support that; I know Intel dropped the functionality from their x86-64 chips a few years ago). Another one is the lack of built in video recording! Happy the screenshot tool is built in though.
  • On the whole, I can already tell this will be as transformative to my habits as the Switch was; while I don't think this will displace the Switch for my usage (since I prefer portability over everything else, and the Switch is a better, quicker portable than the Deck is), I can see it completely subsuming my use of the Xbox Series and at least partially subsuming my use of the PS5; given a chance, I think I will always choose to play a game on the Deck over those consoles.
On the whole, just a few hours in, I think it's a good purchase! I can't wait to see how I continue to get along with it.
 
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Tip: ignore the Deck Verified stuff from Valve. Even if a game is set as "not supported", usually it is or it needs one tiny adjustment to work. Use protondb.com to get more accurate impressions.

In the few days I've had my Deck I've got Trails in the Sky running with full voice acting, additional music, visual mods etc, increased my VRAM, got Super Mario Sunshine running like a charm with HD textures, got almost every retro system working up to gamecube, including PS1.

Doesn't sound like much, but for someone who doesn't know 99% of the basic stuff to mod/configure games on pc's/Linux this is a lot. And I'm positively surprised at how much support this has gotten from the community in only a year. They've made many stuff so easy, and it will only get easier with time.

Next on the list is getting Tokimeki Memorial fan translation in and adding some Pokémon romhacks.
 
Ahmed said:
Tip: ignore the Deck Verified stuff from Valve. Even if a game is set as "not supported", usually it is or it needs one tiny adjustment to work. Use protondb.com to get more accurate impressions.
Click to expand...
There's a thing called Decky you can add to your toolbar, and one of the plugins displays ProtonDB compatibly badges. It, the themes and the easy grid art changing are life savers
 
Phantom Thief said:
Okay, after spending a couple hours with it, I really like it. Some quick impressions:

  • Initial setup was more fiddly and involved than either the PS5 or the Switch, and it took a bit to have everything set up
    • I ran into some trouble with the downloads where the Deck kept dropping the internet connection. It took a bunch of restarts and power cycles, but it's good now, and blisteringly fast (seriously, I am impressed at how quickly it downloads things)
  • After it is set up, it is frankly astonishing how easy it is. Yakuza 0 is pick up and play; MGSV, in spite of the warnings it threw in my face, also is. Apparently Age 2 is as well, I have it downloaded but I have not yet played it, so I can't attest for that myself, but I am excited to see how it pls (especially excited to see how they got the control scheme over)
  • The UI is great, the sleep mode is convenient. I am impressed at how well they streamlined the PC gaming experience here so that even someone like me who is traditionally averse to any form of micromanagement of my computing devices its finding the whole thing super easy
    • I will say, it lacks the immediacy and quickness of the Switch (>3 sec to get back into my game), and the UI is definitely more, uh, "janky" than PS5 or Switch (my preferred systems at the moment), but it is, surprisingly, better than the Xbox UI
    • Some complaints I have pertain to things such as the inability to download things in sleep mode (I understand why this is, but it's a huge omission for my specific use case, and I hope they manage to patch it in somehow, albeit I am not sure if these AMD chips even support that; I know Intel dropped the functionality from their x86-64 chips a few years ago). Another one is the lack of built in video recording! Happy the screenshot tool is built in though.
  • On the whole, I can already tell this will be as transformative to my habits as the Switch was; while I don't think this will displace the Switch for my usage (since I prefer portability over everything else, and the Switch is a better, quicker portable than the Deck is), I can see it completely subsuming my use of the Xbox Series and at least partially subsuming my use of the PS5; given a chance, I think I will always choose to play a game on the Deck over those consoles.
On the whole, just a few hours in, I think it's a good purchase! I can't wait to see how I continue to get along with it.
Click to expand...
That’s what I initially bought mine for, to replace my Xbox series S since all Xbox games are coming to steam now anyway

But after using it for over 7 months I’ve actually started using it slightly more than my switch as well, I’ll def be buying my indie games here since steam has free cloud saves and I know I’ll always have access to the games I buy on it

It’s like the more I use it the more I like it, and valves system updates are really exciting with how much they add with every update
 
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