OV9

"Like a Switch for adults"

https://store.steampowered.com/steamdeck

It's not for me but I can see the appeal.

I managed to resist the urge to pre order one so far, see how long I hold out

I’ve bought a switch and a Series X in the last 6 months so I don’t really need anything else.

Really tempted by this although SWMBO gave the idea an eyeroll that could be heard across the room.

Big fan of Steam Controller so I'm hoping the new dual stick dual touchpad and quad back buttons make it into an SC2.

A lot of hardware for the money, question is, do PC gamers want to play on the move VS sitting at home with a gaming rig ?

RobYob wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 11:39 am Really tempted by this although SWMBO gave the idea an eyeroll that could be heard across the room.

Big fan of Steam Controller so I'm hoping the new dual stick dual touchpad and quad back buttons make it into an SC2.

Does the mouse control on the steam controller work better than a laptop touchpad ?

Yep that’s the thing, it’s good for those basic games which I can see the appeal but anything AAA will presumably look pretty shite at 720p and needs running with everything on low.

NGRhodes wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 1:28 pm

RobYob wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 11:39 am Really tempted by this although SWMBO gave the idea an eyeroll that could be heard across the room.

Big fan of Steam Controller so I'm hoping the new dual stick dual touchpad and quad back buttons make it into an SC2.

Does the mouse control on the steam controller work better than a laptop touchpad ?

You use them in a very different way, thumbs on the Steam controller can be the primary control method even replacing the joystick.
This guy playing BF4 is a demonstration.


I spend 95% of my time using the SC in Elite Dangerous (5% Terraria) where the pads are freelook for the views, pips control and multifunction overlay menus packing dozens of key mapped and macro'd function into a quick menu.

intriguing. I've not played a PC game for years. Tried downloading a few games from Steam onto my Mac but keep running out of storage and spend enough time all day sat at it to not then want to do that later on. Chilling on the sofa playing a game could be good though. (saying that, I've got my parents' old Nintendo DS and Mario and have only played that a few times, so a Steam Deck might just gather dust even if the games look prettier).

I’ve got my pc sat in the corner connected to the tv and use an Xbox controller so it feels very ‘console’ to me.

Modern games are a revelation to anyone who was an early pc gamer and had to mess around with multiple floppy disks, typed commands, boot discs, Irq settings, hardware conflicts, random crashes etc

integrale_evo wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 10:59 am Modern games are a revelation to anyone who was an early pc gamer.

Steam is old enough to go to the pub Half Life 2 will be able to join it next year.

Anyway, if you've never had to find the correct counter number for a specific game file on a multi-title datasette then you've definitely saved yourself a whole shedload of time and hassle

RobYob wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 1:54 pm

NGRhodes wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 1:28 pm

RobYob wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 11:39 am Really tempted by this although SWMBO gave the idea an eyeroll that could be heard across the room.

Big fan of Steam Controller so I'm hoping the new dual stick dual touchpad and quad back buttons make it into an SC2.

Does the mouse control on the steam controller work better than a laptop touchpad ?

You use them in a very different way, thumbs on the Steam controller can be the primary control method even replacing the joystick.
This guy playing BF4 is a demonstration.


I spend 95% of my time using the SC in Elite Dangerous (5% Terraria) where the pads are freelook for the views, pips control and multifunction overlay menus packing dozens of key mapped and macro'd function into a quick menu.

Might grab one from CEX, want something that works well with old FPS shooters like Halflife and Doom3.

NGRhodes wrote: Sun Jul 25, 2021 12:25 pm

RobYob wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 1:54 pm

NGRhodes wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 1:28 pm

Does the mouse control on the steam controller work better than a laptop touchpad ?

You use them in a very different way, thumbs on the Steam controller can be the primary control method even replacing the joystick.
This guy playing BF4 is a demonstration.


I spend 95% of my time using the SC in Elite Dangerous (5% Terraria) where the pads are freelook for the views, pips control and multifunction overlay menus packing dozens of key mapped and macro'd function into a quick menu.

Might grab one from CEX, want something that works well with old FPS shooters like Halflife and Doom3.

I've been bidding on the odd one from Fleabay, going rate is around £30 posted. No idea what CEX would charge.

Grade B, with Dongle £38 plus a few quid postage probably.

I've only just heard about this device. Made me wonder about any device to play PC games; unlike console games the device is launched to play existing games, rather than with the intention of selling games to play on it. So it will become out of date pretty quickly, you'd think.

Reminded me of the Atari Lynx when I saw it

The difference is that even if new AAA games end up being beyond it's capabilities there will still be a huge catalog of smaller games available.

I'm mostly tempted by it for access to Euro Truck Simulator tbh

ZedLeg wrote: Fri Jul 30, 2021 10:00 am The difference is that even if new AAA games end up being beyond it's capabilities there will still be a huge catalog of smaller games available.

Sounds a bit like buying a Nintendo DS when the Switch is launched.

Again not really, with consoles you only have a limited time of support when the next cycle is launched. PC gaming is different, yeah there's the top line games that need the latest tech to really take advantage of but there are great games that are less tech intensive released all the time.

Bear in mind that the Steam Deck will play anything a PS4/Xbox one plays.

If I didn't already have a Switch which is pretty good for indie games, I'd already have put a pre order in for a steam deck tbh.

So you can play last-gen games on it, and new indie games. Does sound very much like buying an old-gen console or handheld with a wide library of games already available, but no great expectation of any new big releases.

I think it'll be of most benefit to people who're already invested in playing through steam. Having another way to play through your pile of shame

People have been trying to make handheld pc gaming work for years, I think this is likely to get it.