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Steam Deck - What games suprised you on the deck.

Apocryphon

Member
2bkvs71.jpg


SWITCH L I T E
Aaaahh! For your tiny girl hands. Gotcha! You'd have hated the Game Gear too!

And yet there are plenty of people traveling with the Steam Deck that find it to be just fine. I get that compact devices are a good thing, but saying the Steam Deck isn't handholdable for adults is just ridiculous. Do you know how many people cart around iPad Pros?
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
What do you make of this my guy?:



I may back this on Indigogo despite not needing it. Battery life is a concern but this should tick most of the boxes for people who find the Steam Deck too large.


great youtube channel i bought way too much shit because of him
the problem is and was back in the day (gamegear) smaller is less power.
bigger = more power cause better thermals because more space.
battery etc etc.

IT's just a matter of time we will get steam deck power in switch lite size.
 
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Delt31

Member
*stretches fingers* all the below titles work fine for me and are currently installed on my steam dek

Aliens fireteam
black mesa
bloodstained
borderlands 3
breath of death 7
capcom fighting collection
chronicon
core keeper
crosscode
days gone
dead space
death stranding
dicey dungeons
dinkum
dirt 5
doom 2
doom eternal
doomsday hunters
dragon ball z kakarot
dragon's dogma dark arisen
duke nukem world 3d tour
dying light
dyson sphere program
elden ring
skyrim
factorio
factory town
fallout 4
fallout vegas
final fantasy 12 the zodiac age
the forest
grim dawn
guilty gear xx reloaded
ion fury
it lurks below
kof 13
loop hero
MGS5 phantom pain
monster hunter rise
monster hunter stories 2
monster hunter world
pillars of eternity
prodeus
quake
raft
resident evil 2 remake
resident evil 7
resident evil village
risk of rain 2
satisfactory
sega genesis classics collection
civ beyond earth
civ 6
slime rancher
snk 40th anniversary collection
sonic mania
sonic origins
stardew valley
swords of ditto
terraria
time warpers
unreal tournament 2004
unreal tournament goty
V rising
valheim
vampire saviours
warhammer crossbane
wolcen
Yakuza like a dragon.
Diablo 2 remake
Sonic 3 air
Impressive. How do the unreals play with controls and are you playing online? I have a steam deck now and really happy I went with that anti glare screen option. Not only do you need a ton of room for games but it really is sharp. I've also been playing more videogames like this than before b/c the form factor is just so much more enticing when you can still be around the fam and play. The only issue and it's a big glaring omission is that damn LCD screen. I have OLEDs in my house and comparing this to them or the switch my son plays, this screen gets absolutely smashed. It's the only flaw I have with this amazing device. A clear SD 2 option they should offer and I would buy it instantly.
 
I was surprised how good Chiaki and Ceemu works, no frameratedrops with Wind Waker HD and there‘s almost no noticeable lag in Chiaki. It‘s now my goto machine in bed next to my wife which isn‘t a machine anymore.
 
Mine came in a couple weeks ago and I'm debating on opening it or not.

I mostly bought it for a trip while I'll be stuck with the same person for a 20 hour flight then a two week stay. Other than that I'm not sure how often I'd ever use it unless my desktop breaks. I read threads like these to get ideas
 

chixdiggit

Member
Really enjoying Fort Triumph. It's a spin on Heroes of M&M. Honestly there are better games of the type out there like the excellent Songs of Conquest but this plays really well on the Deck while others rely heavily on the mouse.
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
Impressive. How do the unreals play with controls and are you playing online? I have a steam deck now and really happy I went with that anti glare screen option. Not only do you need a ton of room for games but it really is sharp. I've also been playing more videogames like this than before b/c the form factor is just so much more enticing when you can still be around the fam and play. The only issue and it's a big glaring omission is that damn LCD screen. I have OLEDs in my house and comparing this to them or the switch my son plays, this screen gets absolutely smashed. It's the only flaw I have with this amazing device. A clear SD 2 option they should offer and I would buy it instantly.
the screen is OKAY.. still shit outside but so in basically every other handheld besides the no backlit ones. Only vs bots in UT tho.
 

Maiden Voyage

Gold™ Member
Mine came in a couple weeks ago and I'm debating on opening it or not.

I mostly bought it for a trip while I'll be stuck with the same person for a 20 hour flight then a two week stay. Other than that I'm not sure how often I'd ever use it unless my desktop breaks. I read threads like these to get ideas
The value will probably tied to the age of the hardware here. It seems like the product was successful. I would expect further and better improvements to the hardware that will make the resale value of these pretty low.
 
The value will probably tied to the age of the hardware here. It seems like the product was successful. I would expect further and better improvements to the hardware that will make the resale value of these pretty low.
Yeah I can see that. How often does Valve even update their hardware? Right now it looks like $900 is on the high end for the 512gb version compared to the insane prices the first people were asking.

That wasn't my intention when I bought it since I had the trip planned for over a year, and even upselling wouldn't be much of a profit after eBay fees. I doubt the people selling them for 700 realize they're actually losing money until they get the seller fee bill.
 

pasterpl

Member
So far. I have spent most of the time playing DMC V and Deus Ex games. Will install windows 11 next week as I am missing gamepass and I want a native app.
 

Thaedolus

Member
My 15.6 inch gaming laptop that uses a 250watt powerbrick is also PORTABLE
You gonna play on that on a plane, train or automobile?

On the spectrum of portability it’s pretty good. Not perfect- trade offs made for comfort and performance but they’re trade offs I’d take over a Switch Lite. I hardly ever play my launch Switch in portable mode but damn if I can’t put the Deck down
 

CamHostage

Member
I'm curious, has anybody tried the Unreal Engine 5 City Sample (the PC portion of Matrix Awakens) on a Deck recently?

I know that the Deck could not run UE5 projects at first (originally Nanite geometry wasn't compatible with the Deck's graphics driver and so all the buildings and rocks were just unrendered; more recently Digital Foundry video on Deck did a rough play of Valley of the Ancients from Early Access but Lyra and City Sample didn't work for them) but there's a bit more native or ported support for it since then.

There is at least one native Linux build of Lyra and people have run that; it's not gorgeous (settings have to be pulled down to Low, and it's got some bugs in it (I think the sound errors are not performance, more errors of translation) but it does run at 60 and maintains some level of effects on this basic port.

 
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old-parts

Member


With shakedown hawaii, I found this much more enjoyable on the deck than playing it on a big screen.

Something about pixel art works really well with the steamdeck display, a lot of past decade games have tiny UI elements that don't scale well to the decks display, definitely some UI stuff were games stopped being developed for SD TV's led to these UI's.
 

Kupfer

Member
Crosspost
I started replaying F.E.A.R. yesterday on my Deck and just had to record a video :



I'm stunned.
In the game, water has no important role at all, and yet F.E.A.R. manages to present water in a more interactive and interesting way than most of today's games.

And let's face it, the game is from 2005, so it's almost 17 years old.

SjCG2xY.jpg


By the way, it runs on just under 8watts on the Deck, absolutely amazing when I consider that my 600watt PC was really struggling back then.


The game and this sequence in particular just blew me away.
How good it looks, how well it plays and what technical finesse it offers, all with minimal power consumption.
 
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Mine arrives today, very excited to try it out. One question for you all, are you keeping the native OS or installing Windows? Which is better?

Also, for you idiots debating handheld vs portable. Take a look at the thread title and remind yourselves what we're discussing here you numbnuts :messenger_smiling_horns:
 

Kupfer

Member
One question for you all, are you keeping the native OS or installing Windows? Which is better?
I'm a windows user since Windows 95 on my main machines but I haven't found a reason to install Windows on the Deck yet. SteamOS and the desktop environment just work fine.
 

CrustyBritches

Gold Member
Mine arrives today, very excited to try it out. One question for you all, are you keeping the native OS or installing Windows? Which is better?
Congrats, man. I don't get why this is always made into an either/or thing. Just dual-boot SteamOS+Windows and get the best of both worlds. I wanted access to Game Pass since I did the 3yr stacking deal, and sometimes I just want shit to work without having to tinker or look up solutions for SteamOS, so I dual-boot SteamOS+Windows 10. I've this setup for almost 3 months now without issue.
 
I'm a windows user since Windows 95 on my main machines but I haven't found a reason to install Windows on the Deck yet. SteamOS and the desktop environment just work fine.
No game compatibility issues with running the SteamOS? My only concern is being limited on what I can install.
 
Congrats, man. I don't get why this is always made into an either/or thing. Just dual-boot SteamOS+Windows and get the best of both worlds. I wanted access to Game Pass since I did the 3yr stacking deal, and sometimes I just want shit to work without having to tinker or look up solutions for SteamOS, so I dual-boot SteamOS+Windows 10. I've this setup for almost 3 months now without issue.

Funny, never thought about that. Might be the best way to go
 

Kupfer

Member
No game compatibility issues with running the SteamOS? My only concern is being limited on what I can install.
So far only some games I tried didn't work like Max Payne 1 and Crysis. But the majority just works flawlessly once you setup the controls.
 

Dr.Morris79

Member
So far only some games I tried didn't work like Max Payne 1
First game I tried :messenger_tears_of_joy:

There is a work around though if you have a quick google search, I havent done it yet, mind you, it's a bit of poncing around..

Tried Painkiller 2nd, first try it gave a tiny screen size, after changing to pronto to 4.2 it ran like a dream

I love this thing.
 

Kupfer

Member
First game I tried :messenger_tears_of_joy:

There is a work around though if you have a quick google search, I havent done it yet, mind you, it's a bit of poncing around..
I will just wait until its playable :)
Tried Painkiller 2nd, first try it gave a tiny screen size, after changing to pronto to 4.2 it ran like a dream
Oh you are right, Black Edition gave me a tiny screen as well. Thx for the tip!
I love this thing.
Me too, its just something else to play all these games natively on a mobile device. Recorded and cut the video from post #120 on the Deck as well. I cant remember when I sat in front of my main pc for the last time and enjoyed gaming so much.
 
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Horizon Zero Dawn has surprised me, and not in a good way. This game was everywhere being tested on the Deck with previews and reviews. However it freezes and crashes my Deck after just a few seconds of playing. Most of the time it will freeze, blink the screen black for a second and then just sit there. The Steam menu is accessible to close the game. Other times the whole Deck will crash and shut and restart. Steam support has essentially given up with me and just said the game is not not compatible. This is the main game I wanted to play on my Deck and now it seems just my Deck can’t play it. Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix it?

I’ve reimaged the Deck multiple times.
Tried running it off the SD card and the nvme drive.
Tried every version of proton.
Tried Proton GE.
Installed Windows, crashed and shut down the Deck.
Lowered the APU TDP.
Used the old and new fan profiles.
Put the Deck into long term storage mode.

BTW, I’ve played about 10 or so other games for at least an hour each with zero issues. Some verified, some playable and some incompatible with no problems. I’m stumped.
 

SomeGit

Member
Horizon Zero Dawn has surprised me, and not in a good way. This game was everywhere being tested on the Deck with previews and reviews. However it freezes and crashes my Deck after just a few seconds of playing. Most of the time it will freeze, blink the screen black for a second and then just sit there. The Steam menu is accessible to close the game. Other times the whole Deck will crash and shut and restart. Steam support has essentially given up with me and just said the game is not not compatible. This is the main game I wanted to play on my Deck and now it seems just my Deck can’t play it. Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix it?

I’ve reimaged the Deck multiple times.
Tried running it off the SD card and the nvme drive.
Tried every version of proton.
Tried Proton GE.
Installed Windows, crashed and shut down the Deck.
Lowered the APU TDP.
Used the old and new fan profiles.
Put the Deck into long term storage mode.

BTW, I’ve played about 10 or so other games for at least an hour each with zero issues. Some verified, some playable and some incompatible with no problems. I’m stumped.

Be careful, I had similar issues on my first deck with Spyro Trilogy, turns out my APU had a defect where the GPU could hang when switching frequencies.
The OS would recover sometimes allowing me to quit the game, but the game would hang. Othertimes the whole OS would hang.
Eventually I tried other high end games, and they all had this issue, sometimes right away, sometimes after a while.

Try other high end 3D games for a bit, with all restriction on frequency and power removed, to check if it's an hardware issue or not. If it happens you'll have to RMA the thing.
 
Be careful, I had similar issues on my first deck with Spyro Trilogy, turns out my APU had a defect where the GPU could hang when switching frequencies.
The OS would recover sometimes allowing me to quit the game, but the game would hang. Othertimes the whole OS would hang.
Eventually I tried other high end games, and they all had this issue, sometimes right away, sometimes after a while.

Try other high end 3D games for a bit, with all restriction on frequency and power removed, to check if it's an hardware issue or not. If it happens you'll have to RMA the thing.
This is amazing! I think you’re onto what is wrong. Still have a ton more testing to do, but I’ve just played for more that 20 minutes without a crash and normally it would immediately die after loading. I set the GPU to 1200mhz and limited the APU to 10w and it seems stable. However, when I had the GPU set to 1400mhz and APU TDP unlocked it froze. Somewhere there is a maximum setting which means I think you’re right with there being a hardware issue related to frequency.

The only thing that makes no sense is Horizon ZD is the ONLY game I’ve had to do this with. Doom, Doom Eternal, Batman AK, Halo, RE2, RE3, Dead Space 2, Tomb Raider Trilogy, all ran with settings unlocked with no problem. Why is this game causing specific issues?
 
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PhaseJump

Banned
This is amazing! I think you’re onto what is wrong. Still have a ton more testing to do, but I’ve just played for more that 20 minutes without a crash and normally it would immediately die after loading. I set the GPU to 1200mhz and limited the APU to 10w and it seems stable. However, when I had the GPU set to 1400mhz and APU TDP unlocked it froze. Somewhere there is a maximum setting which means I think you’re right with there being a hardware issue related to frequency.

The only thing that makes no sense is Horizon ZD is the ONLY game I’ve had to do this with. Doom, Doom Eternal, Batman AK, Halo, RE2, RE3, Dead Space 2, Tomb Raider Trilogy, all ran with settings unlocked with no problem. Why is this game causing specific issues?

HZD was a buggy shit port on PC when it launched. The game crashes Windows machines, nevermind running under Linux.
If it's the only game causing problems for you under Proton, I wouldn't jump to the conclusion of hardware failure.

It was one of those early "verified" games that showed up, if not the first one, where people had it crash or become unstable late in the game. Linus complained about it on the WAN show back when the Deck was new. It removed the whole "Verified" argument for me, regarding the expectation of total stability.
 
HZD was a buggy shit port on PC when it launched. The game crashes Windows machines, nevermind running under Linux.
If it's the only game causing problems for you under Proton, I wouldn't jump to the conclusion of hardware failure.

It was one of those early "verified" games that showed up, if not the first one, where people had it crash or become unstable late in the game. Linus complained about it on the WAN show back when the Deck was new. It removed the whole "Verified" argument for me, regarding the expectation of total stability.
That makes me feel a lot better that there probably isn’t a problem with my Deck. Very odd though that the frequency and TDP are what is causing the issue. Im going to chart all the different combinations of GPU frequency and TDP as I play to see if there is a pattern. At least I’ll find out how hard I can push the Deck before it becomes unstable.
 

AndrewRyan

Member
That makes me feel a lot better that there probably isn’t a problem with my Deck. Very odd though that the frequency and TDP are what is causing the issue. Im going to chart all the different combinations of GPU frequency and TDP as I play to see if there is a pattern. At least I’ll find out how hard I can push the Deck before it becomes unstable.
I'd run it through some benchmarks just to make sure. 3D Mark has a free version you can try.
 
I've been playing Castle of Illusion (not sure why) - used to be my favorite game as a kid on MegaDrive/Genesis. It's very different than I remember it (doesn't seem to be a shot for shot remake) but really enjoying it. Got me hankering for some other old school platformers. I've also been amazed by how well XCloud works on it, but still want full GamePass without dual booting. Will do for now though.

When I have more time to mess about I want to get some emulation setup.
 

NinjaBoiX

Member
It’s absolutely massive.

I know it’s mad capable but that’s because it’s absolutely massive. It’s like holding a tablet in front of you with admittedly class leading controls.

But I can’t get around the fact that it’s just enormous, it’s a handheld but only just…

I’ll be interested when they revise the design. I totally get that it’s incredibly impressive, dimensions be damned. But it’s still an impracticably large “handheld”.
 

Soapbox Killer

Grand Nagus
It’s absolutely massive.

I know it’s mad capable but that’s because it’s absolutely massive. It’s like holding a tablet in front of you with admittedly class leading controls.

But I can’t get around the fact that it’s just enormous, it’s a handheld but only just…

I’ll be interested when they revise the design. I totally get that it’s incredibly impressive, dimensions be damned. But it’s still an impracticably large “handheld”.



Oh he's a chunk for sure. Its a Duke controller in a world of Joy-Cons. I have gotten used to it but no doubt it's like 70s/80s tech before the shrink.
 

Dr.Morris79

Member
It’s absolutely massive.

I know it’s mad capable but that’s because it’s absolutely massive. It’s like holding a tablet in front of you with admittedly class leading controls.

But I can’t get around the fact that it’s just enormous, it’s a handheld but only just…

I’ll be interested when they revise the design. I totally get that it’s incredibly impressive, dimensions be damned. But it’s still an impracticably large “handheld”.
Might not do too well in Japan

RTHIbBb.jpg
 

Thaedolus

Member
Definitely my first impression was this shit feels enormous but after like 30 minutes I was used to it. I got my Switch off the dock for a comparison after a week or so of just the Deck and prefer the Deck now.
 

CrustyBritches

Gold Member
I love the size of the Steam Deck. It's definitely not a pocket handheld, but it is extremely comfortable. A lot of the size of the Deck is in the controllers, which is what makes it so comfy. The size of the Joy-cons and flat back profile gives me hand cramps.
5ady2B7.jpg


The Aya Neo Air looks like a comfortable Switch Lite-sized pocketable handheld PC. Has those curves on the back that prevents hand cramps...
h2p4wR3.jpg

If I have some money to blow in the future I might pick up the cheapest ~$289 Air Plus with the Mendocino SoC in the future.
 
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