I've yapped about the steam deck earlier in blog posts (link to the earlier entries: here). This'll be my last entry, as I feel I would start to repeat myself otherwise. Because TL;DR: it's AWESOME!!!
Intro: Babel's tower
Since I was little, I wanted to have all video games. We traded game boy cartridges in the playground, were anticipating Mario Bros 3 (one of the very few adds about video games in my country in the nineties) and had a SNES I shared with my brother and two friends.
When we grew up we (okay: mostly me) discovered the computer, and emulation even later. But it was presumed that it'd always be two, three generations later until you could properly emulate it.
I got into the wii hacking scene by accident, and the prospect of not having to solder stuff appealed to me, not to speak of not having to switch discs anymore. But that was only the start of the rabbit hole. The wii and wiiu could "mostly" play everything I cared about. Except PC, which did play anything except emulating systems I never cared for.
And now there's the steam deck. It does play pretty much anything I throw at it. To an almost ridiculous degree. Yes, it's a bit of tinkering sometimes, but it does everything I ever wanted from it in video game aspects. Hence the dramatic title. The biblical idea is that because the inhabitants of Babel got so greedy (they wanted to reach into the heavens), God divided them into everyone speaking different languages.
That somehow happened in video game land as well. Unlike, say, board games, video games are inheritently tied to a system you need to have first. And rather than unite, we've got tribalism to a sometimes stupid degree. Why argue over whether xbox or playstation has the best exclusives? Nintendo at least tries different stuff, but for the most part it's all just a PC. No, not a "master race" remark but a sort of naive "why can't we all get along?" vibe.
I wish I could say the steam deck has reversed it and is an all-encompassing solution, but it isn't. It stands head and shoulders over pretty much anything else and IMHO the comparison to the first iphone is correct. It's a revelation, and perhaps even a revolution in the PC landscape (before you go "it wasn't first": I'll get to the why later). But the landscape is different now.
Yes, it does play most if not all PC games. But the landscape has changed. No, I'm not talking about VR games...I'm talking mobile. Because while gamers are faffing about their best system, apple and iOS have captured the next generation. So...there's that. Or "not that". But ey...it only matters if you're like me: hardly seeing what you have and always wondering what'll be next.
But what's there is impressive. And that deserves capital letters: IT'S IMPRESSIVE!!!!!
Here's why...
The hardware breakdown
Let's face it: most handhelds thus far were made for children. That's okay (I've been a child. And I have one now). But I'm an adult now. One with responsibilities, commute time, household chores, a kid that requires attention and a girlfriend that's addicted to hugging (yeah...that all could be worse
). Oh, and with large hands. I don't WANT a fucking switch. I don't regret getting a 3DSXL, but even that's just on the small side for me. The steam deck, however, makes no such compromises. It's large but not bulky. I can game on it for as long as I want, and I can turn it off on a whim's notice when there's that "daddyyyy! " call coming again. Proton isn't perfect, but it's doing its job so well it might as well be perfect. And now that I've dabbled into it more, there's a fourth major advantage that is a hassle everywhere for some reason until it got fixed: the buttons and the layout. Simply put: I can swap whatever I want, when I want and how I want it. None of that "wait until restart" bullshit. Heck...valve could just as well send a memo to programmers saying "if your button layout is messed up, that'll just be fixed by the deck community before you can release a patch". I don't even fucking care what layout the game offers me anymore: I'm more likely to cycle through community layouts (provided it's a popular game) than set commands myself in the option.
Then there's the touchscreen and touchpad. At first I thought it was overkill, now I'm in the unsure camp. That is: it IS almost as good as a mouse. It's just that the "almost" makes a difference in "fun" vs "unfun". I haven't gotten a good docking station for it, but I do now know it's better than my current (old) "gaming rig" in every way. And mobile games? Unless the screen's larger (meaning: tablet), the game works as good if not better. You can fucking quote me on that.
In summary:
1. elegant, great design (I still presume for adults/people with large hands)
2. most games you can pause and resume whenever you want (heck...I've got a game on suspension right now!)
3. plays fucking everything unless you start looking for exceptions.
4. rearrange the buttons however you want, not how some "developper" feels you should play
To switch or not...
To me, it's a switch, but not in the nintendo comparison (seriously: those who wanted a switch have one if not multiple for years. STFU with those comparisons, okay?). It's in the "console" versus "computer" department.
For starters: the steam front end is great. I wouldn't say perfect (maybe I'll yap about that in another blog), but more than good enough and perfectly able to manage anything steam related. When looking at that (and only at that), you can compare it to a console and/or a handheld. I haven't dabbled in a switch long enough to know, but if a game works, it freaking works. If you've got a steam library, you can just play those games and never worry about anything else. Fuck...your total cost of ownership might even be lower than that of nintendo, if you grab your games in bundles or on discounts.
But the whole "it's not a walled garden unlike the rest!!!" argument doesn't hold up until you go outside of that front end. Into the actual operating system, that is. And that's really a whole different scenario...
*sigh*
To keep it positive: SteamOS 3 is good. Potentially even great, and potentially even replacing my actual desktop after I've got a dock (meaning: yes, I'll install libreoffice on it). It's built on a solid distribution, has all the correct bells and whistles in place for both stability and security, and can potentially be used as any given desktop.
Potentially.
See...What it is NOT, is a good interface for the steam deck itself. It's not like android where you can use it so well you can still somehow argue on the internet that learning a different operating system than windows is somehow too hard (yeah: I know...unfair argument because it's limited. But unfair doesn't mean untrue). It clearly was designed for use with mouse and keyboard, and that's...not really on the deck itself. The trackball (right mouse pad) sometimes has hiccups, neither the mouse nor touchscreen is a good fit for the small windows and the keyboard sometimes opens up over the field you want to type. And only works when steam itself is opened, which somewhat undermines the "it's no walled garden" argument.
Oh, it works allright. The USB-C to female USB and micro SD card I've bought for it have proven their worth in gold already. And the one time I hooked it up to a cheap USB-C hub (monitor didn't work), using mouse and keyboard improved usage tenfold. So there's THAT: the deck is a potential replacement for your COMPUTER. As in: the box without the accessories. Perhaps in a year or so I'll get back to you on how it works with a dock, but that'll have to wait (girlfriend and me just bought a new car, and with the job situation I'm not about to throw money against the wall unneeded).
Meanwhile: emudeck and heroic game launcher just enables every freaking emulator AND gog and epic games store. These are far less polished than valve's own work within their systems, but again: potential. Oh, and: voluntary work. I don't like to criticize what I can't do better when it comes to free software, but I don't want to sell you dreams either.
So...in summary:
1. as a potential handheld, it's an absolute, absolute dream
2. outside steam's "walled garden", it requires tinkering. In Dutch: "behelpen" would be the word (I guess it translates to "getting to to work through various means and trial/error somehow").
3. as a desktop replacement, it has at least potential
So...that's my review of it. Well...except that I still have some games to report on...
Scythe
It's unsupported but works regardless. It's a digital implementation of a popular board game. But...I can't really fault the 'unsupported', because while turn based, the screen is smaller than would be best to have fun.
Mr Shifty
Another unsupported? What?
...once again, it works without issues (okay: perhaps proton experimental is a factor). At least...that's what I initially thought. See, the game has about a dozen stages that are each separated in roughly a dozen "mini levels" each (hotline miami style). But where you go back to the beginning of the level when you die (which'll happen...a lot), quitting sets you back to the last stage.
And that wouldn't bother me...if it was stable. But it isn't. It only crashed three times on me, but two of those set me back so much it wasn't worth pursuing anymore.
It's a pity: I absolutely love this game, but damnit...why doesn't it save every freaking level?
Avalanche 2: super avalanche
Another unsupported...and this time no issues to speak of. Aside getting a community button layout. Played it for two, three hours...perfect fit for the thing. It's like tetris climber but with a roguelite element. Super cute and charming, and perfect for shorter sessions.
Unreal
Ah...the big test: how would an actual 90's shooter do? Well...good and not good. The good news: I spent far less time tweaking the controls than on my gpd win 1 for much better results. The touchpad IS better than any joystick thingy in this regard.
The thing is: while the music still holds up STRONG, it has some stupid platforming elements in it and using dodge (double tab a direction) isn't as natural. I tried easy mode, 90% speed, aim assist. This all works, mind you. But this game simply isn't as fun without keyboard and mouse.
My farm life
No, not every developer gets on steam or mobile with all their games. Ranch rush and my farm life are leftovers from a now ex-girlfriend who loved those games. Can't blame her. It's...probably a farmville clone, but ey...I got it and still have the exe.
And it works freaking FINE on steam deck. "well" is a different story, because even using touchscreen, you need to click correctly faster and faster to get things done. The screen size's okay but you really need a mouse for this. Or far more experience than I have with the touchpad.
Triple town
A GoG game best using a mouse. But since it's turn based it plays perfect the way you want. A chill experience that's...at best "very vaguely" connected to candy crush. It's mostly doing its own city building thing, though.
Skatebird
One of the headliners from the itch.io Ukraine bundle. Great take on Tony Hawk Pro skater. But the interesting thing is that I played this on my main computer a lot. Or at least: tried. It...sort of works there, just itching around the 30FPS mark. But this game requires at least a steady 40 and perhaps even a 60 (I don't recall right now what I set it to). On deck, it's just much smoother.
Controls are IMHO the same, though (played using a PS4 controller on PC). So
Stealth bastard 2: a game of clones
Okay: got to admit defeat here: I can't get this to work on any recent proton release. Best I can get is audio only. Also tried a GoG variant (which I also legally have), but...nope.
My only hope now is to get it to work under PS3 emulation somehow, but that'll have to wait until later.
Dead cells
I somewhat pride myself in not buying the same game twice. But...dead cells had to be an exception. I have it on mobile (best game on gpd xd+ Honestly: if you have that, get dead cells for it!). I bought it again on steam. It's better. So freakingly addictively better. Better controls, better screen, better sound. I honestly didn't know what I was missing until I played it. So far my best gaming experience (heck...I'm inclined to just stop here and go play it).
Penguin bros
A mostly forgotten arcade game. It's a fun bubble bobble kind of game that for some reason I always come back to. Here to just test the arcade emulator. Required a few manual key bindings in mame, but luckily it seems like those have transferred to all the other emulator games as well.
I also had to move it to a different folder as mame is fun like that (mame, mame2003, mame2010...I never know what game uses what set), but once it was set correctly it seemingly plays whatever I have.
Zelda: link between worlds
Okay, okay: a 3DS game to round things off. Emudeck had installed a couple controller templates for it, one of which being of citra. And yes: it uses the back buttons to swap or redelegate screens. Emulation is, as far as I've tested: just perfect (but truth be told: haven't played much).
All right. That should cover it as far as my review goes. If you've got questions: best to ask them in the steam deck department, but I'll gladly answer questions you've got.
Intro: Babel's tower
Since I was little, I wanted to have all video games. We traded game boy cartridges in the playground, were anticipating Mario Bros 3 (one of the very few adds about video games in my country in the nineties) and had a SNES I shared with my brother and two friends.
When we grew up we (okay: mostly me) discovered the computer, and emulation even later. But it was presumed that it'd always be two, three generations later until you could properly emulate it.
I got into the wii hacking scene by accident, and the prospect of not having to solder stuff appealed to me, not to speak of not having to switch discs anymore. But that was only the start of the rabbit hole. The wii and wiiu could "mostly" play everything I cared about. Except PC, which did play anything except emulating systems I never cared for.
And now there's the steam deck. It does play pretty much anything I throw at it. To an almost ridiculous degree. Yes, it's a bit of tinkering sometimes, but it does everything I ever wanted from it in video game aspects. Hence the dramatic title. The biblical idea is that because the inhabitants of Babel got so greedy (they wanted to reach into the heavens), God divided them into everyone speaking different languages.
That somehow happened in video game land as well. Unlike, say, board games, video games are inheritently tied to a system you need to have first. And rather than unite, we've got tribalism to a sometimes stupid degree. Why argue over whether xbox or playstation has the best exclusives? Nintendo at least tries different stuff, but for the most part it's all just a PC. No, not a "master race" remark but a sort of naive "why can't we all get along?" vibe.
I wish I could say the steam deck has reversed it and is an all-encompassing solution, but it isn't. It stands head and shoulders over pretty much anything else and IMHO the comparison to the first iphone is correct. It's a revelation, and perhaps even a revolution in the PC landscape (before you go "it wasn't first": I'll get to the why later). But the landscape is different now.
Yes, it does play most if not all PC games. But the landscape has changed. No, I'm not talking about VR games...I'm talking mobile. Because while gamers are faffing about their best system, apple and iOS have captured the next generation. So...there's that. Or "not that". But ey...it only matters if you're like me: hardly seeing what you have and always wondering what'll be next.
But what's there is impressive. And that deserves capital letters: IT'S IMPRESSIVE!!!!!
Here's why...
The hardware breakdown
Let's face it: most handhelds thus far were made for children. That's okay (I've been a child. And I have one now). But I'm an adult now. One with responsibilities, commute time, household chores, a kid that requires attention and a girlfriend that's addicted to hugging (yeah...that all could be worse
). Oh, and with large hands. I don't WANT a fucking switch. I don't regret getting a 3DSXL, but even that's just on the small side for me. The steam deck, however, makes no such compromises. It's large but not bulky. I can game on it for as long as I want, and I can turn it off on a whim's notice when there's that "daddyyyy! " call coming again. Proton isn't perfect, but it's doing its job so well it might as well be perfect. And now that I've dabbled into it more, there's a fourth major advantage that is a hassle everywhere for some reason until it got fixed: the buttons and the layout. Simply put: I can swap whatever I want, when I want and how I want it. None of that "wait until restart" bullshit. Heck...valve could just as well send a memo to programmers saying "if your button layout is messed up, that'll just be fixed by the deck community before you can release a patch". I don't even fucking care what layout the game offers me anymore: I'm more likely to cycle through community layouts (provided it's a popular game) than set commands myself in the option.Then there's the touchscreen and touchpad. At first I thought it was overkill, now I'm in the unsure camp. That is: it IS almost as good as a mouse. It's just that the "almost" makes a difference in "fun" vs "unfun". I haven't gotten a good docking station for it, but I do now know it's better than my current (old) "gaming rig" in every way. And mobile games? Unless the screen's larger (meaning: tablet), the game works as good if not better. You can fucking quote me on that.
In summary:
1. elegant, great design (I still presume for adults/people with large hands)
2. most games you can pause and resume whenever you want (heck...I've got a game on suspension right now!)
3. plays fucking everything unless you start looking for exceptions.
4. rearrange the buttons however you want, not how some "developper" feels you should play
To switch or not...
To me, it's a switch, but not in the nintendo comparison (seriously: those who wanted a switch have one if not multiple for years. STFU with those comparisons, okay?). It's in the "console" versus "computer" department.
For starters: the steam front end is great. I wouldn't say perfect (maybe I'll yap about that in another blog), but more than good enough and perfectly able to manage anything steam related. When looking at that (and only at that), you can compare it to a console and/or a handheld. I haven't dabbled in a switch long enough to know, but if a game works, it freaking works. If you've got a steam library, you can just play those games and never worry about anything else. Fuck...your total cost of ownership might even be lower than that of nintendo, if you grab your games in bundles or on discounts.
But the whole "it's not a walled garden unlike the rest!!!" argument doesn't hold up until you go outside of that front end. Into the actual operating system, that is. And that's really a whole different scenario...
*sigh*
To keep it positive: SteamOS 3 is good. Potentially even great, and potentially even replacing my actual desktop after I've got a dock (meaning: yes, I'll install libreoffice on it). It's built on a solid distribution, has all the correct bells and whistles in place for both stability and security, and can potentially be used as any given desktop.
Potentially.
See...What it is NOT, is a good interface for the steam deck itself. It's not like android where you can use it so well you can still somehow argue on the internet that learning a different operating system than windows is somehow too hard (yeah: I know...unfair argument because it's limited. But unfair doesn't mean untrue). It clearly was designed for use with mouse and keyboard, and that's...not really on the deck itself. The trackball (right mouse pad) sometimes has hiccups, neither the mouse nor touchscreen is a good fit for the small windows and the keyboard sometimes opens up over the field you want to type. And only works when steam itself is opened, which somewhat undermines the "it's no walled garden" argument.
Oh, it works allright. The USB-C to female USB and micro SD card I've bought for it have proven their worth in gold already. And the one time I hooked it up to a cheap USB-C hub (monitor didn't work), using mouse and keyboard improved usage tenfold. So there's THAT: the deck is a potential replacement for your COMPUTER. As in: the box without the accessories. Perhaps in a year or so I'll get back to you on how it works with a dock, but that'll have to wait (girlfriend and me just bought a new car, and with the job situation I'm not about to throw money against the wall unneeded).
Meanwhile: emudeck and heroic game launcher just enables every freaking emulator AND gog and epic games store. These are far less polished than valve's own work within their systems, but again: potential. Oh, and: voluntary work. I don't like to criticize what I can't do better when it comes to free software, but I don't want to sell you dreams either.
So...in summary:
1. as a potential handheld, it's an absolute, absolute dream
2. outside steam's "walled garden", it requires tinkering. In Dutch: "behelpen" would be the word (I guess it translates to "getting to to work through various means and trial/error somehow").
3. as a desktop replacement, it has at least potential
So...that's my review of it. Well...except that I still have some games to report on...
Scythe
It's unsupported but works regardless. It's a digital implementation of a popular board game. But...I can't really fault the 'unsupported', because while turn based, the screen is smaller than would be best to have fun.
Mr Shifty
Another unsupported? What?
...once again, it works without issues (okay: perhaps proton experimental is a factor). At least...that's what I initially thought. See, the game has about a dozen stages that are each separated in roughly a dozen "mini levels" each (hotline miami style). But where you go back to the beginning of the level when you die (which'll happen...a lot), quitting sets you back to the last stage.
And that wouldn't bother me...if it was stable. But it isn't. It only crashed three times on me, but two of those set me back so much it wasn't worth pursuing anymore.
It's a pity: I absolutely love this game, but damnit...why doesn't it save every freaking level?
Avalanche 2: super avalanche
Another unsupported...and this time no issues to speak of. Aside getting a community button layout. Played it for two, three hours...perfect fit for the thing. It's like tetris climber but with a roguelite element. Super cute and charming, and perfect for shorter sessions.
Unreal
Ah...the big test: how would an actual 90's shooter do? Well...good and not good. The good news: I spent far less time tweaking the controls than on my gpd win 1 for much better results. The touchpad IS better than any joystick thingy in this regard.
The thing is: while the music still holds up STRONG, it has some stupid platforming elements in it and using dodge (double tab a direction) isn't as natural. I tried easy mode, 90% speed, aim assist. This all works, mind you. But this game simply isn't as fun without keyboard and mouse.
My farm life
No, not every developer gets on steam or mobile with all their games. Ranch rush and my farm life are leftovers from a now ex-girlfriend who loved those games. Can't blame her. It's...probably a farmville clone, but ey...I got it and still have the exe.
And it works freaking FINE on steam deck. "well" is a different story, because even using touchscreen, you need to click correctly faster and faster to get things done. The screen size's okay but you really need a mouse for this. Or far more experience than I have with the touchpad.
Triple town
A GoG game best using a mouse. But since it's turn based it plays perfect the way you want. A chill experience that's...at best "very vaguely" connected to candy crush. It's mostly doing its own city building thing, though.
Skatebird
One of the headliners from the itch.io Ukraine bundle. Great take on Tony Hawk Pro skater. But the interesting thing is that I played this on my main computer a lot. Or at least: tried. It...sort of works there, just itching around the 30FPS mark. But this game requires at least a steady 40 and perhaps even a 60 (I don't recall right now what I set it to). On deck, it's just much smoother.
Controls are IMHO the same, though (played using a PS4 controller on PC). So
Stealth bastard 2: a game of clones
Okay: got to admit defeat here: I can't get this to work on any recent proton release. Best I can get is audio only. Also tried a GoG variant (which I also legally have), but...nope.
My only hope now is to get it to work under PS3 emulation somehow, but that'll have to wait until later.
Dead cells
I somewhat pride myself in not buying the same game twice. But...dead cells had to be an exception. I have it on mobile (best game on gpd xd+ Honestly: if you have that, get dead cells for it!). I bought it again on steam. It's better. So freakingly addictively better. Better controls, better screen, better sound. I honestly didn't know what I was missing until I played it. So far my best gaming experience (heck...I'm inclined to just stop here and go play it).
Penguin bros
A mostly forgotten arcade game. It's a fun bubble bobble kind of game that for some reason I always come back to. Here to just test the arcade emulator. Required a few manual key bindings in mame, but luckily it seems like those have transferred to all the other emulator games as well.
I also had to move it to a different folder as mame is fun like that (mame, mame2003, mame2010...I never know what game uses what set), but once it was set correctly it seemingly plays whatever I have.
Zelda: link between worlds
Okay, okay: a 3DS game to round things off. Emudeck had installed a couple controller templates for it, one of which being of citra. And yes: it uses the back buttons to swap or redelegate screens. Emulation is, as far as I've tested: just perfect (but truth be told: haven't played much).
All right. That should cover it as far as my review goes. If you've got questions: best to ask them in the steam deck department, but I'll gladly answer questions you've got.
