Steam Deck (handheld from Valve) - shipping is 4-8 days from NL to UK

[Siri]

1 hour ago, Eighthours said:

Do you pretty much need a PC in order to make the experience of handling the 'back office' of this device better? I ask because I only have a Mac at home, and all the talk of fiddling with so many settings and sideloads and such, makes me think that doing anything beyond playing obviously compatible games would benefit hugely from a PC. I presume not everything is done on the device itself? I'm not a PC gamer at all, but the concept of the Steam Deck appeals!

 

Just to go along with the choir - everything I've done on the deck up to this point has been, for the most part, done on the deck itself without any hardware accessories.

 

This includes:

 

- installing and playing Steam Games

- installing and playing non-Steam PC games (including old ass PC CD-ROM and self-contained executables, like fan games and RPG Maker creations)

- installing and configuring power tools for emulation and extra add-ons (Emudeck, Decky Loader and ProtonUp, mainly)

- setting up streaming services and an ad-free TV mode for YouTube

- installing certain games in regards to Emulation (namely PS3 games because they have a funny-ass system of handling software)

 

The only things I recall doing outside of the Deck's ecosystem includes the following:

 

- moving emulated game files onto the SD card, as they were all on another computer anyway and I had to use the DVD drive to rip my PS2 games and prepackaged emulated collections (like the free Unibios and ROM with every DRM Free DotEmu NeoGeo port)

 

- moving one particularly big game install from desktop to SD card before the new network install feature became a thing, which I proceeded to fuck up and vowed not to do it again unless I was desperate.

 

So, I'm confident you'll be alright. Maybe buy a diddy bluetooth keyboard and mouse combo in case you want to type fast.

[simms]

25 minutes ago, Opinionated Ham Scarecrow said:

It's funny. I bought this thing just to have my Steam catalogue handheld, and had no desire to tinker, but a simple post on a Division 2 fix led me to boot into desktop for the first time, and now 3 days later I have every deck mod known to man, and 72 emulated games on my MC. Today has been mostly setting up and downloading the shit outta PS3 games all kindly provided by Sony's own PSN servers. Talk about rabbit hole.

 

Haha, nice thing about the Steam deck its a nice rabbit hole to get caught up in as the fixes are usually straight forward and Emulation is made easy.  This is why I hope Valve leave the Deck to mature as long as possible without muddying the waters by introducing a new Deck with different specs

[Poet]

2 hours ago, Stanley said:

You have everything you need there to get the best out of it, keyboard and mouse optional of course but will help with setting stuff up such as emulation. 

 

Thankfully I already have those, and a decent external display to use if and when I feel the need.

 

I have some questions!

 

Are people buying 512Gb or larger SD cards nowadays? I know to go for an A2 and I'm happy redownloading things as and when I need to, but I'd like to keep the emulators and those games all together on the one card at the very least.

 

And, as regards setting up certain things (use cases: Steam obv, then all the emulators, Epic games, GOG and Itch.io as a starting point), I'm sure you fine people here have a go-to recommendation for a post or video for a decent concise guide for getting this stuff working easily - can anyone share their favourite?

 

Not even bought it yet, and happy to wait a few weeks as there's a few things to do for our house first, but I want to be ready! Thank you in advance!

[Poet]

And ordered the 512Gb and the dock! Now, I wait.

[Siri]

6 minutes ago, Poet said:

I have some questions!

 

Are people buying 512Gb or larger SD cards nowadays? I know to go for an A2 and I'm happy redownloading things as and when I need to, but I'd like to keep the emulators and those games all together on the one card at the very least.

 

And, as regards setting up certain things (use cases: Steam obv, then all the emulators, Epic games, GOG and Itch.io as a starting point), I'm sure you fine people here have a go-to recommendation for a post or video for a decent concise guide for getting this stuff working easily - can anyone share their favourite?

 

- 512gb cards generally have the best ratio of space to price at the moment, 1tb cards are pricey. All comes down to how much you want to play at any one time, though. I'm an idiot who likes 100+ games in case I'm stranded on the motorway for ten minutes. Yes, minutes

 

- as for the installing stuff, I just search Reddit or YouTube and look for the latest article. As good as SteamDeckHQ and so on are as a baseline, it's still pretty much a state of flux and things may get easier/harder as time goes on, even after a year.

[Lorfarius]

I use 1 TB one as it fits a few hundred GBs of ROMs and loads if space for gaming. The slots easy to get at if you start to struggle.

[Paulando]

9 hours ago, c-cat114 said:

Has there ever been a hit list of things new owners need to know? Occasionally see suggestions of specific game fixes and so on. 

Honestly, it’s best to just start off playing some games from your Steam library first. There are many rabbit holes you can go down, and if you try to do it all at once you’ll spend more time fucking around with files than playing games.

 

It is good to know roughly what it can do outside Steam verified games though, then when you fancy doing it you can Google or ask on here: it can play non-supported games, non-Steam games, it can emulate anything up to and including PS2 (and even some 360/PS3 I believe), and it can play Outrun 2.

[bradigor]

I've got a 1Tb card on an upgraded 256gb machine. Going to upgrade again to a 1tb SSD so have 2tb total. 

 

In other news, I have one more mission left on Transport Fever 2. It is the best controlling builder I have played in the Deck yet. UI too scales excellently 

[StumpyJohn]

9 hours ago, c-cat114 said:

Has there ever been a hit list of things new owners need to know? Occasionally see suggestions of specific game fixes and so on. 

When mine arrives I'm planning to just use it as much as possible "as-is" and not do any fiddling around.

 

Probably going to start with brotato and stardew valley as have been meaning to play that forever.

Might put luck be a landlord on it straight away too, am up to floor 12 on that on my mac IIRC so may have that complete before the deck arrives

 

[bradigor]

9 hours ago, bradigor said:

Archery Club just released. If it runs well on Deck I'm very tempted. 

 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2278820/Archery_Club/

 

Don't get this... It's bad. I do want a good archery game though 

[Poet]

Alright, I've got a Steam Deck coming and haven't been a PC gamer for about a decade and there's a Steam sale on. Yes, there's always a Steam sale on, but may as well get started!

 

Like I said above, I've got a few mostly older games on Steam, and loads of Epic freebies, and hundreds of games in those itch.io bundles. And have a few things already like Hades & Stardew Valley on Switch, The Witcher 3 & RDR2 on PS4, and Disco Elysium on Mac. Not saying things won't get re-bought but also it's not like there's a shortage of quality gaming out there.

 

So what needs to be bought specifically for this thing? What are people's absolute favourites? Aside from Euro Truck Simulator 2 (if that's the right one?). I promise I'll deep dive into this thread as well at some point over the next month before it arrives but I'm feeling pretty keen to start building up a Wishlist!

[thesnwmn]

8 minutes ago, Poet said:

Alright, I've got a Steam Deck coming and haven't been a PC gamer for about a decade and there's a Steam sale on. Yes, there's always a Steam sale on, but may as well get started!

 

Like I said above, I've got a few mostly older games on Steam, and loads of Epic freebies, and hundreds of games in those itch.io bundles. And have a few things already like Hades & Stardew Valley on Switch, The Witcher 3 & RDR2 on PS4, and Disco Elysium on Mac. Not saying things won't get re-bought but also it's not like there's a shortage of quality gaming out there.

 

So what needs to be bought specifically for this thing? What are people's absolute favourites? Aside from Euro Truck Simulator 2 (if that's the right one?). I promise I'll deep dive into this thread as well at some point over the next month before it arrives but I'm feeling pretty keen to start building up a Wishlist!

 

As you yourself say, just read the thread. Or some of it.

 

I get it you are excited. I know you want recommendations and I know I'm sounding like a complete twat. But there are many people buying these things and we seem to be doing the "what should I play", "what add-ons should I install", "how do I do emulation", "how do I upgrade the SSD card", "what should I eat for breakfast to make my Deck run faster" etc every page or two.

 

So please, just read. Maybe the last 10 or 20 pages. Even the last 50 pages if you actually want a wide ranging sample of what you should play. This page is non-stop things to play and do on a Deck. It will be hundreds of times better than the admittedly great lists I'm sure a few angels will trott out

 

Add the usual searches of the web for "best on Deck". Or browsing the subreddit and you'll have a list as long as your arm within seconds.

[Poet]

Oh, I know, I'm already browsing and wishlisting. I just want to know what rllmuk people's best experiences have been so far with this thing, which doesn't come up so much, not a list of great games.

[Stanley]

16 minutes ago, Poet said:

Alright, I've got a Steam Deck coming and haven't been a PC gamer for about a decade and there's a Steam sale on. Yes, there's always a Steam sale on, but may as well get started!

 

Like I said above, I've got a few mostly older games on Steam, and loads of Epic freebies, and hundreds of games in those itch.io bundles. And have a few things already like Hades & Stardew Valley on Switch, The Witcher 3 & RDR2 on PS4, and Disco Elysium on Mac. Not saying things won't get re-bought but also it's not like there's a shortage of quality gaming out there.

 

So what needs to be bought specifically for this thing? What are people's absolute favourites? Aside from Euro Truck Simulator 2 (if that's the right one?). I promise I'll deep dive into this thread as well at some point over the next month before it arrives but I'm feeling pretty keen to start building up a Wishlist!

Get the Valve complete bundle, it has every game they’ve made - so every Half-Life game including HL2 + episodes, both Left 4 Dead, Portal 1 & 2. It’s on sale for £4. 
 

Everyone gets Vampire Survivors, it’s a must have if you haven’t played it and I’d argue the best version too. 
 

If you fancy something modern Dead Space remake now runs pretty well. 

 

It’s hard to recommend games I think because it runs everything! Just think about what you want to play and it’s likely you’ll be able one way or another. 
 

If you have Game Pass you can stream your games, and it works really well. 
 

I always recommend Defense Grid, for every format, but that’s on sale for £1.74 and a superb TD game along with the sequel. 
 

Maybe just look through your library and see which games are verified or playable, just try stuff out? 

[Siri]

6 hours ago, Stanley said:

It’s hard to recommend games I think because it runs everything! Just think about what you want to play and it’s likely you’ll be able one way or another. 

 

Yeah - one of the great successes this thing does is make relatively recent videogames have a portable version. It's kind of silly to say that I bought anything specific for this thing when I've generally redownloaded the games I've got just to play them at work or when I've got a spare moment in front of the TV.

 

Portable Tekken 7 is kinda sick, as is New Vegas and Cyberpunk.

 

But hey I might as well shill this again

[Jamie John]

I posted more about this in the completed games thread, but Arise: A Simple Story is a bittersweet and good-looking little puzzle platformer that's Deck verified and well worth four hours of anyone's time. If you've enjoyed the likes of Journey or RiME then you'll probably dig this, and it's only £3.59 at CDKeys at the moment (nearly twice that in the Steam sale).

 

 

I will say that it comes with a bit of a trigger warning, however, as some of the story focuses on 

 

Spoiler

the grief caused by the death of an infant,

 

which some people may find too close to home.

[Gotters]

It's like discovering an old friend playing Defense Grid again on this, doesn't look it's age either.

 

Surprised all the servers for scores still up, plus if you go into community from main menu and put in an email address it'll email you a steam code for some community levels they've selected, which is nice.

[Stanley]

It’s brilliant isn’t it, I’ve been playing it quite a bit. Probably the best tower defence games ever made. The sequel is great too and you can rotate the levels in that, comes in handy. 

[T Pot]

22 hours ago, Siri said:

 

TBH, the only thing worth looking into is adding ProtonGE (via Proton up), and to check ProtonDB if a game you own doesn't work straight away, or it's showing as unknown to get a better idea of what to do.

 

Everything else (Emulation, Cryobyte, Decky Loader etc) is fluff, really.

I’d say Decky Loader is pretty essential for two things.

 

Adding ProtonDB badges to your library and changing the constrast of the screen.

[T Pot]

20 hours ago, Eighthours said:

Do you pretty much need a PC in order to make the experience of handling the 'back office' of this device better? I ask because I only have a Mac at home, and all the talk of fiddling with so many settings and sideloads and such, makes me think that doing anything beyond playing obviously compatible games would benefit hugely from a PC. I presume not everything is done on the device itself? I'm not a PC gamer at all, but the concept of the Steam Deck appeals!

I have a MacBook. The SteamDeck is my gaming PC. I don’t even setup a keyboard and mouse, I do it all on device and it’s fine. Downloading ROM, installing software, other admin stuff on the desktop, all on device for me.

[Ry]

2 hours ago, Jamie John said:

I posted more about this in the completed games thread, but Arise: A Simple Story is a bittersweet and good-looking little puzzle platformer that's Deck verified and well worth four hours of anyone's time. If you've enjoyed the likes of Journey or RiME then you'll probably dig this, and it's only £3.59 at CDKeys at the moment (nearly twice that in the Steam sale).

 

 

I will say that it comes with a bit of a trigger warning, however, as some of the story focuses on 

 

  Hide contents

the grief caused by the death of an infant,

 

which some people may find too close to home.

 

Seen this when browsing the store and was interested. But the spoiler is too much for me as a personal thing. Thanks for letting me know.

[Gotters]

Know I'm a bit of a stuck record but holy shit at some of these 2010s games - Spec Ops the Line on full settings looks glorious and plays brilliantly. I'd never heard of it til I found a YouTuber this morning going back and recommending older games that play well on the handheld. Latest Proton GE and not had a blip or stutter so far.

[Jamie John]

35 minutes ago, Gotters said:

I'd never heard of it

 

Really? That's pretty surprising as it was a pretty notable game when it first came out.

 

You should absolutely keep playing... 

[Ry]

Talking about the 2010 games, You had me thinking about Binary Domain. It's £1.50 for the collection at CD keys. 

[deerokus]

27 minutes ago, Ry said:

Talking about the 2010 games, You had me thinking about Binary Domain. It's £1.50 for the collection at CD keys. 

 

 

B-game masterpiece. 

 

That era of games is a good fit for the deck - they usually had very nice PC ports that were far better than the console versions even on modest systems of the day. Scale really nicely to more powerful hardware and were always designed for screens around the deck resolution.

 

As for tweaks, there's very little reason not to try cryoutilities out, it's extremely easy to setup, you can forget about it once it's done and it  makes a noticeable difference to performance in certain games. Especially open world games.

 

[Gotters]

My excuse for this blankspot of knowledge is from about 2000-2020 I disappeared into a career black hole and other than buying a few Nintendo big name releases just wasn't devoting much time to gaming - it gives me the brilliant situation now of gorging on a never ending buffet of stone cold bangers for a few quid a pop. 

 

I've kind of heard of Binary Domain but nothing more, also saw something I'm vaguely aware of called F.E.A.R which apparently runs well too. 

[Gotters]

How Long To Beat needs to FRO, claiming 1.2h to beat Forklift Extreme.

 

7.6h and I've just 3* all the core levels, collecting FORK letters and posters (but not doing all the time trial elements). Now into the DLC levels.

 

Such a nice chill game.

[Curtis]

1 hour ago, Ry said:

Talking about the 2010 games, You had me thinking about Binary Domain. It's £1.50 for the collection at CD keys. 

Good call! I definitely wanna replay that. Downloading now....

[Siri]

Oh man, Spec Ops: The Line is fantastic. While it's an FPS, The Darkness 2 was also a great shooter during that era.

 

I'm hoping to have a proper go on Alpha Protocol and Binary Domain after I'm done with.. well, everything else.

 

God, playing GTA IV feels like forever. In case anyone's wondering where I am in it:

 

Spoiler

I just did the bit where you bury one of the McCreary brothers.

 

So, a couple of the allegedly really horrible missions are done (The Snow Storm, Three Leaf Clover and Tunnel Of Death).

 

I haven't bothered with Brucie's mission line yet though, I keep forgetting to do the email thing for the date and just run to each thing on the map, lol

 

[bradigor]

13 minutes ago, Siri said:

Oh man, Spec Ops: The Line is fantastic. While it's an FPS, The Darkness 2 was also a great shooter during that era.

 

I'm hoping to have a proper go on Alpha Protocol and Binary Domain after I'm done with.. well, everything else.

 

God, playing GTA IV feels like forever. In case anyone's wondering where I am in it:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

I just did the bit where you bury one of the McCreary brothers.

 

So, a couple of the allegedly really horrible missions are done (The Snow Storm, Three Leaf Clover and Tunnel Of Death).

 

I haven't bothered with Brucie's mission line yet though, I keep forgetting to do the email thing for the date and just run to each thing on the map, lol

 

 

Shame that only the second Darkness got a Steam release.