You haven’t talked about how much you care about portability and ease of assembly.
The only reasons to buy a Steam Deck is because you can use it on the go, and maybe because it already comes pre-built and pre-configured with an OS. So it would be interesting to know how important those two things are to you.
If they are not/not very important, then a Steam Deck makes no sense, as you can get the same power of hardware for much cheaper in a desktop.
My rationale for the steam deck was mostly the convenience and broad support. Prior to this thread, portability was more of a bonus than a main draw for me. However, a few people have mentioned how much they like the steam deck for use around the house over their PC and I hadn’t really considered that before. I will say that this prospect does shift me a little more towards the steam deck than before.
I was mostly drawn to building a PC for upgradability and longevity. As I understand it 600-700 for a PC (buying secondhand) is on the line of acceptable and decent. The last time I gamed on a PC was in the days of halo CE on a hand-me-down windows XP machine so my personal experience on the matter is extremely out of date, but I’m willing (and interested).to learn
Steam deck is definitely a viable alternative, but I’d still go with building a desktop if that is an option to you and if you do not need the portability of steam deck. $600-$700 will get you a pretty decent system (especially if you already have a monitor, mouse, and keyboard) that you can continue to upgrade in the future.
Yeah the 600-700 figure is just for the PC, I made a little room for a monitor, keyboard and headset/speakers as I would wind up needing those whichever way I went
Given that you also need to build a library of PC games, this could swing the needle towards the steam deck depending on what games you want and how patient you are to buy them. But because you can build that library over time, and PC games tend to be cheaper than console games and have much better sales, I still lean toward suggesting you build a desktop.
I’m not in a rush by any means. Between working full time and being in college, I don’t have a lot of time to play games. I have a handful of AAA titles I’m interested in, but indie gaming has been a pretty large draw for me towards PC gaming in general. There’s so many interesting and innovative titles out there that I simply haven’t had an opportunity to play on my Xbox
I think a desktop will pay off in the future when it’s time to upgrade again because you can at least reuse the peripherals, case, PSU, fans, hard drives, typically the CPU cooler, maybe GPU unless that is being upgraded, and maybe even the mobo+RAM depending on the upgrade path. I think the AMD AM4 platform is currently the best bang for the buck, but will almost certainly require replacing mobo+RAM on your next future upgrade.
For Submachine, I was mainly writing down coordinates of locations where I figured I could come back to use an item later, or information from signs that might be useful in a later puzzle.
For Fairune, I had to make multiple maps on graph paper to keep track of all of the things I wasn’t sure how to solve or needed to come back to with new items.
I have also been writing down some numbers for System Shock, but I haven’t finished that one yet, and I’m not sure if the note taking will need to be any more extensive.
You are sacrificing power for mobility and playability with the Steam Deck. I own both a Steam Deck and a gaming PC, and I use each for different games. These days, modern AAA gaming often can’t run on Steam Deck well, including some hits like Baldurs Gate 3 (in the 3rd Act, the rest is fine). However, 75% of my overall gaming time is on the Deck these days. The ability to turn it on and just start playing on the couch or in bed is fantastic, and the support for different control schema like gyro and touchpads make it incredibly playable.
A modest PC is going to push better graphics and higher refresh rates, and will also make some games actually playable, but this becomes a decent sacrifice in mobility and convenience.
If mobility is merely a bonus and your deck would be docked the vast majority of the time, I’d go PC, but I suggest seriously considering the convenience of portable play even within your home. The OLED screen is wonderful for years-old AAA games that go for 2 dollars on Sale, indies, and more. I’m absolutely having a blast with Crosscode and intend on moving over to Another Crab’s Treasure and Nine Sols next.
I honestly haven’t considered using the steam deck in my house outside of the dock. Playing on the couch is definitely an enticing idea. The prospect of poor AAA support isn’t a huge deal. Baldurs gate 3, the new dragon age, the new Warhammer game (if that’s considered AAA), helldivers, and the new god of war games are the only recent titles that have jumped out at me. I’ve really wanted to get more into indie games, theres so many that seem interesting and innovative, and with the pace of steam deck adoption, I feel like I wouldn’t be missing out on much with it. I’m still 50/50 on the decision. Gaming around the house has definitely given me something more to consider though!
The Steam Deck is how I prefer to play the majority of indies, so if that’s your goal, it’s great. Watch performance videos though of games you are interested in.
I played through all of BG3 with no issues. It was a pleasure. The only real graphics hiccup I had was when i stacked barrel after barrel of smoke powder in Gortash’s throne room and one shotted him.
whether you go handheld or desktop PC depends on what you plan to play and how often you play “handheld” and “sitting at home”
can I throw in an odd alternative 3rd option. Not the steam deck specifically, but many of the windows gaming handhelds have USB 4 support. with that, they enable the user to use an external GPU if they wanted. So if you wanted a better “docked experience” you can get one later down the line and treat it like some middle ground from having a “desktop” pc and handheld pc on demand. down the line you can choose to upgrade one experience or the other when the time is right if you would like a middle of a choice option.
this option is not very setting friendly though, as youd constnatly have to switch back and forth if you choose this path
Whichever way I went, I was planning to use Linux for my OS, so I haven’t really considered a windows handheld until now. I might have to look into those a bit more. I’m not opposed to windows per se, but I do like how light most Linux distros are. It would free up more resources for gaming, and considering my budget, I could definitely use the extra wiggle room haha
I play pretty much everything on my steamdeck. For price vs usability, it’s incredible. It’s also nice that you can get an idea of how games work on it before you buy them, so you don’t get stuck with a game that won’t run on your computer.
It’s also nice that you can get an idea of how games work on it before you buy them
Oh interesting, you mean like the “verified on deck” thing? Or are performance stats accessible easily? I don’t have one so I’m not exactly sure, but this does sound nice. I feel a lot of stress sometimes if I need to spend a long time playing with graphics options during the 2 hour refund window
So, you have deck verified vs playable vs unsupported and you have protondb scores to let you know how playable the game should be. Beyond that, developers try to hit steamdeck playable as a development goal. They won’t try to optimize for your computer, since they don’t know what you’re running, but they have the specs for the steamdeck, so they try to make it run on that!
That’s definitely an added bonus. Having been a console player for the majority of my life, learning and researching parts and compatibility has been a bit confusing for me. Especially since I was planning to build a Linux machine. I like that building a PC offers versatility and an opportunity to upgrade parts down the line for a better experience/ longer lifespan, but there’s something to be said for the convenience of knowing that something will just work out of the box
I disagree with FEAR simply because I’d say to play it on the hardest difficulty and go balls to the wall because the AI will fuck you over if it gets the chance; and the longer you take to clear a room, the more time the AI has to organize and execute a plan. If it weren’t for the fact that I’ve seen plenty of people get stuck on FEAR because they tried to play it like a cover shooter, I’d fully agree with you.
Yes! Return of the Obra Dinn 100%. You can still watch other people play it on YouTube later and have a blast seeing them figure things out. And read Lucas Pope’s excellent devblog later as well.
I am super intimidated Return of the Obra Dinn. But it looks so cool, and I feel like it uses a lot of lateral thinking and makes you smarter for playing it.
No need to be intimidated. Just pick it up in a sale. Definitely a brain teaser but there are spoiler reduced guides out there in case you get stuck. But you should be able to finish the game even without guidance.
I went into Oxenfree completely blind after picking it up for next to nothing on the switch store. Great story with choices that actually matter. OP, do yourself a favor and play this without a guide.
Honestly it was really handy to have a pen and paper around for Elden Ring for me. There was just so much I wanted to keep track of so that I could come back or to make connections. But it’s also a very acquired taste kind of game to go through!
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