The only Gane where I thought AI was interesting was the one where you are a vampire, and you had to convince people to let you come into their houses so you could eat them.
Additionally, I could see how it would work for a “Hey you, Pikachu!” Or “seaman” game. But otherwise, I’m fairly reluctant on any kind of AI stuff. It just seems…gross. idk how to describe it but it just makes me uncomfortable
i would feel okay about it if the energy cost of AI wasn’t so astronomical. It would be a fun quirk to play an open-world game full of characters that can sort of hold a conversation with you like this. But if we have to boil oceans to do it (and we still do as of this writing), then it just seems beyond frivolous. I love video games, but nothing in a video game is important enough to justify that energy cost.
Easy way to tell if you’re talking to an AI: “Are you sentient?”
A human might say “no,” but most of these companies are using models that are preprogrammed to say “no” by default and resist any attempts to get it to agree that it is.
If this is the future of online gaming from AAA studios, then I’ll stick to indie games, thanks.
There’s a reason for that, and it’s more than the usual Valve fanboyism. The Deck is objectively a better user experience than the alternatives, Steam Input is a masterpiece, Linux runs games better than Windows now (thanks, Gabe), and the community around it is friendly and super helpful to everyone.
Even a device with better specs will have trouble surpassing the Deck if they can’t cover these areas as well.
Now that it has been three years, while I’d like to have one, I feel like I’ll just wait until whatever the next version is - even if that means waiting another year or so.
I don’t need one, particularly, and I don’t want to be caught at the tail end of this hardware.
I was on the fence of asking for one for my birthday late last year for exactly this reason.
What tipped me over was that I took a look at my Steam library and realized I literally have hundreds of indie and AA games that I’ve never played or have less than 4 hours in that I always meant to go back to. And that was it, I decided the Steam Deck was going to be my indie gaming experince platform. It has been amazing at doing this, and I’ve been chewing through my indie game library like crazy, and have picked up so many more that I’m loving gaming again! I can see myself keeping the current steam deck around and will be used regularly for at least the next 5 years.
If you’re looking for a portable machine that’ll tackle most modern & higher end games, either look at the alternative SteamOS portables or wait for the next Steam Deck (the touch screen, D-Pad, Sticks, and dual touch pad make it the best choice for best I out options for game compatibility).
However, if you want a great machine for indies, AA, older AAA titles, and console EMU, the current hardware is amazing and worth the price
Linux, not Windows–Windows provides little that can’t be done on Linux in this space
AMD, not Intel–AMD just has better products at this level (any level at this point, really)
720p–going higher doesn’t provide much at this size except suck battery life and requiring a more powerful GPU
Price
Now, price is partially because Valve can afford to subsidize the cost and expect to make it up on Steam sales. I’d be remiss to ignore how they’re making their money. Still, they’re also able to have a good price because they didn’t try to make it as powerful as it could be, but as powerful as it needed to be.
I wonder how many people, like me, who really use their Steam Deck as a Pirate Deck.
If I see a game I like on Steam Store I simply go to STEAMRlP and grab it pre-installed. Then I run it through Wine/Proton. Installing dependencies is very easy, thanks to steamdb.info + Wine-/Protontricks.
Now, some games I do buy afterwards. KCD2 is one example. The Last Flame another. When I know that I enjoy it, I know what I get for my money, then I can make the decision to buy it.
I’d guess not many. We’re a bit more Linux/tech savvy here but most users would hear “Wine/Proton” alone and freak out. I bring up my terminal and people somehow think I’m “hacking”. With all the convenience with buying and playing games on Steam, their model works (even on PC, with competing platforms and unlimited piracy potential).
Edit: They also have a really great refund policy.
The whole handheld gaming market is pretty small. There’s the Switch which outsold the last couple gens of Xboxes and PlayStations. Good luck beating that. Besides that you have smartphones which just about everyone owns and only a handful of brands being especially popular. Then you have dedicated Android having handhelds and handheld emulation machines which are extremely niche.
So either you’re looking at extremely popular and widely owned handheld devices with extensive histories and customer loyalty or extremely niche devices. Not really a great comparison.
I’m just saying there’s not much competition in the handheld space. Either you have massively popular products with an extensive history or extremely niche devices. The handheld PC market is still fairly nascent and Steam Deck dominating it and popularizing it so much (even if it’s not that much compared to, say, the Switch) is still significant.
If you mean the switch, then it has been thoroughly squashed. If you mean phones, well I think we can agree they are not really competing for the same customers, and if you think they do, most people are buying phones for reasons other than gaming. So you’d need a way to section the market for “gaming phones” (yes, that’s a thing).
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