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

[Siri]

So friends wanted to try out Risk of Rain 2's Multiplayer mode this evening.

 

So, I switched my SD card to the card it was installed on, went to desktop mode to install Discord, log into it and add it to Steam. I then move over to Gaming Mode, pair my Bluetooth headphones, start up Discord, get into the voice chat, start up the game and accepted the invite to get into the lobby and play for an hour or so.

 

I shouldn't be surprised that any of this works, and for free, because it's a PC. But it does, and it's great.

[BubbleFish]

Overload and Dysmantle bought in the sale yesterday. 
 

101 games in just over 2 months. In my defence almost all were fantastic bargains with an average of 70% or so off.

 

I also found out yesterday that I can plug the deck into my 24” USB C monitor. No fuss, no issues; just works.

 

Absolute best gaming machine and bit of tech I’ve ever bought.

[Lorfarius]

I think Euro Truck Sim 2 might be the greatest driving game I've ever played 🤣 Driving around the UK in the middle of the night when the truck sim radio kicked in with Convoy and Another bites the dust. Almost crashed the truck as I was bopping along! This is gaming bliss in a handheld.

[Gotters]

I have never seen a game with so much dlc as that truck one, c90 items and almost £100 even on sale. 
 

Then there is the US version too !

 

[Lorfarius]

32 minutes ago, Gotters said:

I have never seen a game with so much dlc as that truck one, c90 items and almost £100 even on sale. 
 

Then there is the US version too !

 

 

You can pick the original up for about £4 with the sale so its well worth buying a copy of that, seeing how it goes then invest in something like the Going East DLC next as that's a couple of quid at the moment. From everything I can see they put the rest up pretty regular on sales for about £4 a pop.

[Gotters]

Right it’s going to be my last sale purchase with the £4 I have left in there

[Gotters]

Oh dear, truck game gave me motion sickness and claw hand in one run from London to Southampton so not for me.

 

Seemed nice but not for me.

[thesnwmn]

Stacklands

 

Completely enthralled by this card based strategy and village builder.

 

Take a rock card. Put your villager on it to make stone. Do the same with a tree to get wood.

 

Meanwhile another villager on a bush harvest berries. Plant a berry on soil to make more bushes.

 

Combine wood, sticks, stone, iron, gold, glass and so on to make quarries, lumber yards, warehouses. For god sake get an animal shed to stop your chickens hopping around and moving all your carefully.positioned cards.

 

Defend against bears and goblins. Train militia to fight. Build boats and sail to a desert island for exotic materials.

 

Im 10 hours in and have loved every minute.

[Lorfarius]

28 minutes ago, Gotters said:

Oh dear, truck game gave me motion sickness and claw hand in one run from London to Southampton so not for me.

 

Seemed nice but not for me.

 

Ouch  Maybe give desktop mode on a monitor a whirl?

[bradigor]

4 minutes ago, thesnwmn said:

Stacklands

 

Completely enthralled by this card based strategy and village builder.

 

Take a rock card. Put your villager on it to make stone. Do the same with a tree to get wood.

 

Meanwhile another villager on a bush harvest berries. Plant a berry on soil to make more bushes.

 

Combine wood, sticks, stone, iron, gold, glass and so on to make quarries, lumber yards, warehouses. For god sake get an animal shed to stop your chickens hopping around and moving all your carefully.positioned cards.

 

Defend against bears and goblins. Train militia to fight. Build boats and sail to a desert island for exotic materials.

 

Im 10 hours in and have loved every minute.

 

I got this midway through last year and struggled with it running well at all. So thanks for the reminder to try again. 

 

My current game of choice is Against the Storm it is just sublime and one of the best city builders I have ever played. 

 

Also playing Crisis Core which is as good as I remember.

[bobontheway]

Completely obsessed with Shredders. Performance is a bit hit and miss but it’s the snowboarding equivalent of Skate… it’s soooo relaxing.

[Gotters]

1 hour ago, Lorfarius said:

 

Ouch  Maybe give desktop mode on a monitor a whirl?

No, handheld all the way for me.

 

I’m pretty ruthless if they don’t work for me like that or don’t like them on the refund button quick, want to avoid a giant library of stuff I know I’ll never play.

 

Things I want to play but don’t is fine

[SaintAnselm]

I am shocked just how well Death Stranding performs on the Deck and damn does it look gorgeous.

[Gotters]

3 hours ago, thesnwmn said:

Stacklands

 

Completely enthralled by this card based strategy and village builder.

 

Take a rock card. Put your villager on it to make stone. Do the same with a tree to get wood.

 

Meanwhile another villager on a bush harvest berries. Plant a berry on soil to make more bushes.

 

Combine wood, sticks, stone, iron, gold, glass and so on to make quarries, lumber yards, warehouses. For god sake get an animal shed to stop your chickens hopping around and moving all your carefully.positioned cards.

 

Defend against bears and goblins. Train militia to fight. Build boats and sail to a desert island for exotic materials.

 

Im 10 hours in and have loved every minute.

Good shout on this, seems lovely

[sid]

Just trying out the 40fps limiter, seems decent but do you need to enable it for every game ? 

[bobontheway]

1 minute ago, sid said:

Just trying out the 40fps limiter, seems decent but do you need to enable it for every game ? 

You can set it globally or per game

[sid]

Ok thanks is that the general thing to do then global 40fps then opt out as needed ?? Depends what your collection looks like I guess

[bobontheway]

Just now, sid said:

Ok thanks is that the general thing to do then global 40fps then opt out as needed ?? Depends what your collection looks like I guess

Yeah, depends on what you’re playing. I generally aim for 40 with most stuff though 

[Siri]

1 minute ago, sid said:

Just trying out the 40fps limiter, seems decent but do you need to enable it for every game ? 

 

There's a global option, and per game settings, so do however you feel.

 

I do a global setting for 60fps, and then if a game's tougher to run I make a setting for 40fps/hz and any other tweaks for it. And then it just switches when I start up that particular game.

[bradigor]

Gave Timberborn another go this evening. It feels a little like it has gone backwards with its first EA update, but it controls really well. I'll sit out until the next big update hope they add some QoL improvements such as adding some direction to the main game. 

[deerokus]

40 is a sweet spot for a lot of games. Stuff that hits 60 but murders the battery, stuff which floats around about 50 with occasional drops, games where FPS doesn't matter much, games where you can max the settings but the FPS drops down a lot from 60...

 

Death Stranding Director's Cut is especially spot on at that frame rate (using the in-game FSR 2.1 on Balanced or Quality to give a bit of headroom, the game seems quite CPU bound).

[Lorfarius]

I've got the week off work and thought I'd spend loads of time on all these new games I bought but.. Euro Truck 2 is taking over my life 🤣 Six hours yesterday afternoon and I feel like I've only just started. Finally went across in a ferry on a trip and drove across some massive bridge (called Oreson I think) which looked magical, even with minimal mods ons. It just nails everything with the feel of travel and once I'd rolled down the windows there was no stopping me! Got my first loan and bought a garage so will focus on some travelling and business building today. God knows when I'll get to play the American one.

[deerokus]

American Truck Sim is arguably better. Some of the environments in Euro are very basic and old because it's been going for a decade.

 

Addictive as hell games. Make sure you force proton compatibility mode on the deck as otherwise it defaults to the native Linux port which doesn't perform as well.

 

[Fry Crayola]

Also make sure you turn off the speed limiter in the options. There's nothing quite like barrelling down a B-road at 100 mph in a top heavy lorry, where each corner may be your last.

 

Er, don't do this if you're just after a relaxing time. Or you're in a real truck.

 

Euro and America Trucks are my go-to game with friends on a weekly basis. We're not particularly serious about it and most of the fun comes from mishaps when trucks overturn, friends get pushed off bridges, glitches cause insane behaviour, and yet more trucks overturn. When that's not happening, it's such a relaxed experience it gives us a chance to chat rather than be hyperfocused on what's going on. I wholeheartedly recommend it.

[Gotters]

seems back in the depths of time I bought humble bundle 1 and never used the codes, just activated World of Goo which runs out the box very nicely it seems

 

I used to love that game

[bradigor]

I am so impressed by Ridge Racer Unbounded. I played it on 360 but never appreciated it as much as I should. 

 

Small download size. Miniscule loading times and just keeps the action going. 

 

Having a blast with it in Steam Deck

[Gotters]

3 minutes ago, bradigor said:

I am so impressed by Ridge Racer Unbounded. I played it on 360 but never appreciated it as much as I should. 

 

Small download size. Miniscule loading times and just keeps the action going. 

 

Having a blast with it in Steam Deck

 

I bounced it off so hard when it came out I have no recollection of events just a few in, also think I've got further in Split/Second than I ever did before.

 

I'm seeing for the first time what PC people were on about when they used to often call the console versions of games compromised, running these now on high settings they look better than I ever remember them being.

 

I also don't know if I'm imaging this but everything feels snappier to control - not sure if that is frame rate or the fact that the deck sticks/buttons not got any wireless latency built in - this is across several games, not just Ridge Unbounded. Split/Second and Just Cause 3 just feel better than I remember, more responsive.

[LaveDisco]

Just spent a hundred quid on games since getting this repaired. Damn this sale and Xmas money - it’s a deadly combination.  The console has come alive for me - I didn’t realise how much the controller issues were hampering my enjoyment until now they’re fixed. 
 

Hob’s Barrow at the moment, with SOMA, Golden Idol, Against the Storm, Mothman, Kaiju Wars, Stacklands, Norco, strange Horticulture, Bloodstained, Patrick’s Parabox, Heroes of Might and Magic 3 (nostalgia), Pentiment (it’s only £12 and saves me restarting gamepass, and it far better suits portable), cryptark, dungeons of dreadrock

 

Gone a little mad there. A mixture of recommendations here, to the eurogamer/rock paper shotgun GOTYs, tipped me over the line on a load of games I had been eyeing up. 
 

Now to actually play them. 

[Giddas]

Just bought dungeons of dreadrock after you mentioned it. 47p! Forget XGP, Steam sales are the best deal in gaming. 

[LaveDisco]

8 minutes ago, Giddas said:

Just bought dungeons of dreadrock after you mentioned it. 47p! Forget XGP, Steam sales are the best deal in gaming. 

I’ve put thirty mins into it so far and it’s great!  Got that recommended from somewhere and it’s ace. 
 

The days of my switch being the indie machine are over. Which is a shame, the docks better, as is the OLED screen.