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

[Kevvy Metal]

[Stoppy2000]

48 minutes ago, carlospie said:

Just think you could play a game, stop and have a fap on pornhub without even having to get up. 

'Getting up' is surely a prerequisite?

[Fry Crayola]

32 minutes ago, Majora said:

 

This sounds rubbish though. A ten year old, not particularly demanding game, at 720p, for 3 hours?! Is this meant to be in any way impressive?

 

The quote is "You can play Portal 2 for four hours on this thing. If you limit it to 30 FPS, you're going to be playing for 5-6 hours."

[Rorschach]

13 hours ago, DeciderVT said:

Trying very hard to remind myself of how Valve have historically treated hardware.

Given it apparently won't be locked down at all, not a big deal. They abandon it, not like it suddenly becomes useless. PlayOnLinux preceded Proton.
 

12 hours ago, Wiper said:

The Switch is too big and heavy for sustained handheld use, offset by the ability to plonk it down and disconnect its controllers as long as you've a stable surface to put it on.

This does have more substantial grips though. I suspect it will be more comfortable than the switch (OG) for handheld play.

I like the look of this but I wish it somehow didn't require a new device. My phone probably has similar graphical capabilities. Even if ARM emulation caused a massive performance hit, being able to run my steam library on that would be way more compelling to me.

[Sprite Machine]

A handheld PC more powerful than my current desktop - crazy times!

 

2 hours ago, Opinionated Ham Scarecrow said:

This thing looks immense. The hardware is particularly impressive given the size. It's like 17 switches taped together or something.

How many Gamecubes is that?

[Rorschach]

8 minutes ago, Sprite Machine said:

A handheld PC more powerful than my current desktop - crazy times!

Sounds like they're using off the shelf parts too. If they were using custom designs from AMD like Sony and Microsoft do, graphics power could be emphasised over the CPU. edit - actually if it is using the RDNA 2 architecture that suggests it is a custom part after all.

I wonder if the display will support variable refresh rates. Would be nice to play games that maybe can't consistently hit 60 / 30 on this hardware without it noticeably affecting the experience.

[Yiggy]

Everyone is talking about running gamepass and epic store on it but I don’t understand how. 
 

Do they mean if you install windows on it? Surely if it runs Steam OS which I believe is Linux based out the box then not only will you be limited to steam but also limited to steam games that run on Linux? Just like the old Steam PCs out the box were? Or am I missing something? 

[disperse and recoagulate]

This thing looks great. By my maths you can "reserve" (is that preorder?) one tomorrow at 6pm UK time. I might just do that, you know.

[S0L]

I'm going to get one of these just to play American Truck Sim sat on the sofa. Especially now I've finished Densha De Go on Switch. A Switch style gaming PC for not that much more than a Switch? Go on then.

 

I reckon they'll have Gamepass streaming on it quickly. It's a PC even if it's running Linux. I suspect installing Windows will be on it in days if you're so inclined.

[Strafe]

My thoughts:

 

1) Assuming it succeeds (and I think there’s a good chance it won’t because Valve don’t seem to have patience for hardware), how long will the machine stay relevant. It’s a PC so how long before it becomes incapable of running the latest releases at a satisfactory level or the system becomes old hat? Will Gabe just launch a new revision each year like an iPad?

 

2) I know it’s designed to run the steam library but why don’t they release it with a new half life exclusive so everyone buys one? Software exclusives sell systems and there’s going to be nothing on steam deck you couldn’t play on another device (albeit portable). This is a pretty redundant question but you don’t really see games consoles (and it’s a games console really) release without some form of exclusive.

 

3) How portable is it? You have to sign in to play each time, I imagine so what happens with no WiFi or when you want to play it at the skate park like those cool American kids in the switch adverts (or on a train stuck in the middle of nowhere in the UK)

 

[Strafe]

19 minutes ago, S0L said:

Especially now I've finished Densha De Go on Switch. 

Is that any good?

[S0L]

10 minutes ago, Strafe said:

Is that any good?

  

I really enjoyed it, completed the Drivers Journey mode to the tune of about 32 hours playtime. It's all in Japanese though, not hard to work out though some of the scoring took a while to sink in.

 

I have it on PS4 too, but got it on Switch as again, sat with my feet up on a comfy sofa is my preferred way to play things these days. Hence the interest in the Steam Deck. Don't want to sit at a desk to play PC games, I spend enough time at a desk for work!

[Strafe]

2 minutes ago, S0L said:

  

I really enjoyed it, completed the Drivers Journey mode to the tune of about 32 hours playtime. It's all in Japanese though, not hard to work out though some of the scoring took a while to sink in.

 

I have it on PS4 too, but got it on Switch as again, sat with my feet up on a comfy sofa is my preferred way to play things these days. Hence the interest in the Steam Deck. Don't want to sit at a desk to play PC games, I spend enough time at a desk for work!

I’m tempted, I had the first PSP one years ago and found it very relaxing. I remember playing it on the tube into work and people looking at me like I was mildly insane considering I was already on a train.

 

Might see if I can hunt down a copy (or let me know if you’re looking to sell yours on!)

[Uzi]

This looks amazing and I'm 100 percent in for the 256GB version - the smart thing would be to allow the SD card slot to store games but move them over to the NVME ssd when you want to actively play it - so you could download a tonne and swap over between a set of games.

 

Couple of points

 

1: This will be THE indie/historical game machine. No need to wait for a Switch port for things - no need to be chained to nintendo software pricing - and with things like humble bundle etc - getting a large and varied indie game library is insanely cheap. No need to ever double dip again for a game on PC/Switch unless Nintendo first party obvs

 

2: For any power concerns - this is close to 2TF which doesn't sound like much (its more powerful than a base PS4) but here is the kicker. At 720p and with the more modern architecture (Zen 2 CPU with 8 threads - RDNA2 for graphics) - this is more like a portable Xbox Series S in terms of gameplay experience with similar fidelity on that screen with more flexibility with graphics options. That is fucking nuts. For triple AAA high end games would still use my desktop PC and PS5 etc but those maybe make up less than 5-10 percent of my steam library. The rest are less demanding games/indies or games from last gen and beyond. This would destroy all of those and run them maxed out at 60fps for the majority of games in my steam library for a good while to come - it won't suddenly be outdated in a year as older game requirements don't mature but RDNA2 features like FSR should.

 

3: The open nature of it is great - I'm sure there will be custom OS or windows front end options for it as the community picks it up which should make it awesome for flexiblity.

 

I have like £110 steam credit too which sold it instantly - and when I buy it will have 1000 games ready to go out of the box! 

[SuperCapes]

What Uzi said. This thing is the nuts. 

[Uzi]

Has 16GB of ram too! 

 

 

And from this guessing it might be sold at a loss or at best at cost

 

 

[TehStu]

Replaceable battery?

[lewismistreated]

[monkeydog]

5 hours ago, Yiggy said:

Do they mean if you install windows on it?

Yes, they've said you can if you want to. It's just a PC.

[Uzi]

6 hours ago, bear said:

I'd take that with a pinch of salt. 

 

Looking at the specs it seems like it a touch less than half as powerful as an Xbox Series S, how does the Series S optimised version of Fallen Order run compared to the PC version?

That's the wrong way to look at it. The comparison would work if the xbox series s was used to output games at 720p - then yes its half the power. 

 

The Deck outputs at 16:10 version of 720p on a 7 inch screen

 

1200 x 800 = 960,000 pixels

 

But the Series S is used for 1080p-1440p on average I am guessing on a 40inch plus TV

 

Being generous and saying it was an exclusive 1080p console

 

1080p pixel count is  2,073,600 pixels 

 

So approx twice the required pixels to render the same game at the same fidelity. The resolution means it has a lot of power behind it - look at this 1050ti which is considered a fairly budget/lower end card on PC at 768p:

 

 

[Uzi]

Further to that point:

 

[Popo]

8 hours ago, Opinionated Ham Scarecrow said:

This thing looks immense. The hardware is particularly impressive given the size. It's like 17 switches taped together or something.

Yes but how many Gamecubes taped together is it?

[Uzi]

3 minutes ago, Popo said:

Yes but how many Gamecubes taped together is it?

Having run some quick maths - its about 200 gamecubes give or take

 

(not joking)

[Jamie John]

I just hope they've got enough chips to meet demand. Even if this is only really catering to 'core' gamers, Valve don't have the manufacturing resources of Sony or MS and it seems pretty popular already.

[Yiggy]

1 hour ago, monkeydog said:

Yes, they've said you can if you want to. It's just a PC.

Okay but surely that’s a fairly niche thing to do?
 

So ‘out the box’ is it clear if it will run every game in your steam library or is it selective? 

[Isaac]

4 minutes ago, Yiggy said:

Okay but surely that’s a fairly niche thing to do?
 

So ‘out the box’ is it clear if it will run every game in your steam library or is it selective? 

 

Proton currently runs 15146 games from Steam.

 

Chances are it's most of your Steam library.

[TomatoConvenienceStore]

7 hours ago, Stoppy2000 said:

'Getting up' is surely a prerequisite?

Wii U enters the chat

[monkeydog]

11 minutes ago, Yiggy said:

Okay but surely that’s a fairly niche thing to do?

 

The custom gaming PC market is pretty big.  Slapping a copy of Windows on is not going to be that big a deal for many Desk customers.

 

As Isaac says, the list of Proton compatible game is grow pretty big though.  Valve are also working with anticheat software vendors overcome those comparability issues too.

[Alex W.]

7 hours ago, Fry Crayola said:

 

The quote is "You can play Portal 2 for four hours on this thing. If you limit it to 30 FPS, you're going to be playing for 5-6 hours."

 

I'm taking the piss a bit, probably they're using Portal 2 because it was the most recent non-VR 3D game developed in-house, not because they want to do some shenanigans by providing a decade-old title as a performance reference.

 

You can do a lot at 800p, and the modern mobile chipsets are really surprisingly efficient. That £350 version looks like the bargain of the console generation, even with the cut-back flash storage.

[GamesGamesGames]

9 hours ago, ImmaculateClump said:

 

The 16:10 aspect ratio suddenly makes sense. More tate real estate

 

 

How would you play that, controlswise?