Valves Steam Deck Hand Held gaming PC. Plays actual PC games? I wonder....

[Twilight Hue]

I meant no Steam Deck exclusives. But there are always exclusives when it comes to the general PC platform vs. consoles.

For me I just want PC games that consoles refuse to support.

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

I've heard they also have plans for a dock for the handheld that will dock it to compatible display devices, but that the dock will be sold separately. It could also be sold at a later date.

 

[Father Heathen]

And I wanted to repeat, there will probably be no exclusives for this device. I can't guarantee there won't, but it doesn't make sense given the economic model.

PC games with no console ports would be "exclusive".

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

PC games with no console ports would be "exclusive".

Yes. I corrected myself above.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I like steams controllers. They don't have those dead zones and drift that you get with those joy sticks that wear out so as to make you buy a new one and repeat it over and over while they call you a suckered consumer.

They make some good hardware upgrades for controllers to have better precision and longevity.

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

Thinking it over, I'm going to take a more "wait and see" approach to this device, something touched on by @Twilight Hue - even if it becomes a hot item and doing so costs me an extra $100-$150.

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

My main concerns are simply build quality and screen quality. Especially screen quality as they are packing a lot of hardware into a low price.

 

[Brickjectivity]

For me, as an armchair general who lives for strategy/tactical games, my question is does it play or stream real PC exclusive games like Arma?

So what do you think of valves 'PC' game system?

I had a similar issue. I have a low spec system -- barely runs anything. The Steam does not help with this when I look for games, even though it knows what my system specs are. I cannot filter the games based upon their system specs.

What I have found is that there are curators who specialize in low end systems and only test low end system games, so they are a good indication for me.

Maybe what you can do is to find a curator who specializes in Steam Deck and find what games they review and message them about it?

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

I've been doing some more research. The screen seems okay. Its IPS with a greater brightness rating than a Switch screen (400 nits brightness vs. 318), and the 512GB version is anti-glare.

Also, as this article states:

Steam Deck price, specs, release date, and everything we know about Valve's new handheld gaming device | PC Gamer

The 512GB version has an extremely fast storage drive - among the finest - at around 3000MB/sec. Why this matters is that console games are moving toward utilizing faster storage, and if those console games get ported over some day, they may need something a bit faster in regards to storage.

So I can say I'm a little impressed, but only really with the 512GB version. I still worry a little about whether Ryzen 3400G-level performance and a maximum 1280x800 resolution will be enough for me, though.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I've heard they also have plans for a dock for the handheld that will dock it to compatible display devices, but that the dock will be sold separately. It could also be sold at a later date.

It's universal. You can just use any compatable dock which is a plus.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I had a similar issue. I have a low spec system -- barely runs anything. The Steam does not help with this when I look for games, even though it knows what my system specs are. I cannot filter the games based upon their system specs.

What I have found is that there are curators who specialize in low end systems and only test low end system games, so they are a good indication for me.

Maybe what you can do is to find a curator who specializes in Steam Deck and find what games they review and message them about it?

It's one of the reasons I'm waiting. I want to see what available steam games the hardware can handle. There's no point in buying it if there are no PC games that interest me or fit my preferred genre.

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

Gabe wants other PC makers to create their own Steam Decks | PC Gamer

 

[lewisnotmiller]

I had a similar issue. I have a low spec system -- barely runs anything. The Steam does not help with this when I look for games, even though it knows what my system specs are. I cannot filter the games based upon their system specs.

Yeah, I find this frustrating. I was using various methods for trying to judge games, and work out if my pretty decent but old non-gamer laptop can play them. (first-gen XPS13)

Then I realised that some of the games I actually DO play on that laptop supposedly 'wouldn't work'.
Agh.

 

[lewisnotmiller]

I'm certainly intrigued but there are major red flags here as a system playing PC games.

First, almost all the talk is only about hardware specs and little or nothing on the compatible games themselves.

So far, every game that has been illustrated and demonstrated are already available as console games. Not any true PC games anywhere that I can tell.

It seem they are very reluctant to even show a list of any true PC games that are not available on console that steam deck can play, which is a huge red flag for me that this is not actually a true portable PC platform capable of playing PC games. They just only say it is, without ever showing any actual PC game list that excludes console titles.

At this point, I think they are lying to people and don't want to admit it's just another handheld for already existing console libraries that just happen to be on Steam.

For me, as an armchair general who lives for strategy/tactical games, my question is does it play or stream real PC exclusive games like Arma?

Hearts of Iron?

Company of Hero's?

Homeworld?

Kenshi?

U Boat?

Carrier Command 2?

World in Conflict?

Foxhole?

Rim world?

Theater of War?

Combat Mission?

Mount and Blade 2?

Total War?

...among the so many thousands and thousands of actual true PC titles that are never ever going to be found on consoles, and its pathetically limited selections of games reserved for 12 year olds who can do nothing but bunny hop and go pew pew pew?

Sorry, watching "Worth a Buy" too much. *grin*

So what do you think of valves 'PC' game system?

Do you think it's a true PC handheld for PC exclusive games, or just a gimmicky title of PC being touted and used for the same old pathetic and limited library found on every console store for Xbox, Playstation, and Switch but in this case on Steam?

I want it, but definitely not if it's just another gimmicky over hyped boring console system with a severely limited and restricted library to boot that I can get on any console or my phone.

I want PC games, not dumbed down Console and phone shovelware.

Thoughts?

Heh. Whole post made me chuckle. I play console and PC, but I get what you mean.
Honestly, I'd just hold off on the whole thing in the short term. I have some spending cash set aside, and one of the things I was thinking of doing with it was getting an updated laptop (or, at least, a more gamer-appropriate one). But I'm finding it hard to work out what really gives me benefit when some of the games I play on laptop aren't necessarily high-end graphic games anyway (or at least don't suffer too much when reducing graphics).

 

[Twilight Hue]

Heh. Whole post made me chuckle. I play console and PC, but I get what you mean.
Honestly, I'd just hold off on the whole thing in the short term. I have some spending cash set aside, and one of the things I was thinking of doing with it was getting an updated laptop (or, at least, a more gamer-appropriate one). But I'm finding it hard to work out what really gives me benefit when some of the games I play on laptop aren't necessarily high-end graphic games anyway (or at least don't suffer too much when reducing graphics).

I'm not a big graphics whore. While it's nice when you do find good graphics, I'm more into game play and immersion.

My savings are either going to this or getting my desktop PC optimized.