this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2024
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Steam Deck

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I was wondering how much you are using your Steam Deck? And did the games you play on it change since you bought it?

I find that I used it a lot when I first got it, but my usage has gone down in the mean time. That's mostly because I play games that are not a great fit for the Steam Deck (strategy, building, etc.) and I prefer to play those on my PC.

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 2 months ago

almost every day for a year. my gaming pc often collects dust

[–] [email protected] 32 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I bought it rather than upgrading my gaming PC which I built back in 2016. So it's my primary gaming machine now. I use it every day.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That was my move as well. I did do some upgrades on my PC along the way, but the base was still from 2009 (and I must say, it functioned surprisingly well). But a couple of months back I upgraded my PC as well. But the decline in play time on the Steam Deck was started before the upgrade.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Yeah, during work breaks or when chilling in the living room with my wife while she does her hobby stuff.

It's not my main machine by any stretch of the imagination but it does see regular use.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago

I exclusively use it. For most games it works great, for some games it doesn’t, but that’s fine for me.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 months ago

If you've got kids and a partner, you can't go sit at your computer or take over the living room TV...

So, yeah, I use my Deck all the time. I take it with me on work and road trips but I'm always driving or working so it honestly gets most of it's use on the couch. Six feet from the much more powerful gaming PC and six feet from the living room media PC that can also play games. Hundreds of dollars of GPU in one room and hundreds of hours using the Deck instead.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I do not game as much as I used to a decade ago and my gaming laptop had been dead for a while. The deck helps me casually pick up gaming every now and then. I am more interested in single player games now.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Count me in that group. Mostly single player games that I can pause at a moments notice when my wife wants something. 🤣🤣

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago (2 children)

My steam deck is my gaming device.

I play all kinds of games on it including strategy games like Beyond All Reason. With gyro it works totally fine.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You can play BAR on the steam deck!? That's awesome! But how are the controls? Playing without keyboard/mouse?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

gyroscope input to supplement joystick controls, see my comment here

https://sopuli.xyz/comment/9301831

local copy of ^ commentBAR is already so brilliantly designed with every single damn command in the game being able to be shift clicked to make it into a series of tasks for a unit or factory… that you don’t honestly need to do much. It is basically just:

What button do you want shift (as well as ctrl and alt and to a lesser extent spacebar) to be bound too? This should be comfortable and easy to press as shift clicking is at the core of BAR and TA. The back buttons L5 L4 R4 R5 are good for these controls

What button do you want gyroscope to be toggled on and off by? You don’t have to use gyro but I really recommend giving it a thorough go, if you hold your device comfortably than it will be still and thus you can just focus on the joysticks or trackpad and let your subconscious brain begin integrating gyro. Personally I always leave gyro on when playing and just use the toggle to turn it off for navigating menus

What buttons do you want zoom in and zoom out to be bound too? I recommend to bind zoom in and zoom out to the bumpers on the deck, the normal WASD and mouse template for the Steam Deck comes with this binding as the default if I remember correctly. Using a radically new control scheme can feel claustrophobic or constricting, having intuitive buttons for zooming in and out is critical to combating that in my experience Common All You Need For A Minimal Setup Ctrl, Shift, Alt and SpaceBar commands, Screenshots and Manual Links included!

Now, you can go so much farther than that obviously. For example I found a great BAR control scheme that looked like someone put a lot of care and time into it called “BAR perfecto” but it didn’t fit my conception of how I wanted things so I just started from the factory default WASD and Mouse template.

I hesitate to build up this crazy complicated control scheme and then recommend it though, because most potential fans I can poke and prod enough to try BAR on the deck probably feel the same as you. So honestly at this point I would rather point out that just starting with the default WASD and Mouse control template and making those three choices/keybindings will get you to a point where you can genuinely play BAR and feel like the control scheme can actually work and feel good after a bit of adjustment time. From there you can add as much complexity and power as you want.

If you get frustrated or overwhelmed, take a deep breath and remember people have been figuring out how to make RTS games work well with a mouse and keyboard for decades, if it doesn’t click immediately that isn’t because mouse and keyboard is just better end of story.

touchpad + gyro works too!

I play against the Barbarian hard AI and can hold my own fine, I dont expect to crush Total Annihilation vets using $2000 gaming computer setups with mouse and keyboard, big monitors and absurd framerates tho.... but so what?

I am enjoying playing BAR co-op online with my bro while I lounge on the couch.

The BARbarian AI is genuinely dynamic and fun to play against, it is extremely impressive especially for a community developed game!

I feel like I could hold my own in a casual game of BAR against humans but even if I couldnt I could care less, I can play BAR wherever I want on the deck and it is a blast!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Wut?!? How was installing BAR? Been wanting to try it but haven't had the time.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

step 1: switch deck to desktop mode

step 2: open up Discover (flathub preinstalled package manager) and search for Beyond All Reason, click install

step 3: if you want to be able to play it in gaming mode navigate to the app in your start menu in desktop mode and then rightclick "add to steam"

step 4: play BAR!

https://flathub.org/apps/info.beyondallreason.bar

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Wow had no idea it was that easy. Thank you!!

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago

My time and ability to game has led me to almost exclusively play on my steam deck, and I now game a lot more than I've gotten to in a decade.

For the past couple of years (I upgraded to the OLED) I've pretty much only purchased/played games that will play well on the SD.

I like many games that are really only suited to a bigger screen or mouse/keyboard, but not enough to get any of them, because I know I won't be able to play them consistently enough to even remember what was going on since I'd played last.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Got the original not long after launch. Upgraded to OLED right around when it launched. I have some times when I don't play it, but not often. Recently I have even been playing some RTS games since I got the controls working fairly effectively. Some of the fun for me with the Deck is customizing the controls to make a game work that otherwise wouldn't. The Steam controller settings are in my opinion probably the most important feature that makes this work so well.

Many games I used to play on my Playstation I am now instead playing them natively on Deck. It's comfortable. I love handheld.

The game I've played most overall is American Truck Simulator. Also Vampite Survivor, tons of Emulation Station, Metal Gear Solid master collecetion, and more recently Halo MCC, and Warhammer games like Dawn of War 1, Space Marine, and Inquisitor.

Apparently I played over 75 hours in May. PlayTime Decky plugin.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

I really wish they'd release a steam controller 2, now that they've learned a bit more, and now that people are embracing the control scheme.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Long COVID tied me to my bed. The Deck is the only gaming device I can comfortably use there.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago

my steam deck is my main daily device. I use it for most stuff. I own consoles, but its just so much easier to use the deck cause I can keep everything in one place.

steam, emulation, I even use it for youtube. docked to my TV.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Use it every day. Being able to suspend and resume so smoothly usually makes it preferable to my main PC even if both are available. There are only a couple games (mostly hard fps) that I prefer to play on the PC instead.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I use mine pretty often. I mostly play retro and indie games. It's an amazing piece of kit.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

Daily and by that 2-3 hours a day.

I bought it instead of that Portal for the PS5 so as to stream games from my PlayStation so the family could share the TV but I found I am now just buying games for it (the Deck) solely and not using the PS5 anymore.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

I use mine all the time when I'm on vacation or otherwise out of town, and every once in a while when I'm at home. I was able to play almost anything I wanted to so far, though I find games like Factorio a bit cumbersome without a mouse/keyboard setup. Bought the original 256gb deck on launch.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

Currently, no. But I also haven't opened a game on my PC in months, since that time sadly has to go towards my Master's thesis. But ever since I got the deck, I have heavily used it. It's easier to pick up and put down than the same game on PC, so I just do (did) more frequently.

[–] Eeyore_Syndrome 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Twice a week maybe three times in bed, when my hands hurt too much to play on normal controllers.

Or my body hurts too much to play at my desk/chair.

I hate my weak AF 38 year old Fibromyalgia body. 🥹

Best thing is, I just stream my PC > Deck so technically utilizing my beefy 7950x 7900xtx system.

WoW Classic Cataclysm is a dumpster fire....but at least I can enjoy it with ConsolePort. 🎮

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

I use it to game when I visit my mom but I don't use it at home. So it depends on how often I visit my mom :D

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

I just plugged it to my TV to remote play GoW on a big screen.

No other device can pull this off with 4k Stream, HDR, Surround Sound, full DualSense support and sub-1 frame (of 60) latency.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

I plug mine into a hub with hdmi and ethernet to use it for desktop gaming, and then use it as a handheld whenever I need to go on a trip. The performance is definitely... unusable in many games on the 1440p display I have it hooked up to, but I don't mind running games at a lower resolution or with FSR.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

I'm at a very "play for couples minutes when and where I have time" phase of life. So my gaming is almost 100% on my SteamDeck.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

I just have it hooked up to the dock and play it on my TV mostly like a portable itty bitty PC. I have an Xbox controller and a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse so I can play basically anything but fallout 4 since they thought it would be hilarious to remove menu prompts from that game when you use the deck on a TV. No idea why but yeah I can do most stuff with it so I do.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

I use mine a ton. I actually prefer it (or Switch) for 90% of games. I have a PS5 and gaming PC and I actually bought the PlayStation Portal because as it turned out, I just like the format more than playing on TV. (I know about Chiaki — the Portal is seamless so I can hand it to a kid without getting them set up first and it never really disconnects.)

I think in part, it’s just a function of age. I don’t necessarily have uninterrupted time for big, cinematic games that work best on TV. Half of them have a 2h intro before you can even play the game. So, I end up playing games like Hades where I can get a few runs in and stop if I’m interrupted.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

I don't have a room that would justify a desk. I use the SD daily and it's faster than my other options anyway.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I’m the same: I used it a ton when I first got it and now it’s collecting dust. Here are my personal issues with it:

  • I find it a little too big and bulky for 2D, retro, and lo fi games, but too low res and weak for a good experience on most larger/newer 3D games.
  • The controls and screen size/res are not adequate for most PC mkb oriented games.
  • The size, battery life, and low screen visibility in bright places make it not worth traveling with compared to my Switch.

I guess I essentially just wanted a Switch that could use my Steam library for 2D indies and older games.

Aside from that, I think I also kinda bought it to rejuvenate my interest in gaming, but it only did that for a few months. That has nothing to do with the Deck though.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Yeah, that last part about getting my gaming vibe going is something I recognize. I used to get a lot of joy out of gaming and could spend hours on it. Now it is feeling more and more like something I do just to pass time.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Almost every day, it's really helping get through the backlog I've built up over the years!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

I ended up with two. The OG which is now a media center more or less and the OLED which I use off and on depending on the game.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

I use it for "light" games (the 2D stuff, Balatro, Dicey Dungeons, Whisker Squadron Survivor) while sitting in bed. Honestly when I got it, I wasn't expecting to use it as much as I did.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (3 children)

A whole bunch. After watching Fallout on Prime, I was inspired to try the series again (started and stopped both FO:NV and 4 several times in the past). I've played through all of Fallout 3, NV, and their DLCs, and I'm currently in the Nuka World dlc in 4. They all run fabulous on the deck. I work from home, so the thought of gaming in the very same chair I've been in for 8 hrs is unappealing. But lounging on the couch with my deck is fantastic!

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Yes! I like to play on the bed so there's nothing better. I'm playing forever skies on pc because it freezed the steam deck when I tried to start it but any other game it's on the deck

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

I'm still somewhat new to the deck. It is a few months now and my usage went down, because it is not the shiny new toy anymore, but it secured a stable place in my game time. Also there are games which I play exclusively on the deck.

My switch on the other hand has suffered a lot because of that. Only MH rise gets me to still use it.

[–] NeryK 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It was setup as a desktop PC for my kid, (official dock, 1080p display, kb+m) for the last year and a half. Bit of an experiment on my part here, because I was curious to know if it was really viable.

The short answer is: yeah, kinda, but with big caveats.

The long answer is:

  • It's alright to watch youtube, browse the web and such.
  • It's perfectly fine for creative tools (GIMP, OpenShot, Libreoffice, etc).
  • It's unsuited for games kids actually want to play (no Fortnite, no more Roblox as of this year, no Valorant, etc).
  • It's surprisingly unreliable. We have had frequent issues (once every two weeks or so), with peripherals suddenly stopping to work for no apparent reason, or the system being slowed waaaay down. Turning it off and on again worked most of the time, but that is not something I expected from a Linux-based machine.
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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

I'm playing something every night before bed as my calm/reset time.

Just finished up Yakuza: Like A Dragon - that ending hits hard. I'll probably go for something different next.

I still use my gaming laptop - but mostly just for Last Epoch multiplayer/BG3. I don't like the controller experience for either game, and i have a better voice setup for multiplayer chat on my PC.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I use it almost every day, but it's really just a Balatro machine at this point. (Please help I have an addiction)

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Yes.

I don’t have a desktop pc, so before I got my Steam Deck, I was using my laptop for pc gaming.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Got mine basically as soon as they released, and I still use it plenty. I have it set up to be usable as a controller for my PC, and it is by far my favorite controller to use. It's a dream come true for my controller to become its own console whenever I want.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

As often as I can

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Every evening for games that I can't be bothered to launch on my pc, the form factor is what makes me go back to it every time, so comfortable to play anywhere and not sit at my desk

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Every day, but different games than what I play on my desktop pc. Right now playing Hades on it.

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