Wow, about a month has flew buy since I last wrote about the Steam Deck. I had every intention of writing weekly but my wife and I were prepping for moving, which is always annoying and stressful. But, alas, I t’s all over now and we’re happily moved into our little bungalow. Anyway, you don’t care about that, you care about what I think of the Steam Deck and here it is—the Deck is still phenomenal!
In my week one review I ran into a boot loop issue that Valve was aware of and promptly fixed which is one of the best things about being a Steam Deck owner. Never in the history of me being a console gamer have I witnessed such a rapid update cycle packed with useful features. In the time since I last wrote my impression, Valve has launched features like a much more modern achievements page, a new quieter fan curve, and more. One of my favorite features I use daily is the ability to lock the screen at 40 Hz and cap the frame rate at 40 fps which results in silky smooth gameplay. This is great because jumping to 40fps from 30 is instantly noticeable whereas jumping from 40 to 60 isn’t a big enough deal to warrant the hit to battery for me. Oh, and just this past week a new update brought per game performance profiles that (a) launch automatically for each game you create one for and (b) back up to the cloud. This means I’m able to crank the TDP down for lighter games like Core Keeper, max all the settings out for Tales of Arise, or strike a balance between power savings and graphical fidelity for something like God of War locked at 40 fps with FSR enabled. I love that that level of flexibility and customization on a single device which consoles simply don’t offer and where PC’s aren’t nearly as portable.
I’ve been taking my Deck with me on my daily commute and really have enjoyed lounging on the couch or wherever I want to enjoy games for the first time like Persona 4 Golden or to dive back into games I never finished like Shin Megami Tensei III or Littlewood. Hell, being able to play a blockbuster titles like Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War, Tales of Arise, or The Witcher III in the palm of my hand without an immediately noticeable hit to graphics or performance has robbed me of my time playing games on Switch. To be blunt, I just don’t fire it up anymore. The next time I know for sure I’ll sink a lot of time into Nintendo’s little handheld/home console hybrid will be in late July when Xenoblade Chronicles 3 launches. Sure, the Switch is lighter and the OLED screen on my unit is obviously better than what Valve offers with the Steam Deck, but there’s a certain level of magic to what Valve has done. I’m playing a plethora of titles that aren’t available on consoles now or sometimes ever like Sun Valley and Core Keeper and it’s just fucking awesome.
I’m really looking forward to the time where I can build a killer gaming PC to compliment my Deck as an on the go device, but until then I’m more than happy to lug this Game Gear 2.0 around with me. Another thing that still surprises me, which isn’t immediately evident in videos, reviews, or photos of the device, is just how comfortable it is to hold. I thought for sure the button placement would feel awkward and that holding such a massive device would be tiring but the engineering team is on to something here. My hands don’t feel fatigue like they do when I’m playing on the crammed and absolutely non-ergonomic Switch. It naturally fits in my hands and the button placement feels good. All this to say, I’ve shifted from thinking of buying games on Switch or Xbox to adding them to my Steam wishlist instead. That should speak volumes from someone who has been a console gamer since the original Nintendo
