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Steam

Just got mine in yesterday, and yeah, I'm impressed! Only fired up a couple of not terribly demanding games on it (finally, portable Space Mouse 2!), so I can't really comment on the horsepower yet, but it feels good to hold and play games on. Great ergonomics. Definitely less hand-crampy than holding a Switch. I also appreciate how the client gives you a heads up on how compatible a game is before you bother downloading (kind of a "yeah, I should fucking hope so" point to make, but it's always nice when a company actually takes care of its customers).

Gonna enjoy cramming a huge portion of my backlog on this thing!
 
A lot of things with the (!) or even the (/) will actually work, just might need some workarounds or customized controls.

Horsepower wise, the thing runs everything I've thrown at it at around medium settings at least, like Doom and Elden Ring. I've noticed a few volumetric effects not looking quite right, but almost everything run quite well so far. (OLED model)
 
You should definitely always looks at the detailed breakdown of why something is listed as "limited compatibility", because often it'll be something as simple/limited as "the text is a bit tiny", "you need a keyboard to enter your name at the start", or "the intro cutscene doesn't play".
 
So I'm not really looking to pick up another console right now, but I am curious...

I only have a small set of unplayed Steam games since I don't have a PC and don't really use Steam much at all. What I *do* have is an enormous backlog of untouched games from old Humble Bundles back in the day. I'm wondering what are the chances a bunch of those would be playable on it and what hoops I'd have to jump through to get them on there, given I don't have steam licenses for them... but I should be able to find my Humble login and download Win binaries, presumably.
 
The Deck is basically a handheld PC running a Steam shell on Linux (you can quit it to desktop, and install another OS if you want) with games running on Proton through it. So as long as you can download them onto it, anything that would work through Steam will probably work without. I have a number of things through Epic and GOG working on it, as well. It'll probably be easiest to manage if you get a dock for it and hook it up to a keyboard and monitor, since the software keyboard is a bit of a pain to type in passwords on and that kind of thing. But in terms of simply running the games, it should work.
 
Baldur's Gate 3 runs on Deck more smoothly than most games I've tried, though it guzzles battery.
 
Oh, neat! That led me to a demo of a game I hadn't heard of called Die in the Dungeon, which is kinda like Slay the Spire but with dice. The demo was fun and I'll probably pick it up when the full version is released!
 
store.steampowered.com

Save 15% on Tiny Glade on Steam

Tiny Glade is a small diorama builder where you doodle whimsical castles, cozy cottages & romantic ruins. Explore gridless building chemistry as the game adorns your glades with procedural detail. No management, combat or goals: just kick back and turn forgotten meadows into lovable dioramas.
store.steampowered.com store.steampowered.com
 
Tiny Glade’s really cool. Watched a friend play a steam limited time demo at one of the events (next fest?) and it’s an incredibly cool and chill building game. Highly recommend checking it out.
 
I saw this on Reddit. I thought it looked neat (but awfully familiar):
store.steampowered.com

Splintered on Steam

A unique RPG where the villain randomizes the world with each defeat. Start with a classic RPG experience, then delve into shifting worlds where the overworld, items, and enemies shuffle, creating new challenges. Conquer these worlds to unravel the story and make your way to the final showdown!
store.steampowered.com store.steampowered.com
 
Played several demo. Still has some more to look at if I get a chance to play them before they get locked out.

Good

Ys X
Citizen Sleeper 2
Not much to say here, both are looking good, but you probably already know if you're interested in either.

Meh

Wish I liked survival horror more, because Sorry, We're Closed is stylin.

Technically not part of the Next Fest, but Metro Gravity is frustrating because Pseudoregalia plus Gravity Rush plus Hi Fi Rush sounds like a game made specifically for me, except the dev seems to want to cram in Souls-like hard combat, puzzles that require precise timing, and the rhythm skill requirements of a Math Rock drummer to play the game. Hopefully he has the good sense to rebalance it so more than a dozen people with the dev's very specific skill set can actually play it.

Disappointing
Flamefrit wasn't enjoyable enough for me to even make it to the Goemon Impact like segment if it was in the demo even.

Metal Bringer would not install correctly on Steam deck, so boo!

Rift of the Necrodancer has a little too much going on in its base rhythm mechanics I think. I mean there are three separate tutorial levels over all of it.

Somber Echoes: I complain about Hollow Knight likes a lot for being over saturated, but honorable mention in the shitty Metroidvania trends to the Grime-like parry fest souls-vanias that simultaneously push the hardware so hard the Steamdeck struggles to run them but while not looking half as good as Metroid Dread.

Usual June seemingly soft locked on me, un-soft locked itself, only finally hard lock my Steamdeck requiring a reboot before I got to anything interesting gameplay wise. A shame, because it looks neat.
 
Becksworth said:
Usual June seemingly soft locked on me, un-soft locked itself, only finally hard lock my Steamdeck requiring a reboot before I got to anything interesting gameplay wise. A shame, because it looks neat.
Click to expand...
Oh that's a bummer. I didn't realize Usual June had a demo but I've had it on my wishlist for a while.
 
I think Citizen Sleeper 2 is the only things I'm really excited for from the various Next Fest things I've tried out, which is unusual, I usually come out of these with a lot of new things on my list.

I tried the Ale Abbey demo today. Interface could use a little more clarity/polish but it's cute and fun. Bonus points for having both nuns and monks!

Also tried Usual June and while it didn't crash that's definitely a game I want to play on a console not a PC. Maybe there will be a Switch or Xbox demo I can try later.

Bahamut and the Waqwaq Tree just didn't feel good to control and had some performance issues for me.

Stand Alone is another "meh" one for me, but I'm not super into the sidescrolling hack and slash games.

Pixel Cafe looks like a nice little bar/kitchen management game. The art wasn't really clicking for me though.

Shanghai Summer looked really interesting but the sounds in the intro were extremely agitating to me. A couple other sounds further in were grating.
 
Is there going to be a Halloween sale on Steam soon? I haven’t been on the service much until recently, so I don’t know if terrifying savings are a yearly occurrence. I just finished Crow Country, which has gotten me in a mood for sort of creepy games.
 
Castlevania Dominus Collection is on sale, anyway, but I'm not sure if they're planning anything organized.
 
Steam families is here and oh my gosh it just... works. No adding and removing individual computers like we had to with the family library, no computer randomly deciding it doesn't want to share randomly, all three computers are just working. All it took was one invite and boom. The 1-year cooldown on rejoining/filling a family slot is interesting though, but I think that's a reasonable way to keep people from randomly hopping around just to play other people's games.

Yes it's only been 48 hours so there hasn't been that much time for things to fail but for now I'm happy!
 
For the second time, my Steam Deck can’t launch any of my games. The first I just had to restart the system for it to work. This time that hasn’t fixed the problem. Is it broken or is this just how Steam stuff is?
 
Controllers are an utter and complete nightmare on a modern windows PC and seem controller support seems to be a big part of it.
 
How so? I feel like windows PC controller support is better now than it's been any other time this century.
 
I downloaded Final Fantasy VII Rebirth today, and played the original Remake on my Steam Deck too - and the "bonus" section that has a couple bonus materia isn't detecting my save. Do I have to redownload the nearly 100 gig Remake for Rebirth to detect my save, or is there some workaround you folks who are more familiar with PCs/Steam Deck know about?
 
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