On the one hand, no DRM and competition pushes me towards GOG. On the other hand, my Steam Deck pushes me to Steam. Yes, Heroic Launcher is amazing for Linux gaming, but I’ve encountered a few games that didn’t behave right. Dragon Age: Origin is the biggest offender with the DLC just not activating out of the box on GOG.

What’s the difference from Chromium? Main “selling” point?

Let’s not forget to mention the Steam Deck’s low price for pretty great PC gaming. Even more so for the refurbished entry models which are nearly the same price as the last GPU I recommended to someone (secondhand 6700 XT). I’ve been surprised how good of an experience I’ve had with Baldur’s Gate 3 on the Deck.

I never actually grew up with an N64 so I didn’t play Golden Eye as a kid. I did have a GameCube and Timesplitters 2 which was loads of fun.

I truthfully emulated ToTK on my main rig, then streamed it to my Deck with Moonlight. At the time (launch week) I had a bit of issue emulating it on Deck to my liking, but I know at this point it’s not bad around 20-30. I played a lot of Street Fighter 6 on my Deck, with only World Tour mode running at 30, everything else is 60. I’m also working my way through Transistor, picking short indies to hammer out one at a time. Pretty much everything I want to run on the Deck will run, with the exception of Xbox 360 games, but I’m still able to run the unreleased Goldeneye 007 XBLA remaster without issue.

If you’d like to play Nintendo games without emulation whatsoever. Tracking down a Switch that is easy enough to hack, and dumping all your games and saves can be a big ask for your average Switch/Deck fan. I only use my Switch to dump new releases I buy to play on either my Steam Deck or main rig. I beat ToTK fully through emulation, though that was on my main rig. I also could absolutely not live without the massive backlog that is the Steam library.

“We have too because it’s just SO expensive to make video games and we’re just struggling companies.” Nintendo said while lighting a cigar with another $100 bill.

While I will always mention how much I love my Steam Deck, I will say having a console you can buy physical discs secondhand is quite nice. Sure the PS5 is a lot of power just to run something like Bugsnax, but I can’t buy a physical copy for my Steam Deck, which I know I really own.

You could even go into a retro game store and see what you walk away with, games you never heard of or just a stack of cheap former AAA games. You could also go on Itch.io and just poke around for any obscure indie that sparks your interest. Once you get away from the glitz and glamour of AAA hype, you’ll get excited about sharing games people haven’t heard about or discovering something you wouldn’t find walking into a GameStop.

Every new YouTube headline makes me feel better about hopping on the early bird pricing of Google Play Music.

The SD card speeds are great. The only thing you need to keep in mind is when you’re doing something that requires managing file paths and isn’t designed specifically for the Steam Deck. I ran into some headaches figuring out how to install the Vortex Mod Manager and get it fully functional for modding Skyrim on my Steam Deck’s SD card. I’m sure things have improved since then, but for people new to Linux it can be a slight hurdle if they choose to go outside the scope of typical Deck stuff.

I do currently have a Switch hooked up, but I’m thinking of removing the dock since my partner exclusively plays it handheld and since getting my Steam Deck, I haven’t touched the Switch except to dump games I pick up to emulate elsewhere. I played all of Tears of the Kingdom emulated, though that had to be played on my main rig since the Steam Deck would dip under 30fps too much for my taste.

Since the Steam Deck is a PC and a console, I think there’s definitely an argument to call a PC is a console, so long as it’s designed like one. If not the Steam Deck, then a small form factor PC running something like ChimeraOS. Windows is just too cumbersome to use anywhere other than sitting at a desk, and even then I hate it so much.

I did try building a HTPC in the past, but it was just a headache to maintain. If didn’t use it for a few days, I found I was inundated by a bevy of updates. Kodi is a pretty powerful home theater software, but definitely not as simple as launching a Netflix app. My partner also had no idea how to operate it. Personally I prefer Moonlight streaming from my PC in my office. Once I get an ethernet port installed in the living room, it’ll have great picture quality and latency. Your build does sound pretty cool though.

Did you know you could make a dock to hook up the Vita to a TV? I tried it and it’s pretty impressive. Really shows you what life would be like in an alternate timeline where Sony actually knew how to market the Vita.

I’m happy to see Sony bring PS3 games to PS5, though it’s not how I would’ve wanted. You’ll have some of Sony’s best PS3 games for sure, but for those games like Folklore you’ll need a PS3 (or Steam Deck, I haven’t tried emulating my copy yet). I also don’t like paying a subscription service to play the games that are already sitting on my shelf, but I’m the minority here as a lot of people I talk to like NSO and PS+.

I have hear not great things about the ROG Ally and its support from Asus. From my experience, the Steam Deck truly is the most pick up and play solution for PC gaming. Add in the best input options of any console (people complain about the trackpads making the Deck too big, but those people clearly haven’t used them) and I think it beats out a gaming laptop as a gaming device. If you’re proficient at minor disassembly and formatting an internal drive, you can pick up the base Steam Deck for $399 and then buy a 1TB-2TB drive for less than what the 512GB model would cost. Alternatively you can buy a 1TB if you don’t want to open the device up.

Me personally, my go-to console at this point is the Steam Deck for its sheer versatility. I’ve got a dock with an 8Bitdo Ultimate Pro connected so it’s more or less plug and play. Since building my first PC in high school, I have a huge Steam library. EmuDeck is also amazing so with the exception of a Series X somehow running emulators, the Steam Deck is the best console for emulation.

I’ve had an Xbox One S as my 4K blu-ray player and have been digging the backwards compatibility, though there’s not enough OG Xbox support. I’m more than likely going to mod an OG Xbox with the Stellar chip/HD mod. I’ve considered a Series X, but unless it can replace my Nvidia Shield TV as an entertainment box, I’ll probably stick to my Onse S. I’ve also considered a PS5, but their games are coming to PC, albeit delayed, so I don’t really feel the need to pick one up.

The PS3 is a special beast as those games are seemingly trapped on the console unless ported (RIP Beenox Spider-Man games). When modded you have the ability to software emulate PS2 games (not as good at the launch PS3 but those things won’t last), but for me my TV still has a component connection so my cheat is having a PS2.

Nintendo has one of the most beloved library of games, but the Switch does not support much of said library unfortunately. The Wii U on the other hand had better compatibility especially if you modded in GameCube support which runs natively on the console.

I’ve also been using the app for user and got grandfathered into a lifetime membership, although I think it’s been inserting ads in my podcasts. I only say that because I have a VPN on my phone and suddenly my phone will play a Swedish ad I can’t understand.

I really need to get on Matrix, but I haven’t put the time to learn it.