Same. Indie games and emulators is what I’ve been putting a lot of my time into. I’ve learned that “AAA” studios are a lot like their alkaline counterparts - basically obsolete.

Valheim I agree. I did get a ton of enjoyment out of it on release, so it’s not really a matter of disappointment in the sense of fun per dollar, just disappointment in the glacial pace of updates. My feeling is that the Devs got their bag, then decided to just coast. It makes me wonder that if it didn’t explode in sales at the start, would they have put more effort into updates or would they have just given up. Guess we’ll never truly know

Yeah… I don’t have high hopes for TESVI. After FO76 and Starfield, they’ve got a lot of trust to win back. I expect it to be the following;

• Slow rise in hype after 2025
• Sharp rise in hype within year of release
• Honeymoon phase for first 5 days after release, criticism drowned out by fan boys
• Collective realization the game is shit with only the most delusional still protecting/coping

That’s basically what happened with Starfield, and unless they prove otherwise, it’s what I expect for TESVI

It’s interesting because I swear I buzzed by an article the other day with some eye roll complaint about there being too many games, and that’s why it was hard for games to sell.

There are a lot of games, but it means that people want to engage with games that are actually fun and aren’t soulless cash grabs or half baked early access with no real value or fun.

It’s just the basic “quality versus quantity” principle. Instead of shoveling out crap like Rise of Kong, Gollum, The Day Before, etc etc, just focus your efforts on a single good game. The only recent exception to this rule I guess would be Starfield, but that’s for Bethesda to figure out on how to salvage.

Bought the 512gb LCD via preorder, got a 2tb for it, upgraded/skinned it with personalizations, then got the LE OLED when it went live.

For me, personally, I thought it was well worth it. However I use it daily. I have a fully functional rig with 3080, but just find myself constantly tinkering with my deck and like being able to take it on work trips constantly with minimal impact to my carry on weight. Beyond the screen, the battery life is the real winner here in combination with the enhancements. But I also had the money to spend on it. If you’re tight for cash, then it’s probably best to wait. Or you could try selling to offset cost. Just really depends on what you want to do for extra battery life and the like.

It’s a subtle difference, but one has trackpads and analog sticks, while the other has analog sticks and trackpads.

I never had the issue you had, I just followed the read me for installation;

https://github.com/ryanrudolfoba/SteamDeck-Clover-dualboot

So I did not remove the old one, although I’m sure it’s probably best practice to remove it. But in my case, having it still lingering in the background hasn’t negatively affected anything to my immediate knowledge.

Considering there are still LE editions readily available, I’d say it was far from useless. In fact got my LE edition order put in day of launch two hours after release, and received it yesterday.

Yeah I had the exact same thought - “huh, transparent case and charging led” - but I hear they’re going to come out with an update to adjust the intensity of it, so that may help that.

I also upgraded from OG 512 - personally love the OLED so far. Screen is really nice, battery life will be great to have on my business trips, and the clickiness of the Steam and … buttons is a definite improvement. Do you need any of these things? No… but they are really nice things.

So I wanted to follow up on this with what I did, and think I found the solution. This way if someone like me trawls the internet looking for something that is the same problem, they might have resolution.

Basically I isolated the problem to podman. What it looks like is I had an existing podman directory pre-3.5.1 update and it had issues with distrobox. So what I did;

Went to .local\podman - deleted the contents of that folder.

Then followed the emudeck distrobox guide to reinstall podman to .local\bin\

Made sure to rename the podman launcher to simply “podman”.

I also edited the .bashrc in home\deck which looks like it had leftovers from the previous podman to have the following (per guide)

#Uncomment the xhost line below if you know that you are using xhost #xhost +si:localuser:$USER export PATH=$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH

I only re-installed podman, and left distrobox alone. You may also have to use the following commands, as I did;

sudo touch /etc/subuid /etc/subgid

sudo usermod --add-subuid 100000-165535 --add-subgid 100000-165535 $USER

For reference, this is the guide - https://emudeck.github.io/community-creations/steamos/third-party-emulation/?h=distrobox#how-to-set-up-distrobox

Hope this helps some stranger out there figure things out

No - strictly because I gutted windows update via a Windows Lite tutorial. Basically it’s an evergreen Windows OS that I’m using, so I never have to worry about Windows messing the boot. SteamOS will sometimes bork it, but I use Clover as my dual boot solution and it’s fairly easy to recover.

The trouble with a stock Windows OS is the frequent updates, to the point of your question. I do believe there are ways to mitigate it, but does require a bit of prep and being aware of windows And its updates.

I have 0 regrets upgrading to 2tb. I now have a dual boot setup with windows taking 1tb and SteamOS taking the other 1tb, and then a 1tb SD card for the SteamOS side. Makes life sooooooo much easier, no longer having to play musical games for what I want on my deck. Can have a modded FO new Vegas list, modded morrowind list, and another couple dozen games with space to spare (ranging from Cyberpunk to terraria). And on the windows side, plenty of room there to play with my different server emulators, VMs and the like. It’s truly ideal and will give you substantially more freedom.

I would say wait for a sale, but easy for me to say since I already have my deck since over a year ago. If you’re strapped for cash or just working within a budget for the year, then yeah you can easily save at least 50 or more bucks on one. If money isn’t really an object and you got upcoming travel plans where you can capitalize on the steam deck’s mobility, then it’s worth it at current price too. I have easily spent over a grand on the steam deck from the actual unit (512 version at 650), 2tb SSD, 1tb SD card, case, dock, skins, back pad accessories, 1tb usb flash drive with usb c/usb a, etc.

So all to say, if you like tinkering/making it your own, and are trying not to blow out your budget entirely, may be worth to save. I am glad I got the anti glare screen as I’m still not up for replacing the screen myself, but if the lowest model had the same screen, would have gotten that one and just swapped the SSD.

This was one of those products that, when it was announced, I thought to myself “meh, I have no need for this.” But through the urging of friends, I pre ordered it back in July of 21, because hey, it was only 5 bucks to deposit and I could cancel.

Then as they started coming out, and I heard about everything they could do, I thought “well damn that’s pretty cool.” And then my own hype grew until I managed to get it, I believe August of last year. By far the most fun I’ve had with a device in quite some time.

Exactly, and being accessible via Amazon is nice. I got my 2tb via Ali Express back in January, but didn’t actually receive it til mid February due to Chinese new year. Was well worth the wait and effort though. Having it via Amazon makes it so the wait isn’t as painful.

It is a bit of a project, as you’ll have not only the physical installation, but the OS installation too. So I’d recommend a nice 2-3 hour time window for those considering it and maybe doing some pre-work before getting it, such as getting a USB with the SteamOS recovery available, make sure you have an adapter to fit it (if it’s a usb a stick) and backing up any games to another media device for a more seamless transition.

Of the modding, I’ve only done the SSD upgrade and software portions. Could not recommend upgrading the SSD more, it is such a nice QOL change since you no longer have to play musical games nearly as much, and still maintain the advantages of the read/write. I have a 1tb SD card as well. Between those two, I have as much storage as I would reasonably want in a portable device. Especially as newer titles suck out 100gb a pop, having the ability to play a handful or more of them without sacrificing others is really nice.

On the software side, EmuDeck or retrodeck, decky loader and a dual boot into windows is also super nice.

I recommend getting the back paddle rubber bumpers that you can stick on. I believe it’s play vital on Amazon that sells them for 10-12 bucks. Totally worth it, I have the bigger bumper ones on and it’s a noticeable ergonomic difference.

I had a similar issue with my Apple TV and projector. I switched the HDMI cord, and haven’t had the noise since (that I can recall). Try that route first if you have another HDMI cord. If that doesn’t solve it, then not sure honestly.

Agreed. I’d prefer the lower red and higher battery life. I looked into the “DeckHD” screen, but the biggest buzzkill with that was the custom BIOS flash that you had to do. To your point though, the higher resolution would come at cost to battery life too.

What I want is a screen, same resolution, but increased sRGB coverage, everything the same beyond that.

I’ve said it before, but what makes the Deck unique is the holistic experience it brings. Like a really good chili, it’s a culmination of all the ingredients, particularly the below;

• SteamOS out of the box
• Steam Input in combination with the extensive inputs on the Deck itself
• The ability to easily change core hardware settings via the options menu to influence performance or battery life
• The extensive third party support via software and peripherals (cases, skins, accessories)
• Price point
• Well documented upgradability (SSD replacement, thumbsticks, etc)

I’m all for better screens and hardware, but they always come at a cost to battery life. Not that the Deck has a huge battery life to begin with, but the reason it is passable is due in large part to the hardware it comes with.

The Ally may be beefier spec wise, but at detriment to battery life. Not to mention the Windows OS and lack of inputs (both trackpads and two extra back buttons).

The Legion Go at least accounts for the input selection and has a unique controller setup, but I’m curious to see the battery life to performance ratio. Again, Windows will still be a detriment overall.

Really what it comes down to in the handheld space is finding something that has no compromises from the Steam Deck and an overall increase to performance without affecting battery life so negatively that it becomes a glorified docked laptop.

If I never got a Deck to start, I may have jumped to the Legion Go on account of not having realized what SteamOS brings to the table, and being enticed the beefier specs and control scheme.

However - after having a dual boot setup on the Deck with both SteamOS and Windows, I find myself more and more trying to get games working on the SteamOS side versus the Windows side. This is due to the overall “streamlined” experience of just booting up Game Mode, selecting a game and going off to the races.

Conversely, when I’m on Windows, I can get games operational and semi streamlined via playnite and Glosi, but it still feels clunkier and more obtuse. I pretty much only use Windows for games that I have a single player server running on for some emulated MMOs and that’s about it. If I could get the servers running properly on SteamOS, I’d make the switch in a heartbeat. It’s just trying to find a way to get them running on it with the associated databases/libraries that won’t get it wiped upon update to newer versions.