I’ve encountered a string of crashes, hardware slowdowns, and even game freezes that have temporarily bricked the device. That kind of experience has been common for me in the past year. When I did get it working, I found that all of its cutscenes were replaced with color bars.Įven a year later, you have to go into it knowing that the hardware itself is a constant work in progress. I simply couldn’t boot the game and wouldn’t be able to until I returned home and reconnected to Wi-Fi. I loaded the app and then … nothing happened. I had just downloaded Soundfall and was looking forward to firing it up. I still remember the first time I tried to travel with my Steam Deck, excitedly taking it on the subway for the first time. What I’m less enthused with, however, is how unpredictable the device can be even a year after launch. Those are the aspects that make the Steam Deck a truly special device, and I’m glad they’re present, even if I don’t use them much. There’s even a performance overlay that lets players see things like frame rate running in real time - a tool I use a lot when playing Vampire Survivors. Steam Deck offers much more flexibility at a system level, giving players the tools they need to boost performance, conserve battery, or anything they’re looking to customize. Something like the PlayStation 5 is a plug-nd-play affair - if a game runs poorly on it, there’s not much you can do to fix it. Few gaming consoles really give players the power to meaningfully fiddle with their hardware settings in the way a PC does. To be fair, that’s the appeal of the device for folks like Jacob. What I quickly learned in the past year is that the device is every bit as temperamental as my rig, if not more so. When the Steam Deck was first announced, I was excited about the possibility of a more streamlined PC gaming experience akin to a Nintendo Switch. I’d rather just load a game up and have it run on tech it’s optimized for.

I don’t have the most up-to-date parts, so getting a new release to function optimally can be a song and dance I just don’t want to deal with. But more importantly, I can’t stand the frustration that comes from tinkering with settings to get a game running right.

For one, I’d just rather sit on my couch and play something on my TV than sit at the same computer I use for work. I play plenty on my rig, but I try to avoid it as best as I can. While I’m taking the role of a console gamer in this argument, I’m not allergic to PC gaming. The most demanding PC games we’re looking forward to in 2023 With Valiant Hearts: Coming Home, Netflix finds its video game voice Fitbit Versa 3Ītomic Heart restored my fragmented faith in PC ports

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