So, it happened again, Steam deck fanboys got in my face and got super defensive I criticized their favorite toy. And I got frustrated enough I decided to write a follow up article to my original article on the subject. Some of this will tread the same ground as my original article, but a lot of these kinds of fanboys will think I'm being dishonest somehow in my criticisms, so I want to focus on the specific critques I get.
My own perspective
The steam deck is a gaming PC. Or at least it tries to be. It's a handheld gaming PC. Being handheld, it has faults. The storage is small, the specs are relatively beefy for the size, but that comes with drawbacks like high cost and low battery life. It also has low storage. In addition, it doesnt use windows, it uses steam OS, a variation of linux, which has its own shortcomings, like a lack of compatibility with multiplayer games. The machine is impressive for what it does do, but I find it fundamentally flawed and subject to shortcomings that make me skeptical to buy it, especially given the high price tag. Quite frankly, I find the concept of handheld PCs to be interesting, but yeah they need more time to cook.
What critics sound like to me
You're full of crap and this sound like a lot of cope. I have a steam deck and I have no problems with it. I play primarily retro games and indie games on it and I dont experience the poor storage limitations, battery life, or compatibility issues. You'e full of crap.
My response:
No, I'm not full of crap, you can't handle a different opinion.
Discussing storage in more detail
The base steam deck, which is $400, has 256 GB storage. The OLED versions, which are $550-650 have 512 GB to 1 TB. Some people mod the things with even more storage, but this isnt recommended by valve and to my knowledge reduces its lifespan. You can get an SD card, but anything larger than 512 GB is expensive. 512 GB is $30-40. 1TB+ is closer to $80-100+. On top of the device. So we're talking spending tons of money to make the thing work. But say you get 256 GB and a 512 GB SD card. How much space do you really have?
As I see it, most games post 2012 are 50 GB or even more in recent games. Recent titles are probably closer to 100 GB. You can fit 7 100 GB titles on it, 15 50 GB titles, 30 25 GB titles, 75 or so 10 GB titles, 150 5 GB titles, 750 1 GB titles, etc.
Now. Let's discuss those sizes. if you play old 90s games, you're dealing with KBs or a few MBs. Maybe a few hundred MBs at most. Early 2000s games are in the 1-4 GB range. Late 2000s games are in the 5-10 GB range. Early 2010s games went into the 10+, up to maybe 20-30 for the truly massive ones. Shifting to gen 8 led to 50+ being common. Gen 9 is a bit larger than gen 8, but gen 8 was the real shift to high sized games.
So...if you wanna play old retro games, yeah, you can fit alot of them. If you wanna fit modern post 2012 titles on them, youre only gonna be able to dit a few. That's the reality. It's basic math, get over it.
Battery life
The same kind of scale exists with battery life. The Deck is fairly beefy for a handheld device. It has specs comparable to say, a 4770k and a GTX 960. So, PS2/Xbox one level graphics, with better CPU and more RAM. It's solid. it's a handheld gen 8 device. Think of it like a PS4 in your hand.
However, battery scales with usage. If you use the GPU and CPU 100%, like a demanding title will, you'll run games for about 1.5 hours, maybe 2 on the OLED. But but, they say, "I run old games and indie games and play for a lot longer." Yes, yes, you can. Because youre not stressing or pushing the device. At all. Youre underutilizing it by playing not demanding stuff that's either old or indie.
If you actually use the full capabilities of the device, which is...the point in buying such a device, it's gonna start running the battery down FAST. And as the battery ages, the dek will get worse, to the point that you wont be able to use it off of a charger in a few years. Just look at your 5 year old laptop, or for those of us who had the 90s equivalent of this, the game gear. As such, the device isn't that portable. Sorry, it's not.
Game compatibility
Being a linux based handheld, not all games run on it. I mean it has that WINE compatibility layer, I've seen that in practice back with my macbook friends back in my college days. It's hit and miss. You cant run ALL the games. A lot of multiplayer won't work due to anti cheat. Anything made for current gen consoles is gonna be borderline. Old games might not have been optimized for this OS and might have issues in the translation layer. It's an okay system, but if you prioritize multiplayer games, like have since around 2010ish, well, it's gonna have issues. Some games work, sone dont. Not enough that i wanna play does.
But but, this indie game works, this old title works. Okay cool. I'm not saying NOTHING works on it. I'm saying a good amount of stuff...doesn't. And I find that to be a dealbreaker.
Again, money is important to me. I can't spend tons of money for something that's hit and miss. Id rather go cheaper, get something with more limited expectations but those expectations are more up front, than deal with something that's so finnicky.
"But but, it works FOR ME!"
And this is the real problem I have with the steam deck fanboy crowd. They think that because I criticize their favorite device, I'm saying it cant play ANYTHING, as if I declared war on their hobby and way of life. No, the steam deck has interesting capabilities, what you get out of it depends on what you want to use it for and how it meets those expectations. If youre a glass half full guy with low expectations, it's cool. if youre a glass half empty guy like me who has higher expectations from such a device, it's a dealbreaker.
The fact that I point out its flaws doesnt mean I'm declaring war on YOU. It doesnt mean I'm putting YOU down. However, from my perspective, you probaly arent using the device to its full capabilities. if youre emulating super nintendo games like one guy i was arguing with, yeah, you can fit THOUSANDS of them on the thing and run them fine while getting acceptable battery life. If youre playing fallout 3, a 8 GB game from 2008, yeah it's fine. If you have 1-2 big games and tons of small games, yeah, you can fit 80 on your system. Just dont tell me youre fitting 80 games that are ~50 GB. The math just doesn't work. You would need 4 TB of storage for that. I do that on my gaming PC, but this thing is gonna realistically top out at like 768 GB for most entry level users. Sure, if you throw tons of money at an OLED and trip it out with a SSD, and then install the biggest SD card you can, you can get 3 TB as one user pointed out, but then you're also paying $900. Ya know? My handheld I spent $212 on with a $36 SD card. Sure, I cant play AAA PC games on it, but I have a dedicated desktop gaming PC for that. I dont need a steam deck.
Here's the reality from a PC gamer's perspective. Mobile PCs like handhelds and laptops arent worth it. You spend $400 just to get your foot in the door. It's barely enough to play anything, as game requirements increase it becomes more and more useless, the battery life aint great, its not that portable in practice due to size and that battery life. Storage is limited. It's just not...a good...machine for a dedicated PC gamer.
If you like it fine, I'm not crapping on you. I'm just pointing out that the thing does have drawbacks, it does have flaws, and it's not a perfect device.
"IT'S NOT FOR YOU!"
This is the next argument I hear against my position, claiming that the steam deck "isn't for me." yeah, no crap. But here's the problem. People who say this to me are saying it to try to shut me up and say I dont have a right to criticize the device, because other people with different use cases enjoy it. I'm sorry, but this is stupid. Just because you dont use the device in the same way I would, doesnt mean that the device is perfect. Likewise, just because i dont use it the way they do, doesnt mean that it's useless and no one can play anything on it ever. I never said anything like this, ever. I just say, when the topic comes up, that I find the idea interesting but the execution flawed. Just because YOU dont experience the flaws because you dont use the device to its limits where you encounter those flaws doesnt mean that those flaws don't exist. Seriously, these steam deck fanboys are always like "but but MY PARTICULAR USE OF IT!", no one cares, I'm not talking about you. I'm talking about ME.
Again when i criticize how many games the thing holds, I point out that the games its technically capable of running require large storage and that it has a poor battery life. Yeah, again, if you stick to retro games or these super niche indie games (seriously, i always get the impression the rabid stam deck fanboy is an avid fan of 2D and low spec indie games, it's like a stereotype), you wont encounter the flaws, but here's the thing, I'M NOT GONNA INVEST THIS MUCH MONEY INTO A DEVICE JUST TO PLAY INDIE GAMES. Rather than tell me what my tastes SHOULD be to conform to the deck and it's capabilities, I'm pointing out how my tastes don't work with it.
And yes, just because it's "not for me" doesnt mean I should shut up about it. Sorry, other people disagree with you on the internet. I dont need rabid fanboys trying to correct me or tell me I'm wrong or being dishonest about its capabilities because i don't share their use case. Me criticizing the thing doesnt mean you can't find enjoyment in it. Learn to separate criticism of the device from criticism of your specific tastes. If anything when the subject comes up, im TIRED of hearing about other peoples' tastes. if you enjoy playing hades and balatro, and that's all you play, good for you. I dont share your tastes. On such a device, I'd have higher standards, and the deck doesn't meet them.
DEAL WITH IT!
That is all. Stop filling my inbox with this crap.
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