It’s not fully comparable. Basically Microsoft, as it seems to be the default, messed things up by making the Xbox: sure, before that the computer gamepad situation was chaotic, but after, they created the de facto standard that is the Xbox controller. Is a feature on that controller? No? Well, nobody else will have it then. Back buttons are really just there for ergonomics because with a thumb over each stick you get no access to face buttons but back ones can be remapped to those. It’s cool! But also the only thing they can really do. Steam Controller/Deck? Thanks to Steam input, more or less anything you want! Mouse click? Sure. Pop up menu with a bunch of options? Obviously. The game supports Steam input? Then you can bind them to anything the game offers. As a super basic thing, you end up with a controller that has two analogs, a d-pad, “not anymore start and select”, a “home” button, 4 face buttons, two shoulder buttons, two triggers, two trackpads, a gyro and four back buttons. I have a GameSir Cyclone 2, and I’m eagerly waiting for the Steam Controller 2 as it’ll be a meaningful upgrade even if at first glance the only missing feature are the trackpads.

Similar opinion here! What I’ve noticed since the NES, is that my hands are largely symmetrical, and so the better layout depends more on the game than anything. For example, Microsoft had the advantage for a long time in racing games! Longer triggers giving better control, left stick in a spot making symmetry with the face buttons so everything goes naturally over steering, throttle, brake and whatever the face buttons do in the specific game, maybe turbo or…

Similarly, that layout favors games where camera control isn’t important (or possible) like action games, platformers and so on, focusing on movement and actions.

Now, the symmetrical sticks? They are perfect for things like fps, as the hands will be comfortably over the same spots: both thumbs on analogs, index and middle fingers over shoulder buttons and if there’s back buttons even a better alternative to face buttons!

And as mentioned in another comment, the Steam Deck has everything on the same level, making it perfect for anything. <3

I have played so much that nowadays I don’t even notice the difference in layout so much, be it the Dual Sense for games that support it or the GameSir Cyclone 2 for the rest (TMR sticks!) but what I DO notice is the not anymore start and select. Press “mystery button” to open the menu and I’m there, trying to figure out if it’s the one on the right or left side…

PowerWash Simulator. Was included with Apple Arcade and I saw no reason not to actually try it, then I started getting into it and long story short, there’s a lot extra content on the main version, plus a lot extra paid dlc (that’ll have to wait for a sale!) and the only way to play the game is, IMO, with the gyro. Perfect match for the Deck!

Ubisoft is a weird one. I like their open world games (not that hard, so long as I like the premise for a specific one, it’s more of the same) and they seem to want their games running everywhere! Except sometimes. Here’s the latest example, but conversely a few months ago Motorfest stopped being announced anti cheat pita and just worked. Always have to check protondb before getting one… oh! And then there’s Starlink, which works on Linux but, lol, hates virtualization tech so on Windows it’s either that not running, or Windows complaining about lowered security. Lovely.

Anyone on stable?

Me :P I looked through all the settings and found nothing, so unless it’s hidden somewhere I didn’t look, it’s not here yet.

Waaaait a moment: “Fixed an issue with taking multiple screenshots if Game Recording is on”

Game recording? Since when it’s out of beta?

If you have other ways to play a game, consider buying it regardless of the rating for the Steam Deck. Sometimes verified games update in a way that makes them way too hardware intensive, others might actually be playable regardless of what they say and the only real way to find out, is to try. For example, I wanted to try it so I setup Steam VR on the Deck, added ALVR, set it to minimum resolution and fps… I mean, Taskmaster VR worked. I had to make the resolution inside Steam VR all the way down, and it keeps a shaky 60 fps (doesn’t bother me, others could get motion sickness) but it was playable. Obviously it was docked, so 100% just curiously as on the other side of the desk there’s my actual gaming computer, but…

My understanding is that oleds are a weird beast. Since there’s no backlight, each pixel can be considered a small colored light, if you have a fully black screen, then it’s essentially off and not using any power. However, there are instances where the peak brightness is limited to a small portion of the screen, because blasting the entire thing of full brightness white would pass the power supply capacity…

That said, let me stress this: it’s my understanding. Not a hard fact, I might be wrong or just basing things on old information.

I am convinced that kernel AC is… mostly on games that have a fuckton of cosmetics. Let’s see, who’s against Linux specifically? Destiny, even if it was in Stadia and that was Linux. Fortnite. Ubisoft has it on juuuuuust a select few games, everything else they’re happy to see on every platform.

They don’t care about cheaters, they’re protecting the micro transactions.

AFAIK Rosetta deals with Intel Mac apps, not Windows. If this handles Windows games like Proton does… pretty big news!

Oh yeah, new tech is cool and potentially useful. My point was that this particular excitement is not too likely to improve anything on the current hardware we have.

The thing with “AI” or better still, ML cores, is that they’re very specialized. Apple hasn’t been slapping ML cores in all of their cpus since the iPhone 8 because they are super powerful, it’s because they can do some things (that the hardware would have no problem doing anyway) by sipping power. You don’t have to think about AI as in the requirements for huge LLM like ChatGPT that require data centers, think about it like a hardware video decoder: This thing could play easily 1080p video! Or, going with raw cpu power rather than hardware decoding, 480p. It’s why you can watch hours of videos on your phone, but try doing anything that hits the cpu and the battery melts.

Edit: my example has been bothering me for days now. I want to clarify to avoid any possible misunderstanding that hardware video decoding has nothing to do with AI, it’s just another very specialized chip.

Uh, I feel like this is better taken with a low level of enthusiasm: reading the article there’s no mention of how it’s supposed to improve battery, it’s mentioned how it’s AI based, and most concerning for us, both the Ally and Go use the Z1/Z1 Extreme… that have a 10 tops npu.

Like, they’re cool and tempting. But not anywhere near the price of a full unit when I have an already perfectly functioning one! If I could say swap the panel on the Deck (with relatively little effort), I would likely consider buying an upgrade kit but that’s not possible. Same thing with the PS5: if I could just buy the new gpu and replace the old one, I probably would. Never mind that it’s an apu so in this instance it’s really replacing the entire guts of the device, that’s a minor detail XD

My record that I’ve never been able to match in Tokyo Jungle was in remote play on the PSP from the PS3. When I got a PS Vita TV I tested remote play, got sidetracked and spent the afternoon playing Destiny. I’ve played a couple of times World of Tanks on the phone with the official app (and a gamepad obviously, I’m not insane lol).

Sony’s very, very good at this. Granted the AMD video encoding is not as good as the Nvidia one annoyingly, but it’s up there as average quality.

Now I will say this… if you ever tried it using WiFi? Yeah, for whatever reason Sony’s WiFi chips are a dumpster fire on home consoles, acceptable on handhelds. That would’ve entirely explained your experience.

Now, if you want actual garbage, look no further than the Xbox: when I got the Series S I tried it wired to my desktop, and it was a laggy, overly compressed mess. Far worse than the time I tried OnLive through a VPN because it was not available in Europe, and that’s an achievement.

Yeah, I don’t see any reason to upgrade either of mine. Really not worth it.

Midnight Suns is the one I know of, and they fixed it early on. :)

This has a nasty side effect barely related to the family features… it killed the Family View pin. The only thing that could coax bloody GeForce Now to sync with Steam cloud instead of killing the session instantly as you quit the game. There’s no other feature that can lock games from running like Family View did, isn’t there?

Thanks :)

I’ve got a 90 degree adapter, and made myself a brace of sorts to keep it from wiggling and stressing that precious usb c port… https://www.printables.com/model/292752-steam-deck-usb-c-right-angle-adapter-reinforcement