I’m curious about the Go 2. Huge OLED screen… I know it’s not supposed to come out for a minute, but it’s tempting.
The ergonomics put me off of the first Go, it was not comfy to hold when I tried the display model. But I think they’re addressing that. We’ll have to see how it goes.
Fortunately there’s still a zillion super-fun games that the Deck can handle fine. Also if you have another, beefier PC, streaming to the Deck is a thing.
Playing Baldur’s Gate 3 again, after a several month hiatus from it. But this time I’m doing Honour Mode for the first time, currently working through Act I.
It’s tough! Especially early game. I decided for some hard-to-kill character builds, to try to avoid team wipes.
Playing as Gale, target build is Drac Sorc (Cold) 1, Abj Wiz 11, specced on INT. Idea is to get utility cantrips, scales, and Armor of Ag from sorcerer, everything else goes into making Gale an Arcane Ward tank. He sprints into melee combat, the enemies kill themselves on the Armor of Ag retaliation when they hit him, rinse and repeat as much as needed.
Also having Karlach be the BarBearian, taking half damage from everything as she rages, and healing with that heal mace you pick up in Act 1 every time she clocks someone with it. It’s working well so far, hopefully it stays viable as the game goes on.
You’re welcome! Though I’m genuinely bummed that it’s not 100% fully working for you.
One of the great things about the Deck is that we have essentially and functionally the same hardware and OS for our systems, so I was hoping that things like this just work the same for everyone… we don’t have the challenges of the rest of the PC community, where every single person is running a different configuration of parts. 🙂
I’m sorry to hear that you were having issues setting up the docking script!
Without seeing what you were doing, it’s kind of tough to know where the issue was. I know I personally don’t have to change anything with the resolution properties on mine to make it work, it still is set to Default for me. It’s my correct resolution so I don’t have to scroll anywhere, everything is exactly where it is in native (in fact I’m using it right now to access Firefox and be on Lemmy 🤗 )
Were you able to change the height and width numbers in the script to match your monitor? The example I posted above is what I use for my 2560 x 1440 monitor, but you’ll get a weird result if your resolution is something different and you don’t change it.
Update notes were like an encyclopedia of minor bug fixes and minor feature changes for things I’d never encountered or seen.
I’m like, sure I guess ¯\(ツ)/¯ and life goes on
Are you using the wireless dongle? Deck doesn’t seem to support it by default; when I looked into it, people had to do stuff through the console in order to make the dongle be picked up through the Deck.
I don’t have an xbox controller, so I can’t endorse what I found as being correct or safe… you have to give whatever it is system access, so be careful and look into it further so that you can make sure that you trust it.
But basically I just searched xbox 360 controller steam deck and reached reddit posts and YT videos covering it. If you decide to proceed, make sure you’re using current info, because apparently older methods expired when Steam OS went to 3.5… and maybe they did again going to 3.6, though I didn’t see that mentioned. Good luck!
Not for low-vision people or older people who have issues with the smaller screen. Could be a solution if someone like that ended up with a Steam Deck and didn’t realize they’d have an issue with the smaller screen, and maybe they just have a spare travel monitor lying around.
Also there’s a contingent of people out there who just enjoy modifying stuff because they can. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.
I considered doing this for a bit, but with the power and link cable requirements for the travel monitor, I decided against it. It was too much cordage in too small a space.
But glad it worked out for your needs OP!
Well sure, it’s not the hardware sales alone that’s doing it for Valve.
Stream Deck sales are just icing on their cake. They’re turning back flips when any PC handheld is sold (not just their own) because they know there’s a 95% chance that the purchaser of said handheld is going to stock most of, or all of, their games directly or indirectly through Steam.
Valve’s nailing down of, and further establishment and entrenching of the handheld PC market, and their work to help it to thrive regardless of manufacturer… it is just a genius move on their part to get more people funneled into their store.
The big three in the console world are also attempting this - Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft… but unlike them, Valve is doing it the right way, providing tons of value to consumers rather than restricting it. It’s definitely paid off for them.
Most frequent uses?
Voice typing when using decky dictation if I’m in web browser, or text chatting in Discord or an MMO or something.
Alternate inputs for stick-click functions, since I very much dislike clicking the sticks.
If you like FPS’s but also like a variety of mission types and being able to scale the difficulty, my suggestion is Deep Rock Galactic. Fantastic game… one of my friends and I play it every weekend. Takes about 30 minutes for the average two-player mission, up to maybe 45 at longest, so you can easily block out playtime.
Also, in general, regardless of what you’re playing… you don’t really need a LAN to play together, you can just friend each other on Steam and easily join each other’s games that way. Even if you’re both in your own residences, the voice chat tool in Steam is great for talking while playing games.
Before I thought of the glasses, I scoured the internet to see if anyone was selling something like this for the Deck, or if at least it could be 3d printed. Nothing out there that I found.
So could be a small business / side hustle idea for someone who could design and make them. Just tossing that out there.
When I’m using it handheld, my favorite accessory is a pair of 2x magnification reading glasses. Blows up the screen, and makes it very nice… super easy to see everything.
But I’m in my 40s with bad eyes, so YMMV.
You’ll have no issues whatsoever.
The Deck has been my daily driver for a while now. I had an old laptop that bit the dust about a week before my LCD Deck arrived during launch a couple of years ago. I never bothered to replace it, instead I picked up a reasonably priced display and just moved over to the Deck. About 90% of my use has been docked as my main PC, and I absolutely love that it comes with me with built in display and controller when I’m traveling the other 10% of the time.
I got a cheap pair of bone conduction, open ear headphones. Sound quality isn’t fantastic, but I keep my ears open for my family while also sparing them my game noise.
Side note, the artist for these sales events this year has been smashing it. The winter main page is the best yet.
One of the best things you can do is actually your habit, not anything with the actual Deck itself.
The Deck cases come with a pair of zippers.
To remove your possibility of accidentally moving the case while it’s open and having your Deck tumble out (which has been done by a ton of people), get into the habit of closing it by meeting both zippers in the middle.
Once you are in that habit, that serves as your visual confirmation of the Deck case being definitively closed, as there’s really no way to meet those zippers in the middle while the case is still open.
About to pick up your case, but don’t see the twin zippers in the middle? STOP. Confirm that the case is closed before you pick it up and move it.
I know a lot of people recommend the “Deck Lifesaver,” but it’s really not needed as long as you properly use the built-in features of the case.
YW! It shuts down either with the Steam button menu like any other app or game, or you can double click the Return to Gaming Mode icon. Either one.
I recommend Cobalt Core. Super cute characters and story, and very satisfying even after completing the main quest. It and Balatro are currently my standing “twenty minutes on a lunch break” games.