Steamdeck or....
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Looking for some advice. My Switch Lite is approaching the end of its life and given that a Switch 2 is basically the same price as an OLED Steamdeck I was thinking it might be a good time to jump back to PC gaming.
I'm not much of a gamer. I got the Switch Lite because of portability and the ability to wake it up, play for ten minutes and then toss it back in my bag. My only beefs with the Switch ecosystem is that you can't download DLC - for Cities Skylines I have the bare game on Switch but a pile of DLC on my laptop for example.
So - would going with a Steamdeck make sense? Any gotchas I should know about? Is there a better option?
Thanks all!
**edit: y'all rock. I'm ordering an OLED Steamdeck
The only reason you should buy a Switch is if you have no self respect, don't give a shit about being in an abusive relationship with Nintendo, and don't care about sending thousands of dollars to a company that hates you to get an artificially limited device, and absolutely MUST play Nintendo first-party games, in the intended fashion.
The Deck is such a better device in nearly every way.
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How it's the emulation? Can you emulate all the games?
wrote last edited by [email protected]Not every single one, but a fair amount. People maintain compatibility lists for different emulators, for example this is one for Ryujinx https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Ryujinx_Game_Compatibility_List
Edit : better yet here's a list from the same wiki, of emulators for the Switch, with a % of game compatibles https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Nintendo_Switch_emulators
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Deck is much larger and heavier.
wrote last edited by [email protected]This was a huge surprise for me going from the OG Switch to my OLED deck. Also the short battery life while in sleep.
Edit: add switch
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Looking for some advice. My Switch Lite is approaching the end of its life and given that a Switch 2 is basically the same price as an OLED Steamdeck I was thinking it might be a good time to jump back to PC gaming.
I'm not much of a gamer. I got the Switch Lite because of portability and the ability to wake it up, play for ten minutes and then toss it back in my bag. My only beefs with the Switch ecosystem is that you can't download DLC - for Cities Skylines I have the bare game on Switch but a pile of DLC on my laptop for example.
So - would going with a Steamdeck make sense? Any gotchas I should know about? Is there a better option?
Thanks all!
**edit: y'all rock. I'm ordering an OLED Steamdeck
Out of curiosity, what games do you play other than Cities Skyline?
If you just want something for portability + ten minutes of gameplay, what about an android phone you can emulate on + one of those phone controllers that turn your phone into a portable console?
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Biased because I'm pro steam deck, but yes, Steam Deck will offer you the full steam library of games, on top of games from other platforms / consoles through emulation
This was the main selling point for me
Steam Deck will offer you the full steam library of games
*some exclusions apply.
Of my nearly 300 games in my library, 36 are fully steam deck certified. While another ~70 have some layer of compatibility. Leaving almost 1/3rd of my library not usable on the Steam Deck.
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Steam Deck will offer you the full steam library of games
*some exclusions apply.
Of my nearly 300 games in my library, 36 are fully steam deck certified. While another ~70 have some layer of compatibility. Leaving almost 1/3rd of my library not usable on the Steam Deck.
I usually check protondb for more detailed data on games compatibility https://www.protondb.com/
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Looking for some advice. My Switch Lite is approaching the end of its life and given that a Switch 2 is basically the same price as an OLED Steamdeck I was thinking it might be a good time to jump back to PC gaming.
I'm not much of a gamer. I got the Switch Lite because of portability and the ability to wake it up, play for ten minutes and then toss it back in my bag. My only beefs with the Switch ecosystem is that you can't download DLC - for Cities Skylines I have the bare game on Switch but a pile of DLC on my laptop for example.
So - would going with a Steamdeck make sense? Any gotchas I should know about? Is there a better option?
Thanks all!
**edit: y'all rock. I'm ordering an OLED Steamdeck
End of life as in? Battery not keeping a charge? Joystick drifting? USB-C connector messed up? Most of those problems can be fixed, ifixit has the parts and great walk throughs. Just fix it and keep playing what you like how you like.
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Steam Deck will offer you the full steam library of games
*some exclusions apply.
Of my nearly 300 games in my library, 36 are fully steam deck certified. While another ~70 have some layer of compatibility. Leaving almost 1/3rd of my library not usable on the Steam Deck.
That's very surprising. Is your library chiefly old DOS games or something?
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I love my Legion Go. Solid screen. detachable joycons. Standard Win11. It plays things like Satisfactory and RDR2 real well. Ok batt life. Meh speakers. use bluetooth.
There's a SteamOS version too, right?
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What do you mean by "end of its life" ?
Joysticks need to be replaced again, battery life is becoming tragic so that needs replacing too. Any time I pick it up at this point, the battery is dead.
Biggest issue to be honest is that I want a bigger screen and that isn't the device's fault.
I'm going to order a whack of parts from ifixit and spruce it back up for those Nintendo exclusive hankerings.
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Steam Deck will offer you the full steam library of games
*some exclusions apply.
Of my nearly 300 games in my library, 36 are fully steam deck certified. While another ~70 have some layer of compatibility. Leaving almost 1/3rd of my library not usable on the Steam Deck.
"Deck verified" is an absolutely useless metric and very often wrong. I pay no attention to them and neither should you.
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This was a huge surprise for me going from the OG Switch to my OLED deck. Also the short battery life while in sleep.
Edit: add switch
The OLED is the same size as the OG but lighter.
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If you already have a decent PC for games a Switch allow you to play more games.
I had a decent PC back in the day (I grew up in the era of building my own water cooling systems) but as a casual gamer I can't wrap my head around around modern graphics card prices and I rather be able to play on the sofa for five minutes while I wait to pull something from the oven.
I'm old.
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The OLED is the same size as the OG but lighter.
I meant my OG switch. Updated my comment.
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Steam Deck will offer you the full steam library of games
*some exclusions apply.
Of my nearly 300 games in my library, 36 are fully steam deck certified. While another ~70 have some layer of compatibility. Leaving almost 1/3rd of my library not usable on the Steam Deck.
1/3 sounds high. Just because it isn't verified doesn't mean it won't work, and most of the non-anti-cheat-related compatibility problems are solved by installing Proton GE.
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Out of curiosity, what games do you play other than Cities Skyline?
If you just want something for portability + ten minutes of gameplay, what about an android phone you can emulate on + one of those phone controllers that turn your phone into a portable console?
To be honest - that's probably the dream setup. The challenge is that android games seem to all be low-effort ad delivery systems.
My happiest place is turn-based strategy and RPGs. XCOM, Total War: Warhammer, anything Baldur's Gate, 4Xs that sort of stuff.
I have several hundred hours killing time on Unciv on Android. Mindustry is fun but cramped. Polybridge was great until I finished it.
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To be honest - that's probably the dream setup. The challenge is that android games seem to all be low-effort ad delivery systems.
My happiest place is turn-based strategy and RPGs. XCOM, Total War: Warhammer, anything Baldur's Gate, 4Xs that sort of stuff.
I have several hundred hours killing time on Unciv on Android. Mindustry is fun but cramped. Polybridge was great until I finished it.
Definitely go Steam Deck then. No question. You'll have far more to choose from, and the Deck's suspend and resume is shockingly good considering you'd never expect that feature to work on a Windows PC mid-game.
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To be honest - that's probably the dream setup. The challenge is that android games seem to all be low-effort ad delivery systems.
My happiest place is turn-based strategy and RPGs. XCOM, Total War: Warhammer, anything Baldur's Gate, 4Xs that sort of stuff.
I have several hundred hours killing time on Unciv on Android. Mindustry is fun but cramped. Polybridge was great until I finished it.
Oh, in that case you might have a swell time with using an android phone for emulation. Just ignore playstore games for a minute.
I feel like you might not understand what emulation is based on you commenting that you aren't much of a gamer---basically, using a phone you can emulate different consoles. And they often don't have ads.
What type of phone do you have? On my S24 I can emulate up to Switch games, but a lot of phones can emulate up to the PS2 era. You can also look into something called "Winlator" where you can emulate windows games on the phone too.
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If you already have a decent PC, you can emulate Switch
While I emulate switch too, I have to add that it’s getting harder and harder for me to pirate. So I’ve been stockpiling on switch roms. With certain isps and the current administration , freedom of internet traffic is under threat and isn’t as reliable as it was a year or two ago.
Comcast for example has been going hard. Straight up blocking sites ( have several work arounds but now they’re throttling my vpn traffic to 0 kbs/sec no matter what the vpn or what settings I use. And half the vpns I have tried throttle torrent traffic.
So that’s something to look for.
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I had a decent PC back in the day (I grew up in the era of building my own water cooling systems) but as a casual gamer I can't wrap my head around around modern graphics card prices and I rather be able to play on the sofa for five minutes while I wait to pull something from the oven.
I'm old.
I understand you, following the hardware market has nothing to do with playing properly, I play on all the platforms I can get my hands on and I prefer systems with a lower setup, so consoles.
