Steam Deck

super_furry

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118770183#Comment_118770183

That's where I'm at. I haven't had a Gaming PC for five years now and between working on a laptop all day and then having a couple of kids running around, the time I get to sit in front of a PC or a console with the TV to myself is rare enough. It's why the Switch was such a godsend to me and why I'm so excited about the Steam Deck.

Its arrived in Ireland now according to the updates so fingers crossed I'll get it on Monday.

I think the Steam Deck and its iterations are a very safe bet because of it and the fact every MacBook is capable of gaming with the new chips. I'd expect more Linux based "consoles" coming along and more developers focusing on Mac and Linux compatibility.

Andrew76

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118770183#Comment_118770183

I’m similar to yourself in that I work and game from the same desk, but have no issue with it. Been working from home long before covid was a thing so for me it has to be a nice setup that I enjoy sitting at, otherwise work and gaming would be a struggle. Having said that I’d be lucky to get 8 hrs gaming in a week these days so not like I go straight from working to gaming.

@super_furry looking forward to hearing your impressions on the deck. I was thinking of holding off until v2 of the hardware comes out but not even sure it’s worth a buy for me, my Switch gets zero use these days as I’ll always choose the gaming pc if I get time to play. Still tempted though. 😂

cnocbui

Ukraine is a major world producer of some of the gases used in IC lithography, like neon. Anyone hanging around for the next gen of anything containing ICs and processors could be waiting years.

marcbrophy

Reviews on YT are gonna be fairly common and which ones you trust/believe will up to you.

I like this guys one as he seems to know a bit about Ryzen mini PC's, which is what the SD is, but with a screen/controller.

Good review, in my opinion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9upVLaFRh_I

Mr.Fantastic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118772838#Comment_118772838

Saw this pop up aswell, ETA prime knows his stuff on regards to emulaton and usability of different distros of Linux aswell. Has me sold anyway ! I know it's been mentioned before but the battery life is not great going on playing any decent game , be great for indies though

super_furry

Just delivered there and setting it up now. Think they got the name right in calling it the Deck, there's a real 80s futuristic William H Gibson feel to it, a real heft. Actually reminds me of holding the Atari Lynx when I was a kid.

Grumpypants

Delighted to see people on here getting these. Super jealous 🤣 but happy for you.

Do keep us updated on the initial impressions.

megaten

Got mine too but probably won't have time to play it the next few days. Good job there's a 4 day weekend coming up.

super_furry

Yeah this thing is incredible.

I've always be drawn towards handheld gaming and the first real console I've ever owned was a GameBoy. I've owned and still own every handheld produced by the major companies and plenty of them made by weird Chinese companies to just run emulators and this is by far the most impressive piece of kit I've ever held.

It looks, to my untrained eye, to be one a par graphically with the Xbox One X, which for a handheld PC is really impressive. I've double dipped on Elden Ring already and it looks and runs every bit as well as the One X.

Tried a few 'unsupported' games from my library and the only one I didn't get running straight away was the original Assassin's Creed, which wasn't happy with the control scheme and thought I was using mouse and keyboard. Final Fantasy XIII, Black Mesa, Grand Theft Auto V and Borderlands 3 all just worked straight off the bat and looked great.

Battery life is the elephant in the room though and with Elden Ring seemed to be just over 2 hours - on par with the launch model of the Switch but that's the only real hole I could pick.

Grumpypants

There is now a beta for MS Edge on the deck, that will let you stream games in the browser via X Cloud. Big bonus. Might do Stadia too and you have a decent cloud system.

https://www.theverge.com/22985166/xbox-cloud-gaming-steam-deck-microsoft-edge-beta

marcbrophy

I know it's a serious outlier in what people will actually use the machine for, but this chap goes through everything you can do on the desktop side of it all.

Some great use cases too 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BO3pH48fM0

Grumpypants

My delivery date updated from just Q2 to ......April-June 🤣.

At least it is looking like all Q1 orders will be met on time. So no more delays hopefully and fingers crossed I'm more April than June

phily2002

Mines October or later. That's the same date given if you ordered today(I ordered Aug 6th). Looking like it'll be my Xmas present at this rate

Simi

Reading through the comments on a reddit thread there seems to be little correlation between when you ordered and what your estimated shipping date is. People who pre-ordered days after the queue opened are receiving their order invites weeks before people who got in within hours. I'm 64gb Q3 and my friend is 256gb Q3 both ordered the same day as the OP in the reddit thread who is Q2.

Either the queue is woefully broken, or they subdividing it by country (or state in the US) rather than EU, UK, US regions their claiming. Or Ireland could actually be in the UK region as their rollout seems to be the slowest of the three regions.

Mr.Fantastic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118863999#Comment_118863999

Saw this from reddit, if we are in the UK que good luck me getting it before the end of may. Disaster I was q1 before the delay so here is hoping this month.

Grumpypants

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118863999#Comment_118863999

The difference between Q1 and Q2 queues and when you ordered was minutes. So I'd expect Q2 and Q3 when ordered on the same to be very likely.

No update for me yet. Checking it daily now.

Markitron

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118878040#Comment_118878040

Apparently the emails go out every monday between 5 and 6pm, and today is the first of the Q2 orders. I was there at minute 1 to order but got locked out of my account when trying to buy it, so it was almost an hour before I got the order in. I'm April-June (64 gig model) but I don't fancy my chances of getting one any time soon.

Grumpypants

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118878252#Comment_118878252

Same here I got hit with all those bugs, couldn't log in, then told I didn't qualify as the account was too new (it's 15 years old!!).

I'll keep an eye on the email anyway

johnny_ultimate

Yep the emails only go out on Mondays according to Valve (to avoid them being missed over the weekend): https://steamcommunity.com/games/1675180/announcements/detail/3113680716504852535?snr=1_2108_9__2107

5-6pm would also track as that's Valve's usual update time for Steam sales etc... (9am Pacific).

Grumpypants

First batch of Q2 emails are out. Nothing for me but good to see them on track. They said they might start ramping to emails twice a week as production grows.

Mr.Fantastic

Yeah same ! Did the calculator thing but with uk que and I am may 4th or 9th.

Well here is hoping April I will have it

Simi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118880527#Comment_118880527

I get June 6th with UK and June 13th with EU 64gb. Valve say July-September 🤷‍♂️. I guess we'll find out. I was Q2 -> After Q2 -> Q3.

Markitron

That calculator doesn't seem to work for me, anyone have a rough guess as to when I might expect it? 64 gig model ordered an hour after it went live

johnny_ultimate

The creators of those calculators readily admit they have no idea if they’re accurate, so I wouldn’t take them very seriously at all.

druss

I moved abroad after my order, so I'm not sure if I should tweak my store settings at this point or not. I'm in Q3 anyway, as the launch day passed me by.

Markitron

I just got my email. 64 gig model ordered just over an hour after it went on sale.

Mr.Fantastic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118895137#Comment_118895137

Ah congrats, hopefully I will be next week so. I was in the half an hour after due it crashing.

Markitron

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118896875#Comment_118896875

Fingers crossed. It seems the big differentiation here is the model ordered. A friend of mine had a confirmed order of the 256 gig model almost a full hour before me and he hasn't gotten an email yet. Seems that one is by far the most popular.

Grumpypants

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118895137#Comment_118895137

Nice great to see movement. Im not in the pot this week but hopefully it's not far away. It will be interesting to see how long it takes from today to getting it in the door.