I don’t really mind tinkering with it, already know my ways with emulation on PC. However, I have no knowledge on Linux and that’s what worries me a bit.

If you know your way around PC emulation, you’re not going to have any problems. EmuDeck takes care of installing all emulators. You only have to manually add your key files, firmware, BIOS, etc. It works just like on Windows and the KDE desktop is in many ways identical to Windows.

https://www.emudeck.com/

You might also want to check out KDE Connect. It is pre-installed on the Deck and can pair with your PC for remote input, file sharing, etc.: https://kdeconnect.kde.org/

So the Steam Deck can run the PS2 emulation and play these games (just as the PC can?).

Yes, the Deck is an emulation beast. Finished Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, Ico, Wind Waker HD and Echoes of Wisdom entirely on the Deck.

Most of the games of the Switch I’d like to play are the Mario games. I can name them all if necessary but will do it later (at the moment at work).

The less demanding games like the Mario Party games and Mario Kart run with no issues in all emulators.

For more demanding games like Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey, you might want to grab the last yuzu EA AppImage that released. You can find it quite easily by searching but you can also DM me if you need it.

For reference, the last release was version 4176 with an MD5 checksum of 9f20b0e6bacd2eb9723637d078d463eb.

Can the Steam Deck run Breath of the Wild without issue?

There are 3 ways to play Breath of the Wild on the Deck:

• Ryujinx/Ryubing (installed by EmuDeck out of the box)
• yuzu (no longer available)
• Cemu (the Wii U version)

I spent dozens of hours in Breath of the Wild on the Deck in yuzu to collect a few Koroks when I’m bored. Since I dumped my savegames from my switch, I just started where I left it on my Switch.

Ryujinx unfortunately struggles running Breath of the Wild, it runs the most demanding areas at about 20 fps. Which is on par with how the Switch natively runs the game but yuzu can reach 30 fps easily in those areas. Ryujinx also has quite severe shader stuttering when first entering an area, which yuzu does not have.

Cemu runs the game flawlessly, but it is the Wii U version. Doesn’t make much difference which version you play on PC since you can mod either to look good. I just played on yuzu because my savegame was from my Switch.

Death Stranding really clicked for me when “Bones” by “Low Roar” in the first real delivery mission comes on. Takes slightly more than an hour to get there and even then, it definitely is not a game for everyone.

Heavy emulator user here, the Deck made my Switch obsolete but I did play Tears of the Kingdom on my PC so I can run it at 60fps. On the Deck, ToTK can struggle to reach even 30 in many areas without community modpacks. Smaller titles like the latest Zelda and Metroid run flawlessly.

However, the Deck can also run every other console up until Switch/PS3/Xbox 360 as well as my full Steam and GOG library and it has a full desktop on it.

If you don’t mind the tinkering to get the emulators configured, the Deck is a no-brainer for me.

If you want to save some money, you can also get the smaller Steam Deck. It is trivially easy to swap the SSD if you later decide you need more storage.

BOY

I really wish GOG would do more to support Linux and the Deck. I started buying a little bit more there ever since Heroic came around but overall the Steam experience is still vastly superior.

I played quite a bit of Elite: Dangerous in VR on my Saitek X-55 in Linux. Worked out of the box.

Kojima-san, where is my PC pre-order trailer?

With SteamDB estimating 2.6 - 3.27 million players on Steam it actually looks like PC is at least the second largest if not the largest platform.

I have to question some folks ability to see when they say Wilds looks worse than World or like a PS3 game.

Certainly has some low-res textures that look weirdly out of place but it’s not like the entire game looks like this.

I assume somebody really liked that game.

Just like the Lego Island guy™ really likes Lego Island. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MToTEqoVv3I

Give the follow up a go, Neva. I finished GRIS but it certainly is just a walking sim with some light platforming.

Neva has some actual battles that are somewhat challenging/entertaining and it is still just as beautiful as GRIS is.

And DLSS also makes the game look like a shit sandwich even on quality.

Correct, I’m on a 7900 XTX and was able to get the best experience on Ultra by using FSR only for anti aliasing (native resolution) and turning on FSR frame generation. There are still artifacts but they are not nearly as bad as with upscaling.

Without frame gen I hover at around 60, good enough for controller but a pain with mouse.

Still, your 3060 is most likely going to output a clearer image than what your PS5 can do with FSR1. Did you give the benchmark on PC a go?

What’s your hardware?

On high end hardware the game runs fine, not good but okish. On console they use FSR1 at a really low resolution, making everything look really blurry. On PC at least FSR3 is available for lower end hardware but don’t expect too much if you don’t have a Nvidia 4000+ or AMD 6000+ series card.

Digital Foundry has performance videos for console and PC up already.

One day we will get a spiritual successor.

Started Last of Us Part 1 a few days ago. Surprisingly fun gameplay for something that looks like generic Sony third person game #23 at first glance. Story is of course excellent so far, as expected.

Game also runs much better than when it released so that’s good. Still wouldn’t call it a good port but it is passable.

However, Monster Hunter Wilds just came out so I’m going to be not-so-patient-gamer for a while.

I really enjoyed it. First game in a while that could scratch that Prey-itch.

AMD: Yes (Played the last beta for a few hours, make sure to use Proton Experimental)

Nvidia: I believe the graphical issues are not fixed yet

Steam Deck: Game does not run well

I once accidentally left my ultrawide mod and FPS unlock active while playing online.

Only got a warning 2 days later that suspicious activity was detected and I will be banned the next time.

You sure it’s not just a warning?

Hey, if I want to see double I can just play Monster Hunter intoxicated. No need for new tech.

Maybe they could allocate some resources for optimization then. This game should run on Steam Deck without problems.

I’m on AMD but I already play in HDR without gamescope with Proton-Tkg (Wine master).

For games I then only have to set DISPLAY= ENABLE_HDR_WSI=1 %command%.

The HDR layer is here: https://github.com/Zamundaaa/VK_hdr_layer

It should not be needed anymore pretty soon.

Ah, like the Android app. I think the Linux Nextcloud version has an experimental option for it but I never gave it a try.

I assume the partial sync is not sufficient for your use case? I usually only sync the folders I need on that machine.

and support for a virtual file synchronization a la Nextcloud (which I presume piggybacks off of what MS built for OneDrive.)

What’s a virtual file synchronization?

Remedy already confirmed that they are going to self-publish Control 2.

Milking after one game and one DLC?

Weren’t they down for ~7 hours just last year?

Not saying it happens often but having a downtime that long is unprofessional for a company that size.

Why does this happen to Sony every few years? They expect you to pay for online and just can’t get their shit together.

Good thing they stopped with the PSN requirement on PC. Imagine buying your singleplayer game and you can’t play it the entire day because Sony forgot to pay their server bills.

I’m not sure, I only checked which projects Iron Galaxy is working on and noticed they are doing Last of Us again.

Bought the Wolfenstein bundle in the last GOG sale. Almost done with Wolfenstein: The New Order. The german in the English dub is hilarious, somebody really had some fun while dubbing.

I also bought 1000xRESIST on Steam. No idea what to expect from that game but the ratings are really good and the trailer looked cool.

Also, there’s another Monster Hunter Wilds beta this weekend and apparently the crashes I had in the first beta are fixed so I might get to try it this time.

I’m sure this is going to end great for the Last of Us 2 PC port. The port of the first game was already a disaster and they had all their people.

I spent more time going back and forth while trying to max out the zip line range in Death Stranding than I’m willing to admit.

(Death’s Door and Tunic are also fantastic)

I’m surprised they did this. Would have assumed most people don’t care and we were getting a PC PSN launcher very soon.

The DualSense controller works perfectly fine on PC. Most first-party Sony games come with the full feature set for it (adaptive triggers, haptics, touchpad, gyro, speaker, …).

I still remember the coffin spell from that game fondly. I built so many staircases to get to places earlier.

Also, death genuinely scared me the first time he appeared.

Looks pretty good but I’m going to wait for the soundtrack and for the price to come down to normal PC prices.

No Mick Gordon is still seriously disappointing.

Also, I hope they configured their Steam page wrong. The advanced access phase on Steam is 7 months long.

Playing Blasphemous 2 right now. Definitely a lot of QoL improvements over part 1.

Beat two bosses so far, both with great move sets but the second one was a little bit on the easy side.

Also, playing Super Mario Galaxy for the first time on my Deck.

Hey, same two games for me!

It’s too late now either way with shadPS4 running it almost perfectly.

Every game comes to PC at some point.

Get going then because somebody unlocked the modding toolkit to allow custom campaigns: https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/12021

Maybe he can crunch a PC version in there?