Valve Crafts a Portable Gaming PC
Video Credit: Valve
In case you never gamed on a PC: Steam is a third-party digital game store on PC that sells all kinds of games. It’s practically the go-to digital store to sell PC ports of games for people who happen to have a strong PC. But not all PCs are created equal, so whatever or not your PC can handle games can be hard to know for sure. Games go on sale once in a while, but you’d be throwing money for nothing if you can’t play those games. Upgrading a PC is very costly: you might spend $1000 to build your perfect gaming PC, but since games evolve and become complex, you’ll be spending even more cash just to keep up. Streaming games can be a solution… if your Wi-Fi is strong enough to play smoothly. Yet despite the costly hardware, Steam has exceeded the odds with over 25 million users as of 2021. Steam has all kinds of games, including free-to-play games that may/may not cater to your tastes. But more casual gamers who find great selections on Steam are stuck with whatever consoles Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft put out to play those games because of the high cost of PC components. The chip shortage doesn’t help. Valve has tried in vain to sell hardware of their own, the Steam Machine, which failed due to low sales. But the company apparently learned from those mistakes by working hard towards a middle ground for console and PC gaming, something to allow you to play your games on the go. It’s what Nintendo should’ve offered.After rumors of a portable gaming unit and Valve’s CEO Gabe Newell commenting on the possibility of bringing their games to consoles, the Steam Deck was officially revealed in July 2021, with pre-orders available. To curb resellers, pre-orders initially required Steam accounts opened prior to June. Apparently the demand was so huge, it crashed the servers at Steam, with plans to ship units to US, Canada, UK and EU (more regions will be available in 2022). Newell stated: “As a gamer, this is a product I’ve always wanted. And as a game developer, it’s the mobile device I’ve always wanted for our partners”. According to him, Valve wanted to be aggressive on the pricing and availability strategy as the Deck’s main competitor is the mobile gaming market. He recognized the pricing as painful, but necessary and reasonable to demonstrate viability. As for the pricing, the Deck is available in three configurations in three price points for the serious types of gamers. The prices are:
-$399/€419 for 64GB. Comes with a carrying case.
-$529/€549 for 256GB. The storage is faster and also comes with a carrying case.
-$649/€679 for 512GB. The storage is faster, has anti-glare etched glass and comes with an exclusive carrying case.
All three options have a microSD slot to expand storage and for potentially another great use, which will be detailed in a later article. The pre-order fee ($4/€4) will count towards the full price of the Deck, giving you plenty of time to save-up, but unless you’re one of the first to pre-order, you’ll have to wait until the second quarter of 2022. There’s a dock which will be available separately so, just like your Switch, the Deck can dock and transfer the display towards your monitor/TV. With all the prototype reviews released so far and how honest and straightforward Valve answered questions, it’s clear the Deck will become a beloved, perhaps enough to encourage someone like Microsoft to build their own portable PC. Remains to be seen however.
For me, this is the device I want and need to play Steam games. I’ve used the store ever since I got a laptop, but it’s hampered by limitations and all I can play is either low games or games that demand less CPU power, mostly free games or very cheap games. Yes, it’s expensive and might have to sell my Xbox One S so I can have enough funds to pay for my Steam Deck. But I know that once I’ve got it, I can pretty much play any game I want, without regard to triple A titles (which is starting to go stale due to overconfidence, laziness, perhaps both), especially since there are games that will definitely be worth my attention and will be worth playing when I’m off work. It’s pretty clear that Valve is committed to this device: they answered every question and they allowed certain individuals to try out the prototypes, signaling good faith from the company and what they can accomplish. It makes me wish 2022 would come sooner.
Valve Claims the Steam Machine Was a Good Idea
Video Credit: Valve
Valve’s designers Greg Coomer, Lawrence Yang and Scott Dalton said that the lessons learned from the Steam Machine were instrumental in making the Steam Deck possible. Coomer said: “Steam Deck feels like the culmination of a lot of that earlier work. Steam Link has proven really valuable in establishing what it means to stream games from PCs. The Steam Controller was really valuable, it taught us a lot about what’s necessary and valuable to a customer. So all those earlier products really feel like they’ve informed this one.” Dalton stated that one of the obstacles the Steam Machine faced was the “chicken and egg” problem of games: Valve was trying to push into gaming on Linux, but the developers were reluctant to port their games into the OS without a sizable user base, while gamers were reluctant to make the switch due to lack of games. This prompted Valve to create Proton, a compatibility layer that enables Windows-based games to play on Linux. It works so well, porting may no longer be an issue. Yang said: “It was really important for us to be able to talk directly to developers and say, hey, look, the Steam Deck runs your game. You don’t have to port.” Coomer claimed the Steam Machine was a good idea, saying: “The operating system wasn’t quite there, the number of games you could play on the system wasn’t quite there. Really, we’ve looked at a lot of what we’ve learned as boxes that we needed to check if we were ever going to talk to customers again about that category. We didn’t really want to bring this device to customers until we felt it was ready and that all those boxes were checked, essentially. But definitely, doing that, I don’t think we would have made as much progress on Steam Deck if we hadn’t had that experience.” One possible obstacle for the Steam Deck would be availability: new customers will have to wait until the second quarter of 2022 to claim the unit.
This proves that mistakes still lead to greatness: Nintendo released the Virtual Boy which flopped, years later they released the Wii U which also flopped, but paved the way for the successful Nintendo Switch. Microsoft’s original Xbox saw modest success, great success with Xbox 360, hampered success with Xbox One thanks to a PR flop, which recovered with a few revisions and the introduction of the Xbox Game Pass, and the Series S/X split the gamers based on their preferences, along with full backwards compatibility with most previous Xbox games. If Valve plays its cards right and continues to answer more questions, they’ll get success right out the gate, with the possibility to bridge the gap of games from the past, present and the future.
eBay Kicks Out Steam Deck Scalpers
Video Credit: IGN
When the Steam Deck was unveiled and the pre-orders opened up, some people were trying to sell their queue spots on eBay for as much as $1000. Some people not part of the regions the Steam Deck will initially ship to could definitely pay to wait in line. That’s messed up as heck! In a rare moment, eBay deleted those offers, so if you’re trying to search the Steam Deck, it’s gone. Apparently eBay did it because it violated the Presale policy, which states that the sellers must guarantee shipment within 30 days of purchase. Since the Steam Deck won’t be available until December, you’d be spending your money for nothing, especially since you need the money to reserve and pay for the Deck. It’s a victory for Valve, who also added the policy that one Deck is given to one person, to help availability of supply. But remains to be seen until December.
It’s a serious crime to resell items at such bloated price tags, no matter the reason. The fact is Valve is trying to impede the scalpers, but it won’t stop them from selling their one Deck at colossal prices. It makes me lucky to live within the European Union in order to reserve this, but that’s only until I see for myself if the device is worth selling my Xbox One S. Hopefully, it won't be that much (unless you want games for the system to add cost). Whatever you do, be smart with your money.
The Deck Can Run Most Steam Games, Even from a microSD
Video Credit: IGN
According to Valve’s designers, they haven’t found any game that won’t run on the Deck, except some that require the anti-cheat system. Valve promised to work with studios to fix this problem in time for the holiday season, when the initial shipments take off. Valve’s coder Pierre-Loup Griffais said: “We’ve been looking at various games over the past few years in the back catalog. But the real test for us was games that were coming out last year. They just couldn’t really run very well on the previous types of prototypes and architectures we were testing.” With the latest version of the Deck, Valve is confident the device can finally run anything they throw at it, with Griffais adding: “We haven’t really found something that we could throw at this device that it couldn’t handle”. Folks learned the games Valve tested games with an aim for 30fps, which worried some particular gamers, until Valve clarified that the 30fps is the accepted minimum games can run, with most games passing or exceeding that goal, with an optional fps limiter to finetune and balance performance and battery life. Until the Deck becomes available, we won’t know which games will be the battery killer. On an interesting note, Valve also revealed that games can run off of a microSD: the games IGN played on the prototypes used microSDs! Valve even said there are no limits to the size of the microSD you can use for the Deck. The Deck’s OS treats the cards as Steam Libraries, so if you have Steam games on an SD, pop it in the Deck and the games appear as if using the internal storage. Valve is also looking into being able to preload software games on SD cards from different devices in the future, as a time saver. SD cards aren’t created equal, but we’re at a stage where a reasonably specced and affordable card can double/triple the Deck’s storage, to avoid the external SSD’s burdens.
When I heard the Switch can use microSDs from multiple companies, I checked for a 200 GB card as a reasonable way to keep a lot of games (mostly save data and some digital games without physical release). Since the Deck’s announcement, I still keep looking at the cards, this time considering multiple options for the types of games I’ll be playing on the Deck. I won’t care about load times, because frankly I care less about the latest AAA games (which are hit-and-miss). Whatever Valve can do, it would be a huge service to PC gaming, mostly for newcomers or casuals as myself.
Trevor Philips in Red Dead Online
Video Credit: Rockstar
One Reddit user uses this to recreate the most violent character Rockstar created for Grand Theft Auto V: Trevor Philips (you can see it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/RedDeadOnline/comments/ovey7t/i_tried_to_make_trevor_from_gta5_in_red_dead/?ref=share&ref_source=embed&utm_content=title&utm_medium=post_embed&utm_name=12ea530b24a54b63b8d630bac0ed2692&utm_source=embedly&utm_term=ovey7t). It’s a close approximation of the character’s appearance, from his signature scowl to some clothes he wore during promotional videos for the game. While he is in a different setting from the desert of Blaine County, the old west version still captures the look of this dangerously unstable criminal. Fellow fans commented on the creation, praising it for being an accurate depiction, while others joked about the wild west version having more hair than the character in 2013’s San Andreas. Nevertheless, Trevor is a fan favorite among GTA players for embodying the players’ violent tendencies, which fits well in the “kill or be killed” era of the Old West.
Madness and violence is constant in Grand Theft Auto, but none embody this more than Trevor Philips, the Violent to Michael’s Cool and Franklin’s Rookie. There’s veteran players and new players in GTA, and then they are players who play to cause as much mayhem as possible. That’s Trevor for you, who suffered abuse as a child but grew up to be a dangerous and merciless killer with one redeeming quality: he’s honest about his actions and is a loyal friend to a few people he considers “friends”. He’s mostly dangerous towards people he dislikes or people he considers as bigger jerks than Michael (who essentially abandoned Trevor to go into hiding and Trevor was left mourning his loss). Whatever state he is in, messing with him would be suicide, sometimes becoming human stew for Trevor. Also calling him a hipster. He hates hipsters.
Favorite Platform: Steam Deck
I know, I know, it’s too early to say it’s good, but based on some videos showcasing the prototypes, I can say it’s close to being my favorite. Seriously, it’s a portable PC that can play your entire Steam library and play it on the go! It should be enough to play most JRPGs and maybe some MMOs. And most indie games. And the best part, I can play them with the integrated controller, a separate controller (Bluetooth/wired through dock), a keyboard and mouse combo (Bluetooth/wired through dock). I may even be able to play a first-person shooter with those touchpads and gyro controls. For now, this device is on my radar.
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