Top 20 Steam Deck games of August 2023, by hours played
PastaRhythm @ PastaRhythm @lemmy.world Posts 0Comments 56Joined 2 yr. ago
Try Performance Mode in HoT's settings. My first time I made it to 30 minutes, my game crashed. I turned on Performance Mode, and it's been running just fine ever since. With the retro PC game vibe they're going for, Performance Mode arguably adds to the experience!
That said, your game crashes when you're five minutes into a run? I did hear that the game can have crashing issues on Steam Deck, but that's a little extreme. Not sure if Performance Mode will fix that.
Sometimes I can use Gold Points to get a game on the Switch eShop for dirt cheap. That's the only time I'll buy a cross-platform game on Switch. Otherwise I only use it for console exclusives now.
I'm honestly kind of shocked at how few people bought a GameCube. It was such an amazing console, it deserved better. I guess that's what happens when you're in the same console generation as the PS2.
I can say the same about the Wii U, to be honest. Yeah the hardware was gimmicky and weak, but it had some stellar games. What's sad is that most of its killer apps are on Switch now, so the Wii U is all but obsolete. Obviously it's great that they're on Switch, but I know it's gonna hurt the Wii U's legacy in a few years when the Wii U and Switch are both retro. "I'm gonna emulate some retro games! The Wii U has some excellent titles, let's play- Wait, these are all better on Switch."
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Sorry for the late reply. I don't check Lemmy all that often.
I would never want to use a clip on case myself. I would worry that it would make the buttons uncomfortable to use. It would also affect how it sits in a docking station. The Steam Deck has a nice shape that will make it harder to drop. I wouldn't recommend a case, but some people do like cases, so that's your call.
USB hub sounds good, and would also work better than a dock if you do get a case.
The ABXY buttons are very comfortable to use! I've found the Deck to be a very comfortable device. My hands are a bit bigger so I'm not sure how big of a role that hand size plays, but I think you'll be fine.
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People love accessories, but the Steam Deck is fantastic right out of the box, and very little is a requirement. For you, I would say these are the only requirements:
- A way to connect the Deck to a screen. A simple USB-C to HDMI connector will work, but if you plan on plugging in a mouse and keyboard, you may want a dock or USB hub, something that has all the USB ports you need.
- A mouse and keyboard for working on a desktop, of course.
- Storage. Your 128gb micro SD card should be fine.
You might want to get a bigger micro SD card. It can absolutely handle one game at a time-- It can handle many games at a time! Stray is only ten gigs. You're also using it as a work PC, though. I don't know how much storage your job needs, but it's possible that managing your storage could get annoying. The PC gaming elitist in me doesn't want to recommend anything less than a 512gb card, but I don't think that's a strict requirement so I'll leave that up to you. If you do upgrade, I would recommend a bigger SD card over a new SSD since SD cards are way easier and less risky.
When you say you want a case, do you mean something that you clip on to the Deck? I would recommend avoiding that. It'll mess with the ergonomics of the device. I don't know if it'll affect temperature or not so I won't comment on that. If you're talking about something like a carrying case, though, that could be a decent investment. The carrying case that the Deck comes with is excellent, but it's not big enough to store all of your accessories if that's what you're going for.
Agreed, there's so much I prefer about HoT over VS.
But in a quick defense of VS, I don't think the player is really supposed to beat Death at first. He's supposed to be the end of your run. You can defeat him, but I think you have to grind out a bunch of upgrades to be able to do it. The end-of-run Lords in HoT are meant to be normal bosses that you defeat. That part is less of a balance issue and more of a different design philosophy. Death is supposed to be insanely hard, the Lords in HoT are meant to be fair.
The difference is that the first time I made it to the 30 minute mark in HoT (which took comparatively much less time…maybe because I’m just more familiar with the style of game?)
I've never made it to the end of a run in VS, but I got there decently quickly in HoT. If there's one complaint I can make about the game, it's that it's a smidge too easy.
After playing this game for close to seven years, just last night I discovered that touching the screen during a race pauses the game.
I went camping a bit ago and loaded my Steam Deck with a bunch of games. The only game I ended up playing was Mega Man: The Sequel Wars. It's a Genesis/Mega Drive remake of my favorite NES game Mega Man 4, with many more features. It was crazy fun, and my Steam Deck lasted the whole trip on one charge. If you don't want a hard game, you can set it to Easy difficulty, turn on Infinite Lives, or activate any of the other cheats it provides.
Now that my Sequel Wars shill is out of the way, here are bunch of other battery efficient games:
- Emulating retro consoles, but it seems like you have that covered.
- Any Shantae game. Light-hearted, casual, well designed 2D platformers.
- Halls of Torment. Similar to Vampire Survivors, and I personally like it more. Worth it for the classic-PC-game art style alone.
- Boneraiser Minions: Also like Vampire Survivors, but instead of trying to see how many projectiles you can fire per second, you're raising a small undead army to fight for you while you focus on dodging. Very fun.
- Ace Attorney. The first trilogy is entirely 2D and is basically a visual novel with puzzle elements. What some people do for visual novels on Steam Deck is limit the framerate to something miniscule like 15 fps. The battery lasts for an eternity.
- I know you said you don't want to play Hollow Knight, but I'm physically incapable of doing a Steam Deck recommendations list without saying Hollow Knight.
Coming from a weirdo who didn't like Vampire Survivors but couldn't get enough of Halls of Torment:
You can aim and fire manually, with toggles for auto aim and fire if you wish. Every character starts with a unique weapon that fires in the direction they aim. When you level up, you select from one of four randomly chosen stat buffs. There's some RNG involved here, but it's much more restrained than in VS. No matter what you get, you're always getting a good build. You can get new weapons and equipment by defeating bosses, and these are extremely helpful (without feeling like your build depends on getting the right abilities.) I didn't like Vampire Survivors because it felt too uninteractive and luck-dependant, which I know is not the case and I'm just bad at the game, but it just wasn't fun for me. In Halls of Torment, every character is good, most builds are good, and no matter what RNG I get I feel like I'm on a good run. I feel like I'm immediately rewarded for my skill, whereas VS makes me feel like my skill is far less important than my upgrades and RNG. (Again, I know VS takes skill, it's just how it made me feel personally. I'm not saying VS is bad, it just didn't mesh with me.)
+1 for Halls of Torment. You won't be able to think about anything else.
On a side note, how is Tales on Deck? Does it work well with the controller?
MK8DX has been a top selling game for years. It's insane how much staying power that title has. It feels like everyone who wants it surely has it by now, and yet it just keeps selling.
Pro 2 is my second favorite controller, right below the Steam Deck's built-in controller. It's plugged into my PC at all times. I'm hoping for a model with 2.4g connection at some point. Basically I want the Ultimate's features in the Pro 2's shell.
8bitdo is an amazing company. Can't recommend their controllers enough. Browse their website, they have a lot of options at varying prices: https://www.8bitdo.com/
SteamOS's UI is incredible. It's not always easy for a UI to be feature rich while also being intuitive and easy to use, but Valve did a wonderful job. I love pulling up the Quick Menu to check the battery and time or tweak a setting without needing to pause the game or go back to the Home Menu.
Say what you will about Bethesda and Skyrim, but they must have done something right because people still can't put it down over a decade later. I do want to play it at some point, but I don't know when I'll have that kind of time.